https://www.scmp.com/rss/308186/feed Edmund Lee is the film editor of the Post. Before joining the Culture desk in 2013, he was the arts and culture editor of Time Out Hong Kong. Since he graduated in English and Comparative Literature, Edmund has also studied law and written an MPhil thesis on Hirokazu Koreeda. He is on a masochistic mission to review every Hong Kong film being released. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 2.5/5 stars A bus blast on Valentine’s Day in 1998 that killed 16 and injured dozens in Wuhan, in China’s Hubei province, provides the blueprint for We’re Nothing at All, a trenchant drama that marks a rare rekindling of Herman Yau Lai-to’s passion for socially conscious storytelling after the veteran Hong Kong filmmaker’s mostly bombastic action blockbusters over the past decade. Anchored by visceral performances from a pair of singer-actors, who play the misanthropic gay couple at the heart of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3348613/were-nothing-all-movie-review-herman-yaus-grim-social-critique-too-heavy-handed?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3348613/were-nothing-all-movie-review-herman-yaus-grim-social-critique-too-heavy-handed?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Apr 2026 11:15:08 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 4/5 stars Life rarely turns out the way one may have hoped – that is the core idea behind Ciao UFO. The engrossing drama takes a sci-fi-tinged urban legend as its launch pad for a nostalgic trip through instantly recognisable scenes from recent Hong Kong history, as experienced by three former childhood friends who find their dreams slipping away as adults. Having premiered at the 2019 Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, this delicate tale of longing and regret by director Patrick Leung Pak-kin... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3347002/ciao-ufo-movie-review-charlene-choi-leads-nostalgic-trip-through-recent-hong-kong-history?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3347002/ciao-ufo-movie-review-charlene-choi-leads-nostalgic-trip-through-recent-hong-kong-history?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 18 Mar 2026 09:20:31 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3/5 stars One of the most beguiling aspects of Gamer Girls is that it never acknowledges its characters’ gaming addiction for what it is. Too distracted by the craving for just one more match to function at your day job? Never mind. Needing to grind out another 500 hours of playtime within weeks to qualify for tournament selection? No problem. Despite its casual treatment of the gruelling, burnout-inducing realities of esports, and its light-touch approach to the toxic misogyny that often... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3346211/gamer-girls-movie-review-angela-yuen-leads-ensemble-beguiling-hong-kong-esports-drama?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3346211/gamer-girls-movie-review-angela-yuen-leads-ensemble-beguiling-hong-kong-esports-drama?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Mar 2026 11:15:07 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3/5 stars Macau filmmaker Tracy Choi Ian-sin revisits the tender, nostalgic tone of her directorial debut, Sisterhood (2016), for this semi-autobiographical lesbian drama. Girlfriends charts a young woman’s coming-of-age experience and ongoing quest to find her place in the world through three episodes from separate periods of her life, unfolding in reverse chronological order and under different names. It opens in 2024 Hong Kong, where the Macau-born director Lok (Fish Liew Chi-yu) has been... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3345395/girlfriends-movie-review-fish-liew-and-jennifer-yu-reunite-tender-lesbian-romance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3345395/girlfriends-movie-review-fish-liew-and-jennifer-yu-reunite-tender-lesbian-romance?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Mar 2026 11:15:07 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 2/5 stars Viewers who like their cops-and-robbers thrillers loud, frenetic and illogical are in for a blast – along with car chases, bruising one-on-one fights and all too many extended shoot-outs – with Ultimate Revenge, an unabashedly derivative addition to Hong Kong’s once-feted action cinema tradition. While its gritty approach to action might excite diehard fans of the genre, this latest effort by emerging director Terry Ng Ka-wai (The Unwavering Brotherhood, 2024) has presumably blown most... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3345268/ultimate-revenge-movie-review-hong-kong-police-and-robbers-drama-all-brawn-and-no-brains?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3345268/ultimate-revenge-movie-review-hong-kong-police-and-robbers-drama-all-brawn-and-no-brains?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Mar 2026 11:15:07 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3.5/5 stars Fans of Chinese-language martial arts movies could hardly have asked for a more satisfying revival than this ferocious wuxia epic, directed by the legendary Yuen Woo-ping (Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy) and anchored by a visceral turn from superstar Wu Jing (Wolf Warrior 2) as a master swordsman haunted by his past. Adapted from a popular Chinese comics series of the same name by a quartet of screenwriters, Blades of the Guardians is, as expected, crammed with so many semi-developed... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3343820/blades-guardians-movie-review-wu-jing-leads-star-studded-chinese-martial-arts-epic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3343820/blades-guardians-movie-review-wu-jing-leads-star-studded-chinese-martial-arts-epic?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Feb 2026 09:01:18 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3/5 stars You cannot blame Jack Ng Wai-lun for trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice. The veteran screenwriter made history as the first Hong Kong filmmaker to gross over HK$100 million (US$12.8 million) locally – with his directorial debut, A Guilty Conscience (2023) – and the temptation for an encore must have been irresistible. Ng’s strategy is to revisit the golden formula of his previous hit. He once again depicts Dayo Wong Tsz-wah as a slick professional losing his footing in a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3343732/night-king-movie-review-dayo-wong-sammi-cheng-lead-enjoyably-fluffy-nightclub-comedy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3343732/night-king-movie-review-dayo-wong-sammi-cheng-lead-enjoyably-fluffy-nightclub-comedy?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Feb 2026 09:12:59 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3.5/5 stars A botched attempt to purchase a Mark Six ticket with the winning numbers snowballs into an emotional journey for a working-class family in The Snowball on a Sunny Day. Part sweet tear-jerker, part love letter to Hong Kong cinema and the craft of filmmaking, this Lunar New Year offering reveals an unexpectedly whimsical side of the writer-director Philip Yung Tsz-kwong. A radical departure from the gritty crime dramas that define his award-winning oeuvre to date (Papa, Port of Call),... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3343193/snowball-sunny-day-movie-review-family-comedy-doubles-love-letter-cinema?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3343193/snowball-sunny-day-movie-review-family-comedy-doubles-love-letter-cinema?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Feb 2026 09:15:07 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee It says much about the lack of quality and quantity in today’s Hong Kong cinema that the three films leading the race for honours in the 44th Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) are all “urban myth” titles – high-profile projects that wrapped years ago but languished on the shelf until 2025. This year’s nominations are dominated by high-concept genre filmmaking, with Juno Mak Chun-lung’s hyper-stylised crime thriller Sons of the Neon Night leading the pack with 12 nods, closely followed by the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3343068/hong-kong-film-awards-2026-nominations-full-sons-neon-night-leads-disputed-race?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3343068/hong-kong-film-awards-2026-nominations-full-sons-neon-night-leads-disputed-race?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Feb 2026 10:09:53 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee Ciao UFO, a nostalgic drama that waited over six years to reappear on the big screen after its film festival premiere, has been voted the best Hong Kong film of 2025 by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society (HKFCS), the organisation announced on January 19. The win is a vindication for the film, directed by Patrick Leung Pak-kin (Born Wild), that premiered at the 2019 Hong Kong Asian Film Festival but faced a prolonged delay in release, reportedly due to an investor’s reluctance to greenlight a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3340491/ciao-ufo-wins-best-picture-2025-hong-kong-film-critics-society-awards?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3340491/ciao-ufo-wins-best-picture-2025-hong-kong-film-critics-society-awards?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Jan 2026 03:19:31 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee On January 13, the Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) Association released its provisional list of contenders for the 44th edition of the city’s most prestigious film ceremony. The film list is meant to be a routine administrative update, a roll-call of the artistic output from the 2025 calendar year, and the definitive source of reference for HKFA voters filling out their nomination forms. However, this year’s list quickly threw the industry into turmoil. In an unprecedented development, four... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3340395/why-did-hong-kong-film-awards-drop-4-eligible-films-its-2026-list?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3340395/why-did-hong-kong-film-awards-drop-4-eligible-films-its-2026-list?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Jan 2026 09:14:14 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 2.5/5 stars The Hong Kong diaspora in Canada is subjected to an exercise in classic miserabilism in Finch & Midland, a delicately acted but loosely scripted portrait of ageing and loneliness that revolves around the uniformly depressing lives of four immigrants who arrived in the 1990s. Although the title references a Toronto intersection synonymous with the city’s Hong Kong community, this character drama – the first feature of Canada-born writer-director Timothy Yeung – shows scant interest in... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3339815/finch-midland-movie-review-anthony-wong-and-patrick-tam-cant-save-grim-diaspora-drama?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3339815/finch-midland-movie-review-anthony-wong-and-patrick-tam-cant-save-grim-diaspora-drama?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 14 Jan 2026 07:30:14 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3/5 stars A film does not need to be a masterpiece to become a megahit, provided it strikes the perfect chord. Few contemporary Hong Kong releases prove this better than Back to the Past, a subpar historical sci-fi fantasy that is saved – and arguably even transcended – by the potent wave of nostalgia it inspires in its target audience. An effects-driven action adventure that picks up where the 2001 TVB drama series A Step into the Past left off, this long-gestating sequel co-directed by Ng... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3338164/back-past-movie-review-louis-koo-raymond-lam-lead-nostalgic-sequel-tvb-series?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3338164/back-past-movie-review-louis-koo-raymond-lam-lead-nostalgic-sequel-tvb-series?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Dec 2025 16:00:08 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee There were, ultimately, no miracles for Hong Kong cinema in 2025. It was a regrettable year that began with reports of further cinema closures and ended in collective mourning after the Tai Po fire tragedy, which in turn pushed back the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash (now renamed Avatar 3) – previously earmarked as a saviour for cinema operators this Christmas. The forecast downturn in film investment has been keenly felt; even several “urban myth” titles – the label jokingly given to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3337807/hong-kong-films-released-2025-ranked-worst-best?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3337807/hong-kong-films-released-2025-ranked-worst-best?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Dec 2025 10:11:31 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3.5/5 stars The prospect of Pass and Goal is not immediately appealing. A football-themed comedy with an old-fashioned premise about staying true to oneself, it features a modest cast that includes several inexperienced child actors and is directed by the filmmaker behind abysmal comedies like Lucky Fat Man (2017) and Love Detective (2015). Yet, to echo a key message from Jil Wong Pak-kei’s latest film, a match is seldom won or lost in the first half. And so it proves here, as this feel-good,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3337075/pass-and-goal-movie-review-gigi-leung-leads-wholesome-football-themed-family-comedy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3337075/pass-and-goal-movie-review-gigi-leung-leads-wholesome-football-themed-family-comedy?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Dec 2025 09:40:08 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 2.5/5 stars Under Current is a quintessential example of the Hong Kong crime film in its present, transitional state. While it paints a mostly watchable portrait of greed and corruption, the film’s story also happens to be thoroughly detached from reality – music to the ears of censors, perhaps. Directed by Alan Mak Siu-fai (Infernal Affairs) from a screenplay he co-scripted with Lam Fung, this thematic follow-up to Mak’s 2019 anti-corruption drama Integrity again takes a distinctly convoluted... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3335349/under-current-movie-review-aaron-kwok-francis-ng-seek-justice-fun-silly-thriller?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3335349/under-current-movie-review-aaron-kwok-francis-ng-seek-justice-fun-silly-thriller?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Dec 2025 10:15:09 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 2.5/5 stars As one of the most handsome faces to emerge from Hong Kong’s latest generation of film actors, Jeffrey Ngai Tsun-sang’s ascent to a leading role was inevitable. After playing several supporting parts, including two rather silly ones (in the comedies Everything Under Control and Table for Six 2), he is finally getting the chance. Road to Vendetta, a violent, John Wick-inspired action thriller co-produced by Hong Kong and Japan, delivers as a pop idol vehicle with its ample visual... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3334515/road-vendetta-movie-review-jeffrey-ngai-plays-assassin-illogical-lead-role-debut?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3334515/road-vendetta-movie-review-jeffrey-ngai-plays-assassin-illogical-lead-role-debut?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Dec 2025 09:15:07 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3/5 stars Even with just two films under her belt, Tam Wai-ching may already be the closest thing to an emerging auteur that Hong Kong cinema has to offer – for better or for worse. Seven years after her debut, In Your Dreams, Tam returns with another sensual critique of societal norms. Her first film, an unabashedly artful drama, holds the dubious distinction of being the lowest-grossing title in the first decade of the government’s First Feature Film Initiative. Her latest effort may face a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3334079/someone-me-movie-review-fish-liew-stars-disabled-woman-hoping-experience-sex?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3334079/someone-me-movie-review-fish-liew-stars-disabled-woman-hoping-experience-sex?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Nov 2025 10:15:09 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3/5 stars It has been a bizarre few years for Hong Kong cinema, with the Covid-19 pandemic warping its film release schedule and causing long-announced projects to re-emerge like tectonic artefacts from an alternate timeline. Golden Boy is the latest case in point. The film, a mildly entertaining boxing drama anchored by an eye-catching central performance, was first earmarked to kick-start the then-stuttering career of Louis Cheung Kai-chung years earlier. As it happens, the singer-actor proves... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3333389/golden-boy-movie-review-louis-cheung-anchors-hot-blooded-yet-generic-boxing-drama?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3333389/golden-boy-movie-review-louis-cheung-anchors-hot-blooded-yet-generic-boxing-drama?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 Nov 2025 22:15:09 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 4/5 stars Hong Kong filmmakers rarely get as philosophical about the human condition as they do in the animated feature Another World, which contemplates the limits of goodness in the face of great evil, set against a vibrant action fantasy backdrop. Adapted from Naka Saijo’s novel Sennenki: Thousand-Year Journey of an Oni with both narrative flair and visual potency, this impressive effort by first-time director Tommy Ng Kai-chung and writer-producer Polly Yeung Po-man is an anomaly in more... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3330620/another-world-movie-review-macabre-human-fable-new-milestone-hong-kong-animation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3330620/another-world-movie-review-macabre-human-fable-new-milestone-hong-kong-animation?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Oct 2025 09:15:21 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee Taiwanese director Chen Yu-hsun’s period drama A Foggy Tale, set against Taiwan’s White Terror era, has emerged as the front runner at the 62nd Golden Horse Awards with 11 nominations, including best picture, best director and acting nods for its leads. Close behind is Left-Handed Girl, a coming-of-age drama from first-time director Tsou Shih-ching, who is known for producing several films by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker (The Florida Project). Left-Handed Girl’s nine nods include two for... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3327599/golden-horse-awards-2025-nominations-full-foggy-tale-left-handed-girl-lead-race?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3327599/golden-horse-awards-2025-nominations-full-foggy-tale-left-handed-girl-lead-race?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Oct 2025 06:04:51 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 1.5/5 stars A high-concept fantasy romance set in a human world that has been physically split into two, Measure in Love asks its audience to succumb to the supposedly poetic swooning of its star-crossed lovers – only to make it a very tall order indeed with a criminally underdeveloped set-up and an unfathomably illogical plot. Marking the feature debut of experienced Hong Kong assistant director Benny Kung Siu-ping, this dystopian fairy tale co-scripted by Kung, producer Sylvia Chang Ai-chia... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3327490/measure-love-movie-review-angela-yuen-and-greg-hsu-thoroughly-baffling-fantasy-romance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3327490/measure-love-movie-review-angela-yuen-and-greg-hsu-thoroughly-baffling-fantasy-romance?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Oct 2025 07:28:07 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3.5/5 stars Few Hong Kong films have arrived with as much anticipation as Juno Mak Chun-lung’s Sons of the Neon Night. A hyper-stylised crime thriller with a reported HK$400 million (US$51.4 million) budget and a star-studded cast, it was shot between 2017 and 2018 only to be shelved until its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May this year. The long delay has only added to the film’s enigmatic aura. Set in an alternate-reality Hong Kong of 1994, so much has transpired in the interim that... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3327384/sons-neon-night-movie-review-hong-kong-crime-thriller-striking-watch?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3327384/sons-neon-night-movie-review-hong-kong-crime-thriller-striking-watch?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Sep 2025 10:15:12 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 2.5/5 stars The intense, jargon-filled world of professional esports might seem like a rather esoteric setting for a film. Yet in the new comedy-drama Good Game, this competitive backdrop is used for something unexpectedly heartwarming: a simple underdog story about chasing dreams and overcoming obstacles. Hong Kong director Dickson Leung Kwok-fai’s follow-up to his goofy fantasy comedy Yum Investigation is defined less by its geeky premise than its undemanding nature and unabashedly... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3325826/good-game-movie-review-hong-kong-esports-comedy-will-or-diverting-lightweight?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3325826/good-game-movie-review-hong-kong-esports-comedy-will-or-diverting-lightweight?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Sep 2025 10:15:11 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3/5 stars Philip Keung Ho-man may be one of Hong Kong’s most hard-working actors, but his few leading roles to date are often an acquired taste. It is a pleasant surprise, then, to see him find just the right mix of menace and humanity in The Remnant, a gloomy drama with an obligatory sense of hope. It incredibly marks Keung’s fourth leading part in a feature film in less than 12 months, following the claustrophobic zombie horror Possession Street, sentimental showbiz satire Remember What I... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3325191/remnant-movie-review-philip-keung-takes-evil-developers-gloomy-hong-kong-drama?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3325191/remnant-movie-review-philip-keung-takes-evil-developers-gloomy-hong-kong-drama?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Sep 2025 09:41:18 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3/5 stars An elderly ex-convict connects briefly with the daughter who never knew him in For Alice, a remarkably stripped-down chamber drama that leaves a wistful impression with the nocturnal ambience of its claustrophobic setting, as well as the delicate relationship between its two main characters. In his first leading part since his Hong Kong Film Award-winning turn as a closeted gay man in Suk Suk (2019), the veteran actor and former stuntman Tai Bo stars as Chen Shuang, who has just... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3324339/alice-movie-review-tai-bo-kuku-so-share-father-daughter-bond-hong-kong-drama?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3324339/alice-movie-review-tai-bo-kuku-so-share-father-daughter-bond-hong-kong-drama?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Sep 2025 10:15:17 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3/5 stars Ronald Cheng Chung-kei sets aside his laid-back comedic persona for an utterly grim role in this devastating Thailand-set action thriller, which sees the Hong Kong singer and actor buff up and play an anguished father on a deadly hunt for the evil locals who have taken his young daughter. A co-directing effort by Cheng and Mark Wu Yiu-fai – Cheng’s director and co-star in the 2015 buddy comedy Undercover Duet – Atonement was shot in 2018 but shelved until now. It would almost certainly... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3324190/atonement-movie-review-ronald-cheng-avenging-father-bleak-thailand-set-thriller?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3324190/atonement-movie-review-ronald-cheng-avenging-father-bleak-thailand-set-thriller?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Sep 2025 10:50:17 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 2.5/5 stars In My First of May, a former star athlete sidelined by an old career-ending injury must emerge from his despair to care for the disabled teenage daughter he has long ignored. This gentle effort by James Hung Ling-ching (The Seventh Lie), the latest in a long line of Hong Kong films in the past decade to look to home for bittersweet sentiment, is a warm-hearted but clichéd family drama that makes little attempt to conceal its calculated moves to wring tears from its viewers. The... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3322515/my-first-may-movie-review-aaron-kwok-natalie-hsu-cant-save-hokey-family-tear-jerker?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3322515/my-first-may-movie-review-aaron-kwok-natalie-hsu-cant-save-hokey-family-tear-jerker?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Aug 2025 09:40:37 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 2/5 stars In Hong Kong filmmaker Danny Pang Fat’s supernatural drama Reborn, Venus Wong Man-yik plays a young mother whose grief over her deceased son (Lokman Leung) takes a bizarre form when she adopts a rag doll said to be possessed by the seven-year-old boy’s spirit, much to the chagrin of her husband (Eddie Cheung Siu-fai). While the toy is meant to serve as a surrogate, the film it inhabits proves a poor substitute for genuine horror. Curiously unwilling to plumb the psychological depths... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3321701/reborn-movie-review-eddie-cheung-venus-wong-dull-hong-kong-doll-horror?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3321701/reborn-movie-review-eddie-cheung-venus-wong-dull-hong-kong-doll-horror?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Aug 2025 10:15:07 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3.5/5 stars An unsolved real-life murder in Japanese-occupied Shanghai in 1945 provides the backdrop for a vicious battle of the sexes in She’s Got No Name. Peter Chan Ho-sun’s captivating period drama proves both morally ambiguous and thematically diffuse – though perhaps not entirely by its filmmakers’ design. Hong Kong film-goers should be aware that the 96-minute cut showing in the city’s cinemas is very different from the sweeping 150-minute version that premiered out of competition at the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3318612/shes-got-no-name-movie-review-zhang-ziyi-anchors-part-one-peter-chans-murder-mystery?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3318612/shes-got-no-name-movie-review-zhang-ziyi-anchors-part-one-peter-chans-murder-mystery?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Jul 2025 10:24:28 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3.5/5 stars A potentially corny tale involving old-fashioned gangland heroics and an ex-convict father’s belated redemption is told with a great deal of nuance and heart in Fight for Tomorrow, a refreshingly uplifting crime drama by Hong Kong writer-director Chan Tai-lee (Tomorrow is Another Day). In a rare leading role that marks his best performance in years, veteran actor Patrick Tam Yiu-man (Breakout Brothers) leaves a vivid impression as Shek Sam-long, a former mob boss who was once known... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3315066/fight-tomorrow-movie-review-patrick-tam-anchors-surprisingly-uplifting-gangster-drama?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3315066/fight-tomorrow-movie-review-patrick-tam-anchors-surprisingly-uplifting-gangster-drama?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Jun 2025 09:45:08 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3/5 stars Louis Koo Tin-lok, the Hong Kong film industry’s most prolific star and arguably its most influential investor too, puts his signature blend of deadpan charisma and dramatic intensity to fine use in Behind the Shadows, the first Malaysian production of his company One Cool Film. A character-driven detective thriller that shows a fascination with cheating wives and jilted husbands, the film sees Koo play a hardbitten private investigator who, while running away from his own marriage,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3313980/behind-shadows-movie-review-louis-koo-plays-detective-malaysia-set-murder-thriller?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3313980/behind-shadows-movie-review-louis-koo-plays-detective-malaysia-set-murder-thriller?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Jun 2025 08:15:07 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 2.5/5 stars Can a pastor forgive the young man who raped his daughter and indirectly caused her death? That is the premise of Valley of the Shadow of Death, a bold yet deeply flawed attempt to rethink Christianity’s advocacy of unconditional kindness. It’s a morality tale that proves more interesting on paper than it is in its execution. Three years after his teenage daughter Ching (Sheena Chan Shu-yan) killed herself in the aftermath of the traumatic incident, Leung (Anthony Wong Chau-sang)... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3312972/valley-shadow-death-movie-review-anthony-wong-plays-christian-pastor-doubt?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3312972/valley-shadow-death-movie-review-anthony-wong-plays-christian-pastor-doubt?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Jun 2025 09:45:08 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 2.5/5 stars The dehumanising tendency of corporate finance and the merciless nature of stock market speculation serve as the basis for much of the drama in A Gilded Game, a mildly diverting film presumably made for viewers who won’t mind its predictably moralistic lecturing tone. For admirers of Hong Kong director Herman Yau Lai-to, this mainland Chinese production should be welcomed as a necessary change of pace after he dedicated much of the past decade to making action thrillers, including... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3309583/gilded-game-movie-review-oho-ou-andy-lau-navigate-dangerous-world-ipo-listings?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3309583/gilded-game-movie-review-oho-ou-andy-lau-navigate-dangerous-world-ipo-listings?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 May 2025 09:46:07 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 2.5/5 stars The inspiring true story behind the founding of an iconic Hong Kong food brand receives a largely uninspired retelling in The Dumpling Queen, a glossy if unabashedly melodramatic and run-of-the-mill biopic set primarily in the city in the late 1970s and 80s. The film represents a rare return to Hong Kong-centric stories for veteran filmmaker Andrew Lau Wai-keung, the Infernal Affairs co-director who has spent much of the past decade making so-called “main melody” movies in mainland... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3308698/dumpling-queen-movie-review-andrew-lau-depicts-founding-hong-kong-food-brand?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3308698/dumpling-queen-movie-review-andrew-lau-depicts-founding-hong-kong-food-brand?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 01 May 2025 09:45:08 +0000 Edmund Lee Edmund Lee 3.5/5 stars In Vital Signs, the converging career paths of two ambulance paramedics at very different stages in their lives provide the unusual backdrop for a soul-searching drama rooted in today’s Hong Kong, with characters pondering the essence of home as they reluctantly face a wave of emigration from the city. The fourth feature by writer-director Cheuk Wan-chi and her first since the 2014 comedy Temporary Family, Vital Signs comes across as a notably more mature work by the multi-hyphenate... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3308518/vital-signs-movie-review-louis-koo-neo-yau-play-ambulance-paramedics-wistful-drama?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3308518/vital-signs-movie-review-louis-koo-neo-yau-play-ambulance-paramedics-wistful-drama?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Apr 2025 08:45:07 +0000 3/5 stars It is all doom and gloom for the first-time mother at the heart of Montages of a Modern Motherhood, a meticulously observed and wonderfully acted drama but one that may not connect with a wider audience because of its unusual, and almost perverse, resolve to paint new parenthood as a completely joyless experience. It marks the much anticipated return of writer-director Oliver Chan Siu-kuen, whose 2019 hit Still Human is regarded by many as one of the best first features by a Hong Kong... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3307605/montages-modern-motherhood-movie-review-hedwig-tam-shines-exhausted-new-mother?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3307605/montages-modern-motherhood-movie-review-hedwig-tam-shines-exhausted-new-mother?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Apr 2025 10:15:07 +0000 Even if the filmmakers behind The Last Dance and Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In were to shock everyone and take home zero trophies at the end of the 43rd Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) ceremony this Sunday, it is safe to assume they would still feel like winners. Anselm Chan Mou-yin’s funeral-themed family drama (18 nominations) and Soi Cheang Pou-soi’s Kowloon Walled City-set martial arts epic (14) have made an incredible amount of money, becoming the top and third-highest grossing Hong Kong... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3307436/hong-kong-film-awards-2025-predictions-twilight-warriors-last-dance-and-more?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3307436/hong-kong-film-awards-2025-predictions-twilight-warriors-last-dance-and-more?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Apr 2025 09:20:17 +0000 3/5 stars A quartet of rookie robbers take on the elite yet corrupt members of the older generation in Smashing Frank. This stylish but lightweight crime drama, however, is considerably more effective as a portrait of disaffected youth than as a parable on the growing chasm between young and old, and wealthy and poor, in Hong Kong. The feature debut of writer-director Trevor Choi Hong-ying, a Hong Kong native who started his film-directing education upon returning to the city in 2018, Smashing... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3306938/smashing-frank-movie-review-hedwig-tam-leads-robbery-gang-slick-looking-heist-drama?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3306938/smashing-frank-movie-review-hedwig-tam-leads-robbery-gang-slick-looking-heist-drama?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Apr 2025 09:50:47 +0000 1.5/5 stars Irene Wan Pik-ha may have never come close to making the A-list of Hong Kong cinema, but the veteran actress could certainly never be faulted for not trying hard enough. While most actresses would transition to play more mature characters as they age, Wan appears completely reluctant to let go of the sex appeal that was her calling card in the 1980s and ’90s. Indeed, she is not even ready to ditch her heavy make-up and sexy dresses on screen despite the fact she will turn 60 next... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3306753/once-upon-lie-movie-review-irene-wan-chases-much-younger-man-unconvincing-romance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3306753/once-upon-lie-movie-review-irene-wan-chases-much-younger-man-unconvincing-romance?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Apr 2025 09:45:08 +0000 This article contains spoilers. 4/5 stars The highest grossing Hong Kong film of all time returns for another crack at the local box office with this extended version, which starts screening on April 4 – just in time for the Ching Ming Festival – with 12 minutes of previously unseen footage. The Last Dance revolves around Dominic (Dayo Wong Tze-wah), a debt-ridden wedding planner who tries his hand at being a funeral agent out of desperation, and Master Man (Michael Hui Koon-man), a Taoist... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3304829/last-dance-extended-version-movie-review-should-you-catch-these-deleted-scenes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3304829/last-dance-extended-version-movie-review-should-you-catch-these-deleted-scenes?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 Apr 2025 02:45:13 +0000 2.5/5 stars Nick Cheung Ka-fai is one of the most prominent active Hong Kong actors to have dabbled in directing, and in doing so has proved himself a talented visual stylist and world builder with a penchant for the dark and supernatural. But the main reason Cheung is not known as a visionary filmmaker is that, despite all his stylish visuals, he is a clumsy storyteller who could not fashion a convincing narrative to save his life. In his four directing efforts to date – which include Hungry... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3303957/peg-o-my-heart-movie-review-striking-visuals-awful-story-nick-cheung-horror-thriller?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3303957/peg-o-my-heart-movie-review-striking-visuals-awful-story-nick-cheung-horror-thriller?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Mar 2025 09:19:07 +0000 2/5 stars Picture this: you are a middle-aged Hong Kong woman married to your first love, with whom you share two young-adult children, and you learn that your husband has fallen for another woman during his long business trips in Guangzhou, China. What will you do? For many, the answer might entail a painful break-up followed by a period of letting go. But not Sabrina Tse Shuk-fun, this film’s executive producer, who has instead turned her unfaithful partner into a perpetual reminder in her... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3301517/true-love-once-my-life-movie-review-cecilia-yip-tse-kwan-ho-play-divorced-couple?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3301517/true-love-once-my-life-movie-review-cecilia-yip-tse-kwan-ho-play-divorced-couple?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Mar 2025 09:54:07 +0000 2.5/5 stars If you are looking for a new film that epitomises some of the trends prevalent in Hong Kong cinema and offers a taste of its current state, you can’t go too far wrong with Little Red Sweet. This well-meaning family drama – the feature debut of director Vincent Chow Wing – tackles the familiar themes of generational conflict and urban redevelopment. It also features nostalgia for a home-grown food recipe and a passing thought about emigration. Stephy Tang Lai-yan plays May, the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3300222/little-red-sweet-movie-review-simon-yam-stephy-tang-undercooked-hong-kong-family-drama?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3300222/little-red-sweet-movie-review-simon-yam-stephy-tang-undercooked-hong-kong-family-drama?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Feb 2025 09:45:07 +0000 4.5/5 stars In his six films to date, Hong Kong writer-director Adam Wong Sau-ping has repeatedly revealed a soft spot for protagonists who are trying to understand themselves and find their place in the world. It was evident from a teenage boy’s discovery of his sexuality in Wong’s debut When Beckham Met Owen; the street-dancing dreams of university students in his breakout hit The Way We Dance; and the struggles of performing artists in navigating Hong Kong’s urban spaces in The Way We Keep... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3299278/way-we-talk-movie-review-chung-suet-ying-shines-deaf-woman-new-sign-language?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3299278/way-we-talk-movie-review-chung-suet-ying-shines-deaf-woman-new-sign-language?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Feb 2025 09:45:07 +0000 1.5/5 stars A goofy Lunar New Year comedy that is awkwardly framed around a premise taken straight out of a dark psychological sci-fi thriller, Ha Ha Ha Happy New Year is scattershot, often terrible, and as confused about what it really is as its temporarily amnesiac protagonist. A Hong Kong-Malaysia co-production that looks to be a passion project for Philip Keung Ho-man, who is both its producer and leading man, the film reunites him with Malaysian filmmaker Wu Peiji, who directed Keung in... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3297295/ha-ha-ha-happy-new-year-movie-review-philip-keung-leads-comedy-odd-sci-fi-premise?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3297295/ha-ha-ha-happy-new-year-movie-review-philip-keung-leads-comedy-odd-sci-fi-premise?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Feb 2025 09:15:07 +0000 1.5/5 stars In a match made in cinematic purgatory, Wong Jing’s exhaustive fascination with the gambling movie genre meets Patrick Kong Pak-leung’s brand of crass relationship drama in Queen of Mahjong. It’s a rare opportunity for the two critically maligned filmmakers to share directing credits and their mutual embrace of sexism. The cast of the ensemble comedy is mainly drawn from the roster of Hong Kong broadcaster TVB, with Samantha Ko Hoi-ning in her first leading role in a local feature.... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3296661/queen-mahjong-movie-review-lunar-new-year-comedy-let-down-jarring-sexism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3296661/queen-mahjong-movie-review-lunar-new-year-comedy-let-down-jarring-sexism?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 Jan 2025 03:37:15 +0000 3.5/5 stars A year after he earned much acclaim for the character-driven crime drama Rob N Roll, which won best screenplay honours in the Hong Kong Film Critics Society awards earlier this month, director Albert Mak Kai-kwong is back for another crack at the Lunar New Year box office with this unusually warm-hearted boxing drama. While the tragicomic tale of midlife crisis in Rob N Roll represented a welcome change of pace from the plain silly offerings typical of this time of the year, Hit N... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3296619/hit-n-fun-movie-review-rob-n-roll-director-returns-warm-hearted-boxing-drama?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3296619/hit-n-fun-movie-review-rob-n-roll-director-returns-warm-hearted-boxing-drama?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Jan 2025 11:45:08 +0000 3.5/5 stars A woman with a severe gambling addiction marries a man with an over-the-top aversion to people who gamble in this Lunar New Year comedy from writer-director Andy Lo Yiu-fai. Lo shows a gift for nonsensical humour after taking a more sophisticated approach to contemplating family ties in his first two films, Happiness and Once in a Blue Moon. Charlene Choi Cheuk-yin plays Ching, a pathological gambler who got her start when her gambling addict mother brought her into the world, before... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3296439/my-best-bet-movie-review-charlene-choi-louis-cheung-battle-gambling-addiction-comedy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3296439/my-best-bet-movie-review-charlene-choi-louis-cheung-battle-gambling-addiction-comedy?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Jan 2025 10:15:07 +0000 Soi Cheang Pou-soi’s Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In has been voted the best Hong Kong film of 2024 by a panel of critics, the Hong Kong Film Critics Society announced on January 13. The best picture win for the film, a mega-budget martial arts spectacle that combines an exhilarating display of bone-crunching violence with an immersive recreation of the sights and sounds of the Kowloon Walled City, is the third such honour for Cheang in four years, after Limbo topped the same awards in 2022... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3294583/twilight-warriors-wins-best-picture-2024-hong-kong-film-critics-society-awards?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3294583/twilight-warriors-wins-best-picture-2024-hong-kong-film-critics-society-awards?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Jan 2025 12:15:07 +0000