Category: 2023 Films
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Anand Patwardhan, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (The World is Family), 2023. 96 min. “யாதும் ஊரே! யாவரும் கேளிர்!” (“Every place is our homeland, everyone is our kin”)—these words from the Tamil…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Between Memory and History: Anand Patwardhan’s 𝑉𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑑ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑣𝑎 𝐾𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑎𝑘𝑎𝑚” by Kathiravan Annamalai](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/anand-patwardhan-vasudhaiva-kutumbakam-the-world-is-family-.png?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 Fly Me to the Moon. Sasha Chuk (director), Fly Me to the Moon 但願人長久, 2023. 112 min. Every era of Hong Kong cinema has…
![[REVIEW] “In the Wake of Hong Kong Dreaming: Sasha Chuk’s 𝐹𝑙𝑦 𝑀𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑜𝑛” by Tin Yuet Tam](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/fly-me-to-the-moon.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Fang Li (director), The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru, 2023. 123 min. The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru is a documentary film recounting the torpedoing of the Japanese cargo…
![[REVIEW] “Crying in the Cinema, Chinese Style: Fang Li’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑖𝑠𝑏𝑜𝑛 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑢” by Edward Allen](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/fang-li-director-the-sinking-of-the-lisbon-maru.webp?w=680)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Pawo Choyning Dorji (director), The Monk and the Gun, 2023. 107 min. The Kingdom of Bhutan, 2006. Bhutan enters the modern world, becoming the last country in the world…
![[REVIEW] “Democracy Should Be Thought of as a Verb: Pawo Choyning Dorji’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑘 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑢𝑛” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/pawo-choyning-dorji-.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Wei Shujun (director), Only the River Flows, 2023. 101 mins. Wei Shujun’s Only the River Flows, an adaptation of Yu Hua’s novella Mistakes by the River set in 1995,…
![[REVIEW] “Such an Indelible Period Texture: Wei Shujun’s 𝑂𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑅𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑠” by Oliver Farry](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/only-the-river-flows-banner.jpg?w=512)
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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 Hong Sang-soo. Hong Sang-soo (director), In Water, 2023. 61 min. Of the 31 features Hong Sang-soo has directed, you’d be hard pressed to find a…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Just that Little Bit Different: Hong Sang-soo’s 𝐼𝑛 𝑊𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟” by Oliver Farry](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/in-water_hong-sang-soo.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Jopy Arnaldo (director), Gitling, 2023. 105 min. The world’s noise fades into the background when you’re with the right person. Gitling (or Hyphen in English) (2023) is…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Love In Translation: Decoding Jopy Arnaldo’s 𝐺𝑖𝑡𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔” by Richard Muñiz](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/gitling_film-still-3-1.jpg?w=1000)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir (director), City of Wind, 2023. 103 min. Films about Mongolia don’t make their way to Europe too often and in the past when they have,…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “The Beginning (or Continuation) of a Mongolian New Wave?—Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir’s 𝐶𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑊𝑖𝑛𝑑” by Oliver Farry](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/city-of-wind.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (director), Evil Does Not Exist, 2023. 106 min. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s follow-up to his Oscar-nominated hit Drive My Car starts off as a seemingly much more…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Enigmatic Pronouncement: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s 𝐸𝑣𝑖𝑙 𝐷𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝐸𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡” by Oliver Farry](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/evil-does-not-exist-new.jpg?w=1000)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Babak Jalali (director), Fremont, 2023. 88 min. “Fortune messages are a responsibility. Consciously, or unconsciously, they are going to act on the flux of things. They shouldn’t…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Inside the Fortune Cookie: Babak Jalali’s 𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡” by Oliver Farry](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/fremont.jpg?w=799)
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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 Perfect Days. Wim Wenders (director), Perfect Days, 2023. 123 min. Perfect Days (2023) is a drama directed by Wim Wenders, from a script written…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “An Excellent Example of Slow Cinema: Wim Wenders’s 𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝐷𝑎𝑦𝑠” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/perfect-days-copy.webp?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 Perfect Days. Wim Wenders (director), Perfect Days, 2023. 123 min. Wim Wenders is not alone among Western filmmakers in having a fascination with…
![[REVIEW] “Clean Work: Wim Wenders’s 𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝐷𝑎𝑦𝑠” by Oliver Farry](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/74409c07-88f6-44de-94a4-98f879833225.jpeg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Lawrence Kwan Chun Kan (director), In Broad Daylight 白日之下, 2023. 106 min. In Broad Daylight combines two major news stories that expose abuses against the vulnerable: the…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Nothing Under the Sun Is Truly New: Lawrence Kwan Chun Kan’s 𝐼𝑛 𝐵𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑑 𝐷𝑎𝑦𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡” by Tin Yuet Tam](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/in-broad-daylight_poster.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 Fly Me to the Moon. Sasha Chuk (director), Fly Me to the Moon 但願人長久, 2023. 112 min. A story fraught with the problems and pain…
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Kim Jee-woon (director), Cobweb, 2023. 135 min. Song Kang-ho (best known for Parasite and A Taxi Driver) in Cobweb Kim Ki-yeol (Song Kang-ho, best known for Parasite and A Taxi…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “In the Tradition of Film-set Comedy Dramas: Kim Jee-woon’s 𝐶𝑜𝑏𝑤𝑒𝑏” by Oliver Farry](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/first-poster-for-cobweb-starring-song-kang-ho-centers-v0-nlwknv9ea1za1.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Hayao Miyazaki (director), The Boy and the Heron, 2023. 125 min. This review contains spoilers. For me, what’s perhaps most interesting about The Boy and the Heron is that…
![[REVIEW] “Defying Explanation: Hayao Miyazaki’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑜𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑛” by e rathke](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2f7d7a1e-94d3-48eb-be56-12bcb518f235.sized-1000x1000-1.jpeg?w=1000)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Celine Song (director), Past Lives, 2023. 106 min. Life is a sea, a kaleidoscopic cornucopia of experiences with a myriad of people. We start in shallow waters of first…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “The Beauty of the Unsaid: Celine Song’s 𝑃𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝐿𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠” by Elliot Ng](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/https-__cdn.sanity.io_images_xq1bjtf4_production_e1bdf7c917e4a436ec391336e8a05dcba478d275-3840x2063_custom-8d06a6607db24746e6e697791cd638654a1f0dda-s1100-c50.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Nick Cheuk (director), Time Still Turns the Pages 年少日記, 2023. 95 min. This review contains major spoilers. With five nominations in the 60th Golden Horse Awards, Nick Cheuk’s tightly…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “A Poignant Appeal: Nick Cheuk’s 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑆𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑇𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑠” by Flora Mak](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/time-still-turns-the-pages.jpg?w=980)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Anthony Chen (director), Breaking the Ice, 2023. 97 min. Arresting visuals, an immersive soundtrack, and interesting ideas do not ultimately make for a narratively tight film. To me, the largest…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “The Liminality of Being: Anthony Chen’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐼𝑐𝑒” by Jonathan Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/breaking-the-ice_cha-banner.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS ❀ Michihito Fujii (director), The Journalist, 2019. 113 min.❀ Michihito Fujii (director), A Family, 2021. 136 min.❀ Michihito Fujii (director), Village, 2023. 120 min. In these days of ever fewer choices…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Michihito Fujii on Netflix” by Paul French](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/michihito-fujii-1.png?w=1024)
Cha 