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Top 5 films to watch in Hong Kong this week: September 29-October 5
Woody Allen’s latest quirky comedy, a Fukushima post-disaster drama, a haunting Japanese crime thriller, struggles within a Danish commune, and Gong Li’s 1992 star turn make up this week’s picks
Click on film title to read SCMP.com’s review.
1. Café Society
Jesse Eisenberg proves a compelling alter ego of Woody Allen in this tale of 1930s Hollywood and New York nightlife. He is charmingly matched by Kristen Stewart, whose stocks in auteur cinema are on a meteoric rise with this and two recent Olivier Assayas films. (Opens on September 29)
2. The Commune
Following the Oscar-nominated The Hunt and an engrossing take on Far from the Madding Crowd , Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg turns to his own experience for this story of loss of innocence, filtered through the nostalgic lens of ’70s communal living. (Opens on September 29)
3. The Story of Qiu Ju
The film that made Gong Li a global star and gave Zhang Yimou leverage with the Chinese censors, this Golden Lion winner at the 1992 Venice Film Festival chronicles a wronged peasant’s quest for justice in a labyrinth of bureaucracy. (October 1, part of Chinese Film Panorama 2016 programme)
4. Fukushima, Mon Amour
While the German filmmaker Doris Dörrie has made excellent films in Japan before, none comes close to matching the cultural significance of this lyrical tale of loss and moving on, shot on location in disaster-ravaged Fukushima. (September 30, part of KINO/16 Film Festival)
5. Creepy
Like his cult 1997 film Cure, a police procedural with a touch of lurid horror, Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s new crime thriller does a fantastic job of crawling under its audience’s skin long before its hero, Hidetoshi Nishijima’s criminologist, arrives at the nightmarish finish. (Now showing)
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