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Ian Johnston

Ian Johnston is a New Zealander living in Taipei, Taiwan. His work has appeared in The Film Journal.

in issue 58

Still, Life: Looking at Jia Zhang-ke's Recent Masterpiece — "Present-day society doesn't suit us because we're too nostalgic."

in issue 57

Blow the Man Down: Aki Kaurismaki's Lights in the Dusk — "The grafting on of the film's film noir plot has a reductionist minimalism to it, as if Kaurismaki were sketching an archetype . . ."

Butterfly Dream: Tsai Ming-liang's I Don't Want to Sleep Alone — "There's no overt sexuality to Rawang's care for Hsiao Kang. It's a tender act of love, a selfless giving of himself to another."

in issue 56

Lost World: Michael Haneke's Time of the Wolf Reconsidered — "What we're given is a sense that the structures of our civilisation have broken down ..."

No Exit: On Matthias Glasner's The Free Will — "It's a critique that is one step away from excusing Theo (the ‘woman was asking for it' defence) ..."

in issue 54

Train to Nowhere: On Renoir's La Bête Humaine — "Now it is a world of studio sets and the precise control of the effects of light and shadow."

in issue 53

"We're Not Happy and We Never Will Be": On Cronaca di un amore
Antonioni's early masterpiece looks better than ever

School Daze: The Curious Young Girls of Lucile Hadzihalilovic's Innocence
"Don't resist, my dear."

in issue 51

Wim, We Hardly Know Ye: On Wenders' Don't Come Knocking
The bad news is . . . there's not much good news

We're Just Taller Children: On the Dardennes' L'Enfant
The Belgian humanists' most Bressonian film to date

in issue 50

How Sweet to Be a Cloud? Fancy and Fucking Collide in Tsai-Ming Liang's Latest
Tsai pushes the art/porn envelope — or does he?

in issue 48

Train to Somewhere: Hou Hsiao-hsien Pays Sweet Homage to Ozu in Café Lumière
Hou honors the master while remaining true to his own vision

Compliments to the Chef: Three . . . Extremes: Dumplings Expertly Mixes Social Critique and Questionable Cuisine
Bring some dramamine to Fruit Chan's best film to date

in issue 47

Unhappy Together: Wong Kar-Wai's 2046
"Why can't it be like before?"

Plumbing the Depths: Renoir and Kurosawa Do Gorky
Criterion's double-feature DVD features two minor works by two major auteurs

in issue 46

Martha, Interrupted: Fassbinder's 1974 Masterpiece on DVD
"You're always wanting to touch me!"