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It’s impossible to talk about Chinese-language cinema without mentioning Hong Kong — a truth underscored at this year’s 27th Shanghai International Film Festival (Siff).

This year’s program dives deep into the city’s storied cinematic past, treating audiences to classics like Jackie Chan’s complete Police Story series. Alongside the retrospective is a forward-looking focus: a Hong Kong New Power Projects Showcase that has presented five productions looking for mainland Chinese partners. It’s all helped spark a conversation about how a city of just 7.5 million people has produced such a rich legacy of influential films — and what the next wave of Hong Kong cinema might look like.

But what’s not being lost on anyone is how Hong Kong cinema is struggling, with its box office down to a 13-year low as of the latest report, with production numbers also diving. Many of the city’s filmmakers...

French filmmaker Audrey Diwan made a splash in 2021 for her Golden Lion-winning abortion drama “Happening.” It was such an astounding second feature that everyone in the jury was unanimous in their praise for the filmmaker’s exceptional handling of a subject that still plagues us. The 1963 set film featured a breakout performance by Anamaria Vartolomei and instantly put Diwan on the map. So, it especially comes as a humongous disappointment that her new film “Emmanuelle,” starring the always dependable Noémie Merlant, is a load of hot garbage.

Based on the 1967 novel of the same name, which was turned into a successful series of films, the new reworking is set almost entirely in a luxury hotel in Hong Kong. Merlant stars as the titular character who arrives at the property as a quality controller, but is secretly looking for sexual adventures that completely supersede the disciplined work she is supposed to do.

"Have you decided to enjoy yourself?" Oh my, Emmanuelle... Decal Releasing has unveiled a new official US trailer for the indie film titled Emmanuelle, a sultry erotic drama inspired by Emmanuelle Arsan's beloved "cult novel". It was already adapted once before into a film in 1974, also titled Emmanuelle, though this is whole new take on it. Releasing in the US on VOD this summer. From the Golden Lion winning filmmaker of Happening comes a new adventure with Emmanuelle, starring the French actress Noémie Merlant as the woman on a trip to Hong Kong exploring her sexual desires. Loosely adapted from Arsan's novel, Diwan's film follows a woman flying alone to Hong Kong on a business trip where she initiates numerous encounters including with Kei, a man who constantly eludes her. Merlant co-stars with Naomi Watts, Will Sharpe, Jamie Campbell Bower, Chacha Huang, Anthony Wong, among others. This premiered...

Will Sharpe is having his moment. The “White Lotus” breakout star leads the already buzzy Netflix series “Too Much” alongside Megan Stalter. As we await Lena Dunham’s return to TV with the rom-dram series, Sharpe puts his leading man moves on full display for Audrey Diwan’s erotic drama “Emmanuelle.” The film first premiered in San Sebastián last year and will finally hit VOD next month. IndieWire shares the release details and the trailer exclusively below.

“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” actress Noémie Merlant stars as the title character in Diwan’s modern re-imagining of Emmanuelle Arsan’s 1967 novel. The film, Diwan’s first since her abortion drama “Happening,” centers on a woman (Merlant) whose business trip to Hong Kong leads to a sexual awakening. Naomi Watts, Will Sharpe, “Stranger Things” breakout Jamie Campbell Bower, Anthony Wong, and Chacha Huang co-star.

The official synopsis for the film reads:...

The 29th edition of Hong Kong Filmart opened Monday and saw the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (Hkcec) thronging with people, in a pleasing throwback to the pre-pandemic days of the event.

The Hollywood Reporter was right in the thick of things on the main exhibition floor, mingling with the crowds and scouring the seemingly endless hallways to get a sense of what titles attendees and dealmakers were most excited about. After much discussion, THR picks out the five features that are really turning heads at Filmart this year.

Valley of the Shadow of Death (Hong Kong)

The great Anthony Wong (Infernal Affairs, Still Human) returns in a role that plays to the veteran star’s strengths — that is, a character at odds with the world, and with his place in it. In Valley of the Shadow of Death, Wong dons a cassock to play a pastor who must...

The 49th Hong Kong International Film Festival will kick off on April 10 with dual opening features, Japanese drama The Brightest Sun and Malaysia-Hong Kong co-production Pavane for an Infant. Berlin Golden Bear winner Dreams (Sex Love), directed by Norway’s Dag Johan Haugerud, will then bring the curtain down on the event on April 21 as the closing film. The festival’s lineup was unveiled Monday at a press conference at Hong Kong’s Filmart Content Market.

The Brightest Sun is filmmaker Tetsuya Nakashima’s adaptation of a novel by popular Japanese author Bunzo Uchikai. It’s the first film from Nakashima (Kamikaze Girls, The World of Kanako) in seven years. Pavane for an Infant, meanwhile, directed by Chong Keat Aun, is a drama exploring the issue of baby abandonment through the eyes of a female social worker (Malaysian-born Hong Kong actress Fish Liew).

Two local Hong Kong features have been...

Japanese filmmaker Nakashima Tetsuya’s The Brightest Sun and Malaysia-Hong Kong co-production Pavane For An Infant, directed by Chong Keat-Aun, will open this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (April 10-21).

Berlin Golden Bear winner Dreams (Sex Love), directed by Norway’s Dag Johan Haugerud, has been set as the closing film of the festival.

Two Hong Kong productions will receive Gala Screenings – Valley Of The Shadow Of Death, starring Anthony Wong, and Oliver Chan Siu-kuen’s Montages Of A Modern Motherhood, which played in Busan International Film Festival’s New Currents section and Tokyo International Film Festival’s Women’s Empowerment strand last year.

Hkiff’s Cinephile Paradise section will screen films such as Geng Jun’s Bel Ami, Vivian Qu’s Girls On Wire, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, Luis Ortega’s Kill The Jockey and Yeo Siew Hua’s Stranger Eyes.

As previously announced, Hong Kong actor...

Despite the challenges currently faced by the Hong Kong film industry, a wave of new filmmakers has emerged in recent years. Backed by government funding and the mentoring of experienced local producers and directors, these talents have seen encouraging box office results at home as well as festival play and some commercial success overseas.

Unlike Hong Kong’s previous generation of filmmakers, which specialized in crime thrillers and martial arts action movies, these younger directors tend to work with much smaller budgets and focus on realistic characters and social issues relevant to their hometown of Hong Kong. Few of these filmmakers are aiming for mainland Chinese audiences, due to the high costs, cultural differences and censorship issues that complicate releasing films in that market.

For nearly two decades now, the Hong Kong Film Development Council (Hkfdc) has provided a range of funding programmes to support local filmmakers, including the Film Production Financing Scheme,...

Cambodian buyer Westec Media is making its market debut at Hong Kong Filmart as it ventures into international sales with a line-up of six titles from Cambodia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan.

Its debut slate includes Malaysian director James Lee’s Next Stop, Somewhere, a drama about freedom and self-discovery, starring Hong Kong actor Anthony Wong; Igor Hsu’s Corpse Bazaar, a Taiwanese body horror film about revenge and redemption; and Joey Lee’s My Parents’ Midlife Crisis, a Malaysian family drama about love and healing.

Further titles are The Ghost Of Banana Tree, a remake of a classic Cambodian horror,...

Featuring a painstaking production that took place in Malaysia and Taiwan, “Next Stop, Somewhere” presents a triptych of stories that are connected through a feeling of being trapped the protagonists feel and not only due to Covid.

Next Stop, Somewhere is screening at Cinema at Sea

Hong Kong actor Huang has left Hong Kong after the Umbrella Movement, and has moved to Taipei, arguably the most liberal East Asian country. However, as soon as he got there, he found himself restrained in a hotel room due to quarantine, not to mention that he has trouble getting the money he transferred from Hong Kong. His only connection with the outside world is a maid in the hotel, Xiao Qian, who is the one whom he asks for books and cigarettes. The girl on the other hand, has her own set of problems, being trapped in a lesbian relationship with Bae, whom...

Stars: Noémie Merlant, Will Sharpe, Naomi Watts, Jamie Campbell Bower, Chacha Huang, Anthony Wong, Harrison Arevalo | Written by Emmanuelle Arsan, Audrey Diwan, Rebecca Zlotowski | Directed by Audrey Diwan

Back in 1974, the original Emmanuelle was something of a cause celebre, a French soft-core erotic drama that became a huge crossover hit, inspiring multiple sequels and bestowing instant fame on its eponymous star, Sylvia Kristel. Now it’s been remade, with French star Noemie Merlant in the lead, and given a 21st century spin by director Audrey Diwan, the acclaimed director of 2021’s Golden Lion-winning abortion drama Happening. However, whatever Diwan and co-writer Rebecca Zlotowski were intending with this supposedly erotic dalliance, it does not appear to have penetrated, so to speak.

Merlant (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) plays Emmanuelle, a high-flying quality controller for a chain of luxury hotels. She’s first introduced having a spot of mile-high fun with...

It's pretty amazing that acclaimed American filmmaker Martin Scorsese finally took home the Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture for a movie that was, for all intents and purposes, a remake of a foreign-language gangster film that originated in Hong Kong. After all, Scorsese is an artist who has largely seen his career defined by idiosyncratic films that practically no other filmmaker could ever recreate.

The Departed concerns itself with the story of two moles, one planted in the Massachusetts State Police Department and the other finding his way into Boston's Irish Mob. Four years earlier, Hong Kong directors Andrew Lau and Alan Mak brought that same story to life through a different geographical lens, and its name is Infernal Affairs.

Related 10 Best Foreign Gangster Movies, Ranked

Foreign films often break the mold and reel audiences in for generations, and gangster movies are a great example of this.

What Is Infernal Affairs About?...

Quite unfortunately during the latest years, Anthony Wong seems to be continuously appearing in films where his performance is excellent, but the movies are not exactly great. This time, however, in “Valley of the Shadow of Death” he has a role where his performance by itself could actually elevate the whole thing to the highest levels of quality. Let us see if he achieved just that.

Valley of the Shadow of Death is screening at Tokyo International Film Festival

Pastor Leung, who always teaches about the value of forgiveness, finds himself in a rather dire situation, when one of the people working for his church gives shelter to a young man who was living on the street. It turns out, however, as we learn from various flashbacks, that the boy is the one responsible for the death of Leung’s daughter, who was his classmate, and the reason his relationship with his wife,...

Audrey Diwan is following up her Golden Lion win for “Happening” with an adaptation of Emmanuelle Arsan’s novel “Emmanuelle.”

The sensual thriller centers on a titular woman (Noémie Merlant) whose business trip to Hong Kong awakens an insatiability inside of her. Naomi Watts, Will Sharpe, “Stranger Things” breakout Jamie Campbell Bower, Anthony Wong, and Chacha Huang also co-star.

An official synopsis for the film reads: Emmanuelle is in search of a lost pleasure. She flies alone to Hong Kong, for a business trip. In this sensual world city, she multiplies experiences and meets Kei, a man who never ceases to elude her. Diwan’s film, freely adapted from Arsan’s novel, casts a female gaze on the intimate quest of the woman whose name still evokes one cinema’s most provocative characters.

“Emmanuelle” will open the San Sebastián Film Festival on September 20. The feature is distributed by Pathé.

Chantelouve,...

Un thriller erótico protagonizado por Noémie Merlant, Naomi Watts, Will Sharpe y Jamie Campbell Bower. © BetaFiction

Se han hecho públicos el primer tráiler y póster de “Emmanuelle”, la nueva película de Audrey Diwan, directora de la ganadora del León de Oro del Festival de Venecia en 2021 con “L’événement”, que abrirá la 72 edición del Festival de San Sebastián a concurso y que contará con la presencia de su directora y su reparto.

“Emmanuelle”, que se inspira en el personaje y el mundo creado por la escritora Emmanuelle Arsan, sigue a Emmanuelle (Noémie Merlant), una mujer acostumbrada a tener encuentros sexuales ocasionales por los que no siente ningún placer. Un día, la cadena de hoteles de lujo para la que trabaja la llama para que vaya a Hong Kong a revisar la caída de ingresos de uno de sus establecimientos, pero cuando llega se encuentra con un hotel que funciona perfectamente.

Break out the tissues. Today, Pathé released the official French trailer and poster for French writer/director Audrey Diwan’s (Happening) upcoming film, Emmanuelle, which will have its World Premiere as the Opening Night film, In Competition, at the San Sebastián Film Festival on the September 20.

The synopsis reads,

“Emmanuelle (Merlant) is in search of a lost pleasure. She flies alone to Hong Kong on a business trip. In this sensual global city, where she initiates numerous encounters, she meets Kei, a man who constantly eludes her.”

Audrey Diwan’s film, freely adapted from Emmanuelle Arsan’s novel, casts a female gaze on the intimate quest of the woman whose name still evokes one cinema’s most provocative characters. The film stars actor-director Noémie Merlant, Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive), Will Sharpe (The White Lotus), Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things), Chacha Huang, and Anthony Wong (Internal Affairs). Chantelouve, Rectangle Productions and Goodfellas produced the film.

"Desire ebbs & flows, it evolves. And wears off, too..." Pathe in France has revealed the first official trailer for the new take on Emmanuelle, an erotic drama inspired by Emmanuelle Arsan's beloved novel. It was already adapted once before into a film in 1974, also titled Emmanuelle, though this is a fresh vision. From the Golden Lion winning filmmaker of Happening comes a new Emmanuelle, starring the French actress Noémie Merlant as the woman on a trip to Hong Kong exploring her sexual desires. Loosely adapted from Arsan's novel, director Audrey Diwan's film follows a woman flying alone to Hong Kong on a business trip where she initiates numerous encounters including with Kei, a man who constantly eludes her. Merlant co-stars with Naomi Watts, Will Sharpe, Jamie Campbell Bower, Chacha Huang, Anthony Wong, among others. Oddly the film is skipping this year's Venice Film Festival, despite Diwan's win a few years ago,...

Audrey Diwan’s erotic quest movie “Emmanuelle” has dropped a first trailer and poster ahead of its world premiere screening in September at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Shot in Hong Kong, the film is freely adapted from Emmanuelle Arsan’s novel of the same name. It casts a female gaze on the intimate quest of the woman whose name still evokes one cinema’s most provocative characters.

With “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” star Noémie Merlant in the title role, Emmanuelle goes in search of a lost pleasure. She flies alone to Hong Kong on a business trip. In this sensual global city, she initiates numerous encounters and meets Kei (Will Sharpe), a man who constantly eludes her.

Alongside Merlant, the film also stars Naomi Watts, Jamie Campbell Bower, Chacha Huang and Anthony Wong.

Diwan, a Venice Golden Lion winner for her 2021 film “Happening,” co-wrote “Emmanuelle” with fellow filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski,...

Screen can reveal the first trailer for Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle, ahead of its world premiere as the opening night film of San Sebastian Film Festival on September 20.

Loosely adapted from Emmanuelle Arsan’s novel of the same name, Diwan’s film follows a woman flying alone to Hong Kong on a business trip where she initiates numerous encounters including with Kei, a man who constantly eludes her.

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire star Noemie Merlant plays the title role, alongside Naomi Watts, Will Sharpe, Jamie Campbell Bower, Chacha Huang and Anthony Wong. The film is produced by Chantelouve,...

Once upon a time there was a film industry that wasn't dominated by the comic book behemoths of D.C. and Marvel. Where a comic book style movie felt fresh, innovative and where the Hong Kong production line hadn't been stripped bare in the service of mainland blockbusters with a patriotic core. “Black Mask” in many respects is a last hurrah of an industry about to go through immense change. As Eureka Entertainment bring it to blu-ray, it's time to revisit this Frankenstein's monster of a collaborative effort between several unique talents.

on Terracotta by clicking on the image below

Tsui Chik (Jet Li) is a former member of the 701 Squad, a surgically enhanced team of super soldiers that feel no pain. After their team is shut down he escapes and hides out as a librarian. His only friend is Inspector Shek who knows nothing of his past.

Though he’s known today as one of Hong Kong’s most distinctive contemporary filmmakers, in the early 1990s Johnnie To was still a gun for hire. Having apprenticed for the region’s Tvb broadcasting network for most of the ’80s, he had only recently established himself as a reliable maker of action and comedy films. And chief among his early successes is 1993’s wuxia superhero film The Heroic Trio, which is at once indebted to his genre forebears in Hong Kong cinema and possessed of his own idiosyncratic skills.

Like so many wuxia classics, the film’s plot is at once unnecessarily convoluted and little more than justification for moving from one stunt set piece to the next. In the sewers beneath present-day Hong Kong’s bustling streets, an ancient court eunuch, Evil Master (Yen Shi-Kwan), abducts newborns of imperial blood and raises them as potential new emperors in...

As we welcome in the New Year, we can reveal our annual (non-exhaustive) list of U.S. and international movies we think could grace the festival circuit in 2024. We’ve stuck to our criteria that the project must already be in production and have not already been announced for a festival. More than 70% of our selections last year went on to debut at a major festival. Those that didn’t were largely delayed by the strike or are still in post-production. If the titles below make the cut, it will be a thrilling year on the festival circuit once again.

Megalopolis

Expectations are high that Francis Ford Coppola will deliver his long-awaited $100+ million passion project in 2024. The sci-fi drama charts the story of an architect who wants to rebuild New York City as a utopia following a devastating disaster. The cast featuring Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight,...

Earlier this morning Audrey Diwan confirmed the recent news that Naomi Watts has a role in her highly anticipated Emmanuelle, but the French filmmaker also revealed the rest of the line-up and gave us a first look with a splendid Noemie Merlant in a cozy, most-likely duvet something. Will Sharpe, Jamie Campbell Bower, Chacha Huang and Anthony Wong complete the cast. Luàna Bajrami and Anamaria Vartolomei are also part of the cast.

Based on Emmanuelle Arsan’s novel and based on a script co-developed by Diwan and Rebecca Zlotowski, this follows a young woman’s sexual journey from the arms of her husband to intimate encounters with the wives of his business associates, to further explorations wherein the philosophical and aesthetic facets of eroticism are expounded—and enacted—to the fullest degree.…...

Noémie Merlant plays the titular role in the erotic drama based on a script co-written by Diwan and Rebecca Zlotowski.

Naomi Watts and Will Sharpe have rounded out the cast of Audrey Diwan’s English-language feature Emmanuelle that has just wrapped production in Paris. Pathé will release the film in France and France Télévisions has pre-bought the film for local TV broadcast.

Emmanuelle is Diwan’s first English-language feature from Venice Golden Lion-winning Happening director Diwan also features Jamie Campbell Bower, Chacha Huang and Anthony Wong in supporting roles. Shooting started in October and took place in Hong Kong and Paris.

Two-time Oscar nominee Naomi Watts has joined the cast of “Emmanuelle,” Audrey Diwan’s highly anticipated erotic drama, Variety has confirmed.

Diwan’s follow-up to the Venice-prizewinning “Happening,” the film is inspired by Emmanuelle Arsan’s novel and is based on a script co-developed by Diwan and Rebecca Zlotowski (“Other People’s Children”). The book centers on a woman and the series of erotic fantasies that she entertains. It was previously made into a 1974 film of the same name, directed by Just Jaeckin and starring Sylvia Kristel, which became a cult hit.

Watts revealed the news when she posted a now-deleted Instagram Story with “Emmanuelle” co-star Noemie Merlant, a critically acclaimed French actor who broke through in Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and made her English-speaking debut in Todd Field’s Oscar-nominated film “Tar.” Merlant plays the titular role in “Emmanuelle.” The rest of the cast comprises...

Exclusive: Production has wrapped in Paris on Audrey Diwan’s (Happening) anticipated erotic drama Emmanuelle, which stars Noémie Merlant (Portrait Of A Lady On Fire) in the title role.

We can reveal an exclusive first look at the English-language movie, which will also star two-time Oscar nominee Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive) opposite Merlant, Will Sharpe (The White Lotus) as the male lead, Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things), Chacha Huang (Money Heist) and Anthony Wong (Infernal Affairs).

Inspired by the character and world created by writer Emmanuelle Arsan, the film shot in Hong Kong and Paris from a script co-written with Rebecca Zlotowski (Other People’s Children).

Plot details are being kept under wraps but Diwan’s film will deviate from the lucrative and cult 1977 movie adaptation of Arsan’s novel, which starred Sylvia Kristel as the wife of a French diplomat in Bangkok who embarks on a voyage of sexual discovery.

‘’Eye Of The Storm’ and ‘Marry My Dead Body’ also secure several nods.

Chong Keat-aun’s historical epic Snow In Midsummer leads the nominations for the 60th Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan, scoring nine nods including best film and best director.

Lin Chun-yang’s Sars drama Eye Of The Storm and Cheng Wei-hao’s ghost comedy Marry My Dead Body are close behind with eight nominations apiece.

Each will compete in the best film category along with Stonewalling by husband-and-wife team Huang Ji from mainland China and Ryuji Otsuka from Japan, and Time Still Turns The Pages, the feature debut...

Gangster movies are often violent, but some creatively brutal deaths in these films stand out among the rest. From filmmakers including Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, the crime genre has become one of the most popular and well-regarded in cinema. The appeal for stories about mobsters and criminals is constantly present, as they give audiences an opportunity to fantasize about a life that's both dangerous and lavish, without any real consequences.

The best gangster movies also show the downside of a life of crime, as many main characters find themselves dead at the hands of rival gangs, the police, and sometimes their own family. A brutal death can be excessively violent, showing the worst of humankind's imagination and creativity. But a death's brutality can also come from its personal nature, as gangster movie characters may find themselves at gunpoint with a longtime friend on the other end.

Related: Every...

On July 14, 2023, the New York Asian Film Foundation and Film at Lincoln Center will kick off the 22nd edition of the New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff), with 60+ new and classic titles, a greatly expanded selection of short films, and an exciting slate of celebrated guests from Asia and the diaspora. The festival runs from July 14–30, 2023 at Film at Lincoln Center (Flc), with a special weekend of screenings (July 21–23) at a new venue, the historic Barrymore Film Center in Fort Lee, New Jersey, the birthplace of the motion picture industry in America.

“As filmmakers from Asia continue to earn the lion's share of top awards (and attention) on the international film festival circuit, this year's selection shows that those are still trees hiding a forest of talent,” said Samuel Jamier, executive director of Nyaff and president of the New York Asian Film Foundation. “We are thrilled to offer a platform...

Donnie Yen once had a cool take on The Expendables and it really needs to happen. Yen is a legend of martial arts cinema, from Once Upon a Time in China II to Hero or the Ip Man movies. Sadly, his early experiences with Hollywood yielded disappointing results; he was tragically wasted in Blade 2 and proved to be one of the few reasons to watch 2000's Highlander: Endgame. Thankfully, recent years have seen American studios giving him worthy roles, with John Wick: Chapter 4's Caine easily being his best English-language project to date.

The Expendables movie franchise was formed with the mission brief of uniting some of the biggest action stars in the world. While it pulled in an impressive number of icons - including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li and Harrison Ford - it missed some big names too. Yen was a near-miss, as he was once set...

Hassan (Sahal Zaman) is a Hong-Kong-born Pakistani kid waiting for refugee status to Canada. His father dies in a car accident that involves taxi driver Yat (Anthony Wong). An unexpected bond forms between the two when Hassan joins a refugees' gang and is rescued by Yat during a police crackdown. However, Hassan soon discovers that Yat was responsible for his father's death. (Sources: Golden Scene Cinema and Mubi)

This is a debut feature by Hong Kong based, Malaysian born director Lau Kok-rui who cut his teeth working on documentaries. The movie received six nominations at the 59th Golden Horse Awards in 2022. Lau won Best New Director and Best Original Screenplay, with Anthony Wong picking up Best Leading Actor.

The Sunny Side of the Street is produced by Petra Group's Vinod Sekhar, Winnie Tsang from Golden Scene, as well as Soi Cheang (Limbo) and Peter Yam (Blue Island). It will...

‘My Nineteen-Year-Old Self’ withdrawn over public screening consent issues.

Courtroom drama The Sparring Partner has received 16 nominations for the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards, which saw the last-minute withdrawal of Mabel Cheung’s documentary To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self.

The Sparring Partner, which marks the feature directorial debut of Ho Cheuk Tin, leads the pack with nominations in all but three categories. Based on the true story of a gruesome double murder case, its nods include best film, best director and five nominations for performers including lead actors Mak Pui Tung and Yeung Wai Lun. The film has become Hong Kong...

One Shot is a series that seeks to find an essence of cinema history in one single image of a movie. A pair of scissors; a tongue. Hong Kong filmmaker Herman Yau begins his cult classic Ebola Syndrome (1996) with a gesture reminiscent of the slice across the retina that notoriously opens Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí’s surrealist masterpiece Un chien andalou (1929). Whereas Buñuel and Dalí’s gesture was an assault on the visual order of bourgeois normativity, Yau’s unsettling slash strikes at something more corporeal and indefinable: taste. Both aesthetic and somatic taste is the primary focus of Ebola Syndrome, and the film is as much about the unpleasant sights Yau serves his audience as it is about the nasty ingredients the film’s protagonist, the repugnant chef Kai Sun (Anthony Wong), serves to his customers, such as snot, sperm, urine, human flesh, and the Ebola virus just to name a few.

The first two sequels of Lilly and Lana Wachowski's seminal science-fiction movie, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions, were both released in 2003. Typically, sequels to major Hollywood tent pole movies take at least a couple of years to be released, yet this was not the case for The Matrix franchise. Only six months separated the release of The Matrix Reloaded (in May 2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (in November 2003). In fact, The Matrix Reloaded was released on DVD only three weeks before The Matrix Revolutions opened in theaters worldwide.

The theatrical release of The Matrix Revolutions, specifically, was a major gamble. In contrast to a typical film release, the first showings of Neo's swan song, The Matrix Revolutions debuted at the exact same moment in over 100 countries worldwide (at approximately 14:00 GMT on 5th November 2003). This kind of simultaneous release had never been attempted before. The release...

Laha Mebow became the first woman from Taiwan to win the best director prize for ‘Gaga’.

Taiwanese family drama Coo-Coo 043 won best film and Hong Kong crime drama Limbo picked up the most prizes at the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan on Saturday night (November 19) as Hong Kong cinema made a grand return winning nine awards.

The prizes were quite evenly distributed this year, with no single film sweeping the 59th edition of the annual ceremony, which was held at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei.

Scroll down for list of winners

Chan Ching-lin’s feature debut Coo-Coo 043, set...

Taiwanese filmmaker Chan Ching-lin’s Coo-Coo 043 was awarded best narrative feature at the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan on Saturday night, while Hong Kong crime drama Limbo, directed by Soi Cheang, won the biggest number of awards with four prizes.

Coo-Coo 043 also picked up the best new performer award for Hu Jhih-ciang. Also starring Yu An-shun and Yang Li-yin, the film revolves around a Taiwanese family that makes a living through racing pigeons, but is badly affected by economic pressures and the disappearance of a son. It premiered as the opening film of the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (Tghff), where it won the Fipresci prize on the same night as the Golden Horse ceremony.

While Coo-Coo 043 won the top honour at the awards, Limbo took home the biggest haul of prizes with best adapted screenplay, best cinematography, best visual effects and best art direction (see details below). It also...

“Coo-Coo 043,” a Taiwan family drama set against the backdrop of pigeon racing, was named the best film on Saturday at the Golden Horse Film Awards. Hong Kong-made crime thriller “Limbo” won four awards, making it the numerical winner.

“Coo-Coo 043,” which was directed by Chang Chin-lin and picked up 13 nominations, also won the best new performer award for Hu Jhih-ciang. A day earlier, the film also picked up the Golden Horse Film Festival’s Fipresci prize.

“Limbo,” directed by Soi Cheang, amassed 14 nominations. At the award ceremony in Taipei it won in the best adapted screenplay, cinematography, visual effects and art direction categories. A day before the ceremony, “Limbo” also picked up the Golden Horse festival’s audience choice award.

Other titles that earned multiple Ghfa prizes included: “The Sunny Side of the Street” with three wins (Anthony Wong as best actor and Malaysia’s Lau Kok-roi for both best new...

Considering the people involved in the movie, with Johnnie To directing, Anita Mui, Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung starring as the titular trio, and Anthony Wong as one of the key villains, and with a script that is filled with martial arts action plus a plethora of Catiii elements, one would expect that “The Heroic Trio” would be the quintessential Hk action film. However, a number of faults in the script and a couple of other issues prevent it from becoming so, although the entertainment it offers, at least for the most part, is undeniable.

“The Heroic Trio“ is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival

The aforementioned trio comprises of Tung (aka Wonder Woman), who is married to a policeman, Chat (Thief Catcher) a mercenary and head hunter, and Ching (Invisible Woman). As the story begins, an enigmatic persona mentioned only as Evil Master is blackmailing the Invisible Woman...

Lau Kok Rui’s feature debut is competing for six Golden Horse Awards.

Hong Kong sales and distribution company Golden Scene has acquired the worldwide rights to multiple Golden Horse Awards nominee The Sunny Side Of the Street, starring renowned actor Anthony Wong.

Malaysia-born Hong Kong-based writer-director Lau Kok Rui is vying for six Golden Horse Awards for his feature debut The Sunny Side Of the Street. Shot in Hong Kong, the film is up for best film, best director, best original screenplay and best cinematography for Leung Ming Kai.

Wong (Still Human) and child actor Sahal Zaman have nods...

When “Naked Killer” starring Chingmy Yau came out in 1992 and became a cult favorite, producer and scripter Wong Jing followed it up with “Naked Weapon” in 2002 ten years later starring Maggie Q. Fast forward another ten years, the prolific filmmaker Wong resurfaced with another installment of his erotic girls-with-guns thriller “Naked Soldier” this time starring Jennifer Tse and Sammo Hung in the lead.

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The film kicks off with Interpol Agent Ck Lung (Sammo Hung) leading his men to a mansion which ends with a huge drug bust and making headlines everywhere. Next up we see him cooking Christmas dinner for his whole family but before they have a chance to eat, a group of gunmen fronted by Madame Rose (Ellen Chan) storms in and shoots at everyone. Lung fights hard with his enemies and gets shot in the chest.

Taiwanese horror ‘Incantation’ and family drama ‘Coo-Coo 043’ also receive multiple nods.

Soi Cheang’s Hong Kong thriller Limbo leads the nominations for this year’s Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan, followed by Kevin Ko’s local horror Incantation and Chan Ching-lin’s family drama Coo-Coo 043.

Black and white crime noir Limbo, which premiered in Berlinale Special in 2021, secured 14 nods including best film and best director, while Taiwanese titles Incantation and Coo-Coo 043 each received 13 nominations.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

The 59th edition of the awards will mark a stronger representation of Hong Kong titles than in recent years,...

Projects by Mag Hsu from Taiwan, Kiwi Chow from Hong Kong, and Japan’s Akira Ikeda were among those selected.

Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (Fpp) has revealed a record 48 film projects, including projects by Mag Hsu, Chang Jung-chi and Lin Yu-hsien from Taiwan, Kiwi Chow, Chapman To and Jevons Au from Hong Kong, and Akira Ikeda and Yukinori Makabe from Japan.

The Fpp project market is one of the key events under the Golden Horse umbrella. Scheduled to take place from November 15-17 during the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, its attendance of international filmmakers and guests...

"I suspect Sam has a mole in the department." Janus Films has revealed a new 4K restoration trailer for an iconic Hong King crime trilogy titled Infernal Affairs, best known as the film series that was remade into Martin Scorsese's Oscar winning film The Departed. Many cinephiles are already familiar with these films, but if you haven't watched them yet, Criterion Collection is re-releasing them as a Blu-ray box set later this year after they re-open in theaters first. A blockbuster in Asia, Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s groundbreaking policier saga traded the high-octane ballistics of earlier Hong Kong films for a cooler, crisper style and a head-spinning plot full of twists that forever changed the genre. A must see set of films!! New 4K restoration from the original camera negatives was carried out by L'Immagine Ritrovata Asia. Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The original...

After 1997, Hong Kong Cinema was in a state of flux. Many of the top tier talent had moved to America and the future looked bleak. Yet where there is a gap, there is opportunity and “Beast Cops” exploded into the cinemas in 1998, breathing new life into a genre that was struggling. Providing Michael Wong with the role of his career, it also highlighted the talent of Anthony Wong, elevating him from Category III villainy to true leading man status. Tt’s time to look back and revisit one of the final great films of the 1990s.

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Tung (Anthony Wong) is a policeman that is comfortably playing both sides to maintain an easy life. His friendship with Fei (Roy Cheung) is part of this, with Tung eager to avoid any conflict or confrontation where possible. This all changes with the...

Last year, Ben Stykuc wrote in his review of “Three Days of a Blind Girl”: “In retrospect, Anthony Wong is the only actor I know that could outNicolasCage Nicolas Cage”, and his comment could not have been more spot on. Having build his career with secondary roles and first roles in Cat III films, Wong eventually managed to become one of the most respected character actors in the industry with a string of awards and outstanding performances to his credit. Just his presence is frequently enough by itself to elevate the films he participates in, with him portraying rather different characters throughout his career, with equal artistry and much gusto. To celebrate this wonderful actor, we present 16 of his best performances, in alphabetical order, focusing on a diversity of roles that have him play from a a priest to rapist, from a cop to a sadistic killer, and anything between.

Herman Yau tackles political and social issues, re-proposing the classic atmospheres and themes of Hong Kong Triade cinema in “The Mobfathers,” a gritty and satirical tale of power struggle and a nod to Hong Kong’s troubles with the China-manoeuvred elections.

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The film begins immediately in full swing, with a violent brawl in which Chat (Chapman To), the head of the Metal gang, is arrested and locked up in Stanley prison, just as his beautiful wife discovers she is expecting a baby; an event that for wrong timing fails to divert the course of fate. In fact Chat, with a 5-year sentence, is going to miss the birth and early years of his son and has no other options than to leave his trusty lieutenant Luke (Philip Keung) in charge of the boys of the gang, and also to take care of his wife and child.

Throughout his career, the works of Johnnie To have always had a distinct European touch, especially those regarding gangsters, killers and heists, a blend of Eastern and Western influences you might say. Unsurprisingly, To himself had been toying with the idea to emphasize the connections in a future project, until he finally got the chance to do so from French producers Michèle and Laurent Pétin, who had been planning to collaborate with the filmmaker for quite some time. “Vengeance”, as their project was called, combines To’s sense of style, location and timing, especially regarding action scenes, but also tells a very interesting story about the overall point of revenge, and how it forever leaves a mark on people. The film would premier at Cannes Film Festival in 2009 and would go on to receive many favorable reviews, praising the performances and the direction, with some even calling it a masterpiece.

Winner of Best Picture at the 9th Hong Kong Film Awards and the 36th Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan, among others, “Ordinary Heroes” has Ann Hui focusing on another type of boat people, this time the Yau Ma Tei, people who ended up living on their boats for a variety of reasons. As their living circumstances deteriorated at the end of the 70s, a number of protests, both by them and by activists, took place, against the fact that the government had never carried out a tenancy registration for them, which made it very difficul for them to resettle on land. One of the key figures in their fight was Father Franco Mella, who referred cases to volunteers and social workers, bringing more and more NGOs, such as the Society of Community Organization and Kwun Tong Inquiry Service, into the issue, while also helping with their education. The film focuses...

Surely many will remember “Hard Boiled” as John Woo’s last film made in his native country (Hong Kong), as well as some sort of letter of introduction to Hollywood. But today, that perspective has already changed, since in 2008 John Woo returned to his homeland to shoot “Red Cliff” and there he has stayed all these past years. Little can be said about “Hard Boiled” that hasn’t already been said, and this is something more than obvious: “Hard Boiled” puts most recent action movies to shame. Very few reach this level of spectacularity (The Raid 2 from 2014 for example), and this is not something coming from this particular movie, but from almost all of John Woo’s action films. See “A Better Tomorrow” (1986), The Killer (1989) or “Bullet in the Head” (1990) for example. John Woo has a unique vision and a unique mastery, and that’s something that is patent...

A marathon screening of all three “Infernal Affairs” films has been announced for the much delayed 46th edition of the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

The three films, all restored and upgraded to 4K digital prints, lead off a six- film section of Chinese-language restored classics at the festival.

The Hkiff was this year postponed from its usual March-April slot to August, due to the fifth wave of the Covid pandemic which closed Hong Kong cinemas for the first months of 2022. It will now take place from Aug. 15-31 for 17 days, again adopting a hybrid format, featuring screenings and audience-engagement events in theatres and online.

Other titles in the section include: Ann Hui’s “Boat People” from 1982; Lou Ye’s “Suzhou River” from 2000; and Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s “Millennium Mambo” from 2001.

Delivered in 2002 and featuring a narrative about an undercover cop battling a triad mole, “Infernal Affairs,” was one of the...