{"id":54585,"date":"2026-08-19T01:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T05:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=54585"},"modified":"2026-08-19T01:07:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T05:07:22","slug":"heading-to-the-east-short-2026-asian-cinema-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/19\/heading-to-the-east-short-2026-asian-cinema-august\/","title":{"rendered":"Heading to the East (short) (2026)\u00a0[Asian Cinema August]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A young couple faces a geographical separation as one of them is set to go study abroad, so they decide to go revisit where they first\u00a0met.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Written by\u00a0Lisa Ranran Hu and\u00a0Weiting\u00a0Tian, and directed by\u00a0Lisa Ranran Hu,\u00a0this drama short film shows the power of simplicity. A simple\u00a0story of two people in love, facing a separation that is “for their own good” in that one of them is going to school and should come back\u00a0once\u00a0graduated, which works well. There is an undercurrent of sadness to it\u00a0all;\u00a0they are happy yet sad, trying to\u00a0make for\u00a0a good last day together before the sadness fully takes over. The story here is incredibly human and quietly emotionally powerful.\u00a0The writing\u00a0is careful, emotional, and calculated in the best of ways. The direction\u00a0is also careful, almost absent in feeling while\u00a0it is clear that the\u00a0film is being directed by someone close to the material who knows what they are doing (or winging it beautifully well).\u00a0The film may just be a short film, but it packs so much in its short runtime.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The cast here is near the absolute minimum\u00a0with only two people, Michelle Jones Lee as Jinna and Arnold Setiadi as Alex. The two of them give strong performances, so good the viewer can forget they are watching a movie. They both come at these parts naturally with nuance and emotions without ever over doing it. They bring the story to life, making\u00a0the little bit of time the viewer gets to spend with them\u00a0meaningfully, connecting on more than a\u00a0superficial level. The two of them are excellent, no hyperbole here.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Cinematographer\u00a0Rocky Huang does\u00a0great work\u00a0filming these two going through their emotional ride, giving them space when needed and closing in when the story and the emotions call for it.\u00a0The cinematography here is purposeful and\u00a0artsy;\u00a0it is there to witness while not getting involved, but\u00a0it’s\u00a0also there to make the image\u00a0has\u00a0impact and become more than the sum of their elements. These images are carefully and masterfully edited by\u00a0writer-director-editor\u00a0Lisa Ranran Hu, showing that a closeness to the subject, when in the right hands, can be the perfect way to edit a film.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Heading to the East is a lovely short film about love,\u00a0loss, and grieving in advance for something that has become inevitable. The film is touching and emotional while keeping things mostly quiet and nuanced.\u00a0It’s\u00a0not in your face and its quietness is a big\u00a0reason why\u00a0it works so well.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A young couple faces a geographical separation as one of them is set to go study abroad, so they decide to go revisit where they first\u00a0met.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[302,937],"class_list":["post-54585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-drama","tag-short"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54586,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54585\/revisions\/54586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}