12 favorite films, currently

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  • ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (Sergio Leone, 1968; 20+ year reign at the top continues)

  • HEAT (Michael Mann, 1995)

  • THE MALTESE FALCON (John Huston, 1941)

  • ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (Peter Hunt, 1969)

  • PARASITE (Bong Joon-ho, 2019)

  • REAR WINDOW (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)

  • CHILDREN OF MEN (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006)

  • PARIS, TEXAS (Wim Wenders, 1984)

  • CHUNGKING EXPRESS (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994)

  • HIGH AND LOW (Akira Kurosawa, 1963)

  • PERSONA (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)

  • ALPHAVILLE (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)

BLOSSOMS SHANGHAI (finally!)

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At last: news that Wong Kar Wai’s series, BLOSSOMS SHANGHAI will premiere on The Criterion Channel. Fall-ish?

“Blossoms” is an adaptation of Jin Yuchen’s novel of the same name which follows the lives of Shanghai residents from the end of China’s Cultural Revolution, in the early ‘60s, through the end of the 20th century.

Wong, who oversaw the show, directed 19 of the 30 episodes. The series started airing in December 2023 in China and consisted of around 25 hours of television.

When it was announced seven years ago, “Blossoms” was supposed to be Wong’s next film, but it then morphed into a TV series. It’s received positive reviews in China and, after an initially slow start, became an immense cultural success in the country. Some of the filming locations in Shanghai have even become tourist attractions.