Review of Film Director YuHan Tsai’s DUA JI Movie Short – Part 1
Official Selection, Narrative Short Competition of SXSW 2026

A-Hsien played by Kuei-Mei Yang

Set in rural Taiwan, DUA JI (which translates to “Eldest Daughter”) follows A-Hsien, the eldest sister in a family preparing for her mother’s funeral. While her siblings return home after living their own lives elsewhere, A-Hsien — who stayed home as the primary caretaker — is forced to navigate the rigid, patriarchal rituals of a Taoist funeral. The plot centers on her internal conflict: She is expected to be the emotional pillar and a servant to tradition, yet she harbors a growing “silent resistance” against the roles forced upon her. The film is less about external drama and more a quiet study of her grief, resentment, and eventual rebellion against societal expectations.

The storyline explores the psychological burden of duty. Director YuHan Tsai uses the funeral as a microcosm of a patriarchal society where A-Hsien’s emotions are suffocated by orthodox rituals. The film highlights how the sibling who stays to care for aging parents is often the one “taken for granted” and viewed as less rational or successful by those who moved away. Director Tsai focuses heavily on A-Hsien’s face (played by Kuei-Mei Yang) to convey the “fuming pain” that she isn’t allowed to express vocally.

High On Films.com praised the movie as a “contemplative portrait of grief,” specifically highlighting the “watertight structure” and the lead performance of Actress Kuei-Mei Yang (known for her work with Ang Lee and Tsai Ming-liang). Others Critics have noted the film’s “deliberate, unhurried pace” and lack of “script fluff.”

Director YuHan Tsai

This reviewer considers DUA JI a must-see. The director’s virtuosity for creating deep empathy for the “invisible” work of female caretakers is elegant and impressive as well as literally and figuratively off the charts. Many in audiences will not only connect with the concept of “Eldest Daughter Syndrome” presented in the film but palpably feel it.

While DUA JI is her latest success, Tsai’s previous work, THE TOUR BUS won Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction and an Honorable Award at the 41st Golden Harvest Awards in Taiwan. The Taiwanese writer and director is now based in New York; was  born in Chiayi, Taiwan; she lived in China for 14 years before returning to Taiwan for studies. She holds an MFA in Directing from Columbia University. Her filmmaking style is known for blending personal experience with themes of identity, sovereignty, and the intimate female experience. She often explores the “inner lives of women” and the tensions between tradition and transformation.

 

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YuHan Tsai蔡渝涵 (@hanna_20044) • Instagram photos and videos

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Review of Film Director YuHan Tsai’s DUA JI Movie Short – Part 2:

Director: YuHan Tsai
Executive Producers: ZongYi Tsai, HsuehMei Huang, Scott Aharoni
Producers: CheKuei Chang, YuHan Tsai
Screenwriter: YuHan Tsai
Cinematographer: Murdo Barker-Mill
Editor: Aacharee Ohm Ungsriwong
Production Designer: Tinco Liao
Sound: Esther Liu, BoChen Hsu, Coca Yan
Music: Thomas Foguenne

Cast: KueiMei Yang, ChiaKuei Chen, YuPing Wang, JieFei Huang, YuLan Shao, HsuehMei Huang

Crew: Costume Designer: Jui Huang, First Assistant Director: David Yang, Production Manager: ChiehLing Ku, Casting Director: WenYa G. Yang, Gaffer: ZhiJun Ou, Post Sound Supervisor: YanRong Lin

Filmmaker Yu-Han Tsai Discusses her Official Selection at SXSW, DUA JI

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Give Malcom Nance a Read

At a time when geopolitical analysis is often reduced to partisan shouting or social-media speculation, Malcolm Nance occupies an unusual place in the media ecosystem: he is both a former intelligence professional and a prolific public commentator who translates national-security issues for general audiences.

Malcom Nance

Nance is a retired U.S. Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer specializing in naval cryptology and counter-terrorism intelligence, with two decades of service from 1981 to 2001. His career included work in intelligence collection, counterterrorism operations, and training military personnel in survival and resistance techniques.

After leaving the Navy, he moved into the world of security consulting, research, and public analysis, eventually becoming a frequent television commentator and a bestselling author of books on terrorism, cyber warfare, and global security threats. But what distinguishes Nance today is the way he has shifted toward independent media platforms, particularly his Substack newsletter and podcast, Black Man Spy.

Through those channels he offers commentary on geopolitics, espionage culture, democratic institutions, and emerging security threats from what he describes as a “spy’s perspective.”

Unlike many pundits who analyze war and intelligence from a distance, Nance made international headlines in 2022 when he joined the Ukrainian International Legion to support Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion, a move that underscored his willingness to act on the geopolitical convictions he often discusses publicly.

For readers trying to make sense of a world shaped by hybrid warfare, cyber conflict, disinformation campaigns, and great-power competition, Nance represents a distinctive voice: part intelligence professional, part historian of espionage, and part political commentator.

Whether one agrees with his conclusions or not, his work offers something that has become increasingly rare in modern media - analysis rooted in firsthand experience inside the intelligence and national-security community.

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Black Public Media Shines in CUNY TV Close Up

The Harlem-based national media arts nonprofit is featured on CUNY-TV’s Frame by Frame: NYC Filmmakers in Focus

Left to right: Tracii McGregor, Sophia Clark, Divad Durant, Leslie Fields-Cruz. Picture courtesy CUNY TV

Black Public Media is the premier focus of a Friday, March 13, episode at 2 p.m.,running through April 5 (check local listings). The program, which will begin streaming on CUNY’s YouTube Channel on March 13 and run through April 9, will also be available on CUNY TV’s app.

The show comes as the media company continues advancing Black storytelling in the wake of last year’s congressional rescission vote that eliminated $1.8 million of the nonprofit’s funding. In response, BPM launched a grassroots fund drive to benefit its new Black Stories Production Fund, which aims to ensure Black stories are never again subject to political whims.

Frame by Frame: NYC Filmmakers in Focus spotlights filmmakers through in-studio conversations and curated screenings. The March 13 episode centers on BPM, which was founded in 1979 and continues to fund, distribute and produce stories about the global Black experience. Frame by Frame showcases a range of BPM-supported projects and the creators behind them.

The episode features in-studio appearances by three New York City-area filmmakers whose careers BPM has supported: Sophia Clark, who directed and, or produced BPM’s five-time Anthem Award-winning social media series BE HEARD, which has featured viral campaigns about voting, gender identity and sustainable fashion; and Tracii McGregor and Divad Durant, whose films THE FORGOTTEN ONES and SWEET SAMARA are streaming on BPM’s YouTube Channel as part of its AfroPoP Digital Shorts series. The Forgotten Ones follows a man’s four- decade struggle with homelessness. Sweet Samara highlights an upstate New York farm that sees a return to the land as a means of liberation.

“It was an honor to be a guest host for this episode, and to introduce CUNY TV’s audience to the work of incredibly talented filmmakers,” said BPM’s Executive Director Leslie Fields-Cruz, who moderates the episode.BPM-supported films will be featured in two alternating showcases that follow the episode. The first includes Dressed Like Kings by Stacey Holman, For The Moon by Nile Price, Smile4Kime by Elena Guzman, Spare Me by Wilderley Mauricette and Sweet Samara.

The other is comprised of the feature film Mama Gloria by Luchina Fisher followed by BE HEARD: I Am Who I Say I Am, The Forgotten One, Lakeside’s Treasures by Rasheed Peters and The Aunties by Charlyn Griffith-Oro and Jeannine Kayembe-Oro.

To learn more about Black Public Media, visit blackpublicmedia.org or follow BPM (@blackpublicmedia) on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

About Black Public Media

BPM supports the development of visionary content creators and distributes stories about the global Black experience to inspire a more equitable and inclusive future. For 45+ years, BPM has addressed the needs of unserved and underserved audiences. BPM-supported programs have won five Emmys®,10 Peabodys, five Anthem Awards, 14 Emmy® nominations and an Oscar® nomination. BPM continues to address historical, contemporary and systemic challenges that traditionally impede the development and distribution of Black stories.

 

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Quickie Film Review of A FRIEND OF DOROTHY Directed by Lee Knight
Q&A-Plus Is in the Works

## *A FRIEND OF DOROTHY* (2025)
**Written & Directed by Lee Knight | Short Film | 21 minutes**

The Story

*A  quietly beautiful short film about an unlikely friendship between Dorothy (Dame Miriam Margolyes), a sharp, witty, and increasingly frail elderly woman living alone, and JJ (Alistair Nwachukwu), a teenage boy whose errant football lands in her garden. What begins as a brief exchange blossoms into a genuine bond — JJ helps Dorothy around the house, and Dorothy, in turn, nurtures his dream of becoming a theater actor through their shared love of plays and performance.

Direction & Craft

For a debut feature, Lee Knight demonstrates a remarkably assured hand. The film resists the easy sentimentality that a premise like this might invite, instead finding its emotional truth in small, unhurried moments. Knight’s choice to shoot in an intimate, close-up style gives the film a theatrical quality — fitting, given that theater itself is central to the story. The naturalistic lighting and warm colour palette feel like extensions of Dorothy’s home: lived-in, a little faded, but full of warmth.

What’s most impressive is how Knight trusts his material and his cast. There’s no overwrought scoring or manipulative editing to tell the audience how to feel. The film simply watches these two people together, and lets the connection speak for itself.

Performances

Miriam Margolyes is, predictably, a force. Dorothy is outspoken, irreverent, and brilliantly funny, but Margolyes also lets the loneliness show through without ever making it pitiable. Alistair Nwachukwu matches her energy well — his JJ is warm and earnest without becoming a saint-like figure. Stephen Fry appears in a smaller role as the executor of Dorothy’s will, and Oscar Lloyd is effectively unpleasant as Dorothy’s self-interested grandson Scott.

Heart & Meaning

Knight has been open about the personal resonance of the story. Like JJ, he came of age as a closeted young man with theatrical ambitions, and the film’s central act of encouragement — an older person telling a young outsider that their dreams are worth pursuing — mirrors his own experience. That sincerity comes through. The film isn’t really about the plot at all; it’s about what it means to feel seen by someone who has no obligation to see you.

Verdict

*A FRIEND OF DOROTHY* is a small film with a large heart. In just 21 minutes, Lee Knight delivers a moving, humane, and often funny meditation on loneliness, intergenerational connection, and the quiet courage it takes to live authentically. It earned its Oscar nomination. It’s available to stream on **Disney+** in the UK and Europe, and is well worth the time of audiences who appreciate superb movies that can reverberate well after a film has ended.

*****(5) stars rated several film reviewers but this film reviewer rates it off the charts. 

the WORD Editor Gregg W. Morris

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March 3 – What Comes …

37,307 views Mar 3, 2026 #QuickTake #Trump #Iran

In this Quick Take, Ian Bremmer examines what may come next in the U.S.- Israel war with Iran as the Trump administration signals significantly larger military operations ahead.

Ian notes that Washington has clearly stepped back from calls for regime change. “They’ve backed away from regime change,” he says, arguing there’s no realistic mechanism to produce a stable successor government from the outside. The Iranian opposition is not organized, and the risks of deeper intervention would be high and politically unpopular at home.

So what’s the alternative? Economic leverage. Ian points to the possibility of targeting Kharg Island, which handles roughly 80–90% of Iran’s oil exports. “If you control the oil exports, you have much greater leverage over the regime long term,” he explains.

But that strategy carries a serious downside: decentralized drone attacks, regional instability, and potential energy market disruption across the Gulf.

GZERO Media, a Eurasia Group company, is a multimedia publisher providing news, insights, and commentary on the events shaping the world. Its properties include GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, a weekly show on U.S. public television; newsletters GZERO Daily, GZERO AI, GZERO North, and GZERO Daily with Ian Bremmer; a parody series Puppet Regime; adigital video series including Ian Bremmer’s Quick Take every week; and the GZERO World Podcast. GZERO content is free and available at https://www.gzeromedia.com.

 

the WORD Editor Gregg W. Morris

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