Sticky & Sweet Tour

Madonna's Sticky & Sweet Tour has been released on blu-ray and in a dual-format edition (DVD and CD). Recorded in Argentina in 2008, the video version includes the full Sticky And Sweet concert while the album features selected highlights. The concert was previously broadcast by Sky1, on 4th July last year, in a censored version.

The CD track-list is: Candy Shop, Beat Goes On, Human Nature, Vogue, She's Not Me, Music, Devil Wouldn't Recognize You, Spanish Lesson, La Isla Bonita, You Must Love Me, Get Stupid, Like A Prayer, and Give It 2 Me.

The DVD and blu-ray track-list is: The Sweet Machine, Candy Shop, Beat Goes On, Human Nature, Vogue, Die Another Day, Into The Groove, Heartbeat, Borderline, She's Not Me, Music, Rain, Devil Wouldn't Recognize You, Spanish Lesson, Miles Away, La Isla Bonita, You Must Love Me, Don't Cry For Me Argentina, Get Stupid, 4 Minutes, Like A Prayer, Ray Of Light, Hung Up, and Give It 2 Me.

VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever 2010

The fourteenth edition (2010) of VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever, edited by Jim Craddock and published last year, contains over 30,000 capsule film reviews, making it the most comprehensive annual film guide currently available. VideoHound's main rival, Halliwell's Film Guide, has now sadly ceased publication, following its awful The Movies That Matter edition.

VideoHound's 2,000 pages are divided into two broadly equal sections: 1,000 pages of reviews, and 1,000 pages of listings and indexes. The indexes, which include thematic lists and esoteric categories, were pioneered and later dropped by the Time Out Film Guide.

VideoHound includes only those films released on domestic video formats, thus there are thousands of direct-to-video titles reviewed here that are not covered by other guides. However, guides such as Time Out review experimental and arthouse films that have never been released on video, and these are excluded from VideoHound.

Indy Spirit Project

This evening, indie director Apichatpong Weerasethakul introduced a selection of his short films at MBK's SF Cinema City, Bangkok, for an event titled Indy Spirit Project. Six films were screened:

Luminous People
(previously shown at Traces Of Siamese Smile)

My Mother's Garden
(animated line-drawings of plants and animals, and close-up images of exotic jewellery)

Windows
(sunlight streaming through a window, producing an abstract strobing effect)

Ghost Of Asia
(previously shown at Apichatpong On Video Works)

Morakot
(previously shown at Tomyam Pladib)

Vampire
(previously shown at Bangkok Bananas)

Several of the films were screened at various events in 2008. Luminous People and Morakot were both shown at the Thai Film Archive's Save The Film, and Ghost Of Asia and Morakot were both screened at The Jim Thompson Art Center.

Apichatpong explained the inspirations behind each film, and there was a brief Q&A session. As in Syndromes & A Century and Uncle Boonmee, two of this evening's films included tributes to the director's parents: drawings of plants in My Mother's Garden, and a recreation of the scattering of his father's ashes in Luminous People.

Sawasdee Bangkok

Sawasdee Bangkok, an anthology of nine short films inspired by Paris, Je T'Aime, will be broadcast on Thai PBS television over the next month. The film's premiere at the 2009 Bangkok International Film Festival was an invitation-only event, so the TPBS broadcasts mark Sawasdee Bangkok's first public presentation. Each segment presents a different view of the city, from nine different Thai directors:

มาหานคร
(a travelogue in which two villagers visit the capital to photograph the sights of the city; directed by Bandit Rittakol, broadcast on 19th July)

ทัศนา
(a man describes Bangkok as a mythical paradise, to console a blind woman; directed by Wisit Sasanatieng, broadcast on 20th July)

หลงแต่ไม่ลืม
(an old man sees a young guitarist and remembers his time as a rock singer; directed by Ruethaiwan Wongsirasawasdi, broadcast on 26th July)

Silence
(an obnoxious young woman's car breaks down after she drives home from a nightclub, featuring Nopachai Jayanama from Nymph; directed by Pen-ek Ratanaruang, broadcast on 27th July)

Bangkok Blues
(a man argues with his ex-girlfriend, and his friend records the ambient sounds of a deserted playground; directed by Aditya Assarat, broadcast on 2nd August)

เสนห์บางกอก
(an ironic guide to the trivialities and daily rituals of life in the city; directed by Prachya Pinkaew, broadcast on 3rd August)

พี่น้อง
(a romantic drama set in a high school, like the same director's Love Of Siam; directed by Chookiat Sakveerakul, broadcast on 9th August)

กรุงเทพที่รัก
(interviews with colourful and diverse economic migrants, like the same director's documentary Crying Tigers; directed by Santi Taepanich, broadcast on 10th August)

ผีมะขาม
(a prostitute's disturbing past is revealed, while her client becomes emotionally attached; directed by Kongdej Jaturanrasamee, broadcast on 16th August)

The poster image comes from Wisit's film, in which Bangkok is briefly depicted as a fantastical landscape complete with flying kinnarees. The films are subject to the usual Thai TV restrictions ('offensive' language is muted, and 'objectionable' images are pixelated), which is ironic as Prachya's documentary criticises media censorship.

Inception

Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan, stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a character who is haunted by his own dreams while extracting and implanting information within the dreams of others. Coincidentally, as in Shutter Island, DiCaprio's character is tormented by visions of his dead wife. The film is, like eXistenZ, a 'Chinese box' with multiple layers of reality, as the dreamscape becomes deeper.

The narrative is even more sophisticated than Nolan's Memento and The Prestige, and more cerebral than his blockbuster The Dark Knight. The special effects, including zero-gravity fight sequences, were largely performed in-camera, and the film combines complex exposition with intense action scenes. The ambiguous ending is perfect. (An IMAX DMR version has also been released.)

Uncle BoonmeeWho Can Recall His Past Lives

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ), directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and filmed in 16mm, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year. It is currently being screened at SFX Emporium in Bangkok.

The central character, Boonmee, is dying of kidney failure, which Apichatpong’s father also suffered from. Boonmee is cared for by his sister Jen and his young cousin Tong, though one evening the ghost of his dead wife materialises at the dining table. A few minutes later, Boonmee’s long-lost son returns in the form of an ape-spirit with glowing red eyes.

Boonmee reflects on his life as a former soldier who killed Communist rebels in the 1970s, and we are shown some of his previous incarnations: a buffalo that escapes from its owner, and a princess who seduces one of her servants and makes love with a talking catfish. Each of the film’s six reels was filmed in a different cinematic style (though all include Apichatpong's characteristic long takes), as a tribute to analogue cinema at a time when digital cameras and projectors are replacing celluloid.

After Boonmee’s funeral, Tong becomes a monk, though he misses the comforts of home and comes to Jen’s hotel room for a shower. Finally, Tong and Jen visit a karaoke restaurant, either as an out-of-body experience or in a parallel universe.

As in Tropical Malady (สัตว์ประหลาด), the forest is a dwelling for animal spirits, though in Uncle Boonmee the supernatural elements are more explicit and tangible. Also, the central theme of Uncle Boonmee is predicted in Tropical Malady, when one character says: “Remember my uncle who can recall his past lives?”

Icons Of French Design

Icons Of French Design is an exhibition of thirty iconic examples of French industrial design. The centrepiece of the exhibition is a stunning yellow Citroen DS1. Philippe Starck's Juicy Salif citrus juicer is also included, though it was commissioned and manufactured by Alessi in Italy.

There is some overlap with TCDC's permanent collection: their original What Is Design? exhibition included a Juicy Salif, and What Is Design? now features a cream DS1. Icons Of French Design opened at BACC on 10th July, and will close on 22nd August.

Toy Story II (3D)

Toy Story II is generally regarded as one of the few sequels to improve upon the original, and its montage sequence, in which Jessie sings When She Loved Me, is especially popular. Personally, I prefer the groundbreaking first Toy Story film, and I thought Jessie's montage was cloyingly sentimental, but I loved the parody of The Empire Strikes Back with Zurg as Darth Vader.

The film was co-directed by John Lasseter (who directed the original Toy Story), Ash Brannon, and Lee Unkrich (who later directed Toy Story III). It has been rereleased in retrofitted 3D, alongside Toy Story. If you simply want to enjoy the film at the cinema again, the 3D is subtle and unobtrusive; however, there is something exploitative about charging higher ticket prices for negligible 3D.

Toy Story (3D)

Toy Story, Pixar's first feature-length animated film and the world's first computer-generated feature-film, has been rereleased with its sequel, Toy Story II. Both films have been converted into 3D in anticipation of the forthcoming Toy Story III.

As in many of the retrofitted 3D films (such as Alice In Wonderland and Clash Of The Titans), the minimal 3D barely justifies the inflated ticket price. For a fully immersive stereoscopic experience, the film needs to be made with 3D cameras (like Avatar). The bright CGI animation in Toy Story certainly looks great in 3D, but of course it also looks great in 2D (as does Avatar).

The first 3D cycle came in the 1950s, with science-fiction films such as Creature From The Black Lagoon, and even Alfred Hitchcock was cajoled into adopting the format (for Dial M For Murder). However, the gimmick lasted for only a few years, and the current 3D craze, despite heavy promotion from the major studios, could also be merely another fad.

Toy Story in 3D is still a funny, thrilling, and touching film. Children can enjoy the action scenes and toy characters, while their parents can appreciate the movie references: Sid quotes Darth Vader from Star Wars ("Where is the rebel base?"), Sid's carpet is the same as the Overlook Hotel carpet in The Shining, the rolling globe resembles the boulder from Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and Woody's head turns a complete circle like Regan's in The Exorcist. My only gripe is that the human characters are animated so unrealistically compared to the toys and backgrounds. John Lasseter, who directed Toy Story, also made Cars and co-directed Toy Story II, and is now an executive at Disney.

เราเป็นคนไทย

เราเป็นคนไทย is a new song by Petch Osthanagrah, one of several anthems calling (in vain?) for national unity after the recent unrest in Bangkok. The song's video was directed by Wisit Sasanatieng, director of Tears Of The Black Tiger, Citizen Dog, and The Unseeable. The video has none of Wisit's trademark over-saturated colours, seen most recently in his short film Norasinghavatar, though it does feature a panoply of Thai celebrities (including director Pen-ek Ratanaruang, amongst many others).

The Ghost Writer

In Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer, Ewan McGregor plays an author hired to ghost-write the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang. The ex-PM, played by Pierce Brosnan, is directly inspired by Tony Blair (whose own memoirs will be published this year, under the awful title A Journey). In a parallel with Polanski (who is currently under house-arrest in Switzerland, following his 1977 sexual assault conviction), Lang's travel is restricted to avoid extradition and criminal charges.

The previous ghost-writer died in suspicious circumstances, and McGregor's character investigates a potential conspiracy; it's implied that his paranoia is justified, though there is no explicit corroboration. McGregor's character - selected as a pawn by a femme fatale, in an investigation he cannot control - is superficially similar to another Polanski protagonist, JJ Gites in Chinatown. In The Ghost Writer, however, Chinatown's bleached sunshine is replaced by a less cinematic, permanently overcast atmosphere.

Polanski's greatest films (such as Chinatown, Death & The Maiden, Repulsion, and Rosemary's Baby) are morally ambiguous and psychologically shocking, whereas The Ghost Writer is simply an extremely effective thriller. Like the equally entertaining Shutter Island, and Polanski's The Ninth Gate (and the cliche-ridden Angels & Demons), it's a code-cracking suspense film with a twist ending.

NETPAC Asian Film Festival

Nonzee Nimibutr will introduce a screening of his film Nang Nak (นางนาก) at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand on 26th August, as the closing event of the NETPAC Asian Film Festival in Bangkok. The festival opened on 22nd April; the Nang Nak screening was originally scheduled for 24th June, but was postponed due to the unrest in Bangkok earlier this year.

100 Greatest Movies

Total Film has compiled an alphabetical list of 100 classic films, selected from the 160 films and DVDs which have received a five-star rating. The magazine also compiled top-100 lists in 2005 and 2006, and a list of sixty-seven influential films last year. Total Film's 100 Greatest Movies are as follows:

• 2001: A Space Odyssey
  
• Alien
  
• All About Eve
  
• Amadeus
  
• Amelie
  
• American Graffiti
  
• Annie Hall
  
• The Apartment
  
• Apocalypse Now
  
• Avatar
  
• Back To The Future
  
• Badlands
  
• Bambi
  
• The Battle Of Algiers
  
• Belle De Jour
  
• Bicycle Thieves
  
• The Big Lebowski
  
• Black Narcissus
  
• Blade Runner
  
• Blue Velvet
  
• Bonnie & Clyde
  
• Boogie Nights
  
• Brazil
  
• The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari
  
• Casablanca
  
• Chinatown
  
• Cinema Paradiso
  
• Citizen Kane
  
• City Of God
  
• The Conversation
  
• The Dark Knight
  
• Das Boot
  
• The Deer Hunter
  
• Die Hard
  
• Dirty Harry
  
• Donnie Darko
  
• Don't Look Now
  
• Double Indemnity
  
• Dr Strangelove
  
• ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
  
• The Exorcist
  
• Fargo
  
• Fight Club
  
• Finding Nemo
  
• Gladiator
  
• Glengarry Glen Ross
  
• The Godfather
  
• Goldfinger
  
• Gone With The Wind
  
• GoodFellas
  
• Half Nelson
  
• Halloween
  
• Heat
  
• His Girl Friday
  
• It's A Wonderful Life
  
• Jaws
  
• King Kong
  
• LA Confidential
  
• Lawrence Of Arabia
  
• The Lord Of The Rings I-III
  
• M
  
• Manhattan
  
• Metropolis
  
• Miller's Crossing
  
• Monty Python's Life Of Brian
  
• Nashville
  
• Network
  
• Night Of The Living Dead
  
• No Country For Old Men
  
• North By Northwest
  
• One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
  
• The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
  
• Persona
  
• The Philadelphia Story
  
• Psycho
  
• Pulp Fiction
  
• Raging Bull
  
• Raiders Of The Lost Ark
  
• Rear Window
  
• Reservoir Dogs
  
• The Seventh Seal
  
• Sideways
  
• Singin' In The Rain
  
• Some Like It Hot
  
• Star Wars IV: A New Hope
  
• Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
  
• Sunset Boulevard
  
• The Sweet Smell Of Success
  
• There Will Be Blood
  
• The Third Man
  
• This Is England
  
• This Is Spinal Tap
  
• Tokyo Story
  
• Touch Of Evil
  
• The Truman Show
  
• Vertigo
  
• West Side Story
  
• When We Were Kings
  
• Withnail & I
  
• The Wrestler

There are actually 102 films on the list, with The Lord Of The Rings I-III counted as a single entry. Note that Some Like It Hot is the 1959 comic masterpiece, not the obscure 1939 comedy; and Psycho and King Kong are the original versions.

The Big Sleep (preview)

The Big Sleep, the quintessential film noir, was released in 1946, though a preview version from 1945 still exists. The film stars Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall; they first appeared together in To Have & Have Not, also directed by Hawks. The supporting cast includes Elisha Cook, who previously appeared with Bogart in The Maltese Falcon. Bogart and Bacall were married soon after filming The Big Sleep, and it was Bacall's agent who asked the producer to shoot several alternate scenes for the 1946 version.

The most apparent consequence of the re-shoots is that the relationship between Bogart and Bacall is intensified. They have two scenes together, in a restaurant and in Bacall's bedroom, which were filmed especially for the 1946 version. The dialogue in these scenes includes most of the innuendoes for which the film has become famous. A sequence in which Bacall's sister attempts to seduce Bogart was also added, and the scene in which Bacall helps Bogart escape was re-shot.

The 1945 version contains two expositional sequences which were subsequently removed: Bogart meeting the District Attorney, and a veiled Bacall visiting Bogart's office. The plot is equally complex and incomprehensible in both versions, though in the 1946 version this is less noticeable because the mystery is overshadowed by the romance between Bogart and Bacall. In the 1945 version, the romance is less developed, leaving the whodunnit narrative as the main focus, and therefore the convoluted exposition is more distracting.

Imagine Peace:Contemporary Art in Thailand in the Age of Turbulence

Imagine Peace: Contemporary Art in Thailand in the Age of Turbulence (ฟันถึงสันติภาพ ศิลปะไทยร่วมสมัยในยุคขัดแย้ง) opened yesterday at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. The large-scale exhibition, featuring around 100 artists, is a response to the political polarisation and violence of recent months.

Imagine Peace was organised by the Ministry of Culture, and its catalogue was published by the Ministry. This is problematic, as it was the government that authorised the use of live ammunition by the military, leading to the deaths of almost ninety people. The catalogue begins with a double-page spread of photographs of the events of last month, though they show only the burning buildings, not the military violence. This is essentially propaganda, perpetuating the state’s narrative that the pro-democracy protesters were merely arsonists.

The exhibition itself features idealistic artworks that create a false impression of unity and harmony. The most naive and simplistic example is Hug (กอด), a living sculpture of two artists wearing yellow and red shirts hugging each other, performed on the opening day by Nu Nimsomboon and Pongsuang Khunprasop. The only attempt to address the military crackdown is Yuree Gensaku’s cartoonish painting Please Peace Me (โปรดอย่าถอยท้อ). Imagine Peace runs until 22nd August.

The Prestige

The Prestige was directed by Christopher Nolan (who made Memento) and stars Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as rival magicians in Victorian London; the supporting cast includes Michael Caine and Scarlett Johansson. Bale and Caine both previously appeared in Nolan’s Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Jackman and Johansson previously co-starred in Woody Allen’s Scoop. At the start of the film, Bale asks: “Are you watching closely? Look closer”, and this is also useful advice for the audience, as The Prestige is a film with plenty of twists and turns.

Movies That Shook The World

Movies That Shook The World was broadcast by the American cable TV channel AMC in 2005. The series ran for thirteen episodes, with each one profiling a different film. The films were chosen for their influence on politics and culture, and the episodes were broadcast in the following sequence:

• Fatal Attraction
  
• The China Syndrome
  
• Do The Right Thing
  
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
  
• The Graduate
  
• The Birth Of A Nation
  
• The Exorcist
  
• The Last Temptation Of Christ
  
• Shaft
  
• American Graffiti
  
• Philadelphia
  
• The Blair Witch Project
  
• Pink Flamingos

A Letter To Uncle Boonmee

The Thai Film Archive (in Salaya, near Bangkok) will screen Apichatpong Weerasethakul's short film A Letter To Uncle Boonmee this Saturday, to celebrate Apichatpong's new film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives winning the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year. Both films are part of an installation titled Primitive, alongside the short film Phantoms Of Nabua.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives will have a press screening in Bangkok next Friday. Apichatpong gave press interviews at the Thai Film Archive on Tuesday; his short films Luminous People and Morakot were screened there in 2008, and his feature-length Tropical Malady was shown there last year.

Ayesab' Amagwala

South Africa's High Court in Johannesburg has declared that the apartheid-era song Ayesab' Amagwala is illegal, and that singing the song is therefore against the law. The song's most famous phrase, "dubul' ibhunu", calls for the shooting of white farmers and has become an anthem among young ANC members. The High Court ruling follows a civil case against prominent ANC member Julius Malema, who has repeatedly performed the song in public.

Tara Butchery in Cape Town capitalised on the controversy with a poster announcing "Kill the boerewors", written with sausage meat. 'Boerewor' describes a variety of traditional sausage, though the slogan is also a pun on 'kill the boer', an English translation of "dubul' ibhunu".

A History Of Italian Cinema

A History Of Italian Cinema is the fourth edition of Peter Bondanella's Italian Cinema: From Neo-Realism To The Present. Bondanella's new chapters on individual genres, including Peplums, Gialli, and Poliziotteschi, are the book's most welcome additions, giving influential exploitation directors such as Mario Bava (dismissed in a single sentence in previous editions) the recognition they deserve.

Godzilla

Godzilla (ゴジラ), directed by Ishiro Honda, inspired more than twenty Japanese sequels over a period of fifty years, and a disastrous Hollywood remake. The original version, in which a fire-breathing, amphibious dinosaur destroys Tokyo, is one of the greatest of all monster films (a subgenre known as kaiju-eiga in Japan), though it was re-edited for the American market (with new expositional scenes featuring Raymond Burr).

The plot was loosely adapted from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, though Godzilla’s special effects are more basic: a man in a suit crushing miniature buildings. Conveniently, Godzilla is a nocturnal creature, with the darkness helping to camouflage some of the more crude effects. The night scenes are highly atmospheric, and add to the film’s sombre tone. King Kong is another substantial influence, with Godzilla and Kong having equally tragic endings.

As in many other (primarily American) cryptozoological science-fiction films of the 1950s, Godzilla is a metaphor for the dangers of nuclear weapons, with the monster disturbed by atomic bomb tests in the Pacific Ocean. Godzilla is less sensationalist than its American equivalents, though, and is surprisingly bleak, with an explicit final warning: “if we continue conducting nuclear tests, it’s possible that another Godzilla might appear somewhere in the world again”.

Shark Tale

Shark Tale, directed by Bibo Bergeron and Vicky Jenson for DreamWorks Animation, includes vocal performances by Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese. Scorsese, playing Sykes, is the second major director to appear in a Dreamworks animation, after Woody Allen starred in Antz; De Niro, as Don Lino, spoofs his Godfather character Don Vito. Like Antz and Shrek, Shark Tale is crammed with jokes, but surely most of them went over the heads of the target audience.

Whatever Works

In Woody Allen's Whatever Works, Larry David plays a cross between his Curb Your Enthusiasm character (ranting monologues) and Allen himself (existential angst). The relationships become more complex and less interesting, and Allen's traditional creepy age-gap between the central couple has returned. Allen is back in New York after Barcelona (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and London (Match Point, Scoop, and Cassandra's Dream), though he forgot to include any jokes.

Raise The Red Lantern

Raise The Red Lantern, directed by Zhang Yimou, stars Gong Li as Songlian, a teenager who becomes the fourth wife (essentially a concubine) of a wealthy aristocrat. Her husband's face is rarely seen, as the film concentrates instead on the relationships between his four wives. Each wife has her own maid and living quarters within the husband's palatial home, though the wives are constant rivals as they must compete for their husband's affections. Each night, he selects a different wife to sleep with, his choice signified by the lighting of red lanterns in the living quarters of the chosen wife.

The older first wife is a matriarchal figure for the other three. The second wife is initially friendly towards Songlian, though the spoiled third wife is jealous at being usurped by Songlian's arrival. Later, it transpires that the third wife is a sad and ultimately tragic figure, and the second wife is memorably described as having "the face of the Buddha but the heart of a scorpion". We sympathise with Songlian, forced to become a concubine after the death of her father, though her callous treatment of her maid is uncharacteristic. Her maid, who dreams of becoming the fifth wife, is also broadly sympathetic, her insubordination arguably excused by Songlian's attitude towards her.

The film has striking similarities with Curse Of The Golden Flower, also directed by Zhang Yimou. In both films, Gong Li plays a wife trapped in a gilded cage, constrained by the rituals and protocols of daily life. Raise The Red Lantern and the director's visually stunning later film Hero both share a bold colour palette, with each sequence dominated by a single colour: in Red Lantern, the bright red of the illuminated interiors is contrasted with the cold blue of the exteriors. Hero emphasised style over content, and Golden Flower was excessively opulent, though Red Lantern perfectly combines profound drama with understated cinematography and expressive lighting.

Red Lantern has been interpreted as a commentary on Communist suppression, though the director (probably because he is now a government propagandist, having directed the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony) refutes this analysis. If the husband's home is seen as a microcosm of Chinese society, the restriction on freedom and punishment of dissent endured by the four wives could be metaphors for state control, and the film was indeed banned in mainland China. Ironically, the film's international success, and the historical exoticism in the director's subsequent work, have become major Chinese artistic exports.

The Wedding Banquet

The Wedding Banquet stars Winston Chao as Wai-Tung, a Taiwanese businessman living in New York. Mitchell Lichtenstein (director of Teeth) plays Simon, Wai-Tung's American boyfriend. Wai-Tung's parents are eager for him to get married, and when they come to visit him in New York he has to pretend that he is not gay. The plot now seems overly familiar, and La Cage Aux Folles (remade as The Birdcage) is a superior treatment of a similar scenario.

The cross-cultural problems of immigrant life are not explored, though the film is a commentary on the tension between traditional expectations and contemporary realities. Much of this tension is played for laughs, though the final reel is more subdued. The director has a cameo as one of the guests at the wedding banquet.

This is Ang Lee's second film set in New York, after his debut Pushing Hands. It was followed by Eat Drink Man Woman, filmed in Taiwan, though most of his subsequent films have been Hollywood productions. Alongside Tsai Ming-Liang, he was part of a second wave of Taiwanese directors to emerge in the early 1990s, after the initial Taiwanese New Wave led by Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang.

His work has occasionally attracted controversy, notably the sexually explicit Lust, Caution and the (arguably over-rated) gay western Brokeback Mountain. His influential martial-arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was the most successful foreign-language film ever released in America and the UK, and is one of my ten favourite films of the decade.