Today is a special day because I can finally celebrate hitting 3,000 reviews! I started actively watching and writing in 2007, averaging 1,000 reviews every 6 years. Therefore, it makes sense that I would hit this new milestone in 2025.

Wow, 18 years just flashed by. I was barely 19 then. In another 18 more years, I would be 55, a senior citizen. It’s frightening to think that time will fly just as quickly, if I’m fortunate to live that long.

Despite seeing probably more than 4,000 films already (there had been countless titles I didn’t have time to review), I still feel overwhelmed because there’s so much to discover.

There are significant filmmakers from the past whose films I’ve yet to see. There are filmmakers, alive or otherwise, whose filmographies seem utterly endless. There are new, emerging filmmakers from all corners of the world hoping for some attention.

Cinema isn’t dead – thousands of films are produced each year. But the hard truth is probably only 10% are worth seeing, and 1% are truly astonishing and revelatory. In fact, many great films don’t even land a footnote in any book about the history of cinema. What then are the fates of ‘run-of-the-mill’ or ‘abysmal’ movies?

This is why film reviews are important – they tell you that this or that very film exists, for better or worse, from someone to someone else. 

This is why sometimes, covertly or otherwise, I will visit your Letterboxd account to see what you have been watching, and what you thought or felt about the films you have logged.

This is why I hope to continue another 6, 12, maybe 18 more years, because it is so addictive to keep watching, documenting and sharing.

So, at this juncture, I want to thank all of you who have been following my journey, whether via my website, IG, Letterboxd, or elsewhere.

If, over the years, you have gone on to watch certain films that you ordinarily won’t even think about because of my reviews, that makes me very happy. Even the ones I didn’t care much for, because you might just love them enough to want to defend or champion them. 

Isn’t that the raison d’être of being a cinephile?