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2014 San Diego Asian Film Festival

Posts by Dr. Craig D. Reid

Craig started off in the biz in 1979 as a stuntman/actor in Chinese Kung Films in Taiwan, the token white dude that got his butt kicked in by a different kung fu star every few months. A former writer for Rueters of Asia, he's written over 1000 articles for magazines (when they truly were in vogue), is an award winning screenwriter, was a fight choreographer in Hollywood for 10 years and his critically acclaimed first book The Ultimate Guide to the Martial Arts Movies of the 1970s was published by Black Belt Books 12/10.


  1. FROM WHAT IS BEFORE: Tell it to the Kapre

    Posted November 14th, 2014 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized

    Kap..what? Over the past week, I’ve watched a loooong, three-hour film (Kano) and an hour film shot in “slow motion” (Journey to the West). But was I ready for a combination of the two…was my butt ready to sit and watch Filipino director Lav Diaz’s five and a half hour epic From What is Before…miss […]


  2. KANO: SDAFF 2014’s Baseball Doubleheader

    Posted November 13th, 2014 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Guest Post

    Last night’s (Nov. 12) screening of the Taiwanese baseball film Kano made you feel like you were at a real game…both run for three hours…accept last night we got to see all the highlights. There were also hotdogs in the UltraStar lobby for those that wanted a more be-at-the-ballpark feel. What the film lacked were […]


  3. YASMINE: Brunei’s First Narrative Film in History

    Posted November 12th, 2014 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Guest Post

    For most of us that probably have no idea what life or the culture of Brunei is like, an Islamic state on the north coast of the island of Borneo, how cool is it that last night’s Rocky (1975) meets Karate Kid (Hillary Swank’s 1994 The Next Karate Kid) inspired film Yasmine, is not only […]


  4. JOURNEY TO THE WEST: A Monk Evicts Time

    Posted November 11th, 2014 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Uncategorized

    Since the beginning of the festival, I hear joking comments about last night’s film, Journey to the West, that it’s basically just a bald headed guy (Lee Kang-sheng), dressed in a Buddhist monk’s red robe, who with his neck protruding forward, head bowed, staring at the ground and the fingers on each hand held in […]


  5. KUMA HINA: An Hawaiian Mahu Keeping Hawaii Alive

    Posted November 10th, 2014 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Guest Post

    Frocked in a swirling green and orange Hawaiian dress, with an ornate but subtle flower-based headdress, the proud mahu (Hawaiian transgendered) Kuma Hina or teacher Hina, slowly processions to the front of the movie theater and stands before the audience. From the back of the theater, two men, singing one at a time in Hawaiian, […]


  6. LIMITED PARTNERSHIP: 40 Years in the Making

    Posted November 9th, 2014 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Guest Post

    While watching yesterday’s screening (Nov. 9) of the ultra-engaging documentary Limited Partnership at SDAFF 2014, a film that tells the 40-year love story of a gay couple, Filipino American Richard Adams and Australian Tony Sullivan, who were “legally” married in 1975 in Boulder, Colorado…one’s mind can reflect on how things you didn’t know were in […]


  7. VANCOUVER ASAHI: A Diamond in the Rough and Cracker Jack Film

    Posted November 8th, 2014 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Guest Post

    Although opening night for the 2014 SDAFF was Thursday, November 6, which featured the scintillatingly successful Return of the Green Dragon (nope, not a martial arts title), a movie I was sadly unable to take in, last night was my eighth opening SDAFF night at UltraStar Cinema Mission Valley at the Hazard Center. The San […]


  8. TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE THE 2014 SDAFF

    Posted November 5th, 2014 by Dr. Craig D. Reid in Guest Post

    It’s the 15th SDAFF, an event more solid than an ice cube at the North pole, which is very cool. Call me Old School, a traditionalist or a even dinosaur (BTW they lasted 165 million years; man should be so lucky), in preparation for the holiday season…SDAFF, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas for me and the New […]