Reflecting the dire poverty and absence of self-determination in North Korea, Yong-soo’s situation is, to say the least, unfortunate. His pregnant wife desperately needs medicine, forcing Yong-soo across China’s border in search of it; somehow he survives this, but, once caught, he ends up permanently separated from his family in their mining village, a refugee […]

I have added the following entry to my list of the 100 Greatest Asian Films, which you will find (in two parts) elsewhere on this site. Once the industrial centerpiece in Chengdu, a munitions plant is being dismantled to make room for a hotel as well as residential and commercial space. Jia Zhang-Ke interviewed more […]