#asia pacific

Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant review – slime and silliness in amusing New Zealand comedy horror

Mucus, alien gristle, a tentacle-bearing penis and, of course, the pregnancy of the title are all borne with deadpan calmness in this underplayed comedy In this amusingly silly exercise in gross-out body horror and bathos from New Zealand, thirtysomething underachiever Mary (Hannah Lynch) finds herself unexpectedly pregnant after shy neighbour Boo (Arlo Green) ejaculates on her in the communal laundry room with his tentacle-bearing alien penis (hence the self-explanatory title). We never quite find out why Boo has such outre sex organs, but nothing here should be overthought since it is all ab

Guardian Culture · EN

New Group review – schoolkids build human pyramids in bizarre Japanese horror-satire on conformity

Two outsider students at a super-strict high school find they are definitely not with the programme in Yûta Shimotsu’s body-bending sci-fi scarer Here is an intermittently amusing Japanese social satire about conformity directed by Yûta Shimotsu; it has flashes of brilliance but lacks the kind of engaging characters that could have taken it to the next level. Ai (Anna Yamada) is an unpopular pupil who has always tried to fit in, and Yu (Yuzu Aoki) is a transfer student who more deliberately resists the demands of peer pressure. Their high school is super-strict at a baseline level – and when t

Guardian Culture · EN

Why am I obsessed with China’s ancient golden age? I took my daughter on a trip to find out – podcast

I felt a duty to write about the Tang dynasty and its incredible social and cultural sophistication – but also to connect my Chinese past with my child By Xiaolu Guo. Read by Elizabeth Chan Read the text version here Support the Guardian today: theguardian.com/longreadpod Continue reading...

The Guardian Long Read · EN