Hollywood
Only three films from Asia make it to Montreal World Filmfest
NEW DELHI: Three Asian features will compete at the 38th Montreal World Film Festival. They are Zhang Wei’s ‘Factory Boss’, Oh Mipo’s ‘The Light Shines Only There’, and Narushima Izuru’s ‘Cape Nostalgia’.
‘Factory Boss’ is a social realist drama about a factory owner, who goes to desperate lengths to keep his business alive. ‘The Light Shines Only There’ is an indie romance about an unemployed slacker, who falls for his friend’s younger sister. Starring Yoshinaga Sayuri (who is also a co-producer) ‘Cape Nostalgia’ is a light drama about the owner of a small town café.
In the festival being held from 21 August 21 to 1 September, several Japanese titles will also be screened out-of-competition, including IshiiI Yuya’s ‘Our Family’, erotic period drama ‘A Courtesan with Flowered Skin’, and Mishima Yukiko’s ‘A Drop of the Grapevine’.
Other out-of-competition Asian feature film also includes Indian films like Nilendra Deshapriya’s ‘Between Yesterday and Tomorrow’ (Thanha rathi ranga), Bijukumar Damodaran’s ‘Names Unknown‘(Perariyathavar) and Madhureeta Anand’s ‘Kajarya’.
The festival is also holding a tribute to Fortissimo Films’ Michael J Werner, with six Asian titles: ‘The Great Hypnotist’, ‘Black Coal’, ‘Thin Ice’, ‘Tears of the Black Tiger’, ‘Norwegian Wood’, and ‘The Grandmaster’.
Werner is a long-time veteran of the movie sales business, with nearly 30 years experience in international film sales and consulting, specialising in the Asia-Pacific region
Italian actor-director Sergio Castellitto will lead the world competition’s jury, which also includes Chinese singer Jane Zhang.
Hollywood
Remembering Chuck Norris: the man, the myth, the legend at 86
From martial arts legend to internet folklore, fans honour his final level up
KAUAI: The world lost a legend on 19 March 2026, when Chuck Norris died aged 86. For a man long treated as immortal in internet folklore, the news felt almost unreal. Yet in true Norris fashion, the farewell has been less about mourning and more about myth-making.
Just days before his passing, on his 86th birthday, Norris shared a video from Kauaʻi, Hawaii, showing him sparring under the sun. His caption was characteristically wry: “I don’t age. I level up.” It now reads like a final wink to fans who had spent years elevating him to near-superhuman status.
His death followed a sudden medical emergency while on holiday. He passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, who described him not just as a global symbol of strength, but as a devoted husband, father and grandfather.
Online, grief quickly gave way to tribute in the language Norris helped popularise. Social media filled with one last wave of “Chuck Norris Facts”, the tongue-in-cheek myths that turned him into a digital demigod. The jokes wrote themselves, as always. Death did not take Norris, it finally dared to meet him.
Behind the humour, however, lies a formidable real-world legacy.
Long before the memes, Norris was Carlos Ray Norris, a decorated martial artist. After serving in the US Air Force, he rose to become a six-time world professional middleweight karate champion. His on-screen duel with Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon remains one of cinema’s most iconic fight sequences.
Through the 1980s, he became the face of action cinema with films such as Missing in Action and The Delta Force, embodying a stoic, no-nonsense hero. In the 1990s, he reached living rooms worldwide as Cordell Walker in Walker, Texas Ranger, blending Western grit with martial arts flair.
Off-screen, his work carried equal weight. His foundation, Kickstart Kids, continues to teach martial arts to at-risk youth, focusing on discipline and self-worth. He also founded Chun Kuk Do, a martial arts system that trained thousands.
What made Norris unique was not just his strength, but his willingness to laugh at it. When the internet transformed him into an exaggerated symbol of invincibility, he embraced the joke. In doing so, he bridged generations, from cinema-goers to meme-makers.
His passing marks more than the loss of an action star. It signals the fading of a rare cultural crossover, where genuine athletic prowess met Hollywood heroism and early internet humour.
For many, remembering Chuck Norris means recalling a time when heroes were simple, punches were decisive and the internet still felt like a playground of shared jokes.
And if the myths are to be believed, this is not quite the end. It is simply Chuck Norris moving on to his next level.
