Falling for a romance scam allows a middle-aged woman to reassess her romantic past in Ho Miu-ki’s charming cybercrime dramedy.
Jul 30, 2024 • Subscribe
More like this
This Love of Mine (我的愛, Chang Yi, 1986)
When an already anxious housewife discovers her husband’s affair, she becomes aware of the extent to which she is already trapped by the patriarchal social codes of the…
Suffocating Love (愛的噩夢, Liao Ming-yi, 2024)
A conflicted young man chases the dream of romance while reassessing his relationships in Liao Ming-yi’s surreal dramedy.
Terrorizers (青春弒戀, Ho Wi Ding, 2021)
A collection of youngsters are drawn into a dangerous web of simmering violence in Ho Wi Ding’s Taipei-set drama.
Rude to Love (愛に乱暴, Yukihiro Morigaki, 2024)
Momoko (Noriko Eguchi) can’t find her cat, Pi-chan. It hasn’t been home for days, and now there’s a stray prowling around near its water bowl. Her mother-in-law, Teruko…
My Indian Boyfriend (我的印度男友, Sri Kishore, 2021)
A boy from India falls for a Hong Kong girl but encounters a series of barriers to romance in Sri Kishore’s Bollywood-style romantic melodrama
Dear Tenant (親愛的房客, Cheng Yu-Chieh, 2020)
A grief-stricken man lovingly takes care of his late partner’s family but finds himself continually othered in Cheng’s melancholy familial drama
My Heavenly City (我的天堂城市, Yu Sen-I, 2023)
A collection of Taiwanese migrants live unwittingly connected lives while otherwise lonely in New York in Yu Sen-I’s melancholy drama.
Lonely Eighteen (我們的十八歲, Tracy Choi Ian-Sin, 2023)
The contrasting fortunes of two friends trying to make it in the ’80s entertainment industry are explored in Tracy Choi’s meandering drama.
Harbin (하얼빈, Woo Min-ho, 2024)
A frustrated revolutionary decides assassination is the only path to independence in Woo Min-ho’s tense exploration of the life of Ahn Jung-geun.
Love Never Ends (我爱你!, Han Yan, 2023)
The generational tensions in the contemporary society are gradually exposed when a retired mechanic begins to fall for a feisty widow in Han Yan’s quietly affecting romantic dramedy.
Waga ai / わが愛 (‘My Love’, 1960)
Obscure Japanese Film #232 Ineko Arima Niizu (Shin Saburi) is a newspaper reporter who drops dead in the street after a night of heavy drinking. At the wake, his wife (Yatsuko Tan’ami) is…
Silent Sparks (愛作歹, Chu Ping, 2024)
Recently released from prison, a young man discovers that it might be easier to be free behind bars than amid the incredibly homosocial world of urban gangsterdom in…
Dust in the Wind (戀戀風塵, Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1986)
The innocent love of a young couple from the country is gradually eroded by the compromises of city life in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s melancholy youth drama
It’s A Ho Ho Post – A – Rama!!
Just hear those blogging bells chime for a merry post – a – rama and it’s FRIDAY!! OLD and NEW to the Kino corner every…
Love Nonetheless (愛なのに, Hideo Jojo, 2022)
A lovelorn bookseller is drawn into a world of romantic confusion by a high school girl with a hopeless crush and and his own requited love in Jojo’s…
The Love in Okinawa (琉球之戀, Lin Fu-Ti, 1968)
Though he may be captain of his own boat, a young man finds himself powerless in the matters of love in Lin Fu-Ti’s Taiyupian romance.
![Featured image for It Must Be Love 愛の茶番 Director: Junko Emoto [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20240308/1709935570.80600.118979.jpg)
It Must Be Love 愛の茶番 Director: Junko Emoto [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
It Must Be Love 愛の茶番, by director Junko Emoto, has actors give fun improvisational performances as egotistic characters driven crazy by love in a film-meets-theatre experiment. [Osaka Asian…
For Alice (給愛麗絲, Chow Kam Wing, 2024)
“I don’t know if I’m really lucky or really unlucky,” a young woman wonders after a series of narrow escapes amid the otherwise dismal circumstances of her life…
Ai ni Airashi Itoshi Anata (愛に愛らし愛しいあなた)
Suzuki Yufuko’s Ai ni Airashi Itoshi Anata (愛に愛らし愛しいあなた) was not at all what I expected it to be. No, scratch that. It was exactly everything I expected it…
Jack the Poetical Private / 詩的私的ジャック
Despite its focus on STEM, the S&M series sure seems to have an aversion to formula. While the previous book broke the mold by moving from...
Best Pantyshot Moments in Anime – “I love Teddy Bears!” from Maken-ki!
Pantyshots really are one of the best things about anime. A situation that would be awkward and embarrassing in real life instantly becomes amazing and guilt free in…
Back to Love (带你去见我妈, Lan Hongchun, 2021)
The relationship between a young couple is tested by the conservative attitudes of small-town parents in Lan Hongchun’s lighthearted drama.
My Best Friend’s Breakfast (我吃了那男孩一整年的早餐, Du Zheng Zhe, 2022)
Lovelorn teens embark on an awkward romance mediated by misdirected breakfasts in Du Zheng Zhe’s high school rom-com.
Bonds of Love (愛のきずな, Takashi Tsuboshima, 1969)
Trapped in a loveless marriage and unsatisfying career, a salaryman’s attempt to escape through an affair proves more complicated than he bargained for in Takashi Tsuboshima’s noirish d…
Oshi no Ko – 01 (First Impressions) – Lies are Love
It’s late, and I just finished the epic, nearly 90-minute premiere of Oshi no Ko, and I’m convinced it’s probably one of the best works of anime I’ve…
Love Live! Superstar!! S2 - Episode 6 - Natsumi Blinks Lies
Natsumi is not a good liar. Even if she were, her first-year classmates would not have followed her plan. Love Live! Superstar!! S2 - Episode 6
Spiraken Movie Review Ep 24: Die Hard (or Now I Have A Machine Gun! Ho! Ho! Ho!)
Merry Christmas, It's time for our very special Christmas episode of the Spiraken Movie Review . And for you our listeners, Xan, Deke and Kal go all out…
I Love You, to the Moon, and Back (穿过月亮的旅行, Li Weiran, 2024)
Forced to live in different cities, a married couple’s spontaneous plan for a surprise visit goes awry in Li Weiran’s charmingly quirky dramedy.
Holiday Review #11: DUR-AN-KI
There was some original fantasy manga to be found in 2025. Fittingly enough, some of it came from the team that helped to craft one of manga's greatest…
Holiday Review #11: DUR-AN-KI
There was some original fantasy manga to be found in 2025. Fittingly enough, some of it came from the team that helped to craft one of manga's greatest…
Just Only Love 愛がなんだ (2019) Dir: Rikiya Imaizumi
Just Only Love 愛がなんだ 「Ai ga Nanda」 Running Time: 123 mins. Release Date: April 19th, 2019 Director: Rikiya Imaizumi Writer: Rikiya Imaizumi, Kaori Sawai (Screenplay), Mitsuyo Kakuta (Original No…
Bonds of Love / 愛のきずな / Ai no kizuna (1969)
Obscure Japanese Film #125 Mari Sono and Makoto Fujita Suzuki (Makoto Fujita) is a low-level manager at a travel agency who drives a mod...
![Featured image for Episode #79 (S10E8) – Kwaidan [怪談] (1965)](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20240320/1710922571.81177.119684.jpg)
Episode #79 (S10E8) – Kwaidan [怪談] (1965)
Podcaster Mike Lund visits the show to discuss Kwaidan, an adaptation of four of Lafcadio Hearn’s Japanese ghost stories. We discuss our favorite stories from this anthology, some…
Like A Rolling Stone (出走的决心, Yin Lichuan, 2024)
A middle-aged woman’s decision to walk out on her abusive marriage and pursue a life of ultimate freedom on the road went viral in 2022 making her an…
A Balloon’s Landing (我在這裡等你, Angel Teng I-Han, 2024)
A dejected Hong Kong writer longs to find the path back to paradise if in the most ironic of ways, but finds something quite different after accidentally being…
SPEAKERPODCAST EP.145 – H.E.A.V-ho!
A little-known fact is that this year's Godzilla vs Kong released in Japan a good 3 months later than in the rest of the world, not hitting cinemas…
Bong Joon-ho, manga fan
When Bong Joon-ho talks to interviewers in Japan, he likes to bring up manga. It stands to reason that he would be a fan of the medium: the…
Japanese Feudalistic Love is Entertainment Fodder: 恋愛裁判 (Renai Saiban) Review
by Kaori Shoji Renai Saiban (International Title: Love on Trial) opened in theaters across Japan last month and it’s rumored to overtake Kokuho’s box office popularity within the year. Like Kokuho, Love on Trial premiered…
Intimacy’s Vanguard: Kaze to Ki no Uta
Modern anime convention rests upon a scaffolding that has been built up over decades, a series of aesthetic and narrative conventions established one seminal work at a time.…
A Tree of Palme (Parumu no Ki)
A Tree of Palme (Parumu no Ki) 2002 Over at Iridium Eye Reviews a little while back I was talking with Curtis about A Tree of Palme and…
2024 Wheel of Love!
Hi friends, I hope you’re all doing well! It’s about that time again for a movie wheel! I first did this in October with horror movies and had…
ON STAGE (登場, Zhang Yaoyuan, 2021)
Zhang Yaoyuan’s observational documentary follows the Second Hand Roses singer more offstage than on as he prepares for a New Year concert
Ai sureba koso / 愛すればこそ / (‘Only If You Love’, 1955)
Obscure Japanese Film #166 Isuzu Yamada This omnibus film comprised of three stories was an independent venture co-produced by two compani...
Street of Love and Hope (愛と希望の街, Nagisa Oshima, 1959)
A young man’s pigeon selling scam eventually ruins his cross-class friendship with a wealthy young woman in Oshima’s biting sociopolitical drama
You Have To Kill Me (我是自願讓他殺了我, Chan Chun-Hao, 2021)
An earnest policeman’s world is shaken when he’s dispatched to investigate his girlfriend’s murder in Chan Chun-hao’s noirish drama
Alone No More (得寵先生, Daniel Ho & Thomas Lee Chi-wai, 2024)
A little dog literally and more figuratively saves the life of a grumpy old man in Daniel Ho & Thomas Lee Chi-wai’s warmhearted drama.
The Government Demands You Kiss the Girl – Love and Lies Spoiler Review
Why do we like dystopias so much? When you get down to it, despite a reputation for being high-flying and forward-looking, science fiction more often indulges in –…
Here Lies My Hopes and Dreams for My Blog – July 2024 Edition
Time for an update and some reflections.
Here Lies My Hopes and Dreams for My Blog – March 2024 Edition
Some site announcements and reflection.