Category: Cha Review of Books and Films
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Johannes Schönherr, North Korean Cinema. A History, McFarland, 2012. 224 pgs. My experience with the three books on North Korean cinema I had read up to this point—Paul…
![[REVIEW] “Johannes Schönherr’s 𝑁𝑜𝑟𝑡ℎ 𝐾𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝐶𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑚𝑎: Rise (and Fall?) (and Rise again?) of the Propaganda Machine” by Cyril Camus](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/johannes-schonherr-north-korean-cinema.-a-history-1.jpg?w=838)
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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 Kiriti Sengupta. Kiriti Sengupta, Selected Poems, Transcendent Zero Press, 2025. 228 pgs. It has been more than a decade since the medical practitioner turned poet,…
![[REVIEW] “The Stillness Between Fire and Water: On Kiriti Sengupta’s 𝑆𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑃𝑜𝑒𝑚𝑠” by Abhik Ganguly](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/selected-poems-final-1-scaled-e1754154149300.webp?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Mallika Bhaumik, When Time is a Magic Jar, Red River Press, 2025. 108 pgs. When Time is a Magic Jar by Mallika Bhaumik is like finding an old, dusty…
![[REVIEW] “When the Jar Spills Time: Reading Mallika Bhaumik’s 𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐 𝐽𝑎𝑟” by Wani Nazir](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/when-time-is-a-magic-jar.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 Mending Bodies. ▞ Hon Lai Chu (author), Jacqueline Leung (translator), Mending Bodies, Two Lines Press, 2025. 240 pgs.▞ Michael Shanks (director), Together, 2025. 102 min.…
![[REVIEW] “The Fantasy of Wholeness through Body Horror in Hon Lai-chu’s 𝑀𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐵𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑠 and Michael Shanks’s 𝑇𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟” by Charlie Ng](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/the-fantasy-of-wholeness-through-body-horror-in-hon-lai-chus-mending-bodies-and-michael-shankss-together.png?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] “You Don’t Belong to Anyone: A Conversation on Kalainithan Kalaichelvan’s 𝐾𝑎𝑟𝑢𝑝𝑦” by Nirris Nagendrarajah & Kalainithan Kalaichelvan](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/kalainithan-kalaichelvan-on-karupy-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] “The Paper Boy: On Park Chan-wook’s 𝑁𝑜 𝑂𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝐶ℎ𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒” by Nirris Nagendrarajah](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/https-tiff.netfilmsno-other-choice.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Thuận (author), Nguyễn An Lý (translator), Elevator in Sài Gòn, New Directions, 2024. 192 pgs. Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano once wrote that “it is not the future which counts,…
![[REVIEW] “Truth, Lies, and the Mask We Choose: On Thuận’s 𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝑆𝑎𝑖 𝐺𝑜𝑛” by Michael Londra](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/f09f9381-return-to-first-impressions-f09f9381-return-to-cha-review-of-books-and-films.jpg?w=881)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Eva Yip Man-lai (director), Cecilia Lau (organiser), Yat Yat Kingdom, 2025. In the world of theatre, actors often serve as vessels for the stories of others, portraying characters born…
![[REVIEW] “Between Play and Pain: 𝑌𝑎𝑡 𝑌𝑎𝑡 𝐾𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑑𝑜𝑚’s Tender Confession” by Dawna Fung](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/e3808ae4b880e4b880e9818ae6a882e5a0b4e3808b.jpg?w=1015)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Mahmoud Alshaer & Mohammed Al-Zaqzooq (editors), Letters from Gaza: A Collection by the People; Unveiling Their Stories and Emotions from the Year That Has Been, Penguin Random House SEA,…
![[REVIEW] “A War, Many Cries, and a Long, Unkind Sleep: 𝐿𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝐺𝑎𝑧𝑎” by Kabir Deb](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/letters-from-gaza-a-collection-by-the-people-unveiling-their-stories-and-emotions-from-the-year-that-has-been-1.jpg?w=906)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “Lav Diaz’s Magellan: From Counter-Time to Counter-History” by Ramzzi Fariñas Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Magellan. Lav Diaz (director), Magellan, 2025. 165 min. If the art of history is to be…
![[REVIEW] “Lav Diaz’s 𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑛: From Counter-Time to Counter-History” by Ramzzi Fariñas](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/images.jpeg?w=294)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “Things Fall Apart: Kong Shangren’s The Peach Blossom Fan” by Jeff Tompkins Kong Shangren (author), Wai-yee Li (translator). The Peach Blossom Fan, Oxford University Press, 2024. 816 pgs. Wai-yee Li…
![[ESSAY] “Things Fall Apart: Kong Shangren’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝐵𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑜𝑚 𝐹𝑎𝑛” by Jeff Tompkins](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/the-peach-blossom-fan.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 So That You Know. Mani Rao, So That You Know, HarperCollins India, 2025. 312 pgs. “Isn’t it better to write poems about topics? On the…
![[REVIEW] “Haunted by Words, Hunted by Silence: Mani Rao’s Radical Intimacy in 𝑆𝑜 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝐾𝑛𝑜𝑤” by Wani Nazir](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/mani-rao-so-that-you-know-cha.jpg?w=1024)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Joan E. Ericson, Be a Woman: Hayashi Fumiko and Modern Japanese Women’s Literature, University of Hawai’i Press, 1997. 292 pgs. The vicissitudes of women’s literature in Japan have undergone…
![[REVIEW] “Re-evaluating ‘Women’s Literature’ as a Category: Hayashi Fumiko as a Woman Writer in Modern Japan” by Charlie Ng](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/joan-e.-ericson-be-a-woman-hayashi-fumiko-and-modern-japanese-womens-literature-.jpg?w=907)
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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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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 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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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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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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📁 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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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [REVIEW] “The Power of Multilingual Inquiry: Mapping Intra-Asian Relations Beyond Binaries—Satoru Hashimoto’s Afterlives of Letters” by Jennifer Junwa Lau Click HERE to read all entries in Chaon Afterlives. Satoru Hashimoto, Afterlives…
![[REVIEW] “The Power of Multilingual Inquiry: Mapping Intra-Asian Relations Beyond Binaries—Satoru Hashimoto’s 𝐴𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐿𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠” by Jennifer Junwa Lau](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/afterlives-of-letters-the-transnational-origins-of-modern-literature-in-china-japan-and-korea.jpg?w=1000)
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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Editor’s note: Gauri Yadav’s review essay explores Sumana Roy’s How I Became a Tree as an ecofeminist, genre-defying work that reimagines autobiography through plant life. Blending personal narrative,…
![[EXCLUSIVE] “Sumana Roy’s 𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝐼 𝐵𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑎 𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑒: Autobiography as Ecofeminist Manifesto” by Gauri Yadav](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/sumana-roy-how-i-became-a-tree-.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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📁 RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁 RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS Jeremy Atherton Lin, Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told, Allen Lane, 2025. Deep House, a memoir by Jeremy Atherton Lin, may or may not be “the gayest…
![[REVIEW] “On Queerness, Migration and Same-Sex Marriage—A Review of Jeremy Atherton Lin’s 𝐷𝑒𝑒𝑝 𝐻𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑇𝑜𝑙𝑑” by Hongwei Bao](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/deep-house-by-jeremy-atherton-lin--1.jpg?w=987)
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茶 FIRST IMPRESSIONS 茶 REVIEW OF BOOKS & FILMS [ESSAY] “As If Present; As If Absent: Fang Fang’s Wuhan” by Angus Stewart Click HERE to read all entries in Cha on Fang Fang. Editor’s note: In this eloquent and incisive…
![[ESSAY] “As If Present; As If Absent: Fang Fang’s Wuhan” by Angus Stewart](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/fang-fang.jpg?w=976)
Cha 