This review includes spoilers regarding Netflix’s Fear Street trilogy. For three consecutive Fridays, Netflix premiered the Fear Street trilogy, based on the works by R.L. Stine (who also created the Goosebumps book franchise), rekindling the glory of the slasher sub-genre. Fear Street is not just a horror trilogy featuring nudity and violence, but also a…
Warning: This article contains spoilers for In The Mood For Love (2000). “He remembers those vanished years. As though looking through a dusty window pane, the past is something he could see, but not touch. And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct.” —In The Mood For Love, 2000 This quote perfectly summarizes the journey…
Kien-Ling Liem · Essay, Review
TW: Mentions of sexual assault.This article includes spoilers regarding the film Moxie. Directed by famous comedian and actress Amy Poehler, Moxie (2021) is a comedy-drama film focused on ‘riot grrrl’ feminism at an American high school. The main character, Vivian, is inspired by her rebel mother, Lisa, and starts a feminist revolution at her school,…
Kien-Ling Liem · Essay, Review
TW: mention of violence, substance abuse and mental disorders. This article includes spoilers from Season 1 to 3 of BoJack Horseman. Sarah Lynn’s last words were “I wanna be an architect”. She never got what she wanted. Perhaps one of the most conflicting yet similar pairs of characters in the animated sitcom BoJack Horseman is BoJack…
Last week, I finished a novella by Nghi Vo called When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it ever since. Set in the same fantasy universe blending Chinese and Vietnamese elements as the author’s longer, just as critically-acclaimed work, The Empress of Salt and Fortune, this…
In a world where everyone is simultaneously entangled and isolated, television is one of the few things that bring people together, be it to discuss the plot, obsess over cast members, or find common ground among strangers. Many viewers of the hit TV series Euphoria will claim the series as a ‘cultural reset’. It is…
Kien-Ling Liem · Essay, Review
Disney has been on a trail of live-action remakes in recent years, its projects including numerous Disney princesses such as Belle, Cinderella, and Aurora. Looking to continue its streak, Disney released a live-action version of Mulan 22 years after the animated version’s premiere only to face backlash and controversy. The remake of Mulan was filled…