Although Covid-19 has disrupted shooting schedules and closed cinemas all over Asia at different times over the past two years as various waves of the pandemic have moved across the region, a reassuring number of films made it into production and should be available to audiences later this year. This was evident at Filmart Online in Hong Kong last week (March 14-17), the biggest film industry trading platform in Asia, where many new works were being promoted or discussed, from big-budget action spectaculars to high-quality art house films that are likely to make an appearance at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Below, in alphabetical order, we profile 10 of the most interesting titles showcased at this year’s Filmart. 1. Back to the Past (Hong Kong-China) The three stars of Hong Kong TV series A Step into the Past – Louis Koo Tin-lok, Jessica Hsuan and Raymond Lam Fung – are reunited in this time-travel historical action drama, directed by visual effects specialist Ng Yuen-fai and Jack Lai. When a sudden attack shatters the peace of the recently unified Qin dynasty, the Qin Emperor turns to his mentor for the first time in 20 years to fight a time-travelling villain. A Step into the Past was a big hit on Hong Kong television channel TVB Jade in 2001. The film sequel is being lined up for release later this year. 2. Broker (South Korea) Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda, who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival in 2018 for Shoplifters , is making his Korean-language debut with this drama, which is also being tipped to premiere at Cannes or another big film festival. The 12 best Asian films of 2021: Drive My Car, Drifting, The Falls and more Song Kang-ho, who starred in Oscar-winning drama Parasite , heads the cast along with Gang Dong-won ( Peninsula ) and Bae Doona, who previously worked with Koreeda on Air Doll . The story follows two men who take a child from a “baby box”, a small space where parents leave infants they’re unable to look after themselves. 3. Decision to Leave (South Korea) Chinese actress Tang Wei and Korean actor Park Hae-il headline the cast of this Korean- and Chinese-language romantic thriller directed by Park Chan-wook , one of Korea’s best known directors. The film, which is also being tipped as a potential Cannes title, revolves around a detective drawn to a mysterious woman while investigating her husband’s death. Park’s last film, The Handmaiden , won four prizes at the Asian Film Awards in 2017 and a Bafta the following year. Since then, he has been busy directing TV series, most recently an adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer for HBO. 4. Detective vs Sleuths (Hong Kong-China) Set for release in mainland China on April 2, this crime suspense drama stars Lau Ching-wan as a former ace detective now living on the streets and struggling with mental illness, who joins the fight against a group of brutal vigilantes who are murdering the suspects in cold cases. This is the first film directed by Wai Ka-fai since Written By in 2009, since which time he has been focusing on writing and producing films directed by his long-time collaborator Johnnie To Kei-fung, including Drug War and Blind Detective . Detective vs Sleuths also stars Raymond Lam and Charlene Choi Cheuk-yin. 5. The Goldfinger (Hong Kong-China) Two stars of the Infernal Affairs series – Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Andy Lau Tak-wah – are reunited in this crime thriller written and directed by Felix Chong Man-keung ( Project Gutenberg ), who also co-wrote the Infernal Affairs films. Set in Hong Kong in the 1980s, when the stock market was booming, the story follows an anti-corruption investigator uncovering a criminal conspiracy in the wake of a huge multinational corporation going bankrupt and wiping out billions of dollars in shares. Charlene Choi, Simon Yam Tat-wah, Carlos Chan Ka-lok and Alex Fong Chung-sun also star in the film, which has finished shooting and is in post-production. A release date has yet to be set. 6. Lesson in Murder (Japan) The latest film from Japanese director Kazuya Shiraishi, who has a track record of quirky and hard-hitting yakuza gangster films, is a serial-killer drama starring Sadao Abe and Kenshi Okada. The story follows a university student who receives a letter from a killer who has been convicted of several murders, admitting his guilt in all the cases, except one, which the student sets out to investigate. Although best known for cop-and-gangster thrillers like Twisted Justice and The Blood of Wolves , Shiraishi is a prolific and versatile filmmaker who also made relationship drama Birds Without Names and a biopic of “pink movie” director Koji Wakamatsu, Dare to Stop Us . 7. Mama Boy (Taiwan) This romantic drama from Taiwanese-American filmmaker Arvin Chen Chun-lin stars Kai Ko Chen-tung ( You Are the Apple of My Eye , Till We Meet Again ) and Vivian Hsu Jo-hsuan, who most recently starred in Netflix drama Light the Night . Ko plays an awkward young man living at home with a control-freak mother, who finds himself falling for an older single mother (Hsu), who works in a sex hotel and has a 20-year-old son. Chen’s previous films, Au Revoir Taipei and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? , both played at the Berlin film festival. He is also working on projects for Apple Studios and Amazon Studios. Mama Boy is being released in Taiwan in August. 8. Men of Plastic (South Korea) Train to Busan star Ma Dong-seok (aka Don Lee) heads the cast of this comedy drama about a native of Seoul’s glamorous Apgujeong neighbourhood who is determined to launch his own plastic surgery business and courts the area’s most talented surgeon, who has lost his medical licence in an unfortunate accident. Directed by Lim Jin-sun (2018 action thriller Ordinary People ), the film also stars Jung Kyung-ho, known for K-dramas Hospital Playlist and the Korean version of Life on Mars . Ma was also recently seen in Eternals , the Marvel movie directed by Chloe Zhao. 9. Offbeat Cops (Japan) Popular Japanese model and actor Hiroshi Abe stars in this drama about a workaholic detective, whose hard-headed and occasionally violent working methods result in him being shunted off to play in the police department’s brass band. Initially reluctant to play, he eventually discovers the joy of teamwork and joins forces with his band members to solve a robbery case. The 10 best movies from this year’s Berlin film festival Set for a summer release in Japan, the film is directed by Eiji Uchida, who worked on Netflix series The Naked Director and is also known for award-winning transgender drama Midnight Swan . 10. Smuggle (South Korea) Another Korean film being tipped for Cannes or another big festival this year, Smuggle is directed by Ryoo Seung-wan, whose Crying Fist played at Cannes in 2005, and whose last film, Escape to Mogadishu , was one of Asia’s biggest hits during the pandemic in 2021. Set in the 1970s, Smuggle is about two Korean “sea women” with the ability to deep dive for long periods without breathing equipment who get caught up in a smuggling ring. The star-studded cast includes Kim Hye-soo ( Signal ), Yum Jung-ah ( Snowdrop ), Jo In-sung ( Escape to Mogadishu ) and Park Jung-min ( Time to Hunt ). Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook