Topic

Chinese language cinemai

From Andy Lau to John Woo, from Jiang Wen to Tsai Ming-liang to Sylvia Chang, and from triads to kung fu to hopping vampires to costume epics, this is the place to go for features, interviews and reviews about Chinese-language movies from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. 

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  • At 17, Lau Ching-wan applied to drama school. A year after graduating he starred in a drama with Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Maggie Cheung, and he’s not looked back
  • Often cast to play the tough guy, Lau has shown his talent for comedy and romances too. He has been married to former Miss Hong Kong Amy Kwok for 25 years

Nick Cheung, William Chan and Isabella Leong star in Bursting Point, Dante Lam’s first Hong Kong crime thriller in years and one packed with enough violence to warrant an adults-only rating.

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Jin Ong’s award-winning debut feature Abang Adik sees Wu Kang-ren star as a deaf-mute in Kuala Lumpur, whose friendship with a fellow undocumented orphan is tested by a sudden act of accidental violence.

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The Illegal Immigrant, which featured non-professional actors, some playing themselves, and An Autumn’s Tale, with Chow Yun-fat, capture 80s New York’s violence, crime and poverty.

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2001’s Rush Hour 2, starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, was a major box office success. Chan hated the film – although not for its crude stereotypes and overt sexism.

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Zhang Mo directs Last Suspect, a legal thriller set in an unnamed Chinese-speaking hellhole in Southeast Asia, which sees a lawyer attempt to save her daughter by exonerating a convicted murderer.

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Featuring stand-out performances from Michelle Wai and Elaine Jin, Ready or Rot is a pleasant and touching romantic drama that is a vast improvement on its prequel, 2021’s Ready or Knot.

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Lisa Lu is best known internationally for films like Crazy Rich Asians. In Hong Kong, she made an indelible mark as a general in The 14 Amazons. Before that, she had a prolific screen career in America.

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Once called the Marilyn Monroe of Hong Kong, actress Cherie Chung rose to fame during the 1980s and appeared in almost 50 films – before walking away from it all at the age of 31.

Ann Hui’s Elegies, a documentary about Hong Kong’s contemporary poetry scene, focuses on interviews with Hong Kong poets Huang Canran and Liu Waitong – and obliquely touches on the city’s ‘situation’.

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Starring Wallace Chung, Francis Ng and Eddie Cheung, Chinese crime thriller Death Stranding, the latest film from Hong Kong’s Danny Pang, is a dull and illogical tale of corruption and revenge.

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Ah Kam, a 1996 film by Ann Hui starring Michelle Yeoh and Sammo Hung, combined realistic drama, melodrama and triad action. Seen as experimental, it was overshadowed by an injury Yeoh sustained on set.

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Hong Kong’s First Feature Film Initiative was founded in 2013 to spot new directing talent and help fund their first features. We look at the performance of the 13 films funded in the FFFI’s first 10 years.

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Hong Kong family drama Time Still Turns the Pages, by writer-director Nick Cheuk, uses student suicides as the cue for a poignant tale of emotional torture, regret and redemption.

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Michael Wong’s early films in Hong Kong saw the Chinese-American actor treated like a foreigner, and typecast as a cop after starring as one in the Michelle Yeoh vehicle Royal Warriors.

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Cantopop singer Ronald Cheng has had a colourful past – he was once arrested for putting a flight attendant in a headlock – but now he is one of Hong Kong cinema’s most beloved comedy stars.

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Chinese actress Zhou Dongyu talks about filming Gen Z drama The Breaking Ice in freezing conditions, being discovered by Zhang Yimou, challenging herself and her hopes for ‘a better Chinese cinema’.

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Actor, producer, martial artist – Sammo Hung has loomed large in Hong Kong’s film industry since the 1960s. We bet you don’t know about some aspects of his long movie career.

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Cantopop star Michael Cheung’s first feature film is a madcap comedy about mortuary thieves, vengeful gang members and a supernatural live stream. Poorly written, it wastes a good set-up.

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Forced into retirement by Alzheimer’s disease, Hou Hsiao-hsien leaves a legacy of 18 feature films. We rank his top 10, from Millennium Mambo to The Assassin, his last film, and A City of Sadness.

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Based on a true story, In Broad Daylight follows a journalist, played by Jennifer Yu, who works undercover at a Hong Kong care home for the disabled to expose abuse and mistreatment.

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In a slick crime drama, Ethan Ruan plays a hitman whose plan to turn himself in changes after he finds out he’s not the most wanted criminal in Taiwan. He decides to take out his rivals so he will be.

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My Life as McDull, animated movie about a humdrum pig, charmed Hong Kong film-goers with the character’s hard work and persistence. Sequels of varying quality followed.

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A Cantopop singer on a similar level as Anita Mui, Sandy Lam and Faye Wong, Sammi Cheng is also a celebrated actress and style icon – but her relationship with husband Andy Hui has made headlines.

Jet Li, Chow Yun-fat and Stephen Chow were among the leading actors who worked with director-producer Wong Jing, whose crude, sex-filled films dominated the Hong Kong box office. What set him apart?

Zhang Yimou has directed wuxia epics (Hero, Shadow), comedies (One Second, Keep Cool) and films about 20th-century China (Raise the Red Lantern, Red Sorghum). Here is our pick of his top 10 films.

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Singer-turned-actor Crowd Lu is the weakest link in the already excruciatingly unfunny Kiss My Ass Boss, adapted from the comic-book series I’m Mark by Taiwanese director Chu Yu-ning.

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Cantopop star Kay Tse plays a struggling musician who forms a band with her dysfunctional Hong Kong family in Band Four, a movie about forgiveness and the power of music to bring people together.

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Woody Allen and The Wonder Years fan Joe Ma’s youth romance Feel 100% launched the film career of Cantopop star Sammi Cheng and made fellow singer Ekin Cheng a heartthrob.

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