Top five films to watch in Hong Kong this week (August 17-23), from On Body and Soul to Bad Genius
This year’s Golden Bear winner heads a list that also includes cheating Thai students, the mystery of an anonymous corpse, a lazy but lovable uncle, and the scariest doll since Saw
Click on film titles to read SCMP.com reviews
Two workplace acquaintances in an industrial slaughterhouse slowly try to replicate the intimacy they’ve been sharing every night in their dreams – as a pair of deer lovers – in this deeply poetic and very eccentric Hungarian romance, winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. (Opens on August 17)
Two high-school geniuses from working-class backgrounds collaborate to cheat the exam system for financial gains in this thoroughly entertaining thrill ride. A major blockbuster in its native Thailand, the class-conscious teen movie also has the style and substance to rival any Hollywood heist thriller. (Opens on August 17)
For all its clichés and nonsenses, there’s no denying the excellent scares that Lights Out director David F. Sandberg has come up with for this fourth entry in The Conjuring franchise. One of the best horror sequels in recent times, this origin story for the series’ possessed doll is more fun than it had any right to be. (Now showing)
Essentially a haunted-house movie set in a mortuary, the English-language debut by Trollhunter director Andre Ovredal subverts its gruesome premise to spin an engrossingly creepy tale. Starring Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch as father-and-son coroners, the story sees them sucked into the mystery of an unusual corpse. (Opens on August 17)
A small movie that does its best to lift your soul, director Nobuhiro Yamashita’s ( La La La at Rock Bottom ) heart-warming take on Morio Kita’s 1971 novel finds a great comedic presence in the understated Ryuhei Matsuda, playing a likeable slacker who is watched and helped along by his wise nephew. (Now showing)
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