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Produced by Light Chaser Animation Studios who brought us the fantasy, mythology films, “White Snake”, “Green Snake”, “New Gods: Nezha Reborn” and “New Gods: Yang Jian” previously. “Chang’an”, or “30,000 Miles from Chang’an” in Chinese, is their latest epic historical drama, about the lives of two famous Tang Dynasty poets Gao Shi and Li Bai. Clocking in at a staggering 168 minutes, it ties with the extended vision of Sunao Katabuchi’s “In This Corner of the World” (2016) as the longest animated films released theatrically.

Dazzler Media presents Chang’an in UK and Irish cinemas from 28 February

Set in the Tang Dynasty during Emperor Daizong’s reign, elderly Governor Gao Shi and his Tang army are desperately trying to block the main forces of the Tubos (Tibetans) from taking over their Yunshan Fort. Now outnumbered, he has no choice but to retreat to the nearby Lushui Pass. Before long, Cheng,...

Mainland filmmaker Cheng Si Yu is a regular when it comes to action movies showing on the local video streaming platforms. Starting with “The Grandmaster of Kung Fu” (2019), “Tai Chi Master” (2022) and “Desperado” (2024) starring Danny Chan. His latest online project, “Striking Rescue”, streaming on Youku, even comes with a bigger drawcard, featuring the Muay Thai warrior himself, Tony Jaa in the lead. Interestingly, this movie managed to get a cinema release in the US and Thailand.

Set in Jiati City, in the Palivina Republic, Bai An (Tony Jaa), a retired security veteran highly skilled in Muay Thai is on a deadly mission of seeking justice for the murder of his wife and young daughter. Upon learning that He Ying Hao (Philip Keung), a rich Chinese businessman might be responsible, he plans to kidnap He’s daughter Ting (Chen Duo Yi) first in order to get to her father.

It turns...

Donnie Yen reveals how a change in the script for his latest feature, The Prosecutor, allowed for him to reunite with one of his Ip Man co-stars. Yen, who has previously portrayed Chirrut Imwe in 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and High Table assassin Caine in John Wick: Chapter 4, is best known for playing Ip Man in the movie series of the same name focused on the Wing Chun master. The Prosecutor sees Yen portraying a public prosecutor going to great lengths to defend his client, by any means necessary.

When speaking to Screen Rant, Yen opened up about how one notable casting choice for The Prosecutor almost never came to pass due to the movie's original script. Yen revealed that originally, Kent Cheng's Bao Ding was envisioned as a younger character to better fit the dynamic. However, Yen reconsidered once he felt that an older actor...

As the results of Election Night 2024 became known, Brian Williams looked to the future. ”Our country is about to change again,” he told viewers of a news special he was hosting on Amazon Prime Video, with a diorama of a highway lane placed behind him. “And life, of course, goes on. Hell, my next gig is to emcee our firehouse annual dinner on Saturday night in New Jersey, my hand to God.”

Williams and others like him may have more to look forward to than hosting community potlucks.

Amazon has been holding exploratory talks about possible news concepts, according to four people familiar with the matter, a sign that the streaming and e-commerce giant sees a chance for news to bolster its economics, even as traditional players in the space are grappling with tougher times. CNN, ABC News, CBS News and NBC News have all cut staff in recent months,...

Here they come now, bustling down the street in Brooklyn, three young musicians wrapped in winter coats and chatting animatedly among themselves as they approach the diner on the corner. It’s a chilly Friday in December, just a couple of degrees above freezing, but that’s nothing for this trio of best friends from Chicago.

“Chicago is a completely different animal,” says singer-guitarist Penelope Lowenstein, 20, as she crowds into a booth beside singer-guitarist Nora Cheng, 21, and drummer Gigi Reece, 22, her bandmates in the resolutely unconventional indie-rock group Horsegirl. “I...

Johnnie To’s collaborations with writer-director Wa Ka-fai often defy genre classification. Among the strangest yet most compelling of their team-ups is 2003’s Running on Karma, a film that’s by turns a romantic comedy, a procedural thriller, and a wire-fu action movie. All of it is couched in a magical-realist philosophical rumination on the Buddhist notions of karma and the possibility of atoning for past sins.

Andy Lau, sporting a ludicrous muscle suit, plays “Biggie,” a monk turned bodybuilder who left his order due to the stress of being able to see people’s past lives and thus know that negative karma would soon catch up with them in their current incarnation. Biggie finds himself drawn into the hunt for a serial killer whose contortionist abilities lead to a number of elaborate escapes and skirmishes with Biggie as well as cops. Paired with Criminal Investigation Department rookie Lee Fung-yee...

Exclusive: Studiocanal is forging a crime drama series about an all-female gang in the Asian “Wild West.”

The French major is teaming with Fremantle-backed Beach House Pictures and Singapore’s Momo Film Co. on Red Butterfly, which comes from The Great scribe Constance Cheng and Kris Ong.

Based on a true story, Red Butterfly follows the rise of an all-female gang run by two sisters set in 1950s Singapore, at that time a city of crime, the glamorous but lawless “Wild West” of Asia.

The buzzy project has been unveiled on the eve of the Asian TV Forum & Market in Singapore. Studiocanal is selling and Canal+ is developing in Vietnam and Myanmar.

Red Butterfly will be filmed in English and Chinese languages on location in Singapore and Malaysia. Co-creator Cheng will write and serve as showrunner. Fellow co-creator Kris Ong (Ajoomma) will also write on the project. The fight...

Documentary short The Other Side of The Mountain, directed by Yumeng He has managed to make quite a splash in the festival circuit for its unconventional approach and heartfelt story. Yumeng has her artist father, Cheng He, at the centre of it – who she follows to explore his old neighborhood. Cheng had moved from the place many years ago and the documentary is about him trying to recognize the place where he used to live and also relieving the old memories. That also becomes a general topic of discussion in the short. I was fortunate enough to virtually sit-down with Yumeng and have a long chat about her experience of working with her father, her inspiration in filmmaking, how she managed to bring a beautiful, cinematic vibe to her documentary, and so many more things. Have a look.

1. Congratulations on your short film. It’s not everyday one gets to...

Adapted from Lui Cixin’s award-winning Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, and drawing primarily from the first novel in the series, 3 Body Problem is a mystery story that takes place on a cosmic scale. David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo’s series begins with a slew of suspicious deaths in the scientific community. When the world’s particle accelerators simultaneously begin churning out nonsensical data, an unnamed agency becomes convinced that these two events are somehow connected and sends a charmingly disheveled intelligence officer, Da Shi (Benedict Wong), to investigate.

As he sleuths into the ongoing deaths, Da uncovers a conspiracy that can be traced all the way back to the bloodiest days of China’s Cultural Revolution and to an astrophysicist named Ye Wenjie (played by Zine Tseng in her youth and then Rosalind Chao as an adult). Through flashbacks we learn that, distraught by the violence that she’d witnessed,...

The Cord Cutters News website. (Screen capture by The Desk)

Cord Cutters News, a technology website that primarily focuses on news and reviews involving streaming television platforms, released its top editor and two staff writers this week as part of a broader editorial restructuring.

On Friday, former Cord Cutters News Editor-in-Chief Roger Cheng confirmed he was one of several employees to receive a layoff notice, affirming the job losses were part of a broader internal strategy change to shift away from written content in favor of producing videos for YouTube.

“I had fun learning about the ins and outs of the streaming world, and proud of some of the bigger stories I wrote,” Cheng wrote on his professional LinkedIn profile, adding that he would take “a short break to figure out what’s next” but was willing to receive tips on new opportunities.

The identities of the two staff writers were not immediately known.

Miao Xie as Cheng in Eye For An Eye: Blind Swordsman (Mu Zhong Wu Ren). Courtesy of WellGoUSA

Chinese martial arts films have a long tradition of including quite an array of masterful fighters with significant disabilities. Many of them feature a hero who is blind, deaf, missing an arm, etc. yet still able to defeat whatever evil being or force must be eliminated for the common good. That usually yields a bunch of intricately choreographed battles – one-on-ones with the worst, often preceded by dispatching hordes of underlings and anonymous minions.

Eye For An Eye: Blind Swordsman (Mu Zhong Wu Ren) follows the pattern in a relatively low-key production set in the distant (pre-firearms) past. Cheng (Miao Xie) has the unlikely job of itinerant bounty hunter for the government. He’s very good at it, of course, despite his lack of sight. The film opens in a gambling den. We...

A depressed teacher recalls and investigates childhood abuses in this profound and perceptive drama from Hong Kong director Nick Cheuk

Grappling with the still taboo issue of Hong Kongers’ mental health struggles, Nick Cheuk’s stirring drama contemplates a debilitating cycle of trauma. Startled by the discovery of a suicide note written by an anonymous student, high school teacher Mr Cheng (Lo Chun-yip) is taken back to a painful past marred by parental abuse and academic pressure. As Cheng flips through a diary penned by a young boy named Eli (Sean Wong Tsz-lok), the latter’s quiet sufferings are juxtaposed with the teacher’s difficult present.

Enduring daily comparison to his academically successful brother as well as corporal punishment from his violent father, Eli is alienated from his own family, a paralysing solitude that mirrors Cheng’s own since his recent divorce. Through a subtle and effective use of flashbacks,...

It seems that 2023 has been a great year for Hong Kong family/social dramas, with titles like “Fly me to the Moon” , “Lost Love” and “In Broad Daylight” having a significant impact in the industry. Nick Cheuk's feature debut “Time Still Turns the Pages” can easily be added in the same list, in a film that deals with how the actions of parents affect and shape their children.

“Time Still Turns the Pages,” hits the UK cinemas on 24th November, courtesy of Trinity CineAsia

High school teacher Cheng tries to be kind and considerate to all his students, but when a cleaning lady discovers a suicide note, a triggering memory of his rather demanding, rather harsh and violent father begins to resurface. Eventually, the faculty decides to ask a student for help in the matter. At the same time, Cheng is in the middle of a divorce, which he finds quite difficult to acknowledge.

Jackie Chan held his end in portraying Luo Feng in Scott Waugh’s Hidden Strike, and the other end was held by John Cena. The film rode on the shoulders of those two performers, but ultimately, the superficial conflicts and the limited investments in their arcs and resolutions, laden with unnecessarily prolonged action sequences, ensured that the film couldn’t rise above its generic treatment. John Cena played Chris Van Horne and got an opportunity to act alongside the legendary Jackie Chan. The relationship between the two is reminiscent of the characters in Rush Hour, where Jackie Chan starred alongside Chris Tucker. Although it must be added that Cena is no Tucker, he manages to charm his way through the film with witty one-liners and his improvisational dialogue; some tickled me even when they ended up in the outtakes shown in the post-credit scenes. Let’s take a look at...

Scott Waugh had the opportunity to make use of two phenomenal talents in his new movie Hidden Strike, but he couldn’t really achieve the impact he would have liked. It’s an odd pairing—Jackie Chan with John Cena. Both have the same initials, and for a while, it looked like they might go against each other, but the writing ensured that the story remained predictable. Written by Arash Amel, Hidden Strike neither invested much in complex character arcs nor any dilemmas that the characters would really have to struggle with. The movie is carried from one action sequence to the next, and Jackie and John try to salvage the one-note movie on their shoulders through their charm and goofy performances.

Jackie Chan has legendary status when it comes to action cinema. Having done films like The Legend of the Drunken Master and Rush Hour, he has nothing more to prove.

About halfway through the first season of Crunchyroll's surprise hit Chinese anime series Link Click, what started out as a refreshingly interesting tweak of the time travel anime genre, quickly turned into an even more intriguing psychological thriller that left hanging on the edge in its season finale. Now, fans have reason to be excited as the series is officially confirmed to return for a second season on Crunchyroll.

According to a tweet posted on July 11th to the official Link Click Twitter account, the premiere of the series' second season is scheduled for Friday, July 14, 2023, at 11:00 Pm China Standard Time (Cst) on BiliBili, the Chinese streaming platform where the show was originally broadcast. Crunchyroll, Link Click's international distributor, will broadcast the premiere on Thursday, July 13, 2023, at a time to be determined. To get fans hyped for the new season, BiliBili set up a booth at Anime Expo 2023 where...

Arrow’s recent box sets Shawscope Volume One and Volume Two highlighted the golden age of Hong Kong’s Shaw Brothers studio, spanning roughly from the mid-1970s to their pivot toward TV in 1986. Now, Shout! Factory’s Shaw Brothers Classics: Volume 1 focuses on the studio’s rapid commercial ascendency at the end of the ’60s with their then-new, harder-edged take on martial arts cinema.

The earliest film in the set is, fittingly, Chang Cheh’s The Assassin, from 1967. Made hot on the heels of Chang’s (and the studio’s) breakout feature The One-Armed Swordsman from the same year, The Assassin furthers the filmmaker’s interest in moving the martial arts film away from its erstwhile emphasis on female heroes who are prone to musical outbursts and flowery romances as they are violence and toward the sort of male-centric revenge narratives that dominate the titles collected here.

One-Armed Swordsman...