buna 

Nope succeeds tremendously in dealing with higher concepts in an engaging and highly entertaining manner without sacrificing theme or personality.

In The Novelist's Film, Hong explores the meaningful things people share and inspire by virtue of simply engaging with one another.

The problem isn’t that it’s bad. It's good. But it fails to stand out from a crowd of similar films.

The social issues The Half of it takes on are handled well, between the antagonization brought on to Ellie for her race and the conflict that arises from her being gay. Both aspects of her character are built up over the course of the film and don’t seem abrupt or rushed. The film shows racism towards Ellie and her and father in varying levels, from having her schoolmates specifically address her as "Chinese girl” to the fore mentioned way her Dad is treated due to language barriers. The same can be said about Ellie being a lesbian. While she never truly “comes out” in the narrative, that does not undermine her journey of self-discovery from being meaningful. These ideas aren’t thrust upon the viewer in a preachy manor, the scenarios that occur feel believable given the rural setting. The film presents watchers with problems whom those like Ellie may face, and leaves us to sit with them and reflect.

Mulan had to struggle to feel like herself and see herself properly. Some of us have to strive to have our reflection mimic what’s inside. We have to crawl. We have to fight.

Black Christmas movies are few and far in between to find — so it is wonderful to see more representation on the screen just in time