https://www.scmp.com/rss/523228/feed Park Chan-wook is a South Korean film director, screenwriter, and producer. His work include ’Joint Security Area’, the ’Vengeance Trilogy’ (featuring ’Oldboy’), ’Thirst’, ’The Handmaiden’, and ’Decision to Leave’. He won the Grand Prix and Best Director awards at the Cannes Film Festival, and a BAFTA for ’The Handmaiden’. He also directed the English-language series ’The Sympathizer’. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com James Marsh James Marsh In 2025, Asian cinema continues to make its mark around the world. Animated features from mainland China and Hong Kong, as well as Japan, have shattered box office records, while filmmakers and performers from across the region have been honoured at the world’s most prestigious film festivals. From established auteurs to promising newcomers, the region remains a thriving hotbed of rich and diverse commercial and artistic talent. Below are our picks of the 12 best films released this year across... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3337826/12-best-asian-films-2025-ranked-ne-zha-2-no-other-choice-and-kokuho?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3337826/12-best-asian-films-2025-ranked-ne-zha-2-no-other-choice-and-kokuho?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Dec 2025 08:15:08 +0000 James Mottram James Mottram Park Chan-wook, the celebrated South Korean auteur behind such esteemed works as Oldboy and The Handmaiden, is not a filmmaker one typically associates with comedy. It came as a surprise, then, even to his lead actor, Lee Byung-hun, when the script for his latest film, No Other Choice, turned out to be funny. “There were so many comical elements to it, so I was a little bit puzzled,” Lee admits at a recent interview with the Post. “The very first question I asked Director Park was, ‘Did I read... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/k-drama/k-movies/article/3328905/no-other-choice-why-korean-auteur-park-chan-wook-reunited-lee-byung-hun-comedy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/k-drama/k-movies/article/3328905/no-other-choice-why-korean-auteur-park-chan-wook-reunited-lee-byung-hun-comedy?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Oct 2025 11:15:08 +0000 Pierce Conran Pierce Conran The crown jewel of the Asian film festival circuit, the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) returns this year for a landmark 30th edition, running from September 17 to September 26. Coming a few weeks earlier than usual, the festival held in South Korea’s second-largest metropolis has welcomed record temperatures as well as a dizzying array of star guests to its red carpets. It also features a new festival director, with Jung Han-seok, formerly a programmer at the festival, stepping up to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/k-drama/k-movies/article/3326383/can-busan-international-film-festival-help-korean-cinema-stay-top?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/k-drama/k-movies/article/3326383/can-busan-international-film-festival-help-korean-cinema-stay-top?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Sep 2025 10:22:26 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse Hamnet, a devastating period drama about the life of William Shakespeare and his family, won the top prize on Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival. The heart-wrenching film stars Paul Mescal as Shakespeare, who tries to forge a career as a playwright while his wife Agnes – played by Jessie Buckley – contends with the perils of plague and childbirth in Elizabethan England. It comes from Beijing-born director Chloé Zhao, who directed 2020’s Oscar-winning Nomadland. Securing the... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3325517/chloe-zhaos-shakespeare-family-tragedy-hamnet-wins-top-toronto-film-prize?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3325517/chloe-zhaos-shakespeare-family-tragedy-hamnet-wins-top-toronto-film-prize?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Sep 2025 19:08:48 +0000 James Mottram James Mottram One of the biggest surprises of the 82nd Venice Film Festival was saved until the very end, when Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother took the Golden Lion for best film. Starring Adam Driver, Tom Waits and Cate Blanchett, this slight, minimalist triptych study of familial relations recalled last year’s winner, Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, in the sense that a director who has never won a major festival top prize finally did so with a relatively middling film. The film was... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3324742/venice-2025-10-festivals-best-films-smashing-machine-no-other-choice?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3324742/venice-2025-10-festivals-best-films-smashing-machine-no-other-choice?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Sep 2025 20:15:08 +0000 James Mottram James Mottram 3.5/5 stars Not since the US version of the sitcom The Office, with its mock-doc focus on the fictional company Dunder Mifflin, has there been such a high-profile worshipping of the art of manufacturing paper. Maybe Korean director Park Chan-wook has been bingeing on episodes, though that show never got as dark as this pleasing adaptation of Donald Westlake’s 1997 novel The Ax. A black comedy set in the world of (un)employment, No Other Choice starts as family man Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) is let... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/k-drama/k-movies/article/3323852/venice-2025-no-other-choice-movie-review-park-chan-wook-takes-corporate-culture?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/k-drama/k-movies/article/3323852/venice-2025-no-other-choice-movie-review-park-chan-wook-takes-corporate-culture?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 01 Sep 2025 02:50:07 +0000