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One Hit Wonder unfolds with an assured precision rarely found in contemporary Philippine cinema. Marla Ancheta, in her dual role as writer and director, offers a romance-drama that privileges emotional fidelity over sensationalism, cultivating a contemplative atmosphere that meditates on ambition, memory, and the fragile economics of creative success.

The film charts the intertwined journeys of Entoy and Lorina, two aspiring musicians navigating the heady yet precarious world of 1990s Original Pilipino Music (Opm). The era’s sonic aesthetics—marked by earnest lyrics and synthesized instrumentation—become part of the narrative’s structural DNA. Khalil Ramos inhabits Entoy with a quiet longing that rarely tips into overwrought performance, his presence...

In this exclusive interview, we sit down with visionary filmmaker Fatrick Tabata to explore the daring and provocative world of “Flower Girl“, a bold cinematic satire that unpacks the toxic beauty of the advertising industry and the gender constructs it perpetuates.

What happens when the artificial world of ads is used to mirror society’s biases? Who’s more complicit in transphobia—heterosexual men or women? How does one cast a film that walks the tightrope between parody and provocation?

We dive into:

The philosophy behind genitalia as a concept, not a determinant Simone de Beauvoir, Sogie, and the academic backbone of the film How Sue Ramirez helped bring Flower Girl’s biting satire to life Whether Ena, the film’s ambiguous heroine, is someone Tabata loves—or loathes

This is not just a conversation about a film. It’s a dissection of gender politics, representation, and the absurdity of image-making in a capitalist system.

IdeaFirst Company’s pride month feature, “Flower Girl”, at first glance, is thematically reminiscent of Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”: a character-centric exploration of the body and the effect of advertisement on it, delivered with a sober irony. “Flower Girl” similarly places its character in the same world, stylistically depicting a caricature of the advertising world, albeit without the same sobriety or irony. What is left to us is a heavily character-centric approach which might have given the film more trouble than it initially aimed for.

Flower Girl is screening at New York Asian Film Festival

Everything in this film expresses its ideas through layers of subtexts grounded in a partially utopian bubble of its protagonist. Ena (Sue Ramirez) is a TV commercial model by trade whose exclusive client is a sanitary napkin brand that wraps itself in women empowerment messaging. Outside work, her only concern is some insecurity tied to her loosening genitalia,...

The 24th New York Asian Film Festival continues its theme of “Cinema as Disruption” adding 50+ films to its lineup, including the newly announced Uncaged Award nominees, a historic Vietnam Cinema Night celebration, and special programming spotlights that challenge every assumption about Asian cinema.

Since 2002, Nyaff has served as North America’s premier showcase for Asian film, spotlighting the next generation of cinematic voices. It has introduced audiences to future icons—from early Bong Joon Ho to the Thai horror revolution—and continues to define the cultural moment.

This year’s festival kicks off with the world premiere of Informant, a riotous Korean action-comedy with Director Kim Seok and actor Heo Sung-tae, internationally recognized for his memorable role in Squid Game, in attendance. Tadanobu Asano (Shōgun) will also attend the festival for Ravens, alongside the 4K restoration of horror classic Shutter and Thailand’s Attack 13 with the cast and director present.

“Informant,” starring “Squid Game” breakout Heo Sung-tae, will open the 24th New York Asian Film Festival with its world premiere on July 11, with both the actor and director Kim Seok attending the opening night screening.

The festival, running July 11-27 across four Manhattan venues, has unveiled its second wave of programming, revealing a lineup of 50+ additional films under the theme “Cinema as Disruption.”

The Korean action-comedy sets the tone for what organizers call “a radically inclusive lineup” featuring more than 50 filmmakers, actors, and industry professionals attending from across Asia and the global diaspora.

The festival’s star-studded guest list also includes Tadanobu Asano (“Shōgun”) attending the screening of “Ravens,” Taiwanese star Vivian Sung (“Our Times”) for Korean-Taiwanese co-production “The Secret House,” and Filipino sensation Sue Ramirez (“The Kingdom”) for closing night film “Flower Girl.”

Eight films have been nominated for the festival’s signature Uncaged Award for best feature film...

The Hallyu Wave has swept over the world in the last few years, with South Korea exporting quality entertainment on every level from music to movies. But while groups like BTS and films like Parasite have become mainstream enough to receive awards on a global scale, the magic of K-dramas is still often talked about in hushed whispers. Not so at Viu, the leading on-demand streaming site for Asian content in the region, however. K-dramas are especially popular in the Philippines, where they not only number among the most popular shows in the country but have also inspired original content modeled after them.

As Head of Originals for Viu Philippines, Corinna Vistan recently created and produced a Filipino drama called K-Love that is based entirely on the phenomenon of Korean dramas inspiring fans. Currently a Viu exclusive, the series is an homage to K-dramas that stars some of the hottest...

Amazon Prime Video has announced its first slate of Southeast Asian local-language originals, including a trio of situational comedy improv shows, Comedy Island, across Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, and projects from local talents including Joko Anwar, Kamila Andini and Banjong Pisanthanakun.

The trio of comedy shows – Comedy Island: Indonesia, Comedy Island: Thailand and Comedy Island: Philippines – all involve famous comedians and other celebrities being stranded on a paradise island and are expected to start streaming in 2023.

In Thailand, the comedians must escape from a mysterious scientist who is trying to reprogram them; in Indonesia, they’re forced to take part in bizarre, role-playing games to amuse the local inhabitants; and in the Philippines, they’re trapped on a lost island that has reappeared and are competing for a life-changing prize. Indonesia’s Base Entertainment is producing the Indonesian and Filipino versions, while Liminal Productions is producing the Thai version.

Click here to read the full article.

Amazon launched localized versions of its Prime Video service on Monday in key Southeast Asian markets — Indonesia, Thailand and The Philippines. The tech giant boosted its subscriber push in the three markets by simultaneously unveiling slates of localized originals for each territory, as well as discounted introductory Amazon Prime membership offerings.

Amazon Prime Video launched in Southeast Asia in 2016, but the versions of the service available in the region have never featured the local-language interfaces, subtitling and original content offerings that are common in more developed markets.

That changes Monday in Southeast Asia’s three biggest markets, where Amazon Prime is relaunching with seven-day free trials, followed by special discounts that will last until the end of the year — 59,000 Indonesian rupiah (3.98), 149 Thai baht (4.10) and 149 Philippine pesos (2.69).

Amazon said its first Southeast Asian shows will be localized versions of its situational comedy improv format,...

Based on the 1992 Japanese film “The Hit-and-Run Family”, “Sunshine Family” is a situational comedy that uses absurdness in order to provide laughter and few subtle social comments.

“Sunshine Family” screened at Osaka Asian Film Festival

Don is a Filipino white collar who works for his company’s office in S. Korea, having moved in the country with his wife, Sonya, his daughter, Shine and his son Max. The family is somewhat dysfunctional however, since no one seems to communicate with each other. After living for five years in the country, they are ready to move back. Their plans go to waste, though, when Don, runs over a girl with his car one drunken night and runs away. His actions have a deep impact on his mentality but Sonya gathers the family together and comes up with a plan to take the car involved in the accident apart. At the same time,...

Netflix has acquired the quirky Filipino rom-com The Girl Allergic to WiFi (Ang Babaeng Allergic Sa WiFi), which proved a hit domestically with its tale of a lovelorn teen whose medical condition prevents her from using the internet.

Directed by acclaimed author-turned-filmmaker Jun Robles Lana (Die Beautiful), the film is centered around the hardships in life and love faced by a young girl diagnosed with Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Disorder (Ehs) — meaning she has to rid herself of all electronic gadgets.

The movie stars Sue Ramirez, Jameson Blake and Markus Paterson and is set for an Aug. 21 global release.

“I am excited ...

Netflix has acquired the quirky Filipino rom-com The Girl Allergic to WiFi (Ang Babaeng Allergic Sa WiFi), which proved a hit domestically with its tale of a lovelorn teen whose medical condition prevents her from using the internet.

Directed by acclaimed author-turned-filmmaker Jun Robles Lana (Die Beautiful), the film is centered around the hardships in life and love faced by a young girl diagnosed with Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Disorder (Ehs) — meaning she has to rid herself of all electronic gadgets.

The movie stars Sue Ramirez, Jameson Blake and Markus Paterson and is set for an Aug. 21 global release.

“I am excited ...

There’s no stopping Mikhail Red right now. Just days after we shared the first images for the Filipino filmmaker’s upcoming zombie shocker Block Z, we now get an exclusive first look at the teaser trailer for his teen abduction thriller, Dead Kids. Written by Red’s younger brother Nikolas, Dead Kids marks the 27-year-old’s first foray into dark comedy. It tells the story of a gang of beat-down high schoolers who plot to kidnap the class jock, who happens to be the son of a corrupt politician, and hold him to ransom. Produced by Globe Studios, and boasting a gutsy young cast that includes Khalil Ramos, Vance Larena, Kelvin Miranda, Jan Silverio, Gabby Padilla, Sue Ramirez and Markus Paterson, Dead Kids is just about...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The Master

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Written by Paul Thomas Anderson

USA, 2012

“Man is not an animal,” Lancaster Dodd calmly and firmly intones into the ear of the perpetually addled, horny, and wayward Freddie Quell early in The Master. This is, in some ways, the key phrase at the center of Paul Thomas Anderson’s excellent new drama, a 1950s-set character study about the vast ocean of difference between Dodd, who purports to be a centered, rational leader of religious thought, and Quell, who stumbles into Dodd’s path and exists almost entirely to disprove the possibility that Dodd’s stated beliefs can change anyone. Anderson’s working at the peak of his talents, as expected. It’s Joaquin Phoenix, though, who is most revelatory in the film. After an extended absence from non-prank-related movies, he roars back onto the screen in a career-best performance, aided by excellent supporting...

Amy Adams has received some of the best reviews of her career for playing Peggy Dodd in "The Master." Or is she playing Mary Sue Dodd?

Over the last few months, Adams' character in "The Master" -- Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film, which was partially inspired by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard -- has often been referred to as Mary Sue. In April, the New York Times noted that both Hubbard and Philip Seymour Hoffman's character in the film, Lancaster Dodd, had wives named Mary Sue. After Anderson screened "The Master" for Tom Cruise in May (something the director later confirmed), HuffPost Entertainment wrote a post calling Adams by that name as well. Early reviews of "The Master" in The Hollywood Reporter and Movie City News also referred to Adams' character as Mary Sue, as did Reuters coverage of a press conference for the film held at the...

With Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" heading full-steam into its official premiere at Venice (though it has already screened "unfinished" in a handful of cities), the one overriding message from everyone involved thus far is: it's not about Scientology. And indeed, our own review said that "while those looking for a scathing indictment of any well-publicized religion are certain to find similarities, in some cases even direct parallels, Anderson never creates an atmosphere of outright derision." And it's that statement Amy Adams was presumably trying to get across in her appearance on "Late Night With David Letterman" last night, before she was interrupted numerous times by the host who couldn't help himself by mentioning Scientology numerous times. At any rate, the clip presented on the show will certainly keep comparisons to L. Ron Hubbard's religion going. In it, we see Mary Sue Dodd (Adams) warn her husband...

The team behind "The Master" has released another trailer, and this time the focus is on love, happiness, pain and growth.  Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the film follows Lancaster "the Master" Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the head of a growing faith-based organization, and the development of his relationship with his new right-hand man, Freddie Sutton (Joaquin Phoneix), as the proto-religion's ideas begin to catch on in America.  The newest preview shows Lancaster discussing the nature of love, intercut with his wife Mary Sue Dodd (Amy Adams) explaining the "time...

"The Master" trailer offers another look at Philip Seymour Hoffman as the mysterious leader of a burgeoning new religion. "There Will be Blood" director Paul Thomas Anderson follows Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman) in his quest to promote his newly founded religion, "The Cause," with wife Mary Sue Dodd (Amy Adams) by his side. Soon, an emotionally unstable follower, Freddie Sutton (Joaquin Phoenix), comes along and works closely with Lancaster to promote the religion as it catches on in America. Inevitably, questions of faith crop up: Is "The Cause" an honest and true religion?...

Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master has premiered its first teaser poster online. The promotional artwork, which was released through The Huffington Post, shows a half-full bottle with liquid creeping up over the film's title. The Master centres on Joaquin Phoenix's former navy man Freddie as he is drawn into a faith-based organisation by Philip Seymour Hoffman's Lancaster Dodd. Amy Adams plays Mary Sue Dodd, the (more)...

A second teaser trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's much anticipated "The Master" has been released online. A month or so after The Weinstein Company debuted footage in Cannes (and dropped a first teaser online which completely focused on Joaquin Phoenix), they have given us our first glimpses of Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams as husband-and-wife Lancaser and Mary Sue Dodd. Hoffman's character is rumored to be based on Scientology leader L. Ron Hubbard, and this clip adds to that suggestion with a very "Scientology stress test"-esque discussion between Hoffman's Dodd and Pheonix's troubled Freddie, whose life gets turned around by Dodd and his beliefs. "The Master" opens in theaters October 12th, though it's quite possible trips to Venice and/or Toronto will occur first. Watch the second teaser -- entitled "Hopelessly Inquisitive" -- below:...

There is a new trailer online for Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master," which expands upon the first teaser's menacing look by introducing us to the characters played by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams. Hoffman (who reunites with Anderson, his "Boogie Nights" director) is World War II veteran Lancaster Dodd, a "hopelessly inquisitive man" who forms his own religion called "The Cause" as a result of painful war experiences. (Dodd and his religion are already being compared to L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology.) Phoenix plays an unsettled man who seems equally drawn to the magnetic Dodd, and equally willing to question and rail against him. Adams plays Dodd's wife, Mary Sue Dodd, and though she seems innocent enough, the lurching, clinking track and the overlaid dialogue throughout the new trailer suggest there is something sinister left for us to see. Yes, it's way too early to begin talking about award season,...

Another teaser trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master has hit the net and features our first look at Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lancaster Dodd, a World War II veteran who founds his own religion as a result of his experiences there.  Joaquin Phoenix plays Freddie Sutton, a drifter who takes to Dodd, eventually becoming his right-hand man.  The trailer also shows us the first footage of Amy Adams as Dodd's wife, Mary Sue Dodd.  Check it out: This just looks...

I’m super-excited for this.

Paul Thomas Anderson has been a favourite of mine since “Magnolia”, and after “There Will Be Blood” he only seems to be getting more and more interesting. This teaser finally gives us an introduction to Philip Seymour Hoffman’s enigmatic intellectual religious leader (and titular “Master”) Lancaster Dodd and Amy Adams (Officially the world’s most impossible to dislike woman) as Mary Sue Dodd. The story has already seen some friction in Hollywood, due to the fact that Dodd is inspired by Ron L Hubbard, the enigmatic intellectual creator of Scientology.

Tom Cruise, Hollywood’s most famous Scientologist, who delivered possibly the best performance of his career in Anderson’s “Magnolia” was allegedly granted a private screening of the film with hopes of diluting the fall-out. Hopefully it went over well, though it’s hard to see quite how.

Real world aside, this looks to...

A second trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master has arrived, this time offering you a first look at Lancaster Dodd, the titular character played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, as well as his wife Mary Sue Dodd played by Amy Adams. Among the new footage presented here you're also getting some of the dialogue I saw when the footage was presented at Cannes, most notably Dodd describing himself saying, "I am a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist, a theoretical philosopher, but above all, I am a man. A hopelessly inquisitive man, just like you." There is still some interesting dialogue left to be heard from Adams that I expect will be featured in the next trailer, noting her distrust in Joaquin Phoenix's character Freddie Sutton. I'm sure we'll see plenty more, however, as we are still a ways from the film's October 12 release. Check out the new...

A second trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master has arrived, this time offering you a first look at Lancaster Dodd, the titular character played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, as well as his wife Mary Sue Dodd played by Amy Adams. Among the new footage presented here you're also getting some of the dialogue I saw when the footage was presented at Cannes, most notably Dodd describing himself saying, "I am a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist, a theoretical philosopher, but above all, I am a man. A hopelessly inquisitive man, just like you." There is still some interesting dialogue left to be heard from Adams that I expect will be featured in the next trailer, noting her distrust in Joaquin Phoenix's character Freddie Sutton. I'm sure we'll see plenty more, however, as we are still a ways from the film's October 12 release. Check out the new...

The more we get these unnerving teasers for Paul Thomas Anderson‘s upcoming film The Master and the more we see the gorgeous photography, the unhinged performances and an unsettling score by Jonny Greenwood, the more excited everyone should become. Secretly leaked out online early this morning with no announcement at all, there is something big brewing around The Master and now we have another extraordinary trailer for you to look at.

While Joaquin Phoenix‘s Freddie Quell is again front and centre in the trailer’s imagery, the voice belongs to that of Philip Seymour Hoffman as the eponymous Master, Lancaster Dodd. We get our first look at his character here as well as Amy Adams, who plays Mary Sue Dodd, the wife of Hoffman’s character.

Is the film about Scientology? It’s hard to tell from this trailer alone but the voice and the look of Hoffman...

Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master has released a second trailer online. The promo video shows Joaquin Phoenix's former navy man Freddie in conversation with Philip Seymour Hoffman's Lancaster Dodd, a leader whose faith-based organisation begins to catch on in America during the '50s. Amy Adams also features in the new trailer as Mary Sue Dodd, the wife of Hoffman's eponymous Master. Hoffman's character is said to be inspired (more)...