Retro Reels

Bidding farewell to Tsai Ming-liang and his favorite actors for now, Hanna watches his 2003 movie Goodbye, Dragon Inn.

Hanna watches Tsai Ming Liang's oddly prescient movie The Hole (1998), which follows the lives of two tenants' experience living under quarantine as a strange pandemic affects Taiwan.

This week, Hanna follows the three lonely characters of Tsai Ming Liang's 1994 movie Vive L'Amour as they go about their quirky, aimless, and sad days.

Hanna circles back to Taiwanese New Wave to watch the movies of Tsai Ming Liang, starting with his first feature film, Rebels of the Neon God.

Hanna rewatches one of her favorite movies featuring actress Michelle Trachtenberg, who passed away suddenly on February 26 at the age of 39: Gregg Araki's 2004 coming-of-age drama, Mysterious Skin.

Following her series on martial arts movies, Hanna can't help but cover one particular American movie that happened to draw a lot of inspiration from East Asia's wuxia and kung fu flicks.

This week, Hanna watches the last movie Bruce Lee ever made in his tragically short life, and reflects on the lasting influence martial arts movies have had on popular culture.

Hanna revisits Jackie Chan, this time watching the movie that catapulted him to stardom in 1978, Drunken Master, as well as the frankly insane sequel from 1994 that showcases some of the most explosive fight scenes of his career.

Hanna highlights Bruce Lee and discusses his role as the character Chen Zhen in the 1972 kung fu movie Fist of Fury, mentioning Jet Li's take on the same character in the 1994 remake Fist of Legend, as well.

For the next theme, Hanna has chosen to cover old school martial arts movies, her favorite kind of pure entertainment flick. First up is director King Hu's classic Dragon Inn, a keystone of the wuxia genre.