Retro Reels

Hanna wraps up the anime film series with a few choice words about her biggest problem with the genre, as illustrated through the 1995 scifi cult classic, Ghost in the Shell. 

Hanna revisits Katsuhiro Otomo's cyberpunk classic, Akira, which reshaped anime film as we know it today. Like so many movie adaptations, though, she maintains that the book—or in this case, the manga—is better.

This week, Hanna watches Paprika, the last movie Satoshi Kon made and a dreamy flick that will leave you scratching your head. She has a few choice words for another copycat of Kon's, as well.

Hanna talks Satoshi Kon, Japanese idol culture, and the cowardice of a certain copycat in this episode on 1997 psychological drama anime film, Perfect Blue.

Hanna watches half-Japanese American director Karyn Kusama's first two movies, both worthy contributions to the 2000s era of American independent film.

Closing out her series on Akira Kurosawa's Shakespeare adaptations, Hanna watches Ran, his take on King Lear and one of the greatest films in his oeuvre. 

Out, damned spot! Hanna gets everything she wanted and more out of Akira Kurosawa's 1957 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Tragedy of Macbeth.

Hanna watches legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's take on Shakespeare's Hamlet, a 1960 neo-noir crime mystery entitled The Bad Sleep Well.

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.

Hanna gets around to watching Takeshi Kitano's 1993 crime drama Sonatine, a refreshing departure from the typical crime drama fare. 

For the final episode of the "evil babies" series commemorating the birth of her son, Hanna watches yet another movie about the son of Satan, The Omen, which rode the cosmic horror trend started by Rosemary's Baby to major box office success.

Hanna rewatches the classic psychological horror flick Rosemary's Baby, one of the first movies to successfully deploy demons and Satanism as a scare tactic.

As a way of celebrating(?) her foray into motherhood, Hanna kicks off a special series on movies about evil and accursed babies. First up is David Lynch's famously strange first movie, Eraserhead.

Hanna finishes her series on Taiwanese director Edward Yang with her personal favorite from his filmography. She also has a bit of a confession to make regarding what's really been going behind the scenes.

For this episode, Hanna takes on one of Edward Yang's most highly acclaimed films, A Brighter Summer Day, one of several extra long movies that she's now attempted to fit into a 20-minute program slot.

Hanna talks about Terrorizers, which strays a bit off the path of what one might typically expect from director Edward Yang.