Retro Reels

Notable for being the first Chinese film to ever win the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or, Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine weaves a tale of friendship, unrequited love, jealousy, betrayal, and retribution spanning five decades of Chinese history.

Hanna kicks off Pride Month with a strange and groovy avante-garde flick from the late sixties that depicts a side of Japan very seldom seen.

Hanna wraps up the anime film series with a few choice words about her biggest problem with the genre, as illustrated through the 1995 scifi cult classic, Ghost in the Shell.

Hanna revisits Katsuhiro Otomo's cyberpunk classic, Akira, which reshaped anime film as we know it today. Like so many movie adaptations, though, she maintains that the book—or in this case, the manga—is better.

This week, Hanna watches Paprika, the last movie Satoshi Kon made and a dreamy flick that will leave you scratching your head. She has a few choice words for another copycat of Kon's, as well.

Hanna talks Satoshi Kon, Japanese idol culture, and the cowardice of a certain copycat in this episode on 1997 psychological drama anime film, Perfect Blue.

Hanna watches half-Japanese American director Karyn Kusama's first two movies, both worthy contributions to the 2000s era of American independent film.

Closing out her series on Akira Kurosawa's Shakespeare adaptations, Hanna watches Ran, his take on King Lear and one of the greatest films in his oeuvre.

Out, damned spot! Hanna gets everything she wanted and more out of Akira Kurosawa's 1957 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Tragedy of Macbeth.

Hanna watches legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's take on Shakespeare's Hamlet, a 1960 neo-noir crime mystery entitled The Bad Sleep Well.