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Review: Model (2020)
Model 我是监护人 China/US, 2020, colour, 2.35:1, 105 mins. Director: Jing Ran 敬然. Rating: 5/10. Light drama about a Chinese student in New York who’s saddled with her baby…
December 2020 Review
Well, 2020 has been a wild year for all of us. Goodness gracious it will be one for the history books going forward I surmise. Anyway, as I…
Tapestry (2020) review
“Yes, Zeze delivers a rather straightforward romance narrative with Tapestry, but, in contrast to many other Japanese romance films, he succeeds to genuinely move the spectator.”
Review: Mammoth (2020)
Mammoth 会考试的猛犸象 China, 2020, colour, 2.35:1, 105 mins. Director: Wang Nianyi 王念一. Rating: 6/10. Drama centred on a high-school dreamer and the people in his orbit is strikingly…
Review: Leap (2020)
Leap 夺冠 Hong Kong/China, 2020, colour, 2.35:1, 134 mins. Director: Chen Kexin 陈可辛 [Peter Chan]. Rating: 8/10. Celebration of women’s volleyball in China’s modern development is shaded by…
2020 In Review
Boy, am I happy to see 2020 in the rear-view mirror. Pandemic, protests, political polarization... Millions dead world-wide... It can't end soon enough. Despite that, Orphan Fansubs had…
Nagasaki 1945 ~ The Angelus Bells, Senya Ichiya Monogatari, TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You, Amatsuki, Great Pretender
Nekopara (2020) Review
A question: I’m pretty sure it’s established somewhere in the VNs that they’re genetically engineered ‘cat girls’, so why call them ‘cats’? Are there actu…
2020 Year in Review
2020 is over and I can imagineI’m not the only one breathing a big sigh of relief. I’m sure just like many of you reading this, 2020 came…
2020 Anime Q3 Review
Previous: 2020 Anime Q1 Review Previous: 2020 Anime Q2 Review [ Standard disclaimer: Spoilers! Lots of spoilers! ] I watched zero full-length new Summer anime. Cool. I did…
November 2020 Review (Gunbuster)
Well, last month we touched upon the debut of Studio Gainax, with The Wings of Honneamise kicking off their first decade of excellent scifi anime, going forward to…
Review: Wu Hai (2020)
Wu Hai 乌海 China, 2020, colour, 2.35:1, 102 mins. Director: Zhou Ziyang 周子阳. Rating: 5/10. Drama of a crumbling marriage has two strong leads but is weakened by…
Review: A Leg (2020)
A Leg 腿 Taiwan, 2020, colour, 2.35:1, 115 mins. Director: Zhang Yaosheng 张耀升. Rating: 6/10. Delicious black comedy is weakened by too many flashbacks that lack the main…
Review: Hot Soup (2020)
Hot Soup 热汤 China, 2020, colour, 2.35:1, 99 mins. Director: Zhang Ming 章明. Rating: 4/10. Arty interweaving of four stories ends up looking precious and rather silly, and…
Year In Review: 2020
With 2020 finally in the rear-view mirror, let’s take a look at some of the highlights in the world of anime, manga and video games. I really slacked…
The Journalist (2020) review
A highly relevant narrative that succeeds in underlining the importance of fighting against a-moral system of media manipulation.
2020 Anime Q1 Review
Previous: 2019 Anime Year in Review [ Standard disclaimer: Spoilers! Lots of spoilers! ] While I had fun with these shows, Winter was still a season that lacked…
2020 Anime Q2 Review
Previous: 2020 Anime Q1 Review [ Standard disclaimer: Spoilers! Lots of spoilers! ] I was also watching Houkago Teibou Nisshi this season, but it got delayed after only…
Review: Being Mortal (2020)
Being Mortal 来处是归途 China, 2020, colour, 1.85:1, 96 mins. Director: Liu Ze 刘泽. Rating: 5/10. Everyday light drama centred on a daughter and her Alzheimer’s-riddled father is well-played…
Okay! Madam (2020) [Film Review]
Okay! Madam; or, National Lampoon’s Airborne Vacation We have to go on this trip! It has been a while, but I am getting back into Korea...
Tokyo Love Story 2020 Review
Tokyo Love Story 2020 might be the best romance Japanese drama of the last 10 years. With great character and captivating storyline this drama is a must watch.
Winter 2020 Anime In Review
The Winter 2020 Quarter of anime has certainly been a wild ride, hasn’t it? I kind of mean in terms of anime, but mostly in terms of world…
Tezuka's Barbara (2020) [Film Review]
Tezuka’s Barbara; or, Deadly Temptation A woman like the city's excrement from the millions of people that it consumed and digested. Th...
2020 Manga Q3 in Review
[ Last post: 2020 Manga Q1-Q2 in Review! ] [ Standard disclaimer: Spoilers! Lots of spoilers! ] Only “Completed” is ranked, all others alphabetical. As mentioned last time,…
Review: River of Salvation (2020)
River of Salvation 一江春水 China, 2020, colour, 1.33:1, 108 mins. Director: Gao Qisheng 高启盛. Rating: 5/10. Well-played study of a 30-something woman in workaday central China doesn’t really…
Review: Love after Love (2020)
Love after Love 第一炉香 China, 2020, colour/b&w, 1.85:1, 142 mins. Director: Xu Anhua 许鞍华 [Ann Hui]. Rating: 5/10. Story of a Shanghai teenager in Hong Kong’s pre-WW2 socialite…
A Girl Missing (2020) Review
Introduction Around three years after delivering his award-winning Harmonium (2016), Koji Fukada is finally back with a new filmic product: A Girl Missing (2020). Can Fukada deliver a…
Fall 2020 Anime in Review
This season is going to be hard to rank things, but it was a very good season to me. Especially regarding a lot of its unique content. Not…
Spring 2020 Review: Great Pretender.
I can see ‘Great Pretender’ easily become one of my top anime shows for 2020. A major factor may be that it had me reminiscing about one of…
Citizen Kitano (2020) [Documentary Review]
Citizen Kitano; or, A Tribute to the Auteur! I intentionally shoot action to make the audience feel real pain. I have never and I will ...
Review: Farewell My Lad (2020)
Farewell My Lad 再见,少年 China, 2020, colour, 2.35:1, 109 mins. Director: Yin Ruoxin 殷若昕. Rating: 5/10. Fairly conventional story of a high-school girl drawn to a bad-boy classmate…
Spring 2020 Anime In Review
I can’t help but admit this season felt the emptiest in a lot of ways. Not just because of the lack of content provided to us by COVID-19…
Review: The Oldtown Girls (2020)
The Oldtown Girls 兔子暴力 China, 2020, colour, 16:9, 105 mins. Director: Shen Yu 申瑜. Rating: 6/10. Affectingly played daughter-mother drama is weakened by its flashback structure and contrived…
Random Manga Review Post 2020
Ariana here. I have not been able to watch any anime at all due to circumstances, but I was able to read quite a bit of manga thanks…
Review: River of Salvation (2020)
River of Salvation 一江春水 China, 2020, colour, 1.33:1, 108 mins. Director: Gao Qisheng 高启盛. Rating: 5/10. Well-played study of a 30-something woman in workaday central China doesn’t really…
Summer 2020 Anime in Review
Covid-19 really did a number on airing anime series for a while, but that didn’t lower the quality of this season for me. I didn’t watch a lot…
Fall 2020 – Week 9 in Review
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. I’m terrified to report that the Week in Review has grown into a wild and furious beast, and at…
Fall 2020 – Week 2 in Review
Hello everyone, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. We’re a couple weeks into the fall anime season now, and as it turns out, I actually…
Fall 2020 – Week 13 in Review
This week-numbering system doesn’t really make any sense at this point, huh? Initially, they were supposed to match the “weeks” of each anime season, though of course that…
Spring 2020 – Week 9 in Review
Alright folks, pile in, pile in. The film screenings were plentiful and excellent this week, as I watched classic crime dramas by Scorsese and Coppola, two Miyazaki masterpieces…
Spring 2020 – Week 5 in Review
You folks ready to talk about some movies? I didn’t get to a huge number of new features this week, but the films I did watch left me…
2020 Manga Q1-Q2 in Review
[ Last post: 2019 Manga Year in Review! ] [ Standard disclaimer: Spoilers! Lots of spoilers! ] Only “Completed” is ranked, all others alphabetical. (SHIMEJI SIMULATION IS #1…
Closet (2020) review [Camera Japan Festival]
“A filmic piece that will not only induce a forlorn feeling in its spectators but also invite them to deeply question their own interpersonal functioning.”
Fall 2020 – Week 5 in Review
Hello all, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. I ran through a fresh bevy of films this week, with some fresh horror picks in keeping…
Summer 2020 – Week 2 in Review
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today, for the first time in over a full season, I’ll actually be offering some commentary on the latest…
His (2020) review [Nippon Connection 2021]
A touching and heartwarming romance drama that captivates the spectator not only because it’s driven by romantic feelings feel genuine, but also because the truth of love is…
Spring 2020 – Week 11 in Review
Hello everyone, and welcome back to my little corner blog. My media adventures were diverse and rewarding this week, as I explored films ranging from recent South Korean…
Summer 2020 – Week 5 in Review
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. I actually didn’t get to any noteworthy films this week, but that’s largely because I’ve been devoting most of…
Fall 2020 – Week 10 in Review
Hello everybody, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. My heart was stolen by a videogame again this week, so expect plenty of rambling about Slay the Spire…
Spiraken Mini Movie Review: Soul (2020)
As a special Christmas Mini Movie Review, Xan & Gretta talk about a long anticipated Disney/Pixar Film that was finally released on Disney +. Was it worth the…
Winter 2020 – Week 9 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome to another Week in Review. The film pickings were particularly generous this week, as I ended up watching two of the better films I’ve…