20 h. ago My cultural awakening: Jackie Chan films inspired me to become a kung fu instructor

Since I saw a VHS of Rush Hour at a sleepover as a kid, the martial art has given me increased body positivity and helped me find a community When I was 12, following my parents’ divorce, I moved with my mum and sister from London to Australia, leaving behind my dad and a large extended family. It was destabilising and demoralising. Throughout high school I was bullied for my accent, clothes and looks. While Australian girls seemed like flowers thriving under the brutal sun, I felt like a sweaty, acne-prone gremlin who craved the dark and cold of home.Shortly after moving, I befriended a girl who had lost her mum. Suffering in our own ways, we found release in watching the 1998 action comedy Rush Hour, starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker as detectives trying to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Chinese diplomat. My friend had the film on VHS, and we put it on one night when I was sleeping over. This became a regular activity, and we would fling ourse...

Culture

7 d. ago Netflix fans told to watch 'perfect' crime comedy after Thursday Murder Club disappointment

It's been suggested as an ideal alternative to the Richard Osman adaptation

Events

1 week ago India gambling ban leaves major brands scrambling – including main sponsor of national cricket team

New law bans real-money online games, forcing billion-dollar firms to suspend operations and cut deals

Politics

3 w. ago Materialists review – Dakota Johnson torn between Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans in charming romcom

Johnson plays a matchmaker who has to choose between wealthy new suitor Pascal and broke ex Evans, but the outcome feels a little undramaticSay you are a single woman in New York and you are, in the words of the song, torn between two lovers: two handsome, intelligent, nice guys – one very poor and one very rich. All things being equal, who do you go for? The answer in real life is very different, in fact diametrically opposed, to the answer in a film. Few movie heroines have the candour of Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, who admitted to falling in love with Mr Darcy on seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley.But this is the choice, which never quite ascends to the state of a dilemma, in this charming and watchable – yet for me somehow anticlimactic – romantic comedy-drama from South Korean-Canadian film-maker Celine Song: a love-triangle confection to follow the much realer, truer love triangle of Song’s much acclaimed debut Past Lives. When the decision is...

Politics

3 w. ago Netflix adds 'must watch' British TV comedy hailed as 'brilliant' by viewers

The ITV sitcom first streamed on ITV2 with fans already calling for Netflix to make the fifth series available

Culture

3 w. ago Major bank with 2.5million customers making changes to 36 accounts within days

The Co-operative Bank is cutting is making a shocking changes to 36 savings accounts, leaving customers for the worst as they deliver a fresh blow to savers with altered interest rates

Economics

3 w. ago Laughter really is the best medicine as watching comedy before operation cuts pain

Turkish scientists discovered that watching just 25 minutes of TV comedy before an abdominal operation could lessen the pain felt by the patient afterwards

Culture