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Asian cinema

Asian cinema
Views, news, and reviews of films from the continent's biggest movie production centres.
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Pete Sabine, aka DJ Fabsabs (right), and Joshua Wolper DJ a Cantomania set at the after party for the Black Eyed Peas’ gig at the AXA x Wonderland, in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, on November 19 last year. Photo: Alan Yiu Photography

Where Hong Kong’s teens and an 88-year-old share the dance floor

As Leslie Cheung and Faye Wong echo through the nightclub, a love letter to Cantopop gives the city a space for joy and belonging.

Reading Time:6 minutes
Shanghainese tailor George Kay at his shop, Baron Kay’s Tailor, in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, in 1987. Photo: SCMP Archives

How Hong Kong’s tailoring industry has evolved through the ages

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Joe Wong poses for a portrait after his Joe Wong: The Twin Tariff Show in Hong Kong. Photo: Alexander Mak

Joe Wong, Ronny Chieng and the rise of Asian voices in comedy

Reading Time:8 minutes
Aric Chen, director of the London-based Zaha Hadid Foundation, is co-curator of the Design Futures Forum, one of the highlights of Singapore Design Week. He’s pictured here in Milan, in 2021. Photo: Getty Images

Q&A | Aric Chen asks: will design-led solutions create more problems?

Reading Time:2 minutes
Amy Lo Choi-wan of UBS, Mary Huen Wai-yi of Standard Chartered and Bonnie Chan Yiting of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing are all members of Women Chief Executives Hong Kong (WCE). Photos: Jocelyn Tam and HKEX

What it takes to lead HKEX, UBS and Standard Chartered – and still have a life

Reading Time:6 minutes
Ng Sze Kiat, founder of Bewilder, a Singapore-based design studio that works with fungi. Photo: courtesy Bewilder

Mushroom magic: is mycelium set to be the next ‘it’ material in homeware?

Reading Time:5 minutes
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Content from SCMP's Specialist Publications
Tang Wei (left) and Tony Leung Chiu-wai in a still from Lust, Caution. Photo: Edko Films
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How Lust, Caution made waves for its sex scenes but overdid the caution

Although beautifully staged, this Hong Kong-US-China production starring Tony Leung and Tang Wei had a muddled story and misguided messages.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Hong Kong’s Category III adult film industry laid bare in 2 films

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Profile | Adult film legend Amy Yip bares all about her soft porn career

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How the Erotic Ghost Story films shocked and seduced Hong Kong

The trio of 1990s adult movies with Hong Kong sex symbols like Amy Yip and Japanese adult-video actresses like Kudo Hitomi were a huge hit.

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(From left) Amy Yip, Man Siu and Kudo Hitomi in a still from Erotic Ghost Story.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

The Hong Kong films released in 2024, ranked from worst to best

From We 12 to Papa, Fly Me to the Moon and The Last Dance, our ranking of the Hong Kong films that hit cinemas in the course of the year.

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How Chingmy Yau shocked Hong Kong and became one of its biggest sex symbols

Chingmy Yau’s transition from respectable actress to star of Category III adult films full of sex and violence like ‘Naked Killer’ was quite the revelation in Hong Kong in the 1990s.

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Asian cinema: Korean films

‘I’m second,’ says South Korean star Hyun Bin on life now he’s a dad

Hyun Bin says his son and his wife, Crash Landing on You co-star Son Ye-jin, are his priorities, and reveals the pressures of making Harbin.

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Korean actor Hyun Bin with his wife Son Ye-jin. The couple married in March 2022 and had their son in November the same year. Photo: Instagram/hyunbinactor
The Philippines

‘Bombas’: the Philippine sex films whose stars were household names

Cheaply made and with female characters who were either predators or victims, bombas thrived despite Catholic Church opposition; they also often represented the hardships of everyday life for Filipinos under the Marcos dictatorship.

Asian cinema: Korean films

5 career-defining roles for Hyun Bin – yes, one of them is Secret Garden

From Hyun Bin’s breakthrough in the 2005 drama My Lovely Sam Soon to huge hit Secret Garden to Netflix series Crash Landing on You, five of the Korean actor’s career-defining roles as he turns 41.

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Is Simon Yam Hong Kong cinema’s hardest working actor?

Adults-only and mainstream crime films, sex films, and serious dramas with Alex Law and Ann Hui – Simon Yam has done them all. Good-looking and with an expressive face, he has a work ethic second to none.

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Simon Yam at the 2017 Hong Kong Film Awards presentation ceremony. Photo: Edward Wong
Hong Kong entertainment

Hong Kong Cantopop singer Raymond Lam cancels 2 concerts in Japan

Lam’s shows scheduled for January 31 and February 1 at the Tokyo Garden Theatre have been postponed indefinitely.

Hong Kong actor and singer Raymond Lam will not be performing in Tokyo. Photo: Handout
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | Finch & Midland: Anthony Wong and Patrick Tam can’t save grim diaspora drama

A strong cast is wasted in this undignified tale about Hong Kong immigrants struggling in Canada, which mistakes grimness for profundity.

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Hong Kong culture

Editorial | Amid Back to the Past’s success, Hong Kong cinema should look to the future

Although its heyday may be over, the city’s film industry must focus on quality over quantity as it adapts to the changing world of entertainment.

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

3 of Gong Li’s surprising 1990s Hong Kong movie roles

Gong switched gears after making it in Chinese art-house films, starring with Stephen Chow, Brigitte Lin and others in lesser-known movies.

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Gong Li and Stephen Chow attend a promotional event for Flirting Scholar in 1993. Gong rose to fame as the muse of China’s Fifth Generation directors, starring in art-house classics such as Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern and Farewell My Concubine, but found time during the 1990s to make a batch of lesser-known commercial films in Hong Kong. Photo: SCMP
Asian cinema: Korean films

Korean film icon Ahn Sung-ki remembered: 5 of his best films

Known affectionately as ‘The Nation’s Actor’, South Korea’s Ahn Sung-ki starred in more than 100 feature films during his long career.

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Ahn Sung-ki poses on the red carpet during the opening ceremony of the 26th Busan International Film Festival in 2021. Photo: AFP
South Korea

South Korean ‘nation’s actor’ Ahn Sung-ki dies at 74

Ahn collected over 40 major movie awards in his lifetime, including winning the Grand Bell Awards for best actor five times.

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Why Jet Li and Wong Jing’s The New Legend of Shaolin is underrated

The 1994 cult classic The New Legend of Shaolin blends comedy, action and child martial artists in a fresh take on the Shaolin myth.

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Singapore

Small market, global competition: can Singapore’s filmmakers break out abroad?

The government has rolled out a US$155.6 million programme to help local filmmakers reach wider markets amid shrinking cinema audiences.

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The Projector, an independent cinema at Golden Mile Tower in Singapore, closed in 2024 amid rising costs and falling attendance. Photo: Handout
Hong Kong economy

Back to the Past, starring Louis Koo and Raymond Lam, smashes Hong Kong record

Historical sci-fi action film earns HK$10.91 million in debut, the most for a Chinese film opening in city.

China consumption

China’s box office up 22% in 2025 to US$7.4 billion, led by smash hit Ne Zha 2

World’s second-largest movie market sees domestic films capture nearly 80 per cent of sales, while Disney’s Zootopia sequel sets new high for imported titles.

Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Profile | How Jordan Chan went from Hong Kong bad boy to patriotic family man in China

Jordan Chan came from poverty in Guangdong, moved to Hong Kong as a child and worked odd jobs before joining TVB as a dance apprentice.

Hong Kong actor and singer Jordan Chan Siu-chun at an interview with the Post in 1997. Photo: SCMP
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | Back to the Past: Louis Koo, Raymond Lam lead nostalgic film sequel

This big-budget sci-fi fantasy may be an emotional watch for fans of the 2001 Hong Kong show A Step into the Past, even if it falls short.

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Louis Koo in a still from Back to the Past.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

The 12 best Asian films of 2025: Ne Zha 2, Kokuho and more

Our pick of the best Asian films of the past year includes a record-breaking animation and a movie that is nothing short of breathtaking.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How Stephen Chow and Donnie Yen reinvented Bruce Lee’s classic Chen Zhen

Fist of Fury 1991 with Stephen Chow and TV series Fist of Fury with Donnie Yen saw two different versions of Bruce Lee’s famous character.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

The Hong Kong films released in 2025 ranked from worst to best

It was a rough year for Hong Kong cinema – only Another World made more than HK$14 million locally – but there were still some gems released.

A still from Another World, ranked by the Post’s film editor Edmund Lee as the second-best Hong Kong film of 2025.
American cinema

How The Joy Luck Club opened the door for majority-Asian casts in Hollywood

The Joy Luck Club (1993) is a complex tale of intergenerational trauma focusing on four Chinese mothers and their daughters in San Francisco.

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Lisa Lu (left) and Rosalind Chao in a still from The Joy Luck Club (1993). The film stands as only the second Hollywood film ever to tell a contemporary story with a majority Asian cast – the first, Flower Drum Song, had arrived 32 years prior.
Asian cinema: Chinese films

7 film stories from 2025 that readers loved, including a Chow Yun-fat profile

Profiles of Chow Yun-fat, Faye Wong and Deanie Ip and a look at Donnie Yen’s early films were among stories popular with readers this year.

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

3 forgotten Hong Kong wuxia gems from director Chor Yuen

Chor Yuen’s Duel for Gold, Clans of Intrigue and Jade Tiger may be less famous than some of his other films, but are just as groundbreaking.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | Pass and Goal: Gigi Leung leads football-themed Hong Kong family comedy

Pass and Goal, starring Gigi Leung and newcomer Chau Tsz-yuet, defies expectations with its feel-good story, good acting and funny dialogue.

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Gigi Leung in a still from football-themed Hong Kong family comedy Pass and Goal (category IIA, Cantonese), directed by Jill Wong. Peter Chan and Ling Man-lung co-star.
Gigi Leung in a still from football-themed Hong Kong family comedy Pass and Goal (category IIA, Cantonese), directed by Jill Wong. Peter Chan and Ling Man-lung co-star.
Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Profile | The bold reinvention of 1990s Hong Kong sex symbol Veronica Yip

Veronica Yip posed topless for a Hong Kong magazine and acted in erotic films before becoming a pop singer, TV fixture and a tycoon’s wife.

Asian cinema: Chinese films

Review | Good Autumn, Mommy: Shu Qi anchors gritty Chinese rural drama

Shu Qi stars as an impoverished woman who believes her newborn was taken from her in Good Autumn, Mommy, set in rural Guangzhou in 1995.

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Asian cinema: Japanese films

Review | Two Seasons, Two Strangers: a hypnotic ode to writing and travel

Starring Shim Eun-kyung and Yuumi Kawai, Japanese drama Two Seasons, Two Strangers is both fascinating and beautiful.

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Yuumi Kawai in a still from Two Seasons, Two Strangers
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

3 female action stars who ruled Hong Kong cinema alongside Michelle Yeoh

Like Michelle Yeoh, female fighters Cynthia Rothrock, Kara Hui and Shih Szu starred in their own must-see Hong Kong action classics.

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Kara Hui Ying-hung (left) and Hsiao Hou in a still from My Young Auntie (1981)
Kara Hui Ying-hung (left) and Hsiao Hou in a still from My Young Auntie (1981)
K-drama news

Profile | Who is Kim Woo-bin, star of K-dramas Our Blues and Genie, Make a Wish?

Kim Woo-bin, who is marrying fellow K-drama star Shin Min-a this month, has proved he has the acting chops to match his good looks.

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

‘We have this gift’: Hong Kong film shows healing power of city’s nature

Never Too Late shows how four Hongkongers found balance and freedom in the city’s natural spaces and why people should cherish its beauty.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Was Chow Yun-fat’s mainland Chinese film career a success or a flop?

We look at five films that Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-fat made in mainland China, with roles including a sleazy con man and Confucius.

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Chow Yun-fat in a still from Let the Bullets Fly (2010).