Contributions from Weiting Liu | Little White Lies

Contributor Weiting Liu

A smiling man embracing two women, one with short wavy hair and the other with long dark hair, in a cosy indoor setting.
Review

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret

by Weiting Liu

Kel­ly Fre­mon Craig’s take on Judy Bloom’s icon­ic pre­teen nov­el is a sweet tale of a young girl fig­ur­ing out reli­gion, boys and puberty.

4
Anticipation
4
Enjoyment
4
In Retrospect
A middle-aged man wearing a blue work uniform stands in a grocery aisle, surrounded by colourful snack foods and other products.
Festivals

Flamin’ Hot – first-look review

by Weiting Liu

Eva Lon­go­ria drama­tis­es the inven­tion of Amer­i­ca’s beloved spicy snack food in her charm­ing fea­ture debut.
Close-up of a woman's face with dark hair, lying on a beige fabric.
Festivals

I Used to Be Funny – first-look review

by Weiting Liu

A young woman strug­gles to come to terms with her PTSD while the child she used to nan­ny goes miss­ing in Ally Panki­w’s direc­to­r­i­al debut.
Two people seated at a table, with one person playing an acoustic guitar while the other listens intently.
Festivals

Walk Up – first-look review

by Weiting Liu

A film­mak­er and his estranged daugh­ter vis­it an old friend in Hong Sang-soo’s lat­est riff on the con­nec­tion between art and romance.
Two senior women sitting in a Chinese restaurant, one wearing a yellow jacket and the other a pink jumper.
Review

Everything Everywhere All at Once

by Weiting Liu

A Chi­nese-Amer­i­can family’s lives are changed for­ev­er across mul­ti­ple uni­vers­es in Daniels’ ambi­tious sec­ond feature.

4
Anticipation
5
Enjoyment
5
In Retrospect
Two individuals, a man and a woman, sitting in a car at night.
In Praise Of

20 years on, Lan Yu remains the pinnacle of Chinese queer cinema

by Weiting Liu

Though nev­er released in main­land chi­na Stan­ley Kwan’s cult 2001 melo­dra­ma ful­ly deserves its cult status.
A man in a red and black patterned costume standing in front of a colourful, ornate background.
Review

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

by Weiting Liu

The MCU’s first Asian super­hero movie com­bines thrilling spec­ta­cle with cul­tur­al speci­fici­ty to cor­rect the comics’ racist past.

4
Anticipation
4
Enjoyment
5
In Retrospect
A young Asian person with short dark hair, wearing a blue backpack, standing in a train carriage and looking thoughtfully out of the window.
Review

Better Days

by Weiting Liu

Derek Tsang Kwok-cheung’s cause célèbre-turned-suc­cess sto­ry com­bines hard-hit­ting dra­ma with woozy romance.

4
Anticipation
4
Enjoyment
4
In Retrospect
Healthcare worker in protective suit attending to a patient on a hospital bed.
Review

76 Days

by Weiting Liu

This inti­mate doc­u­men­tary, shot dur­ing lock­down in Wuhan, mea­sures the human cost of the coro­n­avirus pandemic.

4
Anticipation
4
Enjoyment
4
In Retrospect
Man in black coat standing in crowded city street.
Festivals

The mobile-first film festival bringing the Chinese box office to US homes

by Weiting Liu

Lou Ye’s The Shad­ow Play and a Midi Z ret­ro­spec­tive are among the high­lights of CineCi­na iFest.