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A publication and community focused on covering films from Asia and the Asian diaspora. Our goal is to shift the cultural conversation of Asian cinema to recenter Asian voices in Western discourse, apply film critique through a radical lens, and broaden the definition of Asian film canon as defined by the general public.

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    02.14.2022 Profile

    Heavenly Nomadic Unroll our interview with Mirlan Abdykalykov

    By Alima Azamat

    The first feature by director Mirlan Abdykalykov, Heavenly Nomadic, offers an intimate insight into the nomadic lifestyle of a family coping with loss and change. The film succeeds in alluring viewers with complex relationships and and ever-changing landscapes.
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    08.03.2021 Profile

    Coming Full Circle Angela Lin on being a Pure Person

    By Alex Wen

    An interview with Angela Lin on A Pure Person, a music project inspired by the iconic music by Lim Giong in Millenium Mambo. We explore Taiwanese culture, finding peace in the process, and the circular nature of exploration.
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    03.23.2021 Profile

    The Process of Documenting Movement An Interview with Joanne Cesario on the Role of Cinema in Activism Work

    By Anna Luy Tan

    What is the role of film during challenging times, and how should one approach art and art-making within these complicated contexts? We chat with Joanne Cesario on these questions, on her debut short, Uwian Na, and on the possibilities that lie in creativity and the process.
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    03.09.2021 Profile

    Traveling Through Cinema Changing Everything and Nothing At All With Zhannat Alshanova

    By Alex Wen

    We travel with the director of History of Civilization, Zhannat Alshanova, from Kazakhstan to London and beyond as we discuss world cinema, the state of filmmaking during the pandemic, and more.
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    02.23.2021 Longform

    The Intimacy of a Stranger The Shared Humanity of Kirsten Tan's Dahdi

    By Louise Liu

    Beneath the surface of our everyday social interactions exists a shared longing for closeness that ties us all together. Singaporean filmmaker Kirsten Tan demonstrates this shared humanity in Dahdi, a short film that crafts an unexpected intimacy between an elderly Singaporean woman and a Rohingya refugee she lets into her home. Inspired by a 2012 event in which 40 Rohingya refugees were rejected upon arrival to the port of Singapore, Dahdi begs the question: what would you do if a refugee showed up at your doorstep?
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    02.09.2021 Profile

    Happy Cleaners: The Limits and Possibilities of a Hyphen Cinema A Conversation with Directors Julian Kim and Peter Lee on Hometowns and K-Dramas

    By Ying Yu Situ

    We chat with directors Julian Kim and Peter Lee about the future of immigrant neighborhoods, 90s K-Dramas, and the lifelong creative partnership that culminated in their first feature film. 
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    12.22.2020 Profile

    An Extended Portrait Finding Solace in Film With Jiayan "Jenny" Shi's "Finding Yingying"

    By Grace Yu

    An interview with Jiayan "Jenny" Shi on her film, "Finding Yingying."
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    12.21.2020 Longform

    Nocturnal Omissions The Queer Romantics in "I Don't Want to Sleep Alone"

    By Ying Yu Situ

    Tsai Ming-liang dreams of a world where migrant drifters can live tenderly.
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    12.01.2020 Profile

    Packing and Unpacking "Baguio Address No. 10" Home and nostalgia over beers with Mervine Aquino

    By TJ Collanto

    An in-depth conversation on the process of packing and unpacking, ideas of home, and more with Mervine Aquino
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    11.03.2020 Profile

    Uncovering the Creative Process Amber Eswani on her short film, "Fuzzy Legs"

    By Grace Yu

    An interview with Amber Eswani on the filmmaking process and her coming-of-age short, "Fuzzy Legs."
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    10.26.2020 Longform

    The Fallibility of Love Everyday Pressure in "After the Storm"

    By Choo Suet Fun

    After the Storm makes for an endearingly wistful addition to Kore-eda’s repertoire, of which the intricacies and complications of familial relationships remain a recurring theme, bringing into focus portraits of family life that we tend to take for granted. It is a poignant, nuanced exploration of the limits and complexities of love, as well as the forces that either hold a family together or pull them apart.
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    10.12.2020 Profile

    The Future Looks Like A Memory An Interview with Davy Chou on "Cambodia 2099"

    By Johnny Yoeun

    We chat with Davy Chou on his futuristic vision of the past in "Cambodia 2099."
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    10.12.2020 Profile

    The Appetite of "Vinegar Baths" An Interview with Amanda Nell Eu

    By Emily Liu

    We sit down with Amanda Nell Eu to chat about her film, Vinegar Baths, and the recipe that goes into a story on body, identity, and obsession.
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    10.12.2020 Profile

    The Life in "Weeping Birds" An Interview with Chan Teik Quan

    By Grace Yu

    For Subtitle Fest 2019, we chat with Chan Teik Quan on his film, Weeping Birds. The film tells the story of an old couple who take old age and death as a joke.
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    10.10.2020 Etc.

    Subtitle Southeast Asian Short Film Festival Zine

    By subtitle

    It's been one year since we hosted our first film festival, the Subtitle Southeast Asian Short Film Festival. To celebrate, we are releasing our Subtitle Zine—created for the festival—online for free!
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    02.20.2018 Longform

    Dreaming of Reality Escaping the militarism of the present and the warring kingdoms of the past in A Cemetery of Splendor

    By Justin Hong

    Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's eighth feature length movie, Cemetery of Splendor, is by many measures an expansive film. Its temporal scope often stretches beyond the immediate, visual space-time of what is happening within any given frame, as some of the characters often leave their bodies and drift into timelines that are not available to the eye of the viewer.
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    01.09.2018 Longform

    The Transcendence of Desire The Complementary Halves of On the Beach at Night Alone

    By Anzhe Zhang

    On the Beach at Night Alone is one of the three features which debuted last year by South Korean director Hong Sang-soo, who in recent years, has sprung out of the art house circuit and into the Korean tabloids for rumors surrounding an affair with starring actress Kim Min-hee. It’s a film that’s meta even by Hong’s standards thanks to this real-life inflection, one which bears resemblance to nearly any one of his stories from the past twenty years.