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2 months ago | 
cinemaescapist.com | Anthony Kao |Richard N. Yu |Brian Hioe
COVID-era lockdowns may be in the world’s rearview mirror now but—like the virus itself—debates over how to remember the pandemic linger. For example, the CIA announced last month that it now favors the “lab leak” theory of COVID’s origins; this comes amidst a broader revision of “official narratives” in the US around health, COVID, and beyond following Donald Trump’s second inauguration.
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Jan 23, 2025 | 
newbooksnetwork.com | Anthony Kao
Brian Hioe is a Taipei-based writer, editor, translator, activist, and DJ who is best known for his journalism regarding Taiwan’s social and political landscape. Much of his work appears in New Bloom Magazine, an online magazine that he helped establish in 2014 to cover activism and youth politics in Taiwan and the Asia Pacific at large.
In this episode of the New Books Network, we talk with Brian about his debut fictional novel, Taipei at Daybreak (Repeater Books, 2025).
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Oct 9, 2024 | 
cinemaescapist.com | Kieran Davey |Anthony Kao |Lorna Codrai
As the first major film about the occupation of Palestine since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, No Other Land is nothing less than a desperate act of survival. Largely reliant on handheld footage shot by activists, the very act of filming becomes a shield, a tool, a weapon in moments of conflict.
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Sep 17, 2024 | 
cinemaescapist.com | Tianshu Hu |Xingting Gong |Anthony Kao |Richard N. Yu
Over the past few years, China’s leading internet companies—like ByteDance and Alibaba—have gone through rounds of layoffs and cost-cutting amidst slower economic growth and regulatory pressures. Employees over 35 are particularly vulnerable, often facing termination without proper compensation as companies prioritize younger blood.
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Aug 1, 2024 | 
cinemaescapist.com | Brian Hioe |Anthony Kao |Jamin Shih
Gold Boy is a middling film at best. This is a shame, as it wastes what would have otherwise been an engrossing premise. Set in Okinawa, Gold Boy follows thirteen-year-old honors student Amuro Asahi. Amuro’s longtime friend Hiroshi Uema and his adoptive sister Natsuki Uema reenter Amuro’s life after Natsuki stabs her adoptive father in self-defense from an attempted sexual assault. Amuro provides them shelter, while the Uema siblings ponder whether they might have killed their father.
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Jul 19, 2024 | 
cinemaescapist.com | Richard N. Yu |Anthony Kao
Earlier this year, Thai family drama How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies became a box office and social media sensation. The film—from famed studio GDH, which also produced other hits like Bad Genius—quickly became the top-grossing Thai movie of 2024 thus far, and also the 11th-highest grossing Thai film of all time. When released in other Southeast Asian countries like Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and beyond, How to Make Millions continued its box office success.
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Jul 16, 2024 | 
cinemaescapist.com | Anthony Kao |Richard N. Yu
Heist movies and shows have shown their appeal worldwide, from classics like Ocean’s Eleven to recent streaming sensations like Money Heist. Taiwan hasn’t seen too many domestically produced heist movies, which isn’t too surprising given the small size of its film market and relative lack of violent bank robberies in recent memory. This makes Breaking and Re-entering worth noting.
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Jul 14, 2024 | 
cinemaescapist.com | Brian Hioe |Anthony Kao |Jamin Shih
18×2 Beyond Youthful Days, a Taiwanese-Japanese co-production directed by Michihito Fujii and featuring a mixed Taiwanese and Japanese cast, proves to be a well-executed melodrama centered around themes about first love and growing up. 36-year-old Taiwanese video game developer Jimmy (Greg Hsu Kuang-han) finds himself adrift. Feeling devoid of the passion that first led to his success and fame within the video game industry, Jimmy sets out on a solo journey in Japan.
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Jul 8, 2024 | 
cinemaescapist.com | Brian Hioe |Anthony Kao |Xingting Gong |Jamin Shih
The Time of Huan Nan is a multifaceted movie. Though the aim of the film–to depict the historic Huan Nan Market in Taipei’s Mongka district–is self-evident, The Time of Huan Nan is more than the sum of its parts, and it proves a heartful film. The Time of Huan Nan follows brash high schooler Chen Yao-hua, who works in the Huan Nan Market at the butcher stall run by his family.
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Jul 7, 2024 | 
cinemaescapist.com | Anthony Kao |Richard N. Yu
With the assassination of strongman Park Chung-hee on October 26, 1979, South Korea entered a period of political turmoil that eventually resulted in General Chun Doo-hwan seizing power as a new military dictator and cracking down on citizens in incidents like the May 1980 Gwangju Massacre. Consequently, movies about South Korean politics between 1979 and 1980 exist aplenty—from The President’s Last Bang to May 18 and beyond.
