‘Brief History of a Family’ Review: Suspenseful Chinese Drama Puts a Twist on the Family Infiltrator Plot

Chinese New Year is around the corner and you might be thinking of ways to get involved. Also known as the Lunar New Year, the occasion is a two-week festival that marks the beginning of the calendar year for billions of people in China and the Chinese diaspora around the world.

The Lunar New Year is celebrated across the globe and largely underpinned by themes of hope and reunion. Known to many as Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year is also celebrated by many different countries throughout Asia, including Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Mongolia, Malaysia and the Philippines. It is also celebrated in other countries where there is an established Chinese community, as the holiday brings together family and friends to celebrate the start of another year.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sony Pictures has acquired international distribution rights to “YOLO,” a mainland Chinese comedy film that releases in China on Saturday, the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday. The film is written, directed by and stars Jia Ling, China’s top-grossing female filmmaker. She portrays Le Ying, an unemployed woman in her thirties who still lives with her parents until one day, she meets a boxing coach (portrayed by Lei Jiayin), who just may change her life.

A popular Manchester pizzeria has announced it is offering a masterclass to learn the secrets behind creating the perfect pizza.

Celebrations will be held in the city centre this weekend for Chinese New Year, as thousands welcome the Year of the Dragon. Already trees across the city have been adorned with red lanterns ahead of the big event, also known as Lunar New Year.

Guns N’ Roses have released the trippy, AI-generated new video for ‘The General’, a track they released in December 2023.Produced with creative director Dan Potter of the London-based studio Creative Works, the video combines live footage with animated sequences that were produced with artificial intelligence. According to Consequence, the band detailed the animated portions of the video in a press release.“Between the concert footage, [the video] dives into the subconscious of a young boy who stares down the monsters of dark childhood memories, blurring worlds in the process,” it wrote.

China began loosening its one-child policy in 2015 until finally, in 2021, it abolished all restrictions on the number of children a family could have. Young Chinese filmmakers are beginning to grapple with the fallout of those prior decades in new fiction films that demonstrate how the Chinese family unit has been irreversibly transformed.

SEVENTEEN have debuted a new original single called ‘The Meaning of Meeting’ live during a concert in Macao.SEVENTEEN recently concluded a two-night concert at Macao’s Olympic Sports Center Stadium on January 20 and 21, as part of their ongoing ‘Follow’ world tour. During the set, the K-pop boyband performed a new Chinese track titled ‘The Meaning of Meeting’ (or ‘相遇的意义’ in Mandarin).Shortly after the concerts, SEVENTEEN released a special video with the official studio version of the song, alongside footage of their performance at the Macao shows.

pic.twitter.com/V93lJ0h7Rk“Brendan Kavanagh, a YouTuber and pianist, was legally playing and filming in a public place. A group visiting from communist China didn’t like it and told him he couldn’t film them. The police were terrible.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Chinese filmmaker Lin Jianjie‘s debut feature “Brief History of a Family,” which is being sold by Films Boutique, has debuted its trailer (below), following its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section of the Sundance Film Festival. The film, which will make its European premiere in the Panorama program of the Berlin Film Festival, was received warmly by Variety critic Carlos Aguilar. In the review, Aguilar says the suspenseful drama was “elevated by its consistent visual inventiveness.” He adds that although at first it seems to be the story of a “cunning infiltrator wreaking havoc in an unsuspecting household,” it then “reveals itself as a tale of wish fulfillment for everyone involved.” Aguilar says that it is this approach which “turns Lin’s debut into an engrossing brain-tickler.” The drama is put in motion by an incident at the high school attended by Wei, an outgoing only son from a middle-class family, and Shuo, his quiet, perceptive classmate.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief First-time mainland Chinese director Lin Jianjie (aka JJ Lin) makes a splash this weekend with the premiere of his “Brief History of a Family.” Asking questions about family in the era since the end of China’s ‘One Child Policy,’ while also borrowing genre tropes such as the idea of the intruder and blood, it is a polished and ultra-modern fable that sees a teenage schoolboy ingratiate himself into another boy’s family.Variety spoke to biologist-turned-filmmaker Lin on the eve of his Sundance debut.How did you get from zero to making your first feature?[After graduating in biology] I did two short films at film school. I went to Tisch Asia, which had a campus in Singapore. We also had an exchange program with Tisch in New York.

EXCLUSIVE: Pranutan Bahl, granddaughter of Indian icon Nutan, and Rahsaan Noor are leading Coco & Nut, an English- and Hindi-language romantic comedy shot in Chicago.

UK’s Jack Thorne-Backed TV Access Project Finds New Lead

Boo, polling. Though it was a disastrous night for common sense, too.Then Covid caught us with our pants down — despite 2011’s Contagion conveniently giving us a very good idea of what a global pandemic out of China might look like.There have been predictions aplenty that we should be in a recession right now. We’re not.So, while it’s understandable for one to wonder what the year may have in store, any prediction comes with a grain of salt.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Fish out of water comedy film “Jonny Keep Walking” kept its place at the top of the mainland China box office in its third week of release. Two newcomers broke into the top five, comedy “Follow Bear for Action” and imported action title “The Beekeeper.” “Jonny,” in which a man from the countryside struggles to hold down a corporate job in a big city, earned $19.7 million (140 million), according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That was another strong hold after an opening weekend of $26.1 million (on Dec.

In Netflix’s San Gabriel-based crime action–comedy The Brothers Sun, actor Sam Song Li plays Bruce Sun, a kind-hearted college student who dreams of being a master of improv despite his mother’s wishes for him to be a doctor. However, his life gets turned upside down upon the arrival of his long-estranged brother, Charles (Justin Chien), a cutthroat assassin who enlists the help of their mother, Mama Sun (Michelle Yeoh), to take down a dangerous crime syndicate. Throughout the eight-episode series, co-created by Byron Wu and Brad Falchuk, Bruce has to contend with learning that his family, unbeknownst to him, are major players in one of the most lucrative and dangerous gangster businesses in Taiwan.

Gladiators was one of the biggest sports entertainment programmes of the 1990s, and this weekend it returns to screens in its brand-new home on the BBC. Hosted by father and son duo Bradley and Barney Walsh, the show will see a new generation of superhuman Gladiators competing against a brave set of contenders.

UBA should have broken this news. The Morning Show director and producer and two-time ER Emmy winner Mimi Leder will receive the Art Directors Guild‘s 2024 Cinematic Imagery Award.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s “Evil Does Not Exist” and Korean blockbuster “12.12: The Day” dominated the nominations for the 17th edition of the Asian Film Awards. Both picked up six nominations, including those in the best film category. The nominations were announced on Friday afternoon in Hong Kong, ahead of a ceremony on March 10, that will return to the city’s West Kowloon Cultural District and the Qiyu Centre.

Stephanie Hsu is heading back to television in a brand new comedy series!