The bard gives us advance notice of his upcoming medieval K-pop releases
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Film round-up: August 1, 2024
Adolescent boyhood, castaway, a Japanese masterpiece, and the limitless power of imagination: the Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Didi, Kensuke’s Kingdom, My Neighbour Totoro, and Harold and the Purple Crayon
Didi; Harold and the Purple Crayon; My Neighbour Totoro
GORDON PARSONS steps warily through the pessimistic world view of an influential US conservative
HENRY BELL takes issue with the assertion that basic income is a remedy for poverty when it doesn’t address the inbuilt inequality of capitalism
RON JACOBS welcomes an investigation of the murders of US leftist activists that tells the story of a solidarity movement in Chile
RITA DI SANTO surveys the smorgasbord of films on offer at this year’s festival
Reviews of A New Kind Of Wilderness, The Marching Band, Good One and Magic Farm by MARIA DUARTE, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA
SCOTT ALSWORTH foresees the coming of the smaller, leaner, and class conscious indie studio, with art as its guiding star
Didi (15)
Directed by Sean Wang
★★★★
SET in 2008 during the last month of summer this hilarious yet raw and biting coming-of age tale captures the irreverence and vulnerability of adolescent boyhood as it follows the life of a 13-year-old Taiwanese-American youngster.
Loosely inspired by his own teenage years and shot in his hometown of Fremont, writer-director Sean Wang’s impressive debut feature is charming and moving.
It portrays the spikey sibling relationship to a tee as Chris (Izaac Wang), “Didi” to his mother, bickers and fights bitterly with his older sister Vivian (Shirley Chen) who finds him extremely annoying, and is fed up with how he steals her hoodies and T-shirts.
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Lego synaesthesia, a tender portrait of poverty, bear-faced capers and premature Santa: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Piece By Piece, Bird, Paddington in Peru and Red One
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