Arts & Culture

Details: Written by: Nita Teoh; Category: Arts & Culture; Published: 31 January 2023

On a warm balmy evening, my friend and I headed to watch Broker at UWA Somerville as part of the Perth Festival movies.

A young woman abandons her baby in a baby box outside a church in Bhusan Korea on a wet rainy night... and so the story begins when two men try to broker a deal for someone to buy the stolen baby at the highest price that they can get.

Of the two men, one of them runs a laundry shop (Song Kang Ho as Ssang-hyun) while the other (Gang Dong Won as Dong-soo) grew up in an orphanage and works at the church manning the baby box service.

Details: Written by: Nita Teoh; Category: Arts & Culture; Published: 24 January 2023

On a warm summer’s night my partner and I headed to UWA Somerville as part of the Perth Festival movie season, to watch Other People’s Children, an insightful look into everyday people going about their daily lives – something I love about French movies.

Other People’s Children (Les Enfants des autres) doesn’t disappoint. It is a beautifully crafted movie starring Virginie Efira as Rachel Friedman, with the story revolving around her blossoming relationship with the new man in her life Ali Ben Attia (Roschdy Zem) and his 4 year old daughter Leila (played by Callie Ferreira-Goncalves). As Rachel begins to form a deep bond with young Leila , complications arise as she encounters dramas in her relationship.

Details: Written by: Nita Teoh; Category: Arts & Culture; Published: 28 December 2022

On a coolish evening in Perth, my friend and I settled in at the UWA Somerville to watch the movie “Decision to Leave”.

Creative genius Park Chan-Wook of The Handmaiden (2013) and The Little Drummer Girl (2018), continues to excel as an auteur of the cinematic world with his latest movie Decision to Leave winning the Best Director Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

The synopsis reads as follows:

“ A man falls from a mountain peak to his death.
The detective in charge, Hae-joon (PARK Hae-il),
comes to meet the dead man's wife Seo-rae (TANG Wei).”

As the seasoned Detective in Charge Hae-joon investigates the death of the man, including Seo-rae (the wife of the dead man) as a key suspect, he also begins to have a growing attraction for her – not exactly an ideal situation !

Details: Written by: Nita Teoh; Category: Arts & Culture; Published: 21 December 2022

Armed with our delicious pizza in hand from Charlies Pizza, my partner and I settled in for the evening at UWA Somerville theatre to watch Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom.

The movie is a heart warming story about Ugyen Dorji (played by actor Sherab Dorji), a young teacher who is sent up to a mountainous, remote village in Gasa to teach the children as part of his teaching contract.

It is a world away from the life that he is used to living in the capital of Bhutan with his grandmother. Furthermore, Ugyen aspires to be a singer and wants to get a visa so that he can live in Australia!

Details: Written by: Nita Teoh; Category: Arts & Culture; Published: 13 December 2022

In the opening scenes of the movie “Return to Seoul” the main character Freddie (Frédérique Benoît) is out for the evening with new friends and is asked the age old question:

“ Where are you from? “

This question resonated with me and made me laugh out loud as it is one that I am asked from time to time.

Freddie is French – and looks Korean.

She is a 25 year old with Korean birth parents, who was adopted by a French couple as a baby and brought up in France.

On impulse, she ends up in Korea and thus begins Freddie’s epic journey as she sets out in search of her roots and her biological parents.

Details: Written by: Nita Teoh; Category: Arts & Culture; Published: 20 November 2022

My partner and I headed out on a coolish Saturday evening to the Subiaco Arts Centre to watch D*ck Pics in the Garden of Eden by The Last Great Hunt.

The last time that we watched one of their shows it was Bite the Hand which we enjoyed very much.

Their contemporary style and out of the box performances are always thought provoking and highly entertaining, and D*ck Pics in the Garden of Eden, directed and written by Jeffrey Jay Fowler, was no exception.

Many of us know our Bible creation stories – but on this evening, they were told in a rather unique way.

The costumes were of gigantic proportions – well, some parts anyway!

Details: Written by: Nita Teoh; Category: Arts & Culture; Published: 18 November 2022

Look at Me is currently banned in Singapore...this interesting snippet provided me with some food for thought – as my friend and I headed to Windsor Luna in Nedlands to watch a one-off special screening of the film as part of PrideFEST events this week.

Look at Me recently premiered at the New York Asian Film Festival and we have been rather lucky to have it brought to Perth by PRIDE WA for its Australian Premiere.

In the film, director Ken Kwek takes a contemporary look at what it is like to be gay in Singapore.

The story starts off with a seemingly normal family scene - a single Mum Nancy Marzuki (Pam Oei) enjoying time with her teenage twin boys Sean and Ricky (Yao) at home – teasing and showing love for each other.

Then Sean and Ricky attend an Evangelical rock concert with Sean’s girlfriend Mia (Ching Shu Yi) which is followed by an inflammatory anti LGBTQIA+ sermon by the pastor.

Page 10 of 52

GET THE PERTH WALKABOUT NEWSLETTER

Broker at Perth Festival

Other People's Children at Perth Festival

Decision to Leave at Perth Festival

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom at Perth Festival

Return to Seoul at Perth Festival

D*ck Pics in the Garden of Eden at Subiaco Arts Centre

Look at Me at PrideFEST WA