Topic

Chinese language cinemai

From Andy Lau to John Woo, from Jiang Wen to Tsai Ming-liang to Sylvia Chang, and from triads to kung fu to hopping vampires to costume epics, this is the place to go for features, interviews and reviews about Chinese-language movies from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. 

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  • Hidden gems of Hong Kong action cinema, Johnnie To’s Throw Down, Lau Kar-leung’s The Spiritual Boxer and Ringo Lam’s Wild Search merit film fans’ attention
  • Lam cast Chow Yun-fat against type as a depressed cop, To pitted Aaron Kwok against Louis Koo on the judo mat, and Lau’s film launched the kung fu comedy genre
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The meaning of home and family when one is kept apart from them by a pandemic is a big theme of Tsang Tsui-shan’s film about once-a-decade festivities in rural Hong Kong for which emigrants cannot return.

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From Bruce Lee’s golden get-up in Game of Death to the nightmarish long hair and white nightdress worn by antagonist Sadako in Japanese horror Ring, we look at 10 iconic looks from Asian cinema.

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We Are Family, Hong Kong comic Eric Tsang’s film about rent-a-families, starts off as a farcical showbiz satire before taking viewers on an emotional roller coaster, and ends as a poignant tear-jerker.

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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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Bloodsport is not a great movie but it always entertains. The Hong Kong-set action drama is best known for propelling Belgian martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme into the Hollywood big league.

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Netflix drama 3 Body Problem, from the makers of the Game of Thrones series, is an adaptation of Chinese writer Liu Cixin’s sci-fi masterpiece, and depicts the fight against an alien invasion of Earth.

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A charismatic Chung Suet-ying stars in coming-of-age comedy The Lyricist Wannabe as a woman who tries – and continually fails – to become a Cantopop songwriter.

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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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Chinese-American actress Joan Chen never dreamed she would become a film star. She talks about her journey, and working with directors such as David Lynch, Ang Lee and Bernardo Bertolucci.

From singer to actor to director, Stephen Fung has worked with Marvel’s Paul Rudd, is close friends with Daniel Wu and married Shu Qi – we look at the story of the prolific Hong Kong showbiz figure.

Kristen Stewart in lesbian crime flick Love Lies Bleeding, trans tale I Saw the TV Glow, and Min Bahadur Bham’s Himalayan film Shambhala all feature in our picks of the best movies at Berlin 2024.

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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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Above the Dust follows a 10-year-old boy in China who dreams of owning a water pistol, and who goes on a journey through his grandfather’s memories of the 1950s and his terrible misdeeds at the time.

Debuting at Berlin 2024, Black Tea, the first film about Africans in China made by an African filmmaker, exhibits a tone-deaf understanding of what the diaspora’s experience is like in the country.

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Ray Yeung’s film All Shall Be Well, about the struggles of a gay woman after her partner dies, is based on ‘shocking’ true events. The Hong Kong director talks about rights for same-sex couples.

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The best picture winner at the 2023 Golden Horse Awards, Stonewalling tells a stripped-down, non-judgemental tale of a young, pregnant Chinese woman who seems to have everything against her.

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Director Qiu Yang’s Some Rain Must Fall centres on a well-off woman whose family fragments after an accident, in a critique on damaging dysfunctions present in the lives of China’s middle class.

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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From a bombastic Japanese thriller about a gang of ageing thieves to an uproarious John Woo action comedy starring Chow Yun-fat, here are five of our favourite Asian heist films.

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Ada Choi’s acting career began after she was named second runner-up in the 1991 Miss Hong Kong beauty pageant. Her life has had its ups and downs, but is ‘so good’ since moving to China and marrying.

Jet Li received praise for his role as Danny the dog in Luc Besson’s gritty 2005 action movie. While he shone among co-stars such as Morgan Freeman, it didn’t help the martial arts actor crack Hollywood.

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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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In Rob N Roll, Lam Ka-tung and Richie Jen play two middle-aged losers who get caught up in the fall-out from an armed robbery led by Aaron Kwok’s former pro wrestler. It’s well acted, but convoluted.

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Table for Six 2, the sequel to the Hong Kong Lunar New Year comedy sensation, is a satisfyingly chaotic ensemble comedy with Louis Cheung and Stephy Tang that explores family and romantic relationships.

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This year’s Hong Kong Film Awards are completely dominated by the same five front runners, although one – In Broad Daylight – stands out from the pack with 16 nominations.

Expats was shot in Hong Kong but is not being shown there. This has happened before with films, such as The Kite Runner, set in and partly filmed in Afghanistan, and A Clockwork Orange, shot in the UK.

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Mirror’s Anson Lo, Keung To and Edan Lui star in a by-the-numbers crime thriller about a Tokyo watch heist that entertains with slick visuals and charismatic performances by all but one of the main cast.

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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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