Seagrass

I received this info from Winnie at Wonder Wong PR about some upcoming screenings of the film ‘Seagrass’.

Japanese Canadian writer-director Meredith Hama-Brown’s awarding-winning feature debut SEAGRASS’s theatrical release will begin on February 23 in select theatres across Canada:
Cinéma du Parc, Montréal, QC
Cinéplex Forum, Montréal, QC
TIFF Lightbox, Toronto, ON
5th Ave Cineplex, Vancouver, BC
Snakebite FF, Penticton, BC
Winnipeg Cinematheque, Winnipeg, MB (March 8-13th)
Grand River FF, Cambridge ON (March 8th)
Sudbury Indie Cinema, Sudbury, ON (April 4th)
*More theatres to be announced.

SEAGRASS stars Ally Maki (Shortcomings) as Judith; a Japanese Canadian woman who brings her family to a self-development retreat after the recent death of her mother. When Judith and Steve (Luke Roberts, Ransom) befriend another interracial couple (played by Chris Pang, Crazy Rich Asians and Sarah Gadon, Maps to the Stars) who seem to have the perfect marriage, Judith begins to recognize how irreparably fractured her relationship is. When their distressed relationship begins to affect the children’s emotional security, the family is forever changed.

Leah Lum scores her first goal for PWHL Montreal

Chinese Canadian Leah Lum signed with the Montreal team of the PWHL, the new professional women’s hockey league. She plays both forward and defense. For Montreal she plays as a defender. She scored her first goal and point of the season against New York.

Ru now screening in cinemas!

Montreal based Vietnamese author Kim Thuy‘s award winning novel Ru has been adapted into a feature length French language film that is currently screening in Montreal. It stars Chloé Djandji in what I believe is her first film role.

Leylah Fernandez wins her match to lead Canada to its first-ever Billie Jean King Cup win

Montreal born Leylah Fernandez helped Canada win its first ever Billie Jean King cup by beating Italy in the finals.

Philip Kim wins Pan Am gold in breaking

Breaking was added as a sport at the Pan Am games for the first time and Asian Canadian Philip Kim (from Vancouver) won gold and qualified for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Movies vs Video Games: An irrelevant debate I will engage in anyway

Sometimes I see articles comparing movies to video games and arguing for which one is better. Perhaps it’s simply because video games are big money now or that video games often have cutscenes that are pretty much exactly like scenes or sequences in films/movies and TV series. Prime examples of this being the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series of games and Sleeping Dogs.

In regards to which medium is better, I’ll first start with something more specific. Which medium can do the most things? Clearly the video game can do more because by definition is it a game that requires direct interaction from the player in order to progress. No interaction is possible with movies, it just plays from start to finish. If one uses this criteria then video games are objectively more versatile and by someone’s criteria that could automatically mean better/superior. It would be possible to essentially create a movie in a video game. But you could not create a video game in a movie. The only limitation of video game is that graphics cannot replicate photorealism particularly for humans. But graphics are so good these days it’s not really much of a limitation. This is something that continually improves and develops over time as technology progresses. It will be very interesting when we get to a point in time where a video game screenshot cannot be distinguished from a still frame from a live action movie.

The beauty & the ugliness of “everyday life” in East Asian cinema

For a long time and still to some degree now, it seemed the only East Asian movies or TV that became popular in North America were martial arts, horror, Japanese anime, and crime (triads & yakuza). There was a bit of change when Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries got a bit into martial arts and horror. The biggest change has been the Hallyu wave spilling over from East Asia to the rest of the world. South Korean TV dramas aka Kdramas (especially romance ones) have become hugely popular alongside Kpop, in a way displacing the positions that Jdramas and Jpop had in the past. South Korean movies have also dabbled in horror, action, crime, and thriller genres too. Of course there’s that one Korean film that won four academy awards including best picture in 2020.

While there are many excellent movies in these genres, when I started actively trying to discover more East Asian movies, I deliberately tried looking for more “everyday life” or slice of life type movies. Movies that were about regular people living their everyday lives in a more realistic setting and mostly without sensationalist or thriller elements. I’m glad I did because some of my strongest emotions as a movie-goer were felt when watching these sorts of slice of life human dramas. These were films that made me gain a new perspective on an issue or made me feel empathy for someone or a situation that I wasn’t familiar with or with something I was all too familiar with.

No More Martial Arts Movie Stars

There seems to have been some discussion on the internet about the lack of martial arts stars in recent years or asking the question, who will be the next big martial arts star. By martial arts star I mean someone who trained in martial arts when they were young and won competitions or showed exceptional skill in martial arts before making movies. Or at least a relative newcomer specifically scouted and trained to make multiple martial arts movies.

Donnie Yen is probably considered to be the last martial arts star but he’ll be 60 years old soon. He never quite reached the heights of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li or debatably even Tony Jaa in terms of peak popularity. Despite being able to speak English fluently, he has never been the main lead in a USA made movie. But he definitely paid his dues and eventually became a lead martial arts star in Hong Kong movies. I believe his lead role in SPL / Killzone (2005) was his breakout role. I think that movie still has some of the best fights in his whole career. Then he really gained a giant leap in popularity with Ip Man (2008) and its sequels.