Top five films to watch in Hong Kong this week (August 16-22), from Big Brother to Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

This week’s picks include the Golden Bear winner at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, a Taiwanese classic, a campus drama with a conscience, more Abba-fuelled high spirits, and the third outing of Drac and his monster friends

Film reviews

Edmund Lee

Published: 7:04am, 16 Aug, 2018

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1. Touch Me Not
The Golden Bear winner at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, Romanian writer-director Adina Pintilie’s first feature is a hugely original dissection of human sexuality. Blurring the line between fiction and non-fiction, and raising questions about standards of beauty, it has completely divided the critics. (August 19, part of the Summer International Film Festival 2018)

The Best of Times is screening as part of the Stalker in the Dark – The Films of Chang Tso-chi programme.

2. The Best of Times

One of the few Taiwanese filmmakers whose artistic credentials come close to rivalling those of the masters, Chang Tso-chi’s star has not dimmed even after a prison stint for rape. Do not miss this 2002 film – arguably his best – at the current retrospective … if you could only separate the art from the artist. (August 18, part of the Stalker in the Dark programme)

3. Big Brother

Before he earns even more fans with the martial arts epic Ip Man 4 and Disney’s much-hyped live-action Mulan, Donnie Yen Ji-dan digs deep into his social conscience for this campus drama, playing a soldier-turned high-school teacher who changes the lives of his students with his unconventional teaching methods. (Opens on August 16)

4. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

If you enjoyed the first film – which opened almost exactly 10 years ago – then chances are that you’ll find much to savour in this unashamedly bubbly follow-up. Functioning as both a prequel and a sequel, the musical romance takes the audience both forward and way back in time for another round of Abba-fuelled high spirits. (Opens on August 16)

5. Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation

Not the best animation you’ll encounter this summer but also far from being a flop, the third outing of this admirably unambitious series offers the same old family-friendly fun as Drac and his monster friends take a holiday on a cruise in the Bermuda Triangle and find love – and a lot of silly gags – along the way. (Opens on August 16)

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