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Chinese-born director Yaoyuan Zhang crosses borders on a personal and professional level. He came to Japan in 2014 as an international Mext scholarship student and currently studies at the Tokyo University of Arts Graduate School of Film and New Media. “Life is Snow” is his graduation project and had its world premiere at the Osaka Asian Film Festival.

Life is Snow is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival

Ota, a Japanese war orphan left behind in China, returns to northern Japan to work at a bento factory. Due to a financial crisis, his employer fires him, which leads to an argument between Ota and his manager, Nakamura. Ota claims that Nakamura assaulted him and makes a report at the police station. With no other job prospects and an unhelpful lawyer at his side, Ota is in a desperate situation.

The case takes a lot of turns as Ota’s background is revealed more and more.

There have been so many engrossing dark TV series that took viewers on mind-bending journeys and truly played with their heads. While modern television has embraced much darker and more sinister stories in recent decades, it takes a truly great show to bury underneath the surface of a series narrative and deliver philosophically rich stories that strike a chord for their deep, probing themes that leave a mark on viewers consciousness well after the credits have rolled. A thought-provoking series that can play with viewers' expectations often marks the difference between a simply good show and a truly great one.

Many of the best TV shows of all time were dark in nature and did not underestimate viewers' intelligence with deeply complex and intricate narratives. Highly influential series like Twin Peaks laid the groundwork for television to embrace more challenging and experimental stories. At the same time, creators worldwide, such...

Some of the most effective and engaging TV shows in recent years were also so gore-filled that audiences often had to look away in pure terror and disgust. From thrilling sci-fi dystopias to intense psychological horrors, just because a series was packed with gore, murder, and violence did not stop it from being truly great. In many cases, the excessively gruesome nature of these shows added to their appeal as they pushed the limits of what could be depicted and accepted in mainstream television.

Plenty of the most gruesomely violent TV shows were filled with gory sequences and sinister characters who committed heinous acts. From intense games that saw characters' lives on the line to sinister antiheroes who killed for the sheer thrill of it, in recent years, television has caught up with horror movies to make series that were equal to or even exceeded the most gore-filled cinematic spectacles.

The trailer for Alice in Borderland season 2 introduces deadly new games. A live-action adaptation of Haro Aso's manga series, which shares the same name, Alice in Borderland, debuted in 2020. Consisting of eight episodes and directed by Shinsuke Sato, the story follows characters who find themselves in an eerily abandoned Tokyo and are forced to compete in kill-or-be-killed competitions. As the season progressed, the show's universe expanded to reveal more secrets and a strange conspiracy that could go beyond what any protagonist expected. Though it was renewed shortly after its premiere, the second installment of the adaptation has been a long time coming.

But now, after filming wrapped on Alice in Borderland season 2 back in March, Netflix has unveiled the trailer for the upcoming episodes. Set to debut on December 22, Alice in Borderland season 2 looks like it will double down on the wild aspects of the first installment. There's an...

We have always had questions about who would win in fights. A few years back we even had a web-series called Geektyrant Vs where we would argue about specific combatants doing battle and who would win. One question we never got to, however, was who would win between Elektra and Black Widow. Both incredibly well trained in what they do, the fight would have to be something spectacular. And it is!

Someone posed the same question to Lauren Mary Kim who is the stunt double for Elektra in The Defenders series. Well, instead of just talking the talk, she got together with Black Widow's stunt double from Captain America: Winter Solider, Amy Johnston, and staged an amazing choreographed fight scene with the help of famous stunt choreographer Tsuyoshi Abe.

This looks so much better than many fight scenes that we've seen in films because they don't have to hide...

Along with the list of films playing in-competition, the Venice Film Festival has announced which films are playing out-of-competition this year. The movies include Ben Affleck’s The Town, Casey Affleck’s Joaquin Phoenix documentary I’m Still Here, Martin Scorsese’s Elia Kazan documentary A Letter to Elia, John Turturro’s Passione, Julie Taymor’s The Tempest as the closing night film, and Robert Rodriguez’ Machete as the opening night film. It’s an eclectic bunch of flicks and they’re just a small sampling of the movies playing out-of-competition. Hit the jump to check out the full list.

The 67th Venice Film Festival will run from September 1 – 11th.

Ben Affleck – The Town

USA, 120′

Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively

Casey Affleck – I’M Still Here

USA, 108′ (documentary)

Joaquin Phoenix

Marco Bellocchio – Sorelle Mai

Italy, 110′

Alba Rohrwacher, Donatella Finocchiaro, Elena Bellocchio, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio

Piergiorgio Gay...