easternKicks.com - the ultimate site for Asian film!

Review

Rebellion

A boozy 2009 Triad thriller from Herman Yau, with a hungover Shawn Yue trying to figure out who killed his boss…

Review

Execution in Autumn

A heartbreaking, evocative melodrama, given a new lease of life by restoration…

Review

The Kung Fu Instructor

A Ti Lung kung fu classic from 1979, and the first Shaw Brothers production to use a stedicam…

Review

Dark Flight

Passengers are stalked by evil spirits in this 2012 airborne Thai chiller…

Review

The Golden Lion

A classic slice of 1970s Shaw Brothers swordplay action from Ho Meng Hua…

Guests and full line up revealed for NYAFF 2022
The 20th Anniversary edition edition takes place from July 15th to 31st…
Review
The First Girl I Loved
A first love between two best friends leaves both lost when they go their separate ways…
Review
Tales from the Occult
An omnibus of modern Hong Kong terrors…
Podcast
Episode 40 – Making Waves
An exclusive preview of an upcoming Hong Kong screening programme…
Review
The Shaolin Plot
Eureka unearths another Sammo Hung classic unlike your typical Kung Fu…
Review
Cinderella
Another early 2000s Korean ghost horror, this time with a plastic surgery-themed gimmick…

COMING SOON...

Review: The Closet
Review: Tomie: Forbidden Fruit
Review: Killer Toon

Latest news

All the latest news from Asian cinema...

News
BFI continues its retrospective of Satyajit Ray
The two-month season featuring three 4K restorations concludes in August…
News
BFI begins two-month Kinuyo Tanaka season in August
Celebrating the work of the actor and director who played an essential role in Japanese cinema…
News
Five Flavours’ International People’s Jury announces open call!
Warsaw’s premier Asian Film Festival welcomes jury participants from across Europe…
News
More Asian films among the final wave of titles announced for Fantasia
The 26th edition announces its final wave of programming, with July Jung’s Next Sohee revealed as Closing Film…
Competitions
Win a limited edition poster for BELLE
To celebrate the home release of Mamoru Hosoda’s critically acclaimed film, we have one to giveaway!…
News
NYAFF returns with first wave of line up for 2022
New York Asian Film Festival celebrates it’s 20th anniversary, running from July 15 – 31…

Udine Far East Film Festival 2022

Europe’s biggest Asian film festival returns online and in-person for its 24th Edition – from 22nd – 30th April…

Interview
Fanatic goes behind the scenes in Korean fan culture
Korean director Oh Se-yeon digs deep into the world of Korean fandom…
Review
Incantation
Kevin Ko’s Taiwanese horror universe is being nurtured by the renaissance of the local horror genre…
Review
Kingmaker
Political intrigue and layered drama lifts the lid on Korean history…
Review
Return to Dust
The story of the arranged marriage, set in the dying Chinese village, showing the beauty of rural life…
Feature
How Sino-Italian films are looking for the right recipe
Can an Italy-set romcom with Chinese social satire reignite film collaboration?…
Review
My Small Land
A subtle and complex view of life as a young refugee caregiver, dextrously balancing social issues with personal perspective…
Review
Leonor Will Never Die
Philippine actioner combines playful worlds with meaningful conversations…
Review
Mama Boy
A quirk romantic comedy about a submissive son who falls for the maîtresse of a brothel…
Review
Finding Bliss: Fire and Ice – Directors’ Cut
Hong Kong star Josie Ho and friends look for inspiration in Iceland…
Interview
Kim Se-in interview: “I think the film wraps up my 20s”
We talk with the young Korean director about her full-length debut and capturing the complex mother-daughter relationship on screen…

Close-Up on Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

A close-up look at the work and career of Oscar-winning writer-director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi…

News
Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival returns online for January 2022!
Free from 17 to 23 January, featuring films from Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Naomi Kawase…
Podcast
Episode 36 – The End of the Year Show
easternKicks x Asian Movie Pulse as titans unite to chat about the year in Asian film!…
Review
Drive My Car
Could Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Murakami adaption be his best yet?
News
Close-Up on Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Close-Up Film Centre presents a season dedicated to the director of Drive My Car and Happy Hour…
Review
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Three vignettes about the lies we tell ourselves and each other…
Interview
How Ryusuke Hamaguchi turns fantasy into reality
An experimental anthology that portrays the stories of three unconventional women who discover something about themselves…

Asian Cinema Education

We showcase the best in new writing with our partnership with Asian Cinema Education. An international project to encourage discussion and writing on Asian Cinema…

Review
Chaos
Escape From New York, Herman Yau-style…
Review
Horror of the queer, terror of the West
Toshio Matsumoto’s Funeral Parade of Roses…
Feature
Restoring poetry: Xiao Wu’s ballad of loneliness
Jia Zhangke’s debut feature is a cosmic hymn to solitude…
Feature
Looking for hope in modern China
Can it be found in Hu Bo’s An Elephant Sitting Still?…
Feature
Mr. Suave and the Absurdity of the Macho Man
A look back at Joyce E. Bernal’s 2003 comedy…
Feature
A look back at In the Mood For Love
Wong Kar-wai’s timeless classic…

Arrow Video present the first collection of classics from the famed Shaw Brothers Studio, with 12 films spread across eight discs, jam-packed with extras, and two discs of soundtrack selections pulled from music library De Wolf.

Review
Five Shaolin Masters
Chang Cheh’s manly kung fu extravaganza is as sure to please aficionados as it is to turn off genre skeptics…
Review
Executioners from Shaolin
A Shaw Brothers nutzoid classic – with a bit more underneath the hood…
Review
Dirty Ho
Another Shaw Brothers martial arts classic from Lau Kar-leung and Gordon Liu, this time on the comedic side…
Review
The Mighty Peking Man
The Shaw Brothers’ ambitious take on King Kong remains one of their most far-out and fun films of the 1970s…
Review
Heroes of the East
A softer version of the Chinese vs Japanese theme in this classic from director Lau Kar-Leung…
Review
The Five Venoms
Cult? Sure. Legendary? Definitely. Kick-ass? Mostly. Any good? Depends on how cool you think venomous reptiles and stick-on beards are? Thought so…

The easternKicks Podcast

A regular magazine programme about East Asian film, with the latest news, reviews and interviews.

Podcast
Episode 39 – The Sadness special
We interview director Rob Jabbaz exclusively…
Podcast
Episode 38 – Spotlight on… Zatoichi
We chat in depth about everyone’s favourite blind swordsman…
Podcast
Episode 37 – The Long Walk special
We chat to the film’s director Mattie Do and screenwriter Chris Larsen…
Podcast
Episode 36 – The End of the Year Show
easternKicks x Asian Movie Pulse as titans unite to chat about the year in Asian film!…
Podcast
Episode 35 – All Aboard… for Hellbound!
We chat about Train To Busan director Yeon Sang-ho’s new series on Netflix…
Podcast
Episode 34 – The horror of Hong Kong!
A Halloween special on modern HK horror, from the 80s to now…
Podcast
Episode 32 – Spotlight on… A Tale of Two Sisters
A look back at a Korean horror classic…
Podcast
Episode 31 – Spotlight on… Daimajin
We unravel Daiei Film Studios very particular take on Kaiju…
Podcast
Episode 30 – The best of NYAFF 2021
We look at the New York Asian Film Festival line up, including an extended chat about Raging Fire…
Podcast
Episode 29 – PTU and Johnnie To’s crime drama years
We revisit one of the director’s classics…

cineXtremes

Celebrating the excesses of Hong Kong Category III, Asian extreme and exploitation cinema…

Review
Rebellion
A boozy 2009 Triad thriller from Herman Yau, with a hungover Shawn Yue trying to figure out who killed his boss…
Review
Dark Flight
Passengers are stalked by evil spirits in this 2012 airborne Thai chiller…
Review
Cinderella
Another early 2000s Korean ghost horror, this time with a plastic surgery-themed gimmick…
Review
Muoi: The Legend of a Portrait
It’s Ringu with a painting in this South Korea-Vietnam chiller from 2007…
Review
Curse of the Deserted
A rare example of a Mainland China horror film from back in 2010, with all the caveats that brings…
Review
Intruders
A writer in an isolated cabin is caught up in a series of increasingly strange and bloody events in this 2013 Korean indie…
Review
Buttonman
Francis Ng stars in an early crime thriller from Taiwanese horror director Joe Chien…
Podcast
Episode 39 – The Sadness special
We interview director Rob Jabbaz exclusively…
Review
Crossfire
An explosive Japanese horror from 2000 which goes the Firestarter route rather than Ringu…
Review
Dorm
A creepy boarding school provides the backdrop for this 2006 Thai horror classic…

The best in film festival coverage, year after year

Coverage of Udine Far East Film Festival 2019

Coverage of BFI London Film Festival 2019

Coverage of CinemAsia Film Festival 2019

Coverage of Nippon Connection Film Festival 2019

Five Flavours Asian Film Festival 2021

The 15th edition of Poland’s premier Asian film festival is back with a hybrid format, returning to Warsaw cinemas with a range of films including a retrospective of Wong Kar Wai…

▶︎ Visit Five Flavours site

Interview
Maung Sun interview: “The film is about the endless pursuit of film”
The Money Has Four Legs director talks about filmmaking and more…
Review
The Story of Southern Islet
Chong Keat Aun’s otherworldly debut…
Review
Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache
A slight if likeable work from filmmaker and lama Khyentse Norbu…
Review
Dear Tenant
A superb drama exploring LGBTQ equality against traditional gender roles…
Review
The Medium
Na Hong-jin (The Wailing) and Banjong Pisanthanakun (Shutter) combine forces, but is it anything new?…
Review
Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash
A refreshing throwback to 1980s kung-fu cinema with a socially conscious subtext…
Review
Last of the Wolves
A new rogue cop faces a new rogue yakuza amidst intrigue in both of their ranks for an ultraviolent sequel…
Review
As We Like It
Fun and bright adaptation that stays true to the spirit of the original play…
Feature
Ko Chen-Nien interview: “The most complex relationship is the battle between good...
We talk to the director Ko Chen-Nien about her powerful cinematic debut, The Silent Forest…
Review
Money Has Four Legs
A cynical but realistic drama that uses cinema as a metaphor for society…

London Korean Film Festival 2021

The LKFF returns to cinemas from 4 to 19 November, with a special focus on 2021 Academy Award winner Youn Yuh-jung…

Review
Sister J
A decade of struggle chronicled in intense detail…
Review
In Front of Your Face
The master of the mundane continues his current interest in female protagonists…
Review
Limecrime
Making sense of their own name is but one of many challenges from school to the streets for two aspiring rappers…
Review
Climbing
Paranoia reigns supreme in a visually striking debut feature…
Review
Aloners
A slow-burning drama offering engaging character study and meditation on social isolation…
Review
Recalled
Waking up after an accident, an amnesiac woman is haunted by disturbing visions of the near future…
News
London Korean Film Festival has announced its full programme
Screenings will be back in the cinemas, from 4^th to 19^th November…
Review
The Book of Fish
An exiled civil servant finds meaning in composing a new book on marine life in Korea…
Review
Canola, aka Grandmother Gye-choon
A wayward girl returns to live with her doting grandmother on Jeju Island…
Review
The Bacchus Lady
Youn Yuh-jung stars in E J-Yong’s comedy drama about elderly sex workers…

BFI London Film Festival 2021

London’s premier international film festival returns retaining the hybrid format of last year, from 6 to 17 October…

Interview
Maung Sun interview: “The film is about the endless pursuit of film”
The Money Has Four Legs director talks about filmmaking and more…
Review
Hellbound
Will Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho’s new streaming horror series be the next Squid Game?…
Interview
Lav Diaz interview: “Existence is a euphemism for compromise. Period.”
The auteur on Philippines tragic history, his fascination for vaudeville and the need for artists to compromise…
Review
History of Ha
A profound exploration of the purpose of art and the quest to find a meaning of life when everything seems lost…
Review
The Medium
Na Hong-jin (The Wailing) and Banjong Pisanthanakun (Shutter) combine forces, but is it anything new?…
Review
Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash
A refreshing throwback to 1980s kung-fu cinema with a socially conscious subtext…
News
Asian films coming to BFI London Film Festival 2021
The BFI LFF has announced their programme…
Review
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Three vignettes about the lies we tell ourselves and each other…
Review
Money Has Four Legs
A cynical but realistic drama that uses cinema as a metaphor for society…
Interview
How Ryusuke Hamaguchi turns fantasy into reality
An experimental anthology that portrays the stories of three unconventional women who discover something about themselves…

BFI Japan 2021

A celebration of over 100 years of Japanese Cinema. Coming to big screens UK-wide this autumn…

News
Close-Up on Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Close-Up Film Centre presents a season dedicated to the director of Drive My Car and Happy Hour…
News
BFI Japan comes to big screens UK-wide this autumn
Highlights include a cinema re-release of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and a major two-part season…
Review
Ichi the Killer
Takashi Miike’s blood-soaked 2001 manga adaptation remains a milestone in extreme Japanese cinema…
Podcast
Episode 24: Spotlight on… Battle Royale
We revisit Kinji Fukasaku’s classic…
Review
Battle Royale
Kinji Fukasaku’s classic returns with a new edition nearly 20 years after it was first released in the UK…
Review
The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On
A war veteran’s single-minded search for truth in this seminal documentary…
Review
Black Rain
Imamura’s film is, without a doubt, one of the most important films about the atomic bomb ever made…
Review
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
A hostess approaching 30 sees fewer days ahead in a male-dominated world, in Mikio Naruse’s understated kitchen sink drama…
Review
Akira
The gorgeous 4K remaster of Katushiro Otomo’s animated sci-fi classic hits UK screens…
Review
The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice
Rigidity and sentimentality meet in a quiet Tokyo household in Yasujiro Ozu’s superb drama…

Interviews

Our interviews with filmmakers, directors, actors, composers and much more besides from the world of Asian film…

Interview
Fanatic goes behind the scenes in Korean fan culture
Korean director Oh Se-yeon digs deep into the world of Korean fandom…
Interview
Maung Sun interview: “The film is about the endless pursuit of film”
The Money Has Four Legs director talks about filmmaking and more…
Interview
Kim Se-in interview: “I think the film wraps up my 20s”
We talk with the young Korean director about her full-length debut and capturing the complex mother-daughter relationship on screen…
Interview
Li Ruijun interview: “The land is the cleanest and purest existence”
The Chinese filmmaker reflects on the meaning of land, self-reliance, individual choice and China’s rapid modernization…
Interview
Ananta Thitanat interview: “The pandemic accelerated the emergence of this new film...
Documentary filmmaker discusses film culture in Thailand and the afterlife of standalone cinemas…
Interview
Lav Diaz interview: “Existence is a euphemism for compromise. Period.”
The auteur on Philippines tragic history, his fascination for vaudeville and the need for artists to compromise…
Interview
Evan Jackson Leong interview: “The underdog becomes a role model and an...
A film that took more than 14 years to make explores the world of human smugglers in NYC’s Chinatown underworld…
Interview
Takahiro Horie interview: “The root of revenge is love”
We talk to the Sensei, Would You Please Sit with Me? director…
Interview
Ann Hui interview: “I tried to find work whenever I could. I...
We chat to the celebrated Hong Kong filmmaker about her career and the documentary Keep Rolling…
Interview
How Anima echoes director Cao’s hope for homelands
Chinese director Cao Jinling’s debut is an impassioned plea for nature…

The wonderful world of Wong Kar-wai

With Criterion Collection’s new release of restored Wong Kar-wai classics, also coming to UK cinemas including BFI Southbank, we immerse ourselves in the auteur’s work…

Feature
A look back at In the Mood For Love
Wong Kar-wai’s timeless classic…
Podcast
Episode 28 – The World of Wong Kar-wai
We chat to Bede Cheng of L’Immagine Ritrovata Asia about the restoration process…
Review
Fallen Angels
Wong Kar-wai’s oneiric and vivacious journey to the Hong Kong underworld…
Review
2046
An absolute onslaught of narratives, styles, and structures makes for an infinitely rewarding opus from Wong Kar-wai…
Review
Happy Together
Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Leslie Cheung star masterpiece of melancholia…
Review
In The Mood For Love
Unrequited love never looked so good in this new version of a timeless classic…
Review
Days of Being Wild
Wong Kar-wai submerges us in his dream of Hong Kong and its lovers, killers, and lonely hearts…
Review
Chungking Express
Chance encounters in love are never quite as they seem…
Review
In The Mood For Love (Original Soundtrack)
Set the mood with a sultry cinematic soundscape perfect for the last days of lockdown longing…
Interview
Brigitte Lin interview: “I totally forgot what I had said. Was it...
We talk to the truly iconic actress about her career…

Rebellion

Execution in Autumn

The Kung Fu Instructor

Dark Flight

The Golden Lion

Guests and full line up revealed for NYAFF 2022

The First Girl I Loved

Tales from the Occult

Episode 40 – Making Waves

The Shaolin Plot

Cinderella

BFI continues its retrospective of Satyajit Ray

BFI begins two-month Kinuyo Tanaka season in August

Five Flavours’ International People’s Jury announces open call!

More Asian films among the final wave of titles announced for Fantasia

Win a limited edition poster for BELLE

NYAFF returns with first wave of line up for 2022

Fanatic goes behind the scenes in Korean fan culture

Incantation

Kingmaker

Return to Dust

How Sino-Italian films are looking for the right recipe

My Small Land

Leonor Will Never Die

Mama Boy

Finding Bliss: Fire and Ice – Directors’ Cut

Kim Se-in interview: “I think the film wraps up my 20s”

Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival returns online for January 2022!

Episode 36 – The End of the Year Show

Drive My Car

Close-Up on Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

How Ryusuke Hamaguchi turns fantasy into reality

Chaos

Horror of the queer, terror of the West

Restoring poetry: Xiao Wu’s ballad of loneliness

Looking for hope in modern China

Mr. Suave and the Absurdity of the Macho Man

A look back at In the Mood For Love

Five Shaolin Masters

Executioners from Shaolin

Dirty Ho

The Mighty Peking Man

Heroes of the East

The Five Venoms

Episode 39 – The Sadness special

Episode 38 – Spotlight on… Zatoichi

Episode 37 – The Long Walk special

Episode 36 – The End of the Year Show

Episode 35 – All Aboard… for Hellbound!

Episode 34 – The horror of Hong Kong!

Episode 32 – Spotlight on… A Tale of Two Sisters

Episode 31 – Spotlight on… Daimajin

Episode 30 – The best of NYAFF 2021

Episode 29 – PTU and Johnnie To’s crime drama years

Rebellion

Dark Flight

Cinderella

Muoi: The Legend of a Portrait

Curse of the Deserted

Intruders

Buttonman

Episode 39 – The Sadness special

Crossfire

Dorm

The best in film festival coverage, year after year

Maung Sun interview: “The film is about the endless pursuit of film”

The Story of Southern Islet

Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache

Dear Tenant

The Medium

Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash

Last of the Wolves

As We Like It

Ko Chen-Nien interview: “The most complex relationship is the battle between good...

Money Has Four Legs

Sister J

In Front of Your Face

Limecrime

Climbing