Ranking every Hong Kong film released in 2021, from worst to best
- Anita is a mesmerising musical biopic of Canto-pop singer Anita Mui, while Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse are nemeses on opposite sides of the law in Raging Fire
- Drifting is a minor masterpiece about the daily lives of homeless people in Sham Shui Po; Keep Rolling is an enthralling documentary on filmmaker Ann Hui
Nobody knows the future, but even the most naive observer could tell you that, after 2021, Hong Kong cinema is never going to be the same again.
The full impact of Hong Kong’s new political reality on its cinema remains to be seen, but audiences who, say, loved the moral ambiguity of crime thrillers or the cheeky political commentary woven into genre-defying blockbusters, should brace for major change.
Indeed, quite a few film directors and actors have voted with their feet and quietly moved their residence outside the city in the past two years. This disheartening trend is only going to spread when more concrete examples of the new forms of censorship further disrupt the industry.
For the time being, we can still rejoice in the continued emergence of a new generation of Hong Kong filmmakers, who seem as determined as ever to preserve the unique culture of the city to judge by their spirited first features.