Hello from Taipei!
Here is the highly anticipated quarterly staple!
Books
My favourite activity this summer has been reading by the beach and I have been reading a lot. I have had two main books which have been The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, both well over 1000 pages.
I still have 2 chapters left from Bolaño so I will review it in Q4 but so far I feel trapped in Bolaño’s nightmare purgatory of violence and obsession. I have the sinking feeling I will only descend further over the last 300 pages.
The novel unfolds across continents and decades, with interconnected storylines that feel deliberately opaque. I’ve spent the last 300 pages lost in the deserts of Santa Teresa, watching the world decay.
☆☆☆☆1/2 Voices of Chernobyl – Svetlana Alexievich
The book is a devastating chorus of voices from the Chernobyl disaster. This book collects first-hand accounts of those who lived through it in a format that is intimate, unfiltered, and emotionally brutal. These are the stories used to develop the successful HBO series, but no adaptation can match the rawness of Alexievich’s work.
The book reminded me of how Murakami’s Underground portrays Japanese society after the Aum terrorist attacks. It similarly shows how the national trauma seeps into everyday life, and how ordinary people endure the aftermath of a catastrophe.
I was told to read it before watching the series for full impact. I plan to watch it in Q4.
☆☆☆ 1/2 Tomie – Junji Ito
Tomie was my second Junji Ito after Uzumaki which was one of my top reads of 2024 and has become my most-gifted book of the year. Where Uzumaki builds a slow, claustrophobic spiral of dread, Tomie feels looser and more episodic.
The artwork is still exquisite, grotesque and detailed. Several self-contained chapters are brilliant, each twisting the concept in unexpected directions. But the collection can feel uneven. Some entries add little thematically or visually, and over time, the horror starts to lose its edge.
It’s worth reading for fans of Ito’s style, but if you’re new to his work, Uzumaki is the better entry point.
☆☆☆☆ The Way Of Kings – Brandon Sanderson
Sanderson introduces an epic that demands your full attention and rewards you for it at the end. At 1200 pages, the universe building is deep and detailed. Like the first Dune book, it takes its time to sink into its mythology, politics and cultures.
The final chapters are worth the struggle through the mud, with character arcs finally reaching their climax. I’m ready for book two now.
Films
Cinema is so back, I have gone to the movies 4 times in the last month! With awards season creeping closer all of the studios are bringing out the big guns and almost everyone is going the cinema exclusive route.
The best:
☆☆☆☆1/2 La Chimera (2023)
This is the best film I’ve seen this year. I was just floored. I went in not expecting much from the film, just a couple of recommendations and the memory of Josh O’Connor’s electric performance in Challengers.
The movie is a unique poetic fable set in 1980s rural Italy. Visually, the game with aspect ratio and film widths makes the movie shift in a breath from cinematic stillness, to vintage dream, to high resolution memory and back. The story like the camerawork, keeps the subject sharply focused while letting the edges blur into mystery.
From the very first scene there is a feeling that something is off, like every frame is a riddle for the viewer who is purposefully left just out of reach. The movie takes bold stylistic risks and lands them. At times, it feels like jazz. Rohrwacher turns a rural train or a lost field feel like the battlefields of myth and passage to the underworld at the same time.
☆☆☆☆1/2 A Complete Unknown (2024)
Being a massive Dylan fan, I was very disappointed to be out of the country when it was released. I kept putting it off, afraid it would not live up to expectations or that knowing the story would make it feel lifeless. I was very wrong.
The film is all about characterisation, not story. James Mangold doesn’t deepen or redeem young Dylan. He just lets Chalamet channel the man: brilliant, messy and guarded. Monica Barbaro’s Joan Baez and Boyd Holbrook’s Johnny Cash offer sharp and grounded performances.
Hard to believe that this is the very same director who brought us Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
☆☆☆☆ The Baader-Meinhof Komplex (2008)
This German political thriller follows the rise of the West German leftist terrorist organization RAF (Red Army Faction). It is set in the late 60s and 70s, with impressive attention to detail and atmosphere. The movie is gripping and immersive, capturing one of the most turbulent periods of postwar German history.
My only caveat is that the terrorists are portrayed in a way that felt too sympathetic. They’re framed as rebellious antiheroes despite being involved in cold-blooded killings. There is very little exploration of remorse or moral conflict. The movie tries to juggle too many characters to fully develop them and as a result some of them feel shallow or emotionally flat.
☆☆☆1/2 One Battle After Another
This will likely be one of the most critically acclaimed movies of the year and I believe it will age wonderfully. If there is no big last minute surprise during award season, it could sweep the Oscars.
So why did I give it 3.5 stars? I may be judging it too harshly here given that the movie is better than some films I’ve rated more highly.
Let’s start with what is great with the movie:
- Benicio del Toro’s supporting role is superb. He comes in just as the movie picks up pace and makes use of his small amount of screen time to shine.
- This may be one of Leonardo DiCaprio’s best performances.
- The comedy and dialogue are top tier.
So what is wrong? The last 10 minutes of the movie are just unnecessary and undercut the emotional payoff. The third act loses its strength because of a 10 minute anticlimactic epilogue. It feels like some of the storylines had to be trimmed down to avoid having a 4 hour movie and risking criticism. Before watching La Chimera, I described the middle act as “the best cinema I have watched this year”. This is a close second.
The movie is enjoyable and I’m glad I watched it in the cinema. Leaving the cinema, I had mixed feelings about it especially because the last 10 minutes left a bitter aftertaste.
☆☆☆ Uncut Gems (2019)
I had high hopes for this one. Adam Sandler is brilliant in a role that made me deeply uncomfortable from the first minute. The movie shows a slow-motion car crash that looks beautiful on screen. However, the film didn’t quite land, it was too tense for me and the story at times didn’t let me breathe. The fine line between drama and comedy is exquisitely danced on by Sandler.
If you can stomach chaos and unlikable characters this one is for you. The movie feels more like being trapped in a fever dream with smell of stale cigars and day-old scotch than watching a movie. By the end of it I was relieved it had ended.
☆☆☆ The Smashing Machine (2025)
There are two standout elements in this film: the colour grading and the over-the-top transition scenes. These scenes include a neon arrival in 1990s Tokyo, a visit to an amusement park or a long ride back home from LAX. Visually, it is a treat, saturated, stylised and bold. But none of the characters felt fully formed. The personal and relationship struggles of the main character felt hollow. The stakes never felt high enough for the fighting scenes to be interesting.
TV
I have been orphaned from bingeable TV for a while, with the new TV season coming around I have been watching Gen V and SAS: Rogue Heroes lately but I’m very open to series recommendations.
☆☆☆ Peacemaker Season 1
I’ve had superhero fatigue for a while now, and I have lost hope in DC despite their recent success. I was not interested in watching this, but my cousin insisted and I was shocked by how much I enjoyed it. It is engaging, funny, and unpretentious. It is written and directed by James Gunn and feels like Guardians of the Galaxy let off the leash, a similar sense of humour but with HBO’s freedom to go darker and weirder. As in Guardians, music plays a central part in the story, moving the plot forward and elevating key scenes.
☆☆☆ 1/2 The Bear Season 3
The new season was a noticeable drop in energy and focus compared to the brilliance of the first two. The character development is thoughtful and sometimes rewarding, but the season drifts, feeling more like a bridge than a complete arc.