News

By Monika S-r

Another joint project by actor Andy Lau and director Johnny To, after “A love on diet”, “Fulltime killer” and Fat Choi Spirit, the film is classified as action, drama and thriller, with some humoristic scenes. The film won a number of awards, including one for Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best actor, at the 23rd Hong Kong film awards.

on Terracotta by clicking on the image below

This is the story of a Buddhist ex-monk and bodybuilder named Big, who is endowed with the mysterious power of seeing the karma of other people. Big works as a stripteaser, which, in view of his silhouette, turns out to be a lucrative business. During one of his shows, he meets a beautiful woman-cop and notes that she has a very bad karma. He decides to help her.

The film’s story is interesting but also heavy...

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...

The film is out of the running due to a “conflict of interest” among the selection committee.

The producer of Hong Kong film A Light Never Goes Out has spoken out following the disqualification of the feature from the 2024 Oscars race.

The drama was submitted by the Federation of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong for the international feature film category of the 96th Academy Awards in September. But when the Academy revealed the list of eligible titles last Thursday, A Light Never Goes Out was not included and the Federation is trying to figure out why.

Despite the outcome,...

NEW YORK -- IFC Entertainment is picking up the offbeat cop thriller Mad Detective from Hong Kong directors Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai.

Lau Ching-wan plays the title character, a loopy police inspector who solves cases by seeing a suspect's inner "ghosts." After a long absence from the force for mental-health reasons, he is brought back to track down a missing officer.

Detective premiered in September at the Venice and Toronto film festivals. To, who has directed dozens of films since the early 1980s, has seen some of his greatest successes with the recent gangster films Election, Triad Election and Exiled. He most recently teamed with co-director Wai on the 2003 film Running on Karma.

IFC will release Detective in theaters and via VOD through its First Take day-and-date program. An IFC spokesperson declined comment on the deal, which is now in final negotiations.

Friday's acquisition added to a high-profile week for IFC, which received four Spirit Award nominations (for Paranoid Park and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) and a Gotham Award tribute for president Jonathan Sehring.

HONG KONG -- China Star's Running on Karma and Media Asia's Infernal Affairs II will slug it out for top honors at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards. Karma, directed by Johnnie To and Ka-fai Wai, goes into the final round of voting with 13 nominations, including best film and best director. Stars Andy Lau and Cecilia Cheung were nominated for best actor and best actress, respectively. Cheung was also nominated for her role in Tung-shing Yee's romantic drama Lost in Time. Cheung will be up against Kar-yan Lam (Floating Landscape), Carina Lau (Infernal Affairs II) and Sandra Ng Kwan Yue (Golden Chicken 2). Media Asia's Infernal Affairs II, the follow-up to 2002's boxoffice hit Infernal Affairs, received 12 nominations, including best film, best director, best actor for Francis Ng and best supporting actors for Man-chat To and Kai Chi Liu.