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Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan, who was previously behind “Kaili Blues” and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” has his latest film, “Resurrection,” in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, which is now underway. Thankfully, Les Films du Losange dropped a teaser trailer that has made its way online ahead of the Cannes debut.

The script for “Resurrection” was co-written by Gan and Xiaohui Zhai with a cast that features Jackson Yee, Qi Shu, Mark Chao, Gengxi Li, Jue Huang, Yongzhong Chen, Zhijian Zhang, Chloe Maayan, Nan Yan, and Mucheng Guo.

Continue reading ‘Resurrection’ Teaser Trailer: Bi Gan’s Cannes-Bound Sci-Fi Detective Tale With Music From M83 at The Playlist.

Winner of a Special Mention for Best Student Short Film in Pingyao, 27-minute-long “Night Swimming” combines two of the festival-favorite genres of Mainland Cinema, arthouse crime and family drama. Let us see how Li fares.

Night Swimming is distributed by Dogme23.

On a distant island, Chuan, a young man, is set to take away his younger stepbrother from his father, whom he acccuses for all the blights of his and his mother’s life. The tension between the two is palpable from the beginning, although the father is actually apologetic and seems to care for both his sons. His gambling issues soon come to the fore as the three of them visit a cockfighting parlor, but soon it is revealed that the father actually has some plans to improve his life. Eventually though, it is proven that his plans are not without complications.

Allow me to start with the negative.

“Better Days” director Derek Tsang has been tapped to direct and co-executive produce Netflix’s adaptation of “Three-Body-Problem” for David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. The forthcoming series, based on the trilogy from Chinese author Liu Cixin, tells the story of what happens when humanity discovers that we are not alone in the universe.

“Game of Thrones” creators Benioff and Weiss will serve as showrunners for the series under their their overall deal with Netflix. Tsang’s romance crime feature, “Better Days,” was nominated for best international feature film at the 93rd Academy Awards, after it won eight awards at the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards. The film stars Zhou Dongyu, Jackson Yee, Yin Fang, Huang Jue, Wu Yue, Zhou Ye and Zhang Xinyi among others. Tsang’s solo directorial debut in 2016, “Soul Mate,” earned him the Best Director Award at the 2017 Hong Kong Film Director’s Guild.

Alexander Woo co-created...

Lady in the Portrait (Le Portrait Interdit)? It’s all about the Art, innit? And in this case, Art with a well-and-truly capital A. But it is also about jealousy and impermanence in the court of an absolute monarch.

We begin with empress and former concubine Ulanara (Fan Bingbing) consumed with jealousy as she discovers her husband, emperor Qianlong (Jue Huang) of the Qing Dynasty, pining over a portrait of his late first wife. But she hatches a plan: she will, also like his late wife, learn to play chess and then, when he is in mellow mood – in between sending his elephant to row three and ordering the flaying alive of a traitor – she will ask his permission to have a portrait of her own done. But in the style of the West.

Suitably impressed by her over-the-board skill, Qianlong...

"The reward goes to my wife. Can I trust you?" Film Movement has debuted the first official trailer for The Wild Goose Lake, a stunningly gorgeous modern noir gangster film from China. This premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year, and stopped by the Toronto and New York Film Festivals in the film. Hu Ge plays a gangster named Zhou Zenong on the run, who sacrifices everything for his family and a woman he meets while on the lam. This features "gorgeous, neon-drenched cinematography and bursts of shocking, expertly choreographed action." I caught this in Cannes and loved it, the cinematography is some of the best I've ever seen (read my full review). Also starring Lun-Mei Kwei, Fan Liao, Regina Wan, Dao Qi, Hua Hua, and Jue Huang. Highly recommend discovering this gem to anyone else that digs slick noir thrillers. Here's the official Us trailer (+ poster) for Diao Yinan's The Wild Goose Lake,...

"You protect the world. I'll protect you." Well Go USA has released two official trailers for an indie drama from China called Better Days, originally Shaonian de ni, made by filmmaker Derek Tsang. In this dramatic / romantic thriller, Nian finds her life at a standstill when faced by relentless bullying from her peers as she prepares for her college entrance exam. Fate brings her together with a small-time criminal named Bei, but before they can retreat into a world of their own, both are dragged into the middle of a murder investigation that will change their lives forever. It seems to be a fairly rough, honest look at bullying and the challenges of young life in China. "Derek Kwok-cheung Tsang's intense melodramatic thriller paints a bleak picture of an oppressive society, in the guise of a gripping fairy-tale love story." Starring Zhou Dongyu and Jackson Yee, along with Fang Yin and Jue Huang.

Adapting a script based on the life of the last Wing Chun master’s quest to pass down his art in pre-wwii China, Xu Haofeng (the writer of “The Grandmaster) decided to use an original style of narrative in order to separate his film from the plethora of similar productions coming out of Hong Kong at the moment. Let us find out if he succeeded.

“The Final Master” is part of the Asian selection at Fantasia International Film Festival

Wing Chun grandmaster Chen is the last practitioner of the art after his master died. As he tries to keep Wing Chun alive, he also tries to fulfill his master’s dream, to open a dojo in Tianjin, the “capital” of the martial worlds in the 1930’s Shanghai. In his mission, he has the help of Master Zheng, a board member of the Tianjin Martial Art’s Committee, who is considered...