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Edmund Lee

Click on film titles to read SCMP.com reviews


1. Loving Vincent
An aesthetic experiment packaged as a detective story set in 19th century France, this trailblazing animation, which claims to be the “world’s first fully-painted feature film”, pays homage to the Dutch master Vincent van Gogh – astonishingly it was completely made with oil paints, rather than computer graphics. (Opens on November 9)


2. Battle of the Sexes
It’s a shame this entertaining sports comedy hasn’t made more of a splash at the Hong Kong box office since its release on Thursday. The film offers a remarkably thoughtful take on the 1973 exhibition tennis match between feminist icon Billie Jean King and self-proclaimed male chauvinist pig Bobby Riggs. (Now showing)


3. The Empty Hands
After lingering in romcom limbo for some 15 years, former teen idol Stephy Tang Lai-yan makes her breakthrough as a former karate pupil who picks up the sport again in her 30s. With this stirring character drama, veteran actor Chapman To Man-chat also singles himself out as a writer-director to watch. (Now showing)


4. Ed Wood
It takes one idiosyncratic director to know another, and Tim Burton’s 1994 portrait of Ed Wood Jnr is easily one of the best filmmaker biopics that anyone has put on film. Johnny Depp gives an empathetic performance as the cult director – often labelled the world’s worst ever. (November 11, part of Cine Fan programme)


5. The Night is Short, Walk on Girl
Following the acclaim for their television series The Tatami Galaxy, anime director Masaaki Yuasa and novelist Tomihiko Morimi join forces again for this surreal feature, about a man who engineers chance meetings with a mystery woman he’s infatuated with. (November 10, part of the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival)
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Film reviews

Top five films to watch in Hong Kong this week (November 9-15), from Loving Vincent to The Empty Hands

Loving Vincent.

Loving Vincent: how Van Gogh’s life was subject of the world’s first animated film made of oil paint

Vincent Van Gogh is voiced by Robert Gulaczyk in Loving Vincent, an animated film in which each frame is a painting created in the style of the artist. Photo: Good Deed Entertainment

Adeline Ravoux (voice of Eleanor Tomlinson) folds napkins in a scene from "Loving Vincent." MUST CREDIT: Good Deed Entertainment

The animated film "Loving Vincent" was created from approximately 65,000 oils-on-canvas, hand-painted in the style of Vincent Van Gogh. MUST CREDIT: Good Deed Entertainment

"Loving Vincent" features characters from Vincent Van Gogh's paintings, such as Dr. Paul Gachet. MUST CREDIT: Good Deed Entertainment

A wall in the Gdansk studio where Loving Vincent was made.

Chris O'Dowd (left) and Douglas Booth on the set of Loving Vincent.

epa06255068 British director Hugh Welchman (R), British actress/cast member Helen McCrory (C) and British actor/cast member Douglas Booth pose at the 'Loving Vincent' film premiere during the 61st BFI London Film Festival, in London, Britain, 09 October 2017. The festival runs from 04 to 15 October. EPA-EFE/ANDY RAIN

Painters at work for the film Loving Vincent.

With Empty Hands role, Hong Kong pop singer Stephy Tang is poised to make the leap to serious actress

After several fluffy outings as rom-com heroine Bo, Tang’s dramatic roles in The Empty Hands, Somewhere Beyond the Mist and Husband Killers have cemented her resolve to become better known as an actress rather than a singer

Stephy Tang in a still from the karate drama The Empty Hands.

Stephy Tang and Alex Fong in Anniversary (2015).

Stephy Tang in Husband Killers.

Stephy Tang (right) and Stephen Au in a still from the karate drama The Empty Hands.

Actress Stephy Tang is on a hot streak with three new films screening at the upcoming Hong Kong Asian Film Festival. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Culture

Film & TV

A portrait of a Dutch master in oils, tennis star Billie Jean King takes on older champion and sexist Bobby Riggs, a Hong Kong karate drama, Tim Burton’s bio of director Ed Wood, and a Japanese youth romcom are this week’s picks
