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More than 7,000 miles from its birthplace in Long Beach, California, ComplexCon Hong Kong packed the halls of AsiaWorld-Expo with over 35,000 drop-thirsty hypebeasts, sneakerheads and K-fans on the hunt for the limited-edition Murakami x Casetify phone case, NewJeans T-shirt and Clot x Adidas Gazelles.

Designers, brands and executives watched and counted as this second outing for the event raked in more than $11 million over three days, with an average per-person spend of $320, moving beyond year one’s proof of concept and into a viable business model. Attendees came from Hong Kong, mainland China, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Singapore.

Within the 150-brand ComplexMarketplace shopping exhibition, jacket designer Jeff Hamilton strolled from his booth to the NBA’s; futuristic artist Daniel Arsham, ComplexCon’s 2025 global artistic director, popped Moët & Chandon next to his sculptural rendition of the bottle; rapper Quavo, who headlined night one of the ComplexMusic concert series,...

I’m a sucker for a good vampire film, whether it features a sexy vampire like Bram Stoker’s Dracula or a nasty one like 30 Days of Night. But one of my personal favorite tales about bloodsuckers is an underrated 2010 release by Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig titled Daybreakers. Boasting an all-star cast and an interesting twist on vampire lore, it didn’t make waves upon initial release. And yet, I still find myself banging the proverbial drum for this film, especially today, because the movie is now streaming for free on Vizio WatchFree+.

Daybreakers takes place in 2019 (ten years in the future upon the film’s initial release) where a plague has transformed a majority of the human population into vampires. But without any humans from which to feed, the vampires are now facing a food crisis. Ethan Hawke plays Edward Dalton, a hematologist working on creating a blood substitute to save humanity.

Adidas Originals and Edison Chen Celebrate the Year of the Snake with the Clot Lny Collection Xmag UK Xmag Editorial

Adidas Originals and Edison Chen celebrate the Year of the Snake with the innovative Clot Lny collection, full…

The post Adidas Originals and Edison Chen Celebrate the Year of the Snake with the Clot Lny Collection first appeared on Xmag UK.

“You always attack a movie scene as late as you possibly can. You always come into the scene at the last possible moment.” This bit of advice from the great screenwriter William Goldman has guided most moviemakers. The overwhelming majority of films begin with trouble already brewing and end before everything can be settled. But sometimes, a filmmaker takes the opposite approach. These visionaries begin as early as possible, even after the opening of a different movie. Thus, the prequel was born.

Seriously though, most prequels come less from the minds of creatives and more from studios trying to milk every dollar from their sweet, sweet IP. For that reason, audiences have rightly developed a general skepticism toward the concept. But every once in a while, a genuinely talented filmmaker finds value in telling the story before the story. They use the plot beats we already know to give their...

As TikTok fights a new law requiring a divestiture from its Chinese owner, smaller rivals may be reaping some of the benefits.

One is Clapper, the short-video app launched in 2020, which saw a fourfold increase in downloads as Congress moved to pass the TikTok legislation and four two weeks afterward, according to its founder, Edison Chen. Clapper has been averaging about 200,000 new weekly downloads.

President Joe Biden signed national security legislation on April 24 that requires that TikTok’s owner, China’s ByteDance, to divest its social media platform within a year or face a ban on app stores in the United States. TikTok, meanwhile, has filed suit to stop the new law, citing the First Amendment.

Clapper averages about 300,000 daily active users and 2 million monthly active users, a fraction of the audience for TikTok.

While Chen doesn’t see Clapper as a direct competitor, the company has made a pitch...

At the first-ever ComplexCon in Hong Kong, a scene all too familiar to avid followers of the pop-culture festival unfolded. Thousands of streetwear fanatics lined up for hours awaiting the event and tornadoed the Complex Marketplace upon entry. This crowd rushed to grab all the limited-release RichMilk Drips, Verdy x McDonald’s skate decks, and Clot Crocs they could. The law of scarcity rules the Complex land, and those with the signed Jeff Staple Panda Pigeon Dunks win.

To the uninitiated, the sheer madness that unfolds when the doors open drops jaws; to others who have followed the Long Beach, California-born gathering — known for its limited-edition merch and sneaker drops — since its 2016 inception, it’s just business as usual. In its debut international effort, ComplexCon attracted more than 30,000 people (from places including the U.S., Canada, the UK, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, mainland China and Hong Kong) to Hong...

Euphoria starlet Barbie Ferreira and French musician/actress Soko attend the Bjork photo exhibition by Spike Jonze curated by Humberto Leon at his Los Angeles restaurant and gallery space Arroz & Fun on Thursday (February 15).

WeTransfer presented the opening night of the exhibition of unseen photographs, called The Day I Met Björk, which is free and open to the public now through May. It unveils over 25 previously unseen images taken in summer 1995 at the Chateau Marmont.

Other attendees included Kim Gordon, Gregg Araki, Rivers Cuomo, Soo Joo Park, Edison Chen, Arianne Phillips, Shirley Kurata, Carol Lim, Chella Man and DJ Olive Kimoto who kept the tunes spinning all night.

Guests enjoyed a bespoke menu from Arroz & Fun including the ‘Spike Jonze’ Peruvian wonton; Cool Ranch Doritos with crème fraiche and Oestra caviar; Szechuan mac & cheese; and a Chinese ‘shake-shake’ spiced tater tots.

To bring the images to fans around the world,...

ComplexCon, the culture, music and street fashion festival and expo, is expanding outside North America for the first time with the inaugural ComplexCon Hong Kong, and rapper 21 Savage is on board as a headliner.

Organized by Complex China, ComplexCon Hong Kong is set to take place March 22-24 at the city’s massive AsiaWorld-Expo venue and is expected to offer exclusive sneaker and fashion drops, panel discussions on culture and the arts, food, immersive art experiences and a lineup of musical acts for the three-day concert series.

ComplexCon Long Beach 2023

Hong Kong rapper and Clot co-founder Edison Chen will headline the opening night of ComplexCon Hong Kong, and will be supported by local rappers Chef, Mc Yan and Novel Fergus and Taiwan’s Shou Lou. Saturday night will be headlined by acts from Korean hip-hop and R&b label Aomg, including Simon Dominic, Loco, Gray, Woo Won-Jae and Coogie.

While other online video platforms cater to Gen Z and other young generations, a three-year-old app is adopting an adults-only mentality. Clapper, established in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is a short-form video hub that appeals to middle-aged users.

Clapper is led by Edison Chen, who has raised $4 million of venture capital to support his fledgling app. Clapper’s App Store listing indicates that it’s only available for users above the age of 17, and Chen’s target audience is much older than that. He told the Dallas Morning News that the average Clapper user is between the ages of 35 and 55.

“I feel like a majority of the social media in the United States are targeting younger generations, and this group, Gen X and Gen Y, are still using Facebook,” Chen said. “So I’m thinking there’s a potential out there I can build out a short video content platform for those groups of people.

Racing films were all the rage in the early 2000s thanks to the successful launch of the Hollywood “The Fast and the Furious” franchise. A year before that franchise relocated briefly to Tokyo for its third drive, which introduced and focused on the technique of drifting, Hong Kong cinema also turned to Japan for “Initial D”, a feature based on a manga and anime of the same name, which also looked at the world of street racing and drifting in Japan.

“Initial D” is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival

By day, Takumi Fujiwara works at the gas station of his best friend Itsuki’s father. Come nightfall, he goes down the nearby Mt. Akina and delivers tofu for his father Bunta “Tofuman” Fujiwara’s business in his father’s AE86 car. The Mt. Akina mountain pass is a favourite track amongst underground street racers as well as professionals,...

Racing films were all the rage in the early 2000s thanks to the successful launch of the Hollywood “The Fast and the Furious” franchise. A year before that franchise relocated briefly to Tokyo for its third drive, which introduced and focused on the technique of drifting, Hong Kong cinema also turned to Japan for “Initial D”, a feature based on a manga and anime of the same name, which also looked at the world of street racing and drifting in Japan.

on Amazon

By day, Takumi Fujiwara works at the gas station of his best friend Itsuki’s father. Come nightfall, he goes down the nearby Mt. Akina and delivers tofu for his father Bunta “Tofuman” Fujiwara’s business in his father’s AE86 car. The Mt. Akina mountain pass is a favourite track amongst underground street racers as well as professionals, who test their and each...

This movie won director Cheang the Lotus Action Asia award at Deauville Asian Film Festival in 2007. The story is very basic, a cop hunting a criminal on the rundown urbanscape of Hong Kong, but what sets it apart from other crime thrillers is the style of the movie. Moreover, it is a great study of characters told in a gritty, dark, intense manner with lots of ultra-violent actions thrown in.

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A hired Cambodian hitman Pang, (Edison Chen) is sent to Hong Kong to carry out his assignment. Fresh off his boat, he calmly does his job, but in extreme cold blooded way. As he tries to flee Hong Kong, he runs into the police team of Inspector Wai (Sam Lee) and his men who are investing the murder case. Consequently, this leads to the very exciting and intense manhunt between these two rabid dogs. The lunatic Wai...

Exclusive: Beijing outfit launches with Tiff drama Promised Land, Simon Yam thriller, Blind Spot adaptation.

Newly minted Beijing-based international sales outfit Turbo Films has launched with a slate including veteran director He Ping’s Toronto drama The Promised Land.

The only Asian entry in Tiff’s Platform section, writer-director-producer He Ping’s first film set in the present day spotlights the massive internal migration that has seen millions of young people leaving their rural towns and villages to try and find a new life in China’s biggest cities.

Wang Jiajia (Wheat, So Young) and Zhang Yi (Mountains May Depart) star in the drama from production outfits Classics Media Co. and ​Beijing Junfei Century Culture Media Co.

Turbo Films, backed by a trio of private investors, is aiming to sell local-language fare with international appeal in the global market and has already amassed a busy slate.

At next month’s Asian Film Market in Busan, the company...

Stephen Fung was on top of the world in 2005. The popular actor had made a successful transition to directing with both his debut feature, Enter The Phoenix, and sophomore effort, House Of Fury, embraced by fans and critics alike. Fung appeared poised to be one of the leaders of a new wave of Hong Kong directors, popular figures who embraced and engaged the young audience in a way that the old guard no longer could.And then Edison Chen happened. In the midst of production on Fung's third feature, Jump, his leading man was caught up in the midst of the biggest sex scandal in Hong Kong entertainment history. Through no fault of his own, Fung's third effort was a catastrophe and the talented young...

Growing up I always had a fascination with Hong Kong action cinema. The stylized action coupled with gritty narratives was something that amazed me time and time again; it was unlike anything that was coming out of Hollywood. It showcased how fragile loyalties could be in narratives and how deception could flesh out seemingly simple ideas—but never missing an opportunity to grab your attention and refuse to let go. There have only been a few attempts at this kind of story-telling in games, a shame if you ask me, but one of the finer examples found in movies is Infernal Affairs (the Us re-envisioning was The Departed). A young and ambitious cop takes on dangerous undercover position to help weed out crime from the inside out—Sleeping Dogs shares a similar and equally compelling story, but also does a great job establishing itself as a competent challenger in the open world genre.

Sleeping Dogs catapults players into the role of undercover cop Wei Shen, tasked with taking down one of the world?s most fearsome criminal organisations from the inside… the Hong Kong Triads. As players explore the bustling and crowded Hong Kong island, through its neon-lit side streets and sprawling street markets, an incredible story unfolds of loyalty and betrayal where Wei begins to question his own motives as he is sucked in deeper than he could ever imagine. Offering players an island packed with action, every street corner, market stall, harbor dock or city skyscraper can become an opportunity for intense shoot-outs, adrenaline-fuelled street races and intense, brutal martial arts combat. Featuring one of the most intuitive and imaginative combat systems, Sleeping Dogs empowers players to perform an extensive set of martial arts moves, singlehandedly taking on numerous opponents. Players perform bone-crunching kicks and combos, vicious counters and a cinematic...

Sleeping Dogs catapults players into the role of undercover cop Wei Shen, tasked with taking down one of the world?s most fearsome criminal organisations from the inside… the Hong Kong Triads. As players explore the bustling and crowded Hong Kong island, through its neon-lit side streets and sprawling street markets, an incredible story unfolds of loyalty and betrayal where Wei begins to question his own motives as he is sucked in deeper than he could ever imagine. Offering players an island packed with action, every street corner, market stall, harbor dock or city skyscraper can become an opportunity for intense shoot-outs, adrenaline-fuelled street races and intense, brutal martial arts combat. Featuring one of the most intuitive and imaginative combat systems, Sleeping Dogs empowers players to perform an extensive set of martial arts moves, singlehandedly taking on numerous opponents. Players perform bone-crunching kicks and combos, vicious counters and a cinematic...

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After the reveal a couple of weeks back that Will Yun Lee would be heading up the voice cast of United Front Games' Sleeping Dogs, I've been curious about how the developer along with publisher Square Enix planned on filling out the rest of the voice cast. And apparently, they decided to go the Hong Kong/Hollywood route, bringing on a lot of familiar actors from both industries.

More details about the cast as well as some expanded story details after the jump.

Stone, Liu, and Lee are joined by the previously announced Edison Chen (Infernal Affairs), and Tom Wilkinson (Batman Begins), who plays police inspector Pendrew. Perry Shen (Better Luck Tomorrow). Mortal Kombat's Robin Shou joins the cast along with James Hong (Blade Runner, Kung Fu Panda), Kelly Hu (X2), Yunjin Kim (Lost), Terrence Yin (New Police Story), and Tzi-Ma (Rush Hour).

The story follows Will Yun Lee's...

From the get go, it was obvious that Square Enix truly believes in Sleeping Dogs. However, that fact is even more evident now that we know the Japanese publisher went an extra mile by asking A-list voice actors to step in and give life to its sandbox action game’s cast of characters. It would have been easier if they’d casted relative unknowns, but that didn’t happen. Instead, those who play through the impressive-looking title will hear vocal offerings from the likes of Tom Wilkinson, Emma Stone, Will Yun Lee, Lucy Liu and Jackie Mah.

“Sleeping Dogs features over two hours of rich dialogue in a story inspired by some of Hong Kong’s finest films,” said Stephen van der Mescht, executive producer at United Front Games. “As huge fans of the genre we knew exactly who we wanted; we knew who could bring the script to life.

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Capcom brings two of their early Marvel collaborations to Psn and Xbla this September.

More details and screens after the jump.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Origins collects 1995's Marve Super Heroes and the first Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes in one downloadable title this September. According to the announcement, we can expect 8-player online lobbies for Ggpo-enhanced multiplayer, along with spectator mode and HD graphical upgrades.

Based on the images passed along by Capcom PR, the visuals may suffer a little bit of flattening with the higher level of detail (but who cares if the gameplay is intact).

You can check out a gallery of images from the compilation below:

While an release date hasn't been announced, Marvel vs. Capcom: Origins has been priced at 1200 Ms Points/$14.99 on its respective platforms.

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The Naurto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations and Asura's Wrath developer is bringing another anime title to gamers with the 3D fighting game JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle for Namco Bandai.

More details about this appropriately-named adventure after the jump.

During a 25th anniversary event for the original manga series, alongside the announcement of some new commemorative swag (JoJo high-tops!) and the upcoming TV series (JoJo has never actually had one), CyberConnect2 unveiled the PS3-exclusive title based on the long-running series. From the title, you'd be right in assuming that like their Naruto title, it'll be a pile-on of pretty much every character from the series.

Oh, the actual series is, of course, a fight comic following the trials, tribulations, and fights of the Joestar family of martial artists under patriarch Joseph Joestar. If CyberConnect2 holds to their previous style, the game will weave in plots from the...

[Updated with higher quality version.]Director Stephen Fung won a lot of love for his 2005 effort House Of Fury, a highly entertaining effort that seemed to cement the Hong Kong actor-turned-director's career shift. Things were looking up for Fung on the directing front. And then he became collateral damage in the Edison Chen sex scandal.Chen was cast as the male lead in Fung's House Of Fury follow up, Jump, when the scandal hit. The reaction to explicit sex photos leaked from Chen's personal computer was so severe that Fung had no choice but to shut down production, recast Chen's part and start all over again. That Jump was finished at all is a minor miracle but the issue meant a four year gap between...

Director: Dante Lam. Review: Adam Wing. If you look back at Dante Lam’s career you’re sure to discover a fine body of work. Beast Cops is an obvious standout, but lets not forget The Beast Stalker, The Stool Pigeon and even The Twins Effect; well I liked it anyway. The Sniper (the literal translation is Godly Gunslingers) finally hit theatres in 2009, sandwiched between the quite awesome The Beast Stalker and the almost as awesome The Stool Pigeon. It’s not as good as either of those films but considering the turbulent journey it took on its way to the big screen, I’m surprised there’s enjoyment to be had at all. The Sniper revolves around the Godly gunslingers of the Hong Kong Police Force’s Special Duties Unit (Sdu). Richie Jen (Exiled) takes on (and takes off his shirt) Huang Xiaoming (Royal Tramp), two deadly sharpshooters on opposite sides of the law.

Sniper

Stars: Richie Ren, Xiaoming Huang, Edison Chen, Wei Tung, Bowie Lam, Kai Chi Liu | Written by Dante Lam, Wai Lun Ng | Directed by Dante Lam

When ex-Hong Kong police sharpshooter Lincoln (Xiaoming) is released from prison after serving time for the alleged manslaughter of a kidnapper during a hostage situation he has only one thing on his mind: revenge on those responsible for putting him behind bars. At the top of his hit list is former colleague and fellow marksman Hartman (Jen), who Lincoln believes withheld key evidence at his trial that could have led to his acquittal. Lincoln’s plan involves setting up the largest heist the city has ever known, hoping that this will draw his prey to him.

Meanwhile, a hot-headed rookie, Oj (Chen), has joined Hartman’s team and quickly begins to exhibit the same level of shooting skills that made Lincoln such a legend on the force.

Vancouver, Canada – Whether it be rides to the airport, relationship advice or a place to crash, whenever anyone in her family needs ‘saving’, Vanessa (Kelly Hu) is the one they rely on.

But as things get complicated with her almost perfect new boyfriend, family problems arise that become too much for Vanessa to handle.

The 30-something career woman must try to find a balance between her demanding family and her new found love as Vanessa realizes she is the one who needs to be saved from it all.

Director Bertha Bay-Sa Pan’s film, Almost Perfect, shows how difficult it can sometimes be to juggle love, commitment and family.

The film gives a realistic portrayal of Asian-American siblings and tells a story that many Asian-Americans and other cultures alike can relate to.

Almost Perfect features good solid performances by the actors such as Tina Chen who played a very convincing mother.

New York is about to get a whole lot sillier with The Friar's Club Comedy Film Festival launching tomorrow and running through Sunday. There are a host of Twitch faves playing in the festival - Fantasia and Fantastic Fest award winner Clown closes it out with Some Guy Who Kills People, Red Light Revolution, Gnarr and The Catechism Cataclysm also on the bill. Edison Chen will apparently be there in a rare post-naughty-picture-scandal live appearance to present Almost Perfect while the Trost Brothers' dance-to-the-death extravaganza The Fp screens Saturday night.And it's that last one where we can help you out. Twitch has five pairs of tickets to give away to the screening of The Fp and one can be yours. All you have to...

It was all looking a little worrying for the Category III skin flick in Hong Kong. After actor Edison Chen foolishly put his lap top in for a service back in 2006, and hundreds of sexy photos and videos of some of Hong Kong's most desirable female stars were discovered and leaked onto the Internet, the media backlash was ferocious. There seemed little hope in getting any respectable actress to bare their assets in public again, but slowly the "leng-mo" phenomenon arrived and it became fashionable and even desirable for aspiring young actresses and models to have an ample rack and big Bambi eyes over anything resembling actual talent. Celebrities such as Chrissie Chau and Carol Yeung were born, who were all too willing to...

Much like Goodfellas or Casino, it’s not the scenes of violence that drive Triad Underworld forward, but rather the moments of politicking and the impedance of the criminal life upon normal family obligations. The birth of his son brings a crisis of conscience upon Hung (Andy Lau): should he remain as the head of his Triad organization and risk his family’s lives, or should he retire and flee to a remote location and let those who would be king fight it out amongst themselves? Even as his best friend and closest advisor, Lefty (Jacky Cheung) advise him to retire to a safe distance, the underworld of Hong Kong has already caught scent of the chum of uncertainty and selected Wing (Shawn Yue) and Turbo (Edison Chen), aspiring gangsters, to kill Hung. Armed with nothing but a knife, the two would-be assassins scramble about in the night making...

Wong Ching-Po’s 2004 Triad mobster thriller ‘Jiang Hu’ aka ‘Blood Brothers,’ starring Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Shawn Yue and Edison Chen hits Us DVD stores and other assorted etailers today – Released via Palisades Tartan, under the moniker of.....drum roll please...Triad Underworld. If you want a very detailed summary of the plot check out the films Wiki page here, or there’s the quickie version below to scan through, before taking a look at what we really want to see - A trailer full of gangland violence, Hong Kong style. Synopsis: On the same night his wife gives birth to their first son, Triad mob boss Hung (Andy Lau) learns that an assassin plans to kill him within the next 12-hours. Encouraged to leave town by his best friend Lefty (Jacky Cheung) and three untrustworthy lieutenants, Hung decides to stay and makes plans to protect himself and his family.

*full disclosure: Palisades Tartan provided a screener of this film.

Director: Wong Ching-Po.

Writer: To Chi-long.

Cast: Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Shawn Yue, Edison Chen

The types of films coming out of Hong Kong are usually a unique class of their own. They can belong to one of several categories and the most prominent exports are historical fantasy, martial-arts, and gangster. If they're not on local Chinese community TV, then there are DVDs.

While Kung Fu Hustle (功夫) is the most original take on making the gangster hip and chic by strutting their stuff in the 40's, Triad Underworld (江湖; Gong Wu or Jiang Hu in Chinese) drives home a different image by using the modern day era to romanticize the world of the Triads.

Strangely, however, is that while Hustle was fast tracked for international release, Gong Wu took seven more years. Both products were released in the...

CBS Film's "Flight 75" has found its pilot, Japanese director Takashi Shimizu. The thriller takes place on a transpacific flight where the passengers encounter what seems to be a supernatural force. Shimizu previously directed the films in the "Grudge" horror franchise, including the 2004 American version, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, and its 2006 sequel, featuring Gellar, Edison Chen and Amber Tamblyn. Taka Ichise ("Shutter"), Roy Lee ("The Ring," "The Departed") and Steven Schneider ("Paranormal Activity") are producing, while John Middleton will serve as executive producer. The film is tentatively scheduled for a late Summer/Early Fall start of production.  ...

We don't do a lot of 'Movie X has a new poster' posts in these parts because I just generally don't consider marketing materials to be news, but I do make exceptions in certain cases. And Dante Lam's Fire of Conscience is definitely one of those cases.

The follow up to Lam's hugely (and justifiably) acclaimed Beast Stalker - though Sniper released later it was completed long before and held up by the Edison Chen sex scandal - has massive expectations on it with many (myself included) pegging it as the most likely offering to live up to Hong Kong's history of stellar cop thrillers this year. What it hasn't had until now, though, is artwork to live up to those expectations, with the initial sales art being pretty awful, frankly.  This new stuff is much, much better.

The investigation of a prostitute homicide brings headstrong, heavy-handed Detective Manfred...

It appears that long-awaited slasher film Dream Home is finally nearing completion and moving towards release. Directed by Hong Kong's Pang Ho-Cheung and produced by star Josie Ho, this one has been held up in an extended squabble between director and star-producer with Ho objecting to just how harsh the film turned out to be while Pang - who has a contractual guarantee of final cut - refusing to change anything.

All has been quiet on the Dream Home front for a while now, with Pang completing romantic comedy Love In A Puff while waiting for this all to resolve itself, but the release is coming soon and the first teaser has just arrived.

Of course, this wouldn't be Dream Home without a little something extra to speculate on. The teaser - which is a very clever, elegant affair, by the way - was shot not by Pang but but Josie Ho's husband.

For some reason Edison Chen (pictured, left) has been blackballed from Hong Kong cinema, where he’s made his living for the last decade or two. The reason? He slept with some actresses. And we’re not talking about Edison Chen going all Roman Polanski on them here. He didn’t drug them, get them drunk, and then anally raped them before fleeing the country. Nope. All Edison Chen did was “hook up”, as the kids say, which means it was entirely consensual. But apparently adults having relationships and then snapping pictures of it was enough to get Edison Chen banned from Hong Kong cinema. This, mind you, from the same industry that has produced blockbuster franchises “Sex and Zen” and “Sex and Chopsticks”. Go figure. But have no fear, Edison Chen fans, because just like a cat with nine lives, the Chenster has landed on his feet, and will...

Asian superstar Edison Chen is returning to the big screen for the first time since a sex photo scandal threatened to ruin his career.

The Hong Kong-based singer/actor hit headlines last year after over 1,000 intimate shots of him engaged in sexual acts with several different women - all rising stars in Asia - hit the web.

The furore around the sex snaps forced Chen to flee Hong Kong and the controversy ended the entertainment careers of most of the girls involved.

But studio bosses have decided to give Chen another chance, and have signed him up to appear in new English-language comedy Almost Perfect.

The film tells the story of a girl who juggles her boyfriend and her family, and is reportedly set to his Chinese cinemas next year.

Chen has previously appeared in Infernal Affairs, The Grudge 2, and also had a cameo in last year's Batman movie The Dark Knight.

Body Count: Volume 11 - Because of the nature of my website and the fact that a bulk of the writing is dedicated to the horror genre, it is often assumed that Cinema Suicide is all about horror. And you have no idea how much that bugs me. The original mission was a website in celebration of genres and trashy stuff but it just so happens that most of the goofy stuff that produces news these days is in the horror genre. But did you know that I also love kung fu movies? Yeah! I totally do! I love The Shaw Brothers, Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Jimmy Wang Yu, Donny Yen, Gordon Liu, etc. So I'm going to twist this week's Bodycount to suit my frustration with being pigeonholed as the resident horror guy and throw some Asian spice into the mix. This week, it's all about horror with a chop socky twist.

Foreign Objects travels the world of international cinema each week in search of films worth visiting. So renew your passport, get your shots, and brush up on the local age of legal consent, this week we’re heading to… Hong Kong! There's a brilliant scene in the upcoming Kathryn Bigelow film, The Hurt Locker, that features two snipers duelling from hundreds of yards apart. It's tense and suspenseful, but it's also intentionally slow and grueling. You'll hear more about the scene when the film opens wide this summer, but trust me that it will instantly take a top spot in the pantheon of sniper cinema. For reference, Mark Wahlberg's under-appreciated Shooter is in the top half of the spectrum while Tom Berenger's Sniper 3 is at the far other end. Somewhere in the middle sits the new film from director Dante Lam. The Sniper opens with two young cops who find themselves outnumbered in a...

“The Sniper” is a film which hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, thanks to the all-consuming nude photo scandal surrounding star Edison Chen, resulting in a long delay to its release and an apparently drastic cutting down of his role. However, for once this may actually have been a good thing, as the film which has finally emerged is a short, sharp burst of action which comes at a time when there are few and far between genre films of note on Hong Kong screens. The film boasts a talented director at the helm in the form of Dante Lam, whose recent “The Beast Stalker” won acclaim and prizes, and an interesting cast which also includes Taiwan actor-singer Richie Jen (also in Johnnie To’s “Exiled”) and Mainland actor Huang Xiaoming (recently in hit comedy “Fit Lover”). The film revolves around a police sniper unit led by the...

Hong Kong -- The Philippines has been gripped by a monthlong celebrity sex scandal that has touched the film industry, disgraced politicians and driven up TV ratings.

Breaking in mid-May, the scandal involves a well-known plastic surgeon, Hayden Kho, and at least four female patients. Video footage of their trysts has appeared on the Internet and bootleg DVDs and VCDs that are openly being sold on the streets of Manila. Actress Katrina Halili has identified herself as one of the victims and is suing Kho.

The case has many echoes of the Edison Chen scandal that last year rocked Hong Kong. Kho has issued a public apology and suspended his medical activities. But, while he admits that he filmed the trysts, he denies having leaked them into the public domain.

Last year, up and coming actor Chen saw more than 1,300 photos that he shot of himself in action...

Hong Kong’s “The Sniper” appeals to me because it’s about those mysterious guys who you never see, but who can kill you from three football fields away, and you’d never know it. When done right, like the 1993 Tom Berenger movie “Sniper” or 2001’s “Enemy at the Gates”, sniping is an art form that makes for great, exciting cinema. While Dante Lam’s “The Sniper” doesn’t quite rise to those levels of greatness, it’s not an entirely bad action movie. Sure, the acting is spotty, there’s that massive blight called the Edison Chen sex scandal that kept the film shelved for over a year, and the script is sketchy, as if whole sections of it were ripped out before the start of production. Nevertheless, for those into movies about snipers and their sniping ways, “The Sniper” is not an entirely bad action movie. If nothing else,...

Finally hitting theatres in 2009 after a year delay, Dante Lam's crime thriller The Sniper is now heading for DVD release, with those ever spiffy English subtitles. Boasting some top star names from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan: Richie Jen, Huang Xiaoming, Edison Chen - Lam delivers what we want to see in a Hk cop thriller - gunplay, bloody shootouts and stunts galore. Synopsis: Ming is renowned as the top shooter in the police force. However things get complicated after the release of his former team mate and superb marksman Ching (Huang Xiao Ming) from prison. With only vengeance on his mind, Ching wants to take on Ming and the police, believing that they are the ones who put him in jail. When a mysterious sniper sabotages a high-security prisoner transfer and a convict escapes, Ming and his team are despatched to profile the suspect. Believing that Ming had...

A man in Hong Kong has been jailed for 34 weeks after he was found guilty of stealing over 1,000 sexually explicit photos of Asian film star Edison Chen.

The actor/rapper was at the centre of a scandal last year when a tape of him allegedly engaging in sex acts with a string of different women hit the Internet.

The video, which Hong Kong Police say captures 1,300 private shots of Chen with at least half a dozen women, was reported to have been copied by staff at a computer shop when Chen put a faulty laptop in for repair.

Computer technician Ho-Chun Sze, 24, was charged with stealing the photographs from Chen's computer while servicing the machine.

He was convicted at Hong Kong's Kowloon City Court on three counts of obtaining access to a computer with dishonest intent, and handed an eight and a half month jail term at another hearing on Wednesday.

Sze's lawyers plan to appeal the conviction.

The scandal forced Chen, 28, to issue a public apology. He subsequently fled Hong Kong for his childhood home in Canada and announced his temporary retirement from the Hong Kong entertainment business.

If not for the sex picture scandal, this film would have been released about a year ago, and would likely have solidified Edison Chen’s position as box office draw given his stellar performance in the crime-action flick like Dog Bite Dog and pop idol fare such as Initial D. But we know what had happened over the span of a year, though I suppose the decision to hold this film back would have helped it in increasing the curiosity surrounding it, given it’s likely his last / first performance since the scandal.

I get weak in the knees when it comes to films with snipers. I don’t know what it is but you sit me down in front of a film with snipers in it and I’ll shut off for the duration of said film. While I cannot say that I have been a big fan of Dante Lam’s films his next one, due out on April 12th, features oodles and oodles of them.

Ming (Richie Jen) is renowned as the top shooter in the police force. However things get complicated after the release of his former teammate and superb marksman Ching (Huang Xiao Ming) from prison. With only vengeance on his mind, Ching wants to take on Ming and the police, believing that they are the ones who put him in jail. When a mysterious sniper sabotages a high-security prisoner transfer and a convict escapes, Ming and his...

Asian actor Edison Chen gave evidence to a court in Hong Kong via video-link on Tuesday at the trial of a man accused of distributing explicit pictures of the actor.

The film star was at the centre of a scandal last year when a tape of him allegedly engaging in sexual acts with a string of different women hit the internet.

The video, which Hong Kong Police say captures 1,300 private shots of Chen with at least half a dozen women, was reported to have been copied by staff at a computer shop when Chen put a faulty laptop in for repair.

Computer technician Ho-Chun Sze has since been charged with stealing the photographs from Chen's computer while servicing the machine and releasing them.

Chen refused to return from the United States to give evidence at the trial, instead providing evidence via video-link from his birthplace of Vancouver, Canada.

And Chen told the court on Tuesday he was the victim of "foul play", adding "I'm quite a private person. This was never meant for anyone else to see. This was a huge shock to me."

Chen told the court he believes the photos were copied from his laptop when he took it to a shop for repairs.

The trial continues.

The fact that Dante Lam’s newest cop thriller Sniper is finished, but has yet to see the light of day in Hong Kong and China doesn’t seem to have stopped production house Media Asia from selling it right across Europe. Notches on the bed post so far include Germany, France and the UK. Sniper boasts some of the top names from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan: Richie Jen, Huang Xiaoming, Edison Chen - and from the trailer there’s no doubt Lam knows what the paying public want in a Hk cop action movie - Gunplay, bloody shootouts and stunts galore. Synopsis: Ming (Richie Jen) is renowned as the top shooter in the police force. However things get complicated after the release of his former teammate and superb marksman Ching (Huang Xiao Ming) from prison. With only vengeance on his mind, Ching wants to take on Ming and the police,...

The fact that Dante Lam’s newest cop thriller Sniper is finished, but has yet to see the light of day in Hong Kong and China doesn’t seem to have stopped production house Media Asia from selling it right across Europe. Notches on the bed post so far include Germany, France and the UK. Sniper boasts some of the top names from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan: Richie Jen, Huang Xiaoming, Edison Chen - and from the trailer there’s no doubt Lam knows what the paying public want in a Hk cop action movie - Gunplay, bloody shootouts and stunts galore. Synopsis: Ming (Richie Jen) is renowned as the top shooter in the police force. However things get complicated after the release of his former teammate and superb marksman Ching (Huang Xiao Ming) from prison. With only vengeance on his mind, Ching wants to take on Ming and the police,...

The fact that Dante Lam’s newest cop thriller Sniper is finished, but has yet to see the light of day in Hong Kong and China doesn’t seem to have stopped production house Media Asia from selling it right across Europe. Notches on the bed post so far include Germany, France and the UK. Sniper boasts some of the top names from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan: Richie Jen, Huang Xiaoming, Edison Chen - and from the trailer there’s no doubt Lam knows what the paying public want in a Hk cop action movie - Gunplay, bloody shootouts and stunts galore. Synopsis: Ming (Richie Jen) is renowned as the top shooter in the police force. However things get complicated after the release of his former teammate and superb marksman Ching (Huang Xiao Ming) from prison. With only vengeance on his mind, Ching wants to take on Ming and the police,...

The fact that Dante Lam’s newest cop thriller Sniper is finished, but has yet to see the light of day in Hong Kong and China doesn’t seem to have stopped production house Media Asia from selling it right across Europe. Notches on the bed post so far include Germany, France and the UK. Sniper boasts some of the top names from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan: Richie Jen, Huang Xiaoming, Edison Chen - and from the trailer there’s no doubt Lam knows what the paying public want in a Hk cop action movie - Gunplay, bloody shootouts and stunts galore. Synopsis: Ming (Richie Jen) is renowned as the top shooter in the police force. However things get complicated after the release of his former teammate and superb marksman Ching (Huang Xiao Ming) from prison. With only vengeance on his mind, Ching wants to take on Ming and the police,...

The fact that Dante Lam’s newest cop thriller Sniper is finished, but has yet to see the light of day in Hong Kong and China doesn’t seem to have stopped production house Media Asia from selling it right across. Notches on the bed post so far include Germany, France and the UK. Sniper boasts some of the top names from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan: Richie Jen, Huang Xiaoming, Edison Chen - and from the trailer there’s no doubt Lam knows what the paying public want in a Hk cop action movie - Gunplay, bloody shootouts and stunts galore. Synopsis: Ming (Richie Jen) is renowned as the top shooter in the police force. However things get complicated after the release of his former teammate and superb marksman Ching (Huang Xiao Ming) from prison. With only vengeance on his mind, Ching wants to take on Ming and the police,...