Category: 2025 Entries
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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] “The Need for Change: On Kei Ishikawa’s 𝐴 𝑃𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑉𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑜𝑓 𝐻𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑠” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/2a-pale-view-of-hills-e981a0e38184e5b1b1e381aae381bfe381aee58589-kei-ishikawa.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] “The Angel of Death: On Jafar Panahi’s 𝐼𝑡 𝑊𝑎𝑠 𝐽𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝐴𝑛 𝐴𝑐𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/jafar-panahi-director-it-was-just-an-accident-1.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] “Of Eros & Of Dust: On Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s 𝐴 𝑈𝑠𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝐺ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑡” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/a-useful-ghost-film-poster--1.jpg?w=1024)
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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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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Everything, Nothing, All at Once: Edward Yang’s Yi Yi” by Keziah Cho Edward Yang (director), Yi Yi, 2000. 173 min. Edward Yang’s Yi Yi opens in a register of melodrama.…
![[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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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Diaspora and Duality: The Emotional Cartography of Arun Budhathoki’s And I Blamed Canadian Winter Again” by Subash Singh Parajuli Arun Budhathoki, And I Blamed Canadian Winter Again: Poems East &…
![[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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Chris Song’s Note: Selected from Hong Kong author Lok Fung’s acclaimed short story collection The Charred City, “A Wayward Wisdom Tooth” recounts the tale of Shevon Kam, a driven beauty executive who endures a decade-long struggle with a decaying wisdom tooth—a…
![[TRANSLATION] “A Wayward Wisdom Tooth” by Lok Fung, Translated by Chris Song](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/alireza-heidarpour-46cfxprdjni-unsplash.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: Emma Zhang reflects on her shifting identity as a language teacher in an age when machine translation threatens the role of English as a bridge to the world. Seeking cultural understanding, she visits Talibé, an exhibition by Mauritanian…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑏𝑒́: The Forgotten Faces of Globalisation” by Emma Zhang](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/e07c3432-3e50-439d-b428-1c00cf25c682.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: In “Twist of Fate: When Writers Are Better Recognised for Their Images”, Thammika Songkaeo, author of Stamford Hospital (Penguin Random House SEA, 2025; reviewed in Cha), offers a thoughtful reflection on how contemporary publicity privileges appearance, exoticism, and…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Twist of Fate: When Writers are Better Recognised for their Images” by Thammika Songkaeo](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/banner-size.jpg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “The Dynasty that Dreamt in Red: Diamond Shumshere Rana’s The Wake of the White Tiger” by Abhinav Tulachan Diamond Shumshere Rana, The Wake of the White Tiger. 1984. 235 pgs.…
![[REVIEW] “The Dynasty that Dreamt in Red: Diamond Shumshere Rana’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑊ℎ𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑔𝑒𝑟” by Abhinav Tulachan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/diamond-shumshere-rana-the-wake-of-the-white-tiger.jpg?w=347)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Sho Miyake (director), Two Seasons, Two Strangers (Tabi to Hibi), 2025. 89 min. A woman sits at her desk, a pencil poised above a blank page. She has been…
![[REVIEW] “Winter of The Soul: On Sho Miyake’s 𝑇𝑤𝑜 𝑆𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑠, 𝑇𝑤𝑜 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑠” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/still2_two-seasons-two-strangers_locarno.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: In “Noodle Insurrection or a Gathering of Radicals”, Jennifer Eagleton intertwines Chinese character radicals with politics, crafting a witty poem around Shaanxi’s biangbiang noodles. She blends linguistic play, cultural history, and insurrectionary imagery, demonstrating radicals’ layered meanings. A…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Noodle Insurrection or a Gathering of Radicals” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/biang-biang.png?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Elizabeth Ai (editor), New Wave: Rebellion and Reinvention in the Vietnamese Diaspora, Angel City Press, 2024. 192 pgs. Elizabeth Ai’s edited volume New Wave: Rebellion and Reinvention in the…
![[REVIEW] “Archival Rhythms—Youth, Identity, and Cultural Resistance in the Vietnamese Diaspora: Elizabeth Ai’s 𝑁𝑒𝑤 𝑊𝑎𝑣𝑒” by Nguyễn Minh Tiến](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/acp_11.11.24-54-copy.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS John Hsu (director), Dead Talents Society 鬼才之道, 2024. 105 min. Put aside the spine-chilling horror of Nosferatu: what if the realm of the dead had its own celebrity influencers,…
![[REVIEW] “Gazing at Ghosts: John Hsu’s 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑆𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑡𝑦” by Keziah Cho](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/john-hsu-director-dead-talents-society--1.jpg?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Fiction as Control: Yiyun Li’s Exacting The Book of Goose” by Zalman S. Davis Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Yiyun Li. Yiyun Li, The Book of Goose, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022.…
![[REVIEW] “Fiction as Control: Yiyun Li’s Exacting 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑜𝑓 𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑠𝑒” by Zalman S. Davis](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/yiyun-li-the-book-of-goose-farrar-straus-and-giroux.jpg?w=978)
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Editor’s note: In his reflection “A Slower Mode of Time”, Chris Sullivan contrasts urban haste with nature’s unhurried rhythms, weaving cicadas, childhood memories, and captive flamingos into a meditation on suspended instincts, looping time, and the quiet grace of slower…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “A Slower Mode of Time” by Chris Sullivan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/a-slower-mode-of-time-chris-sullivan.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: Cuiyu Lin’s “Broken English, Sweet Oranges” is a lyrical meditation on language, fragility, and repair, weaving Chinese porcelain mending with personal scars to reveal brokenness as both burden and beauty, and imperfection as a vessel for truth. The…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Broken English, Sweet Oranges” by Cuiyu Lin](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/karolina-grabowska.png?w=1024)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “It’s My House, and I Live Here: Weike Wang’s Rental House” by Peixuan Xie Weike Wang, Rental House, Riverhead Books, 2024. 224 pgs. Reading Rental House is, for a Chinese…
![[ESSAY] “It’s My House, and I Live Here: Weike Wang’s 𝑅𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐻𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒” by Peixuan Xie](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/rental-house.jpg?w=994)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Rajan Kurai Krishnan, Ravindran Sriramachandran, and V.M.S Subagunarajan, Rule of the Commoner: DMK and the Formations of the Political in Tamil Nadu, 1949–1967, Cambridge University Press, 2022. 280 pgs.…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “Politics of the Plebs—𝑅𝑢𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑟: 𝐷𝑀𝐾 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑇𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙 𝑁𝑎𝑑𝑢” by Kathiravan Annamalai](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/rule-of-the-commoner.jpg?w=419)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Saad Omar Khan, Drinking the Ocean, Buckrider Books, 2025. 250 pgs. “We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into…
![[FIRST IMPRESSIONS] “A Love that Doesn’t Bind: Saad Omar Khan’s 𝐷𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑂𝑐𝑒𝑎𝑛” by Fathima M](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/saad-omar-khan-drinking-the-ocean.jpg?w=971)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Winifred Dongyi Wang, Dissection of the Moon, Accent Edition, 2025. 232 pgs. Dissection of the Moon is a hybrid work—a knotted thing. It unspools the lines drawn across gender,…
![[REVIEW] “Knotted Threads: Memory, Language, and Violence in Winifred Dongyi Wang’s 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑜𝑛” by Heather Y. Kim](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/https-accentaccent.comforthcoming-dissection-of-the-moon.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 Vigil. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Vigil: The Struggle for Hong Kong, Brixton Ink, 2025. 176 pgs. Jeffrey Wasserstrom’s Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink was…
![[REVIEW] “Hong Kong Remembered and Rewritten: Jeffrey Wasserstrom’s 𝑉𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑙” by Wayne Wong](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/vigil.jpg?w=977)
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📁RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Ming-sho Ho, Challenging Beijing’s Mandate of Heaven: Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement and Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement, Temple University Press, 2018. 270 pgs. Ming-sho Ho’s Challenging Beijing’s Mandate of Heaven compares…
![[REVIEW] “Radicals, Realists, and Revolutions—A Tale of Two Movements: Ming-sho Ho’s 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐵𝑒𝑖𝑗𝑖𝑛𝑔’𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛” by Jennifer Eagleton](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/this-is-just-the-begining.jpg?w=720)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Ee Ling Quah, Fire Dragon Feminism: Asian Migrant Women’s Tales of Migration, Coloniality and Racial Capitalism, Bloomsbury, 2025. 216 pgs. “An exchange of glances, light nods and eye contacts…
![[REVIEW] “Decorative Roles and Dehumanising Gazes: Reflections on Ee Ling Quah’s 𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝐷𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑜𝑛 𝐹𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑚” by Loritta Chan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/fire-dragon-feminism-asian-migrant-womens-tales-of-migration-coloniality-and-racial-capitalism.jpg?w=978)
Cha 