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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Masayuki Suo (director), Shall We Dance? 1996, 136 min. At college, I once romanced a young lady by agreeing to take ballroom dancing lessons with her after her…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Forget the Remake, Masayuki Suo’s 𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑊𝑒 𝐷𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒? is in Perfect Step with Japan” by Jeremiah Dutch](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/masayuki-sou-director-shall-we-dance-1996-136-min.-.jpg?w=686)
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TIFF 2025 ▞ 10. The Archivist’s Film: A Conversation on Kunsang Kyirong’s 100 Sunset▞ 9. She Was Screaming into Silence: A Conversation on Cai Shangjun’s The Sun Rises On Us All▞ 8. You Don’t Belong to Anyone: A Conversation on…
![[TIFF 2025] “Light At The End of the Labyrinth: On Genki Kawamura’s 𝐸𝑥𝑖𝑡 8” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/exit-8.jpg?w=1024)
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TIFF 2025 ▞ 10. The Archivist’s Film: A Conversation on Kunsang Kyirong’s 100 Sunset▞ 9. She Was Screaming into Silence: A Conversation on Cai Shangjun’s The Sun Rises On Us All▞ 8. You Don’t Belong to Anyone: A Conversation on…
![[TIFF 2025] “Affairs of the Heart: On Cai Shangjun’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑢𝑛 𝑅𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑂𝑛 𝑈𝑠 𝐴𝑙𝑙” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/cai-shangjuns-the-sun-rises-on-us-all-2025.-131-min.jpg?w=1000)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Edward Yang (director), Yi Yi, 2000. 173 min. Edward Yang’s Yi Yi opens in a register of melodrama. A frantic woman bursts into her ex-boyfriend’s wedding venue, collapses…
![[REVIEW] “Everything, Nothing, All at Once: Edward Yang’s 𝑌𝑖 𝑌𝑖” by Keziah Cho](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/edward-yang-director-yi-yi-2.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Akiko Ohku (director), Hold Me Back, 2020. 133 min. Akiko Ohku is best known for directing and co-writing Tremble All You Want and Hold Me Back, two films…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Feeling Seen: Akiko Ohku’s 𝐻𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑀𝑒 𝐵𝑎𝑐𝑘 and the Solitude of Modern Women” by Danica QP](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/hold-me-back-film-cha.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS László Krasznahorkai (author), Ottilie Mulzet (translator), Destruction and Sorrow beneath the Heavens: Reportage, Seagull Books, 2016. 320 pgs. In my favourite poem by Wang Wei (699–759), the poet tries…
![[REVIEW] “Taken as Strictly True: Neuroscience and Sinology in László Krasznahorkai’s 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑆𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑤 𝐵𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑠” by Lucas Klein](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/destruction-and-sorrow-beneath-the-heavens-reportage-seagull-books-2016.-320-pgs-1.jpg?w=853)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Arun Budhathoki, And I Blamed Canadian Winter Again: Poems East & West, Nirala Publications, 2025. 98pgs. Nepali poet Arun Budhathoki, who has been living in Canada, has recently…
![[REVIEW] “Diaspora and Duality: The Emotional Cartography of Arun Budhathoki’s 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝐼 𝐵𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝐶𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑊𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐴𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛” by Subash Singh Parajuli](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/arun-budhathoki-and-i-blamed-canadian-winter-again-poems-east-west-nirala-publications-2025.-98pgs.-.jpg?w=923)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Lê Minh Hoàng (director), Saigon in the Rain, 2020. —Written on a rainless Saigon day Urban life has long provided cinema with a stage upon which to capture…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Lê Minh Hoàng’s 𝑆𝑎𝑖𝑔𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑅𝑎𝑖𝑛: A Resonance of Youth, Migration, and Urban Dreams” by Red Po](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/maxresdefault.jpg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Reliving the Filipino 90s Nostalgia in Marla Ancheta’s One Hit Wonder” by Bryan Elijah Trajano Marla Ancheta (director), One Hit Wonder, 2025. 112 min. Before music was only a…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Reliving the Filipino 90s Nostalgia in Marla Ancheta’s 𝑂𝑛𝑒 𝐻𝑖𝑡 𝑊𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟” by Bryan Elijah Trajano](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/marla-ancheta-director-one-hit-wonder.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Untold. Bae Suah (author), Deborah Smith (translator), Untold Night and Day, Jonathan Cape, 2020. 155 pgs. It has been some…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Between Dream and Wakefulness: Reading Bae Suah’s 𝑈𝑛𝑡𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑁𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐷𝑎𝑦” by Dorina Tataran](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/untold-night-and-day-1.jpg?w=977)
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Header artwork by Annysa Ng 茶 First Impressionsclick for information 茶 Essays click for information 茶 En Routeclick for information 茶 XI XI—Can We Sayclick for information 茶 Write to Powerclick for information 茶 Auditory Cortexclick for information
Cha 