Retro Reels

Continuing the Naruse series, Hanna reads up on geisha and how the profession has changed throughout the decades in order to better understand his 1956 movie Flowing.

Working her way through a few of Naruse's movies this month, Hanna watches his 1954 film Late Chrysanthemums, which was adapted from three short stories by lauded female author Fumiko Hayashi.

Hanna pivots back to Japanese cinema to cover the works of the lesser known but no less great Japanese director, Mikio Naruse, starting with his 1954 drama based on a novel by the same name, Sound of the Mountain.

Hanna watches King Hu's 1971 movie A Touch of Zen, a sprawling epic based on an old folklore tale and filled with symbolism from Chan Buddhism.

After feeling less than impressed by Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hanna decides now's as good a time as any to go back to watching wuxia films made by the late great King Hu. You can always count on the classics.

This week, Hanna invited Amanda Stephens, her cohost from The Doomscroll News Report, to talk about one of her favorite retro anime films from the turn of the millennium.

Wrapping up a quick series on the movies of Ang Lee, Hanna watches his 2000 wuxia film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which captivated American moviegoers despite being a foreign-made film.

Hanna watches one of Ang Lee's first three feature films, and his only film set entirely in his home country of Taiwan.

Taiwan-born director Ang Lee's film adaptation of Annie Proulx's short story by the same name still moves one to tears twenty years down the line.

Remember last July's series on the movies of Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai? Hanna's been keeping her favorite one from him in her back pocket, just for June.