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To Pie, the best girl,

I don’t think words can capture the sense memory of feeling of your beautiful fawn coat, petting you while you were snoring away, the little paw- and nose twitches while you were probably dreaming of catching pigeons. I wish you could have had ham and pork belly every day of your life, instead of having to scavenge them when you saw a second of opportunity. In your last days, you managed to repossess your vet’s lunch (home-made roasted chicken), because nobody could ever say no to that face. We spent your last hours recounting stories about you, mostly food-related crimes (sandwich-gate, rat-gate, and so many more), but all filled with amazement at your persistence, unwillingness to ever lose sight of your goals or give up, and the deep love we all have for you, which you always returned in spades. Rest easy now. I wish I could see you walk so so jauntily, tail swishing wildly, ears alert to every sound, one last time. 

Reading List: May.

Non-Fiction: 

 

Thak Chaloemtiarana: Read till it shatters: Nationalism and identity in modern Thai literature. 

Ligang Song, Yixiao Zhou (eds.): The Great Energy Transformation in China.

Yanya Jakimow, Margaret Jolly, Sonia Palmieri, Ramona Vijeyarasa (eds.): Gender and Politics Reimagined. Centring Oceanic and Asian Lenses.  

 

Fiction: 

 

Monika Kim: Molka.

Kylie Lee Baker: Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng.

Tan Twan Eng: The Garden of Evening Mist. 

Pitchaya Sudbanthad: Bangkok Wakes to Rain. 

 

Films: 

 

Heldin (2025,  Petra Biondina Volpe).

Forbidden Fruits (2026, Meredith Alloway). 

Montréal, ma belle (2025, Xiaodan He). 

O Agente Secreto (2025, Kleber Mendonça Filho). 

Chime (2024, Kiyoshi Kurosawa). 

Linda Linda Linda (2005, Nobuhiro Yamashita).

Gyakusatsu kikan (2017, Shûkô Murase).

Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010, Apichatpong Weerasethakul). 

Linda Linda Linda

What stands out to me the most about Nobuhiro Yamashita’s 2005 film Linda Linda Linda (inspiration for the riot grrrl band the Linda Lindas, the title taken from Japanese punk band The Blue Hearts’ song that the girls in the film are covering) is how joyful it is: it’s about four teenage girls who are learning to function as a band together in a short period of time, but there are no institutional obstacles in their way, no outside mocking or hatred for their enthusiasm or dedication. Instead, Yamashita focuses on their dynamics: if there is conflict, it comes from how the characters handle pressure and stress, from the difficulties of learning and getting used to new people and shifting into a functioning relationship with each other. It’s a film about shared passion and the magic of puzzle pieces fitting perfectly to form a picture, which captures the very essence of what it means to be a band that performs well together and manages to convey that enthusiasm to a rapt audience. This sets it apart from the film that it reminded me of, watching it for the first time more than 25 years after its release: Lukas Moodysson’s 2013 film Vi är bäst!, which captures the same love of music, but is about the outside obstacles in the way of its protagonists that are difficult to overcome.

At the beginning of the film, the success of the band is precariously balances. The original guitarist has injured her hand in a basketball game and the singer of the band has left alongside her because of conflicts within the band. The remaining three girls decide to press on without Moe (Shione Yukawa) and Rinko (Takayo Mimura), with Kei (Yû Kashii), the band’s keyboardist, learning how to play the guitar, and the recruitment of the first girl they set eyes on across the school yard as their new singer, who just happens to be Korean exchange student Son (Bae Doona, Sense8), who still struggles with her Japanese fluency and doesn’t really know what she’s agreeing to at first, but then embraces the challenge enthusiastically (the scenes of her practising by herself in a karaoke bar are some of the best of the film). It takes them a while to find their stride together, especially with Son changing up their dynamic, but the narrow time window to perfect the song they pick – the film pays close attention to how they go through old cassette tapes, reverently picking something that probably just predates their births forces them together in late-night sessions and shared attempts to gather the necessary resources.

I also really enjoyed how the film never depicts the other kids at school as mocking of their efforts. Instead, the boys around them – two of them clearly lovestruck, with differing levels of awkwardness – are supportive, a very cool classmate who is an accomplished musician herself compliments them on their choice and enthusiastically supports them, and at their final grand performance at the cultural festival, the crowd goes wild for them as all the pieces fit together perfectly in the moment. 

2005, directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita, starring Bae Doona, Aki Maeda, Yû Kashii, Shiori Sekine, Takayo Mimura.

Das Lied zum Sonntag

Vika & Linda - Bliss (on Where Do You Come From)

 

Reading List: April.

Fiction: 

 

Mieko Kawakami: Sisters in Yellow. 

Kiran Millwood Hargrave: Almost Life. 

Tana French: The Keeper. 

Jade Song: I Love You Don't Die. 

Kylie Lee Baker: Japanese Gothic. 

Rene Karabash: She Who Remains.  

James S.A. Corey: The Faith of Beasts. 

 

Films: 

 

Umimachi Diary (2015, Hirokazu Koreeda).

Umi yori mo mada fukaku (2016, Hirokazu Koreeda).

Manbiki kazoku (2018, Hirokazu Koreeda). 

Rental Family (2025, Hikari). 

Undertone (2025, Ian Tuason). 

Chun gwong ja sit (1997, Wong Kar-Wai). 

The Testament of Ann Lee (2025, Mona Fastvold).

The Chronology of Water (2025, Kristen Stewart). 

 

Shows: 

 

Jakeun assideul, Season One. 

Climax, Season One. 

Favourite Books I've Read This Year (in progress)

Non-Fiction: 

 

Thak Chaloemtiarana: Read till it shatters: Nationalism and identity in modern Thai literature.  

 

Fiction: 

 

Han Kang: Human Acts 

Kylie Lee Baker: Japanese Gothic 

Ellis Avery: The Teahouse Fire 

Jade Song: I Love You Don't Die

 

I started this year reading Han Kang's work for the first time: The Vegetarian, Human Acts, and We Do Not Part in succession. I went into them knowing very little about what to expect and with an embarrassing lack of knowledge about Korean history. Human Acts is set during the May 1980 Gwangju democratisation uprising, when the military brutally suppressed student protests against the military coup of Chun Doo-hwan. It is told from different point of views of people who died during the uprising and those who are confronting the grief of losing loved ones and are finding ways to remember them. 

 

Ellis Avery's The Teahouse Fire is set in Japan during a time of radical change, when the country has been forcefully opened to Westerners for the first time. Its main character is Aurelia, a French-American girl who arrives in Kyoto with her uncle, a pastor, after the death of her mother, but runs away from him after a fire. She ends up becoming part of a Japanese household - the most beautiful parts of the book are about how she learns language and the richly described culture (which is shifting due to outside influence) as she tries to fit in - and her complicated relationship (filled with much queer yearning) with Yukako, the woman who leads the household. 

 

Politico: Trump’s Attack on Venezuela Could Change the World. Here’s How, January 4, 2026.

The Guardian: US attack on Greenland would mean end of Nato, says Danish PM, January 6, 2026.

Ars Technica: Trump withdraws US from world’s most important climate treaty, January 9, 2026. 

The New Yorker: What Makes the Iranian Protests Different This Time, January 10, 2026. 

Xtra*: Renee Nicole Good’s queerness isn’t an aside—it’s a key part of her story, January 13, 2026. 

Liberal Currents: So, How’s the Occupation Going for You?, January 14, 2026. 

Newsweek: Germany, Other NATO Allies Sending Troops to Greenland Amid Trump Threats, January 14, 2026. 

Rick Morton: The Great Silencing, January 15, 2026. 

Compass: An ‘almost revolutionary’ moment for Iran, January 16, 2026. 

World Economic Forum: Davos 2026: Special address by Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, January 20, 2026. 

Al Jazeera: Public opinion shifts on ICE as advocates warn of US ‘inflection point’, January 21, 2026. 

Vanity Fair: “The Homeland” Is War on America: The Blood-and-Soil Nationalism That Killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, January 26, 2026. 

The New York Review: The Crime of Witness, February 2026 Issue.

Aeon: Between being and emptiness, February 5, 2026. 

The Verge: Reality is losing the deepfake war, February 6, 2026. 

BBC: What we know so far: Supreme Leader Khamenei killed, Trump says, as Iran launches retaliatory strikes, March 1, 2026. 

Al Jazeera: Under the shadow of the Iran war, Israel finds another way to punish Gaza, March 1, 2026.

The Interpreter: Iran’s threat to airline travel: The Gulf’s skies are now a chokepoint too, March 5, 2026. 

BBC: Russia, China and the US – the global winners and losers of the Iran war,  March 20, 2026.

The New York Review: Shenzhen Express, March 2026. 

The Straits Times: From wuxia games to AI-powered microdramas, China sharpens its soft power playbook, March 23, 2026. 

The Straits Times: Fuel shortages from Iran war threaten Asia’s biggest food staple, April 11, 2026. 

The Guardian: Viktor Orbán concedes defeat as opposition wins Hungarian election, April 13, 2026. 

Al Jazeera: As Iran crisis drags on, fears of global food catastrophe grow, April 21, 2026.

Aeon: Justice is geometric, April 21, 2026. 

...

"Shakespeare gives us more than Lear or Hamlet, real or feigned mental derangement. There is a third possibility. Titus Andronicus begins by pretending to be mad and then becomes so in reality. To translate this into the history of the American presidency, we need only return to Nixon. Just because you’ve invented and acted on the Madman Theory doesn’t mean you can’t go mad: Nixon’s paranoia, enemies lists, conspiracy theories, and seemingly drunken order to nuke North Korea do not speak of robust mental health. The Madman Theory, it seems, can be a self-fulfilling prophecy."

The New York Review: ‘The Right Amount of Crazy’, May 2026 Issue