Asian A.V. Club newsletter #48: What to Watch pod

We have a podcast! And we got the amazing Kate Rodger of The Projector to join us to talk all things Cannes, plus our fave movies and tv shows out now!

So we’re back!!!!

After a few weeks away from all our lovely Asian A.V. Club fam, we are geared up to return to form with even more interviews from some of the coolest folks (both behind and in front of the camera) working on amazing projects this year.

During our time off, we actually found ourselves in Europe attending the Far East Film Festival in the lovely Italian town of Udine.

For years we’ve heard about this annual festival which brings together filmmakers, actors and producers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Philippines & Vietnam, showcasing their films to this years record number of 65,000 audience members.

The festival also gave out Lifetime Achievement awards to legendary director Tsui Hark and actress Sylvia Chang, both of who I kept bumping into on the cobbled streets of Udine (they were probably wondering who this Asian guy was, always with a scoop of gelato in his mouth).

The whole experience was amazing as I got to not only catch up with loads of Asian films, but also hang properly with creative folks that I only knew in passing. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to visit this magical film festival again in the future!

Immediately after, I did my annual sojourn to the MOTHER of all film festivals, Cannes Film Festival.

For 12 consecutive days, over 100 films are showcased in this small glamorous town in the south of France, with 20 films competing for the coveted P’alme D’or (imagine Thunderdome but indie / art house!) Plus, the super film nerd in me gets to talk shop with fellow journalists, producers, programmers and media folk on their fave Cannes films, and in the process, learn a few new things on the trends of cinema on a global scale (it seriously is the best “masters” film education a person can get in such a short period of time).

Needless to say, all I’ve been doing since I’ve returned from all of this has been catching up on sleep!

BUT… knowing we were going to ramp up #AAVC again, I decided to kick off our return with a new format of our What to Watch posts by turning it into a podcast! Not only that, we invite fellow journalists along for the ride to talk about our favorite movies and tv shows that are in our orbit these days.

Kicking off our inaugural #W2WPod, we grabbed some time with the illustrious journalist Kate Rodger. As the creator behind The Projector substack, Kate has been the face of entertainment in New Zealand for over 20 years; covering premieres, interviewing every celebrity on the planet and giving her two cents on new releases weekly. So getting Kate to do what she’s usually gets paid to do on our new podcast, is a real honor!

In this episode, we talk about some of my favorite films from Cannes Film Festival, plus we give our thoughts on a massive list of movies and tv shows out at the moment. It’s packed so you can either press play below and watch two old friends gab for a bit on camera, or you can take this pod on the road OR just listen below.

Here’s the list of titles we talk about this episode:

Cannes Film Festival - Sirat, Sentimental Value, Pillion, Romeria and Resurrection.

Movies to Watch - Mission Impossible: The FINAL Reckoning, Ballerina, Tinā, The Life of Chuck.

TV to Watch: The Handmaid's Tale, Andor, And Just Like That, Dept Q and the k-thriller Nine Puzzles.

Like I said, we packed in a bunch on our What to Watch pod which you can find on all podcast platforms now and of course, visually streaming on youtube!

Next issue we will be back with our profile interviews, but for now, if you like what you hear/see, please think about following us on your fave podcast platform or subscribe to our brand new youtube channel.

So happy to be back!