A billionaire businessman pretends to live a life of crushing poverty in order to teach his son “proper” values in a biting satire from the Mahua FunAge gang.
Aug 27, 2024 • Subscribe
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Review: Successor (2024)
Successor 抓娃娃 China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 133 mins. Directors: Yan Fei 闫非, Peng Damo 彭大魔. Rating: 7/10. Comedian Shen Teng and the Ma Hua FunAge gang come up…
A Long Shot (老枪, Gao Peng, 2023)
A former sharpshooter finds himself unbalanced amid the corruptions of China’s 90s economic reforms in Gao Peng’s intense social drama.
The Reunions (吉祥如意, Da Peng, 2020)
Da Peng reworks his previous short by adding a documentary sequence further critiquing his fracturing relationships with family members back in rural China
Ah Fei (油麻菜籽, Wan Jen, 1983)
A few minutes into Wan Jen’s familial melodrama Ah Fei (油麻菜籽, yóu má càizǐ), a mother takes her children by the hand and walks to the end of…
Studio Ponoc: The Ghibli Successor in Waiting
The supposed Ghibli successor just released a new animated short. But with years passing and only one theatrical film, just what is Studio Ponoc?
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Episode 7: Sorrowful Successor
One character dies in the battle against Tarkus (although it takes him longer than reasonable, I think, considering) but the end of the episode three more people join…
First Impression: Seven Knights Revolution: Hero Successor
The episode opens with student council president Faria, a girl in military uniform, standing in a destroyed town, muttering about being too late before singing a song. Her…
SEVEN KNIGHTS REVOLUTION: Hero Successor – Episode 1
SEVEN KNIGHTS REVOLUTION: Hero Successor has all the good tidbits that make me want to engage, but after three unsuccessful successive watches, I'm not sure if I'm into…
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.
13 Sentinels – A Spiritual Successor to Steins;Gate?
I have only done a few visual novel reviews in the past and it hasn’t gone all that well. In fact, I’ve specifically review Steins;Gate before. That was…
Jojune Phantom Blood: Episode 7- The Sorrowful Successor
The Sorrowful Successor was similar in some ways to Overdrive. Zeppeli is a major if not the episode’s focus, and I would have liked to have seen it paced a…
Martian Successor Nadesico: A Franchise That Never Was
The Mid to Late 90's were effectively a period of time in which can never be replicated ever again, not for lack of trying but for lack of…
Seven Seas Announces Three New Fei Tian Ye Xiang Danmei Series
Seven Seas Entertainment is thrilled to announce the license acquisition of three danmei/Boys’ Love novel series by author Fei Tian Ye Xiang (非天夜翔): Legend of Exorcism, Dinghai Fusheng Records, and Riverbay…
Spring 2021 First Impressions – Seven Knights Revolution: Hero Successor
Streaming: Crunchyroll Episodes: TBA Source: Smartphone Game Story Summary: The world was once saved from darkness by heroes chosen by the Goddess. Now that the land is once…
Trigun Stampede: A Worthy Successor or a Pale Comparison?
Trigun Stampede: A Worthy Successor or a Pale Comparison? Across the sandy dunes of Planet Gunsmoke lay desolate towns with destructive futuristic tech running amok. This lawless realm is…
Martian Successor Nadesico Episode 25: Being Myself, Being Yourself
Summary: The Jovians are turning the previous events of the last episode to their own advantage. Yurika decides that they need to go to Mars because she might…
The End of the Track (跑道終點, Mou Tun-Fei, 1970)
A teenage boy finds himself knocked off course after his best friend suddenly dies in Mou Tun-Fei’s subversive social drama
Asian Pop-Up Cinema Announces Xie Fei Streaming Retrospective & Cloudy Mountain Drive-In
Six film Xie Fei retrospective streams for free in US & Canada Nov. 12 – 21, while Cloudy Mountain screens at ChiTown Movies Nov. 13
YAN: Chang Sheng’s genre-bending revenge thriller debuts in English this June
"YAN," the critically acclaimed and award-winning manga by Chang Sheng, is coming to English for the first time on June 10 from Titan Manga.
Band Four (4拍4家族, Mo Lai Yan Chi, 2023)
A disparate family is brought back together by a shared love of music even as everything else around them crumbles in Mo Lai Yan Chi’s poignant drama.
12 Days of Christmas Anime, Day 1: Martian Successor Nadesico’s Epiphanies
It’s the year 2199. The bright future of humanity is frustrated when alien invaders unleash radioactive meteorite bombs, poisoning Earth. But a message arrives from Mars: There’s hope…
Code of the Assassins (青面修罗, Daniel Lee Yan-Kong, 2022)
A young man is swept into intrigue while a member of a secretive guild of assassins who kill for peace in Daniel Lee’s steampunk fantasy wuxia.
I Didn’t Dare to Tell You (不敢跟你講, Mou Tun-Fei, 1969)
A young boy finds himself victimised by an oppressively authoritarian society in Mou Tun-Fei’s subversive social realist drama
This Week in Anime - Is Platinum End the Successor of Death Note?
Death Note captured anime and manga readers' attention with the exploits of Light Yagami. The creators' new series Platinum End introduces a different type of death game and…
Martian Successor Nadesico Episode 26: For the Lady We Will Meet Someday
Summary: The last episode! There is reuniting and hugs, also attacks like rabid octopuses. Yurika’s plan gets rejected because they care about her too much. And Miss Versange…
The Monkey King: Reborn (西游记之再世妖王, Wang Yun Fei, 2021)
Sun Wukong comes to believe in his own soul while standing up to a cruel and oppressive demon king in Wang Yun Fei’s anarchic family animation
Nezha Conquers the Dragon King (哪吒闹海, Wang Shuchen & Yan Dingxian & Xu Jingda, 1979)
Nezha takes on the corrupt elites of the celestial order in an unexpectedly brutal take on the classic folktale from the Shanghai Animation Film Studio
Hong Kong: City on Fire (不作浮塵, Choi Ka-yan & Lee Hiu-ling, 2022)
Visceral in its immediacy, Hong Kong City on Fire is among the bleakest of the recent series of documentaries focussing on the 2019 Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill protests
Master Detective Archives Rain Code Review: A Fantastic Game, But A Weak Successor to Danganronpa
From the brilliant and twisted minds behind the Danganronpa series we have Master Detective Archives Rain Code. Our story stars Yuma Kokohead a detective who has lost his…
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Amalock (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
A narrative that fluidly combines comedy and tragedy to deliver an experience of smiles and tears.
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Belonging (2024) review [Japannual 2024]
Higashi delivers a touching exploration of love after death.
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Snowdrop (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
A complex character portrait that touchingly illustrates how easy it is to misrecognize the logic of the subject-supposed-to-be-in-need.
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Suton (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
Rikako Watanabe’s narrative succeeds to echo the unvocalized ‘pandemic’ truth of many.
Zagin de shisu!?, Ifudodo shogakkintte iikata yamete moratte iidesu ka?, Manga-ka Hori Mamoru, Yan-san no Shigoto Japanese Films Trailers
Welcome to the second of this week’s trailer posts. You can find the first one here and the third one follows tomorrow. I think that one of my…
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Blue Imagine (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
A powerful reminder of the sexual transgressions that structurally plague the Japanese film industry
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Wash Away (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
A pleasant narrative that offers a fresh but familiar exploration of the subject’s fundamental desire for recognition/love and the problematic yet medicative function of consumption.
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Sumiko 22 (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
A subtle but playful narrative about a subject who slowly tries to crawl out the hole of emptiness and diminished self-worth.
No. 76 Horror Bookstore: Tin of Fear (76号恐怖書店之恐懼罐頭, David Chuang & Hung Tzu-peng, 2020)
Four gloomy tales illuminate the anxieties of the contemporary society in Chuang & Hung’s adaptation of the popular internet novel series
2024 plans.
(I didn’t even bother with a witty title for this post. Written hastily in less than 30 minutes…) Hi. So it’s almost 2024. And this blog has been…
2024 Outlook
Brief overview of what’s happening for this blog in 2024.
Farewell, 2024…
This post is brought you by Ave Mujica where this girls’ band from BanG Dream! will make its debut next year. This is a direct sequel to BanG…
Otakon 2024
I only bought two Lupin TV specials this year
2024 Retrospective
Ringing in the new year by taking one last look at the old one. Here's to 2025! 5:42 - 2024 Recommendations 5:48 - The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really,…
Chainsaw Man, The Elusive Samurai, Black Clover, Green Green, My Hero Academia
2024 Goals Status Update (2024-12-31)
Just one more blog post before the end of the year, as I haven’t made one in a while. This time, I’m not going to do much to…
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Penalty Loop (2024) review [Nippon Connection 2024]
The way Araki resolves the narrative’s thematical questions concerning vengeance and the working-through of trauma will divide spectators
2024 Goals Status Update (2024-05-15)
I haven’t made a blog post in a long time. Here are some status updates on my goals.
2024 Goals Status Update (2024-02-29)
Today marks the 8-year anniversary of this blog! I started blogging about anime on February 29, 2016, on a leap day. In this article, I’m going to talk…
2024 Goals Status Update (2024-04-25)
I just finished reading Atomic Habits. By the way, here’s a status update on my goals.
2024 Goals Status Update (2024-08-14)
I feel like now is the time to do a goals status update. Enough time has passed.
2024 Goals Status Update (2024-02-21)
At this point, changes are coming to my lifestyle, so it’s appropriate to make an update on my goals.