Arts & Music

The Collector | San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum shifts focus

The institution moves beyond colonial-era acquisitions to focus on contemporary works that will become the classics of the future.

1 hour ago
Director’s triad adventure and her hopes for Hong Kong film

Mabel Cheung’s widowed mother made plastic flowers, and friends helped pay for her to go university. While studying in New York, the director hung out with triad gangsters and put them in a film that earned her a Shaw Brothers contract.

6 hours ago03571EC5-13F4-4283-B996-99444BE88411
The artist who drew US attention to China’s WWII plight

Martha Sawyers eschewed pre-war tropes of other Western artists depicting Chinese people as weak and backward.

16 Mar 2020 - 10:21AM
What a view | Westworld is back, and Singapore takes a starring role, too

HBO’s dark science-fiction show brings Aaron Paul and Vincent Cassel into the mix. Plus The Chef Show returns to Netflix, with Roy Choi and Jon Favreau ready to cook.

15 Mar 2020 - 9:51AM03571EC5-13F4-4283-B996-99444BE88411
The Projector | A filmmaker reframes the objectification of women in cinema

Constanze Ruhm’s version of ‘Anna’ gives a voice to the protagonist of the original documentary, and all women marginalised by the film industry.

18 Mar 2020 - 12:05PM
What a view | Handsome Siblings, Neflix reboot of Chinese classic, is a visual feast

The wuxia saga looks like Cirque du Soleil meets Journey to the West, with airborne, superhuman displays of martial arts.

8 Mar 2020 - 9:55AM03571EC5-13F4-4283-B996-99444BE88411
The Projector | Film documents Chinese migrants’ impact on Lesotho

Teboho Edkins’ Days of Cannibalism looks like a Western, but these frontier spaces are settled by Chinese ‘pioneers’.

7 Mar 2020 - 6:33PM03571EC5-13F4-4283-B996-99444BE88411
What a view | In new Netflix K-drama, love isn’t all you need

South Korean caper infuses action, espionage and AI into its romantic core, and is the better for it.

5 Mar 2020 - 11:13AM03571EC5-13F4-4283-B996-99444BE88411
The Collector | Is this the end of physical art galleries in Hong Kong?

Months of protests followed by the coronavirus outbreak have dealt a blow to Hong Kong galleries, already weighed down by crippling rents, but most owners believe galleries will survive.

3 Mar 2020 - 8:00AM
What a view | In ‘Rise of Empires: Ottoman’, education meets entertainment

The six-part series unites bloody drama with documentary interludes to illuminating effect.

23 Feb 2020 - 10:31AM03571EC5-13F4-4283-B996-99444BE88411
How a French director ‘hijacked’ a Hong Kong martial arts film

René Viénet’s debut Can Dialetics Break Bricks? takes kung fu potboiler Crush and positions it as a confrontation between the state and revolutionaries .

22 Feb 2020 - 2:42PM03571EC5-13F4-4283-B996-99444BE88411
The Collector | Thai influencer to help Bangkok museum move with the times

Founder of the Museum of Contemporary Art in the Thai capital, Boonchai Bencharongkul, hands the reins to his son, Kit, who plans to modernise, edit and expand the collection beyond Buddhist art.

18 Feb 2020 - 10:45AM03571EC5-13F4-4283-B996-99444BE88411
What a view | 1890s Malacca sets the scene for The Ghost Bride on Netflix

The show follows Pan Li Lan, a young woman chosen to wed Lim Tian Ching, the only catch is that he is dead.

16 Feb 2020 - 9:41AM03571EC5-13F4-4283-B996-99444BE88411
For Hong Kong filmmakers, politics and protests are on the table

Mainland directors are frequently bombarded with questions abroad about China’s social and political conditions. Now their Hong Kong counterparts must prepare for similar interrogations.

11 Feb 2020 - 1:28PM03571EC5-13F4-4283-B996-99444BE88411
Blade Runner’s Hong Kong influences are still inspiring

Ridley Scott’s 1982 film remains a source of inspiration for Swedish watch and footwear designer Alexis Holm.

9 Feb 2020 - 8:00PM03571EC5-13F4-4283-B996-99444BE88411
What a view | Unsettling anime Babylon uncovers a dark conspiracy

Adapted from the novels of Mado Nozaki, the show delves into deep territory, including questioning what constitutes good and evil.

9 Feb 2020 - 10:13AM03571EC5-13F4-4283-B996-99444BE88411
What a view | The eerily prescient timing of Netflix docuseries Pandemic

The six-part series follows overworked, underfunded but somehow still positive experts trying to keep us safe.

2 Feb 2020 - 9:35AM03571EC5-13F4-4283-B996-99444BE88411
Sports films: more propaganda than athletic prowess?

Films about sporting events and sports stars have frequently been used to stir national pride but certain filmmakers have pretty much ignored the brief to present a true picture.

1 Feb 2020 - 3:00PM03571EC5-13F4-4283-B996-99444BE88411
How Peter Sellers stole the show in The Pink Panther

Sellers’ comic genius, an unforgettable theme tune and opening credits so charming their animated protagonist was awarded its own series transformed this David Niven vehicle into an enduring classic.

27 Jan 2020 - 1:45PM03571EC5-13F4-4283-B996-99444BE88411