#coming-of-age

Original editorial illustration for A Brighter Summer Day — a vast field of charcoal night in which a small anonymous figure holds a flashlight, its narrow warm beam falling at a slant onto the ground and lighting only a small patch; a row of low Japanese-style rooftops is silhouetted in the distance

A Brighter Summer Day (1991): Four Hours Isn't a Test of Patience. It's How Long the State Takes to Get Inside a Home.

牯嶺街少年殺人事件 (1991)

Edward Yang once cut his own film down to about three hours, and according to co-writer Hung Hung, the heaviest cuts fell on the father and the White Terror. That tells you what the length is for. The near-four-hour running time is not an endurance test; it is how long it takes for state violence to seep into a household through a flashlight, a radio and a disputed exam score. The one person the film never looks at with the same patience is Ming.

★ 9.4/102026-09-21

Original editorial illustration for Spirited Away — a very small figure standing at a towering reception counter, pushing a sheet of paper across the counter top, with an oversized doorway looming behind it

Spirited Away (2001): Not a Fairy Tale, but a Film About Asking for a Job

千と千尋の神隠し (2001)

What saves Chihiro isn't courage and it isn't magic. It's a job application. Miyazaki wrote it plainly in his own pitch document, and told an interviewer that Yubaba is really just the manager of the place where his heroine works.

★ 9.2/102026-08-08

Original Spider-Man Homecoming editorial illustration of a tall figure casting a shadow across the entire frame, with a small red figure standing at its far end

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017): Tony's Best Line Is Also the One That Broke Peter

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Rewatched nine years on, the line Tony delivers when he takes the suit away isn't teaching Peter responsibility. It's holding onto Peter's share of it. Watch Brand New Day and the whole thing snaps into focus.

★ 8.9/102026-08-02