Film
How 'The Quiet American' Continues to Colonize Vietnam
Neither bombs nor bumbling Americans broke the will of the Vietnamese. Something far more insidious and far-reaching, however, may have.
31 Aug 2017
Recent
Film
Life in the Interzone in Old Shanghai
The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai and Flowers of Shanghai capture a William S. Borroughs-like Interzone in Old Shanghai.
07 Jun 2017
Film
Still Living Dangerously After All These Years
As autocratic leaders slowly take over the First World, popular representations of a Third World coup take on renewed significance.
02 Mar 2017
Books
On the Robot Zombies of Angkor Wat in John Burdett's 'The Bangkok Asset'
The sixth novel in John Burdett's Bangkok detective series is a dispiriting, dismaying mess. Is there still hope for recovery or is the series in a death spiral?
12 Dec 2016
Film
The Absolution of Paul Theroux's 'Saint Jack' in a World Lacking Irony
The narrative of Paul Theroux's (and later Peter Bogdanovich's) Saint Jack offers a palliative to the high-priced hedonism taking place in an American-owned compound in Singapore.
06 Oct 2016
Film
Death Tripping Tibetan Style With Gaspar Noé's 'Enter the Void'
Reaching for the ultimate psychedelic experience, director Gaspar Noé found The Tibetan Book of the Dead, but did he know what he found when he crafted Enter the Void?
24 Mar 2016
Film
Why Does Paul Bowles' 70-Year-Old Existential Masterpiece Continue to Test Our Limits?
The Sheltering Sky is itself a test of limits: its form is an exploration of how far one can go in novel writing.
08 Feb 2016
Politics
It's in the Blood: A Conversation with History Writer Tim Hannigan
Treading the lines between journalist and academic, travel writer and scholar, author Tim Hannigan talks about his latest book and his unorthodox approach to writing historical narratives.
11 Dec 2015
Interviews
On Evil Yogis and the Icy Silence of Yoga's Post-Disintegration
David Gordon White's life-long research of South Asian religions reveals the dubious roots of the West's feel good contemporary yoga industry.
11 Oct 2015
Film
Yellow Fever and Yum-Yum Girls
Multiple versions of the classic story The World of Suzie Wong offer different takes on a social phenomenon, but can any of them escape the biases of their authors?
20 Aug 2015
Interviews
Champagne and Knuckle-Dusters, or, Modern Life in Singapore
Novelist and poet Catherine Lim, the most persistent critic of Singapore's government, talks candidly about her new memoir, the half-century anniversary of the city-state, and the death of founder Lee Kuan Yew.
04 Jun 2015
Interviews
Death in the Land of Smiles
A recent biopic about the last executioner in Thailand explores the extremes between killing and redemption.
12 Apr 2015
Travel
Clove Cigarettes and Indonesian Books: An Armchair Traveler's Pleasure
The Modern Library of Indonesia series offers unparalleled access to the cultural landscape of the world's fourth most populous country.
16 Feb 2015
Music
The Noir Traveler Returns: The Evolving Sound of Alvarius B.
The Invisible Hands have given us a glimpse of Alvarius B.'s (Alan Bishop) view of the world from the center of Cairo. It's not a happy perspective, but there's a hint of hope.
25 Nov 2014
Visual Arts
'Longing for the Past': When the Voices of the Dead Finally Reach Us
While listening to "The Dance and Song of Laos" (1906) a haunting voice, both enticing and archaic, mingles with the crepitating noise of the antique shellac.
05 Oct 2014
Culture
Blast Shadows
The atomic bombing of Hiroshima forever altered popular culture, and the earliest traces of that tectonic shift can be found in an obscure government report and newsreel about the event.
05 Aug 2014
Books
Invisible Factory Billionaire: The Minting of a New Post-Colonial Literary Darling Tash Aw
With the publication of his third novel, Tash Aw's celebrity status is now assured. But do the books equal the hype?
05 Jun 2014
Film
"Only God Forgives'" Weird Yet Coherent Oriental Psychedelic Noir
In Bangkok, the convulsions of violence on the street merge with scenes of surreal ritual that is possible in the West only in dreams… or drug reveries… or films.
10 Apr 2014
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