Crime thriller Limbo wins best picture in 2021 Hong Kong Film Critics Society awards; the late Benny Chan named best director for Raging Fire

Soi Cheang Pou-soi’s film also honoured by Hong Kong Film Critics Society with best actress award for China’s Cya Liu Ya-se
The best director honour goes to Raging Fire’s Benny Chan Muk-sing, the movie veteran who died of cancer in 2020 while the project was still in post-production

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Edmund Lee

Published: 9:52am, 18 Jan 2022

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Soi Cheang Pou-soi’s nihilistic crime thriller Limbo has been voted the best Hong Kong film of 2021 by a panel of critics, the Hong Kong Film Critics Society announced on January 17.

Marking something of a triumphant return to home soil by Cheang, whose lucrative if critically divisive spell in mainland China saw him direct a trio of special-effects-laden Monkey King films from 2014 to 2018, the black-and-white film Limbo stars Lam Ka-tung and Mason Lee as a pair of police detectives on the hunt of a serial murderer.

Yet it is Cya Liu Ya-se, the Chinese actress who plays a small-time criminal tragically caught in the middle of the cat-and-mouse game, who proved the true star of the film. She was duly recognised with the best actress award for her visceral performance.

Lam may have lost out in the best actor race (despite having two roles, in Limbo and Hand Rolled Cigarette, in the running), but he must be thrilled to receive the best screenplay prize for Time, which he produced and co-scripted with Ho Ching-yi. The black comedy also saw the 1960s icon Patrick Tse Yin, who plays a retired contract killer, win best actor at age 85.

Meanwhile, the best director honour went to Raging Fire’s Benny Chan Muk-sing, the revered action movie veteran who died of cancer in August 2020 while this project was still in post-production.

Apart from Limbo, the society also named its 10 recommended films of 2021:

Raging Fire (directed by Benny Chan)