LINDA LINDA LINDA Review: A True Modern Masterpiece, Now In 4K
LINDA LINDA LINDA opens in theaters on September 5 from GKIDS!
Cesar Alejandro Jr.
About Cesar Alejandro Jr.
Posts by Cesar Alejandro Jr.:
NYAFF XXIV Review: Shorts Program #1: The Kids We Were
The shorts block screened for the 24th edition of the New York Asian Film Festival
NYAFF XXIV Review: In BABANBA BANBAN VAMPIRE, An Inspiriting Manga Adaptation
BABANBA BANBAN VAMPIRE enjoyed its North American Premiere at the 24th edition of the New York Asian Film Festival.
NYAFF XXIV Review: Toshiaki Toyoda’s Go Seppuku Yourselves & Other Tales
Toshiaki Toyoda’s “Go Seppuku Yourselves & Other Tales” screened for the 2025 edition of the New York Asian Film Festival.
Streaming Sleepers: In Rae Red’s THE GIRL AND THE GUN, A High-Caliber Emotional Gut Punch
A young sales clerk (Janine Gutierrez) is under appreciated at work and faces soul crushing challenges both professionally and emotionally in the big city. After a horrific event at work, she finds a revolver that changes her demeanor, giving her confidence and a way to even the odds in a misogynistic and cruel world. All the while she is unaware that the gun has had a dark journey of its own before finding itself in her hands. The solo debut feature by director Rae Red, The Girl and the Gun is the story of both the girl AND the gun in an intertwining tale that calls to mind similar crime films using a nonlinear storytelling format. Dripping with style, as well as featuring a powerfully devastating performance by the excellent and doe-eyed Gutierrez, this feature is an enthrallingly dark and gritty tale of the darkness that violence begets as well as how […]
Japan Cuts XVII Review: CHA-CHA is an Endearingly Twisted Love Story
3 min. read Cha-Cha (Ito Marika) is an illustrator who lives freely and without minding the gossip around her workplace. While on her office building’s smoking deck, she meets the aloof Raku (Nakagawa Taishi), a chef who works at the restaurant on the building’s ground level. Interested in his mysterious and quiet nature, Cha-Cha pursues a relationship with Raku, eventually settling into cohabitation. As the quirky Cha-Cha begins to fall more in love with Raku, she discovers a surprising side to him that will challenge her relationship to him in ways she never expected. Director Sakai Mai helms this fourth entry in the (not) HEROINE film series, a film project dedicated to female-centric stories with up-and-coming actors and directors. With only a handful of features under her belt, and some fairly popular writing credits of television, Sakai is poised to “break out” with this impressive not-quite romantic comedy anchored by […]
Japan Cuts XVII Review: Tominaga Masanori’s BETWEEN THE WHITE KEY AND THE BLACK KEY Hits the Right Note
3 min. read On a nostalgic New Year’s Eve in late 80s Ginza, aspiring jazz pianist Hiroshi (Ikematsu Sousuke) quits his cabaret pianist job because he doesn’t feel that he can grow there as a musician. As he begins traveling the nightime world of Ginza bar musicians, players who go to neighboring clubs and bars to play music, he becomes embroiled in the complex ecosystem of artists and gangsters out to ring in the new year. With his upperclassman Chikako (Naka Riisa) to give him guidance, he encounters a foreign singer (Crystal Kay), a fresh out of prison yakuza with a vendetta (Morita Go), and a well regarded bar pianist Minami (also Ikematsu) who also finds himself caught up in the chaos the night will bring. Adapted from an essay by esteemed jazz pianist Minami Hiroshi, Between the White Key and Black Key isn’t so much a biopic despite the […]
Japan Cuts XVII Review: Shunji Iwai’s KYRIE is a Beautiful Ballad About Life, Regret, and Moving Forward
4 min. read Homeless street musician Kyrie (AiNA THE END) is unable to normally communicate verbally but is able to sing beautifully soulful songs with her guitar. When she encounters an old friend Maori (Hirose Suzu), now a city girl going by Ikko, they agree to team up as talent and manager respectively. When their pasts catch up to them, both Kyrie and Maori must confront their mistakes, losses, and traumas to bring Kyrie’s voice back out into the world. After films such as Swallowtail Butterfly and All About Lily Chou Chou, director Shunji Iwai returns to the music film genre with Kyrie; a soulful drama about the high and low notes in life, based on his own novel, titled “Kyrie no Uta” or “Kyrie’s Song.” AiNA THE END, hereinafter referred to as AiNA, makes her major feature debut alongside well established actress Hirose Suzu and a number of both […]
Streaming Sleepers: RISE OF THE MACHINE GIRLS Delivers Worthy Sequel Satisfaction
Follow Cesar’s film updates and musings on Facebook! In the not too far future, the selling of body parts is a lucrative business; and none are as successful as the Dharma Company. Led by Aoyama Dharma (Negishi), the company runs a business that leaves many without limbs or organs. These souls find themselves ostracized by the world at large so form a town for the victims of Dharma. Living as best as they can, two sisters Ami (Tsukimiya) and Yoshie (Hanakage) make a living as idols/entertainers who fight with weapons on their missing appendages. When Dharma makes a move to eliminate the town, the two sisters must team up with a mysterious hitman (Sakaguchi) to stop the carnage and take down the evil Aoyama. A sequel nearly fifteen years after the first film, Rise of the Machine Girls offers just as much as you’d expect if you have seen the […]
NYAFF XXII: A Look At Some Of The Live Action Narrative Shorts Showcasing At The Festival
The 2023 edition of the New York Asian Film Festival kicks off today, and if you’re lucky, you’re going to be in for quite a few selections that are only exclusive to in-person attendees, as well as award ceremonies for stars Louis Koo and Ryohei Suzuki, and filmmaker Lee Thongkam to name a few. There will be other events permeating the festival as always, and you can learn more about them at the official website. As for coverage, movie reviews will go up as the next few weeks ensue, while friend and contributing writer Cesar Alejandro Jr. is turning in a raft of live-action narrative shortfilm write-ups to help steer things along. Feel free to follow him at Threads where he’s just getting started! All Your Fault, PD Director: Kim Sun-yeun While shooting on a small film, a producer who faces verbal abuse and unpleasant working conditions is forced to […]
NYAFF XIX Review: Rae Red’s THE GIRL AND THE GUN Is A High-Caliber Emotional Gut Punch
A young sales clerk (Janine Gutierrez) is under appreciated at work and faces soul crushing challenges both professionally and emotionally in the big city. After a horrific event at work, she finds a revolver that changes her demeanor, giving her confidence and a way to even the odds in a misogynistic and cruel world. All the while she is unaware that the gun has had a dark journey of its own before finding itself in her hands. The solo debut feature by director Rae Red, The Girl and the Gun is the story of both the girl AND the gun in an intertwining tale that calls to mind similar crime films using a nonlinear storytelling format. Dripping with style, as well as featuring a powerfully devastating performance by the excellent and doe-eyed Gutierrez, this feature is an enthrallingly dark and gritty tale of the darkness that violence begets as well […]
SPL Review: A Milestone Donnie Yen/Sammo Hung Crime Opus That Still Holds Up
After failing to protect a witness and his family from retribution by ruthless Triad leader Wong Po (Hung,) Inspector Chan (Yam) discovers that he has cancer. Vowing to take down Po no matter what, and seemingly now with nothing to lose, Chan gets a team of like minded officers and begins to resort to illegal means. Hoping to keep things orderly, Chan is assigned a new boss, Inspector Ma (Yen) who has a serious reputation and is more than capable in a fist fight. It’s difficult to believe that SPL was released 15 years ago at the time of this review. I remember the anticipation I had when the first trailer was released and the prospect of a Sammo vs. Donnie matchup with Yen choreographing. What I wasn’t prepared for was the grey shades of right and wrong morality tale and revenge story that carry the film tonally to the […]
SHADOW HUNTERS (1972) Review: The Perfect Kind Of Chambara With Old School Fun, And A Pinch Of Sleaze
Director: Toshio Masuda Starring: Yujiro Ishihara, Ryohei Uchida, Mikio Narita, Ruriko Asaoka, Isao Tamagawa, Tetsuro Tamba More at Filmsmash.com In the era of the Shogun, a battle in the shadows takes place where lords and fiefdoms are under constant threat of conspiracy, land grabs, and evil machinations. As the government tries to take more land under its control, a group of ronin act as mercenaries to prevent this by working under smaller lord’s orders. Among them are the dominant Jubei (Ishihara), the stoic Moonlight (Uchida), and the lascivious Sunlight (Narita). These three find themselves embroiled within a dispute between a small seemingly poor mountain kingdom and between a whole lot of gold and ninja. A Toho production directed by the prolific and successful Toshio Masuda, Shadow Hunters features that right mix of funky 70s era exploitation vibe crossed with competent swordplay that makes for not only a memorable but thoroughly […]
KUNG FU LEAGUE Review: Jeffrey Lau’s Zany New Time Travel Action Romp Is In A Lesser League Of Its Own
Cartoonist Fei (Ashin) has been in love with the beautiful Bao’er (Madina) since college. Now working in the same office, he finds a rival in his handsome and rich boss (Zhang) and his feelings of inadequacy skyrocket. Creating a comic where four legendary martial arts masters time travel into the future, he is ecstatic to find that it has come true; Wong Fei Hung (Man), Huo Yuan Jia (On), Ip Man (To), and Chen Zhen (Chan) are now lost in time and apparently the only way back is to help Fei win the girl of his dreams! Prolific director Jeffrey Lau directs this oddball martial arts comedy featuring some familiar faces, heavily stylized martial arts, and some uneven humor for a movie that doesn’t really know what it wants to be and whose story would probably have been better told as a comic from which the protagonist’s inspiration was born. […]
TOKYO GHOUL Review: Kentaro Hagiwara’s 2017 Adaptation Is An Appetizing Dish That Leaves A Lot To Be Desired
Ghouls, creatures that have to consume human flesh to survive, exist and live in hiding in order to blend in with humanity. A constant threat, government agencies exist to hunt and capture Ghouls. Running afoul of a murderous Ghoul, Kaneki (Masataka Kubota) is at the edge of death when a freak accident kills his attacker. Waking up in a hospital, he discovers to his horror that in order to save his life, the surgeon had transplanted his attacker’s organs into him, turning him into a human/Ghoul hybrid. Forced to navigate the previously unknown secret world of the Ghouls living amongst us, he finds that while some Ghouls are the vicious monsters the bedtime stories have insisted, there are even more Ghouls who want to simply live in peace. As the hunt of Ghouls intensifies, Kaneki must discover who he is; human or Ghoul. Directed by Kentaro Hagiwara, this live action […]
Otakon 2019: Cyberpunk Anime BUBBLEGUM CRISIS Averts As A Reigning Classic
You can find more extensive Otakon 2019 coverage at Filmsmash.com Director: Katsuhito Akiyama, Masami Obari, Hiroaki Goda The year is 2032. The city of Tokyo has turned into a sprawling metropolis now known as Megatokyo. With the advancement of robotics, mechanized servants known as Boomers are now a part of our everyday lives. However, whenever a Boomer loses control and goes berserk, a vigilante group of armored women known as the Knight Sabers fight to protect the public and expose the secrets of the Genom Corporation, the company responsible for developing the Boomers. One of the unarguable classics of 80s anime, Bubblegum Crisis is a complex science fiction series full of action, stellar music, and hand drawn animation that puts pretty much anything made these days to shame. Boasting rich themes and inspiring countless anime in the years since, Bubblegum Crisis was become the defacto representative of the ‘cyberpunk’ genre. […]
Otakon Review: Gory Manga Throwback, THE STORY OF RICKY, Decimates With Enduring Nostalgia
You can find more extensive Otakon 2019 coverage at Filmsmash.com. The Story of Ricky, more popularly known as Riki-oh, follows newly detained Ricky Ho (Fan Siu Wong) and his arrival to a brutal and privately run prison. Despite looking to stay under the radar and serve his sentence, he quickly loses anonymity when it is revealed that he is a powerful martial artist with a strong sense of justice. Witnessing atrocities and violence occurring with prevalence within the prison walls, Ricky takes it upon himself to defend the weak. Sensing him to be a thorn in their side, the Warden and his team of prison heads, The Gang of Four, beginning planning to take Ricky down for good and restore the status quo. Adapted from a Japanese manga, Riki-oh has risen to notoriety because of its excessive violence. While the sheer amount of carnage onscreen is at times unbelievable, does […]
NYAFF Review: Zhang Wei’s THE RIB Invokes A Beautiful Tale About Acceptance And Revealing What Is Already There
Transgendered Huanyu (Yuan Weijie) seeks to get reassignment surgery to physically become a woman; however, before the operation can take place, Huanyu must convince his father Jianguo (Huang Jingyi) to sign off on the procedure as parental consent is needed. Being a devout Christian, Jianguo is adamantly opposed to such a thing and the revelation about the secret life of his only son rattles him and his faith to its core. As father and son try to reconcile their dreams and needs as a family, Huanyu must also come to terms with how the society in China will react when he becomes fully outed and a woman. A powerful examination on the modern state of LGBT politics and social order in China, Director Zhang’s intimate and beautifully shot film features stellar acting and direction but fares less well when compared with similar efforts from Western countries considering the plethora of […]
Kitamura’s Stylish, Energetic LUPIN III Falls Short Of Expectations
The Works, an international organization comprised of the greatest thieves in the world. When the head of the organization is betrayed by one of their own (Yan), legendary thieves and criminals Lupin III (Oguri), femme fatale Fujiko (Kuroki), gunman Jigen (Tamayama), and master swordsman Goemon (Ayano), head out to find their former ally. Based on the legendary manga series by Monkey Punch, Lupin III comes to us from action director Ryuhei Kitamura; responsible for such films as Versus, Godzilla: Final Wars, and No One Lives. With a long history of animated features, including the highly acclaimed Castle of Cagliostro from Hayao Miyazaki, and one previous live action film released in the 1970’s, this mega budget adaptation had perhaps an unfair amount of expectation laid upon it. The end result is a film that is stylish, quickly paced, and filled with action, but loses the humour, heart, and flat out entertainment […]
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