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Richard James Havis

Three hidden gems of Hong Kong action cinema, To’s judo film Throw Down, Lau’s kung fu comedy and Lam’s relationship drama within a crime story should be on the radar of any serious fan of the action genre.

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Two crime films Johnnie To shot in the early 2000s changed the game for the genre in Hong Kong – 2003’s PTU, starring Lam Suet and Simon Yam, and 2004’s Breaking News with Richie Jen and Nick Cheung.

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Jet Li reinvented himself in the 1990s from a period kung fu movie star to a modern action hero. We look at three of his gun fu films fusing firearms and fighting, before he left Hong Kong for the US.

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Ann Hui’s The Secret (1979), based on a real-life double murder case, helped usher in the Hong Kong New Wave cinema movement, while it was also one of the few women-led films at the time.

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Man on the Brink, directed by Alex Cheung, is finally getting the overseas recognition it deserves 40 years after its release. A critic explains how the undercover police drama was ahead of its time.

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Modern philosopher Peter Cave explains the arguments of history’s most famous, such as Socrates, Aristotle, René Descartes and Jean-Paul Sartre, and how they believed you could live your best life.

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Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai has worked with top directors from John Woo to Wong Kar-wai during a 40-year career. We look back at what he has said he learned from some of them.

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Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung Chiu-wai star in John Woo’s 1992 film Hard Boiled, the epitome of the director’s stylised filmmaking and storytelling. We look at the stories behind the making of a classic.

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Released in 1999, Andrew Lau’s martial arts film A Man Called Hero followed hot on the heels of his 1998 Hong Kong hit The Storm Riders, but the Infernal Affairs director couldn’t recreate its success.

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We take a look at Hong Kong director Ronny Yu’s Hollywood films, from a family movie about kung fu kangaroos fighting to uphold Chinese virtues to horror films Freddy vs. Jason and Bride of Chucky.

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A social drama, a historical romance, a murder mystery, an ethnographical work – Hong Kong filmmaker Yim Ho drew a series of pictures of China, each one different, in movies he made in the 1980s and 1990s.

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Tsui Hark made two of his most daring films in 1980, one a satire with a cannibal theme, the other an extremely violent take on society, with characters who wreak destruction for the hell of it.

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Cheap and engineered to taste good, ultra-processed foods line many supermarket shelves but do us more harm than good, says a doctor. He explains how to spot them and why they’re addictive.

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Martial arts superstar Jackie Chan looked to broaden his range as an actor in Hong Kong-produced movies in the 1990s, making hits such as Rumble in the Bronx and forgettable films such as Mr Nice Guy.

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In the 1970s, Michael Hui was the box-office champion, Jackie Chan achieved stardom, and kung fu and sex sold movies. What else happened in Hong Kong cinema during that decade?

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Stephen Chow’s slapstick comedy, mixed with the action choreography of Tony Ching and star power of Sharla Cheung and Brigitte Lin, made for a popular retelling by Wong Jing of a well-known tale.

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Hong Kong martial arts star Chen Kuan-tai took pride in having been a kung fu professional. Ti Lung was handy with a sword in wuxia films and, like Chen, a regular in Chang Cheh’s films for Shaw Brothers.

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The Illegal Immigrant, which featured non-professional actors, some playing themselves, and An Autumn’s Tale, with Chow Yun-fat, capture 80s New York’s violence, crime and poverty.

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Lisa Lu is best known internationally for films like Crazy Rich Asians. In Hong Kong, she made an indelible mark as a general in The 14 Amazons. Before that, she had a prolific screen career in America.

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Ah Kam, a 1996 film by Ann Hui starring Michelle Yeoh and Sammo Hung, combined realistic drama, melodrama and triad action. Seen as experimental, it was overshadowed by an injury Yeoh sustained on set.

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Michael Wong’s early films in Hong Kong saw the Chinese-American actor treated like a foreigner, and typecast as a cop after starring as one in the Michelle Yeoh vehicle Royal Warriors.

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The world seems to quickly forget health emergencies such as Spanish flu, the 2014 Ebola outbreak and Covid-19, says Joanne Liu, who believes countries need to present a united front against disease.

Actor, producer, martial artist – Sammo Hung has loomed large in Hong Kong’s film industry since the 1960s. We bet you don’t know about some aspects of his long movie career.

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My Life as McDull, animated movie about a humdrum pig, charmed Hong Kong film-goers with the character’s hard work and persistence. Sequels of varying quality followed.

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Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen started Hilarity for Charity after her mother developed Alzheimer’s. The charity pays for professionals to relieve family carers and teaches young people about the disease.

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Jet Li, Chow Yun-fat and Stephen Chow were among the leading actors who worked with director-producer Wong Jing, whose crude, sex-filled films dominated the Hong Kong box office. What set him apart?

Tetsuya Ishida is little known internationally, but Gagosian Gallery aims to change that with its exhibition in New York of paintings that show the Japanese artist as a prophet of modern urban alienation.

Woody Allen and The Wonder Years fan Joe Ma’s youth romance Feel 100% launched the film career of Cantopop star Sammi Cheng and made fellow singer Ekin Cheng a heartthrob.

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Empty newspaper, giant pink lips, barbed wire – the 20th-century South Korean experimental art seen at an exhibition in New York tells us something about the artists and the time they grew up in.

Famous for directing the Ip Man films, Hong Kong director Wilson Yip started out making quirky comedies, ghost stories and other dramas. We look at five of those films here.

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