Top five films to watch in Hong Kong this week (November 16-22), from Sicilian Ghost Story to Justice League

Two ghost stories unlike any you’ll have seen, superheroes reunited in a single film, an animated Chinese underworld drama and an acerbic black comedy from Taiwan about migrant labourers make up our top five this week

Film reviews

Edmund Lee

Published: 8:02am, 16 Nov, 2017

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1. Sicilian Ghost Story

A true-life horror story surrounding the kidnap and murder of an 11-year-old Sicilian boy by the mafia becomes a genre-bending masterpiece in the hands of co-directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, who lend a touch of the supernatural into their deeply poetic and melancholy fable. (Opens on November 18)

2. The Great Buddha+

For his feature debut, Taiwanese documentary director Huang Hsin-yao turns his focus to the plight of impoverished labourers in an acerbic black comedy, narrated by Huang in a hilariously deadpan tone. (November 18 and 19, part of the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival)

3. Have a Nice Day

Notably pulled from a top animation festival in June after pressure from Beijing, animator Liu Jian’s bleak underworld drama transplants the bloody mayhem of Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers to southern China to surprisingly intoxicating effect. (November 16 and 18, part of the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival)

4. A Ghost Story

A haunted house movie unlike any other you have seen, this quietly contemplative and surprisingly philosophical story by director David Lowery takes an easy set-up – by having Casey Affleck play a ghost under a sheet – and fashions it into a profound exploration of love, grief and time itself. (Opens on November 16)

5. Justice League

At long last, DC Comics and Warner Bros Pictures’ answer to Marvel’s The Avengers has arrived. While Zack Snyder’s latest attempt to breathe life into the franchise is passable at best, it’s a relief for Batman fans that this is at least not a debacle like Batman v Superman . Baby steps, but we’ll take it. (Opens on November 16)

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