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Ringing Korea’S Grand Bell

“Concrete Utopia,” South Korea’s Oscar contender, was Wednesday named best film at the country’s annual Grand Bell Awards. It also won prizes for best actor, best supporting actress, art direction, sound mixing and visual effects. A disaster movie set in a devastated Seoul, it makes an unusual Academy Awards selection, but has gained high praise from reviewers. Variety this week said the film felt like “’Earthquake’ crossed with ‘Lord of the Flies’.”

The Grand Bell’s best director award nevertheless went to Ryoo Seung-wan for “Smugglers,” while Ahn Tae-jin took the best new director award for “The Night Owl.”

In the other half of the event, Disney+’s “Moving” was named best series, earning Han Hyo-joo the best series actress award to boot.

The Grand Bell Awards, aka Daejong Film Awards, are organized by The Motion Pictures Association of Korea.

Cineasia Honors

The...

This year’s Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival will open with a double bill of Snow In Midsummer, directed by Malaysia’s Chong Keat-aun, and Be With Me, from Taiwanese filmmaker Hwarng Wern-ying.

The festival observed that the two films are “coincidentally inspired by faith and narrated in historical memories of Taiwan and Malaysia” – and both are directed by previous winners at Taiwan’s prestigious Golden Horse Awards.

Chong won Best New Director at the Golden Horse Awards for The Story Of Southern Islet in 2020, while Hwarng, an acclaimed art director and long-time collaborator of Hou Hsiao-hsien, won Best Art Direction and Best Makeup & Costume Design for Flowers Of Shanghai and The Assassin, respectively.

A collaboration between Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore, Snow In Midsummer revolves around a Cantonese street opera troupe during a turbulent period in Malaysia’s political history in the late 1960s. The film is receiving its world premiere in Venice Days.

‘Tales Of Taipei’ set as closing film.

The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (Tghff) is set to open with a double bill of Chong Keat Aun’s Snow In Midsummer and acclaimed art director Hwarng Wern-ying’s directorial debut Be With Me, with Bowie Tsang-produced omnibus Tales Of Taipei as the closing film.

Both opening films took part in Golden Horse Film Project Promotion project market in 2020 and will have their Asian premieres at Tghff. The world premiere for Snow In Midsummer will be at the Venice Days sidebar of the Venice Film Festival, which begins today.

Malaysian director...

The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival has announced dual opening night titles, both inspired by faith and local memories, as well as its closing gala presentation.

The festival will open with “Snow in Midsummer,” directed by Chong Keat-aun, a former winner of the Golden Horse Film Awards’ best new director prize with “The Story of Southern Islet,” and “Be With Me,” by Hwarng Wern-ying, who previously won Golden Horse prizes for art direction, costume and makeup.

The festival, which runs Nov. 9-26, will close with the world premiere of “Tales of Taipei,” produced by Bowie Tsang and comprising ten stories by directors from East Asia.

The two opening films were both part of the 2020 Golden Horse Project Promotion, a project matching event. They both have their Asian premiere at the festival.

“Snow in Midsummer” is a story spanning nearly half a century about two generations of females, a troupe master and the Nyonya offspring,...

The turn Hong Kong cinema has made during the recent years, towards more socially relevant themes, is a rather appealing one and also moves towards the realistic, real life story path international cinema seems to have taken, for the most part. “Lost Love” is a film that definitely leans towards this direction, as it explores the concept of foster homes through an approach that is both realistic and dramatic.

“Lost Love” is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival

Mei and her husband Bun have been stricken with pain by the death of their three-year-old son. When her work becomes too overbearing for her to continue, Mei convinces her husband to become foster parents, in an effort to make some money, and perhaps to deal with their grief. Their endeavor, however, is anything but easy, as they have to face the bullying these children experience in school, their emotional issues,...

The ceremony was held on Sunday evening.

Mabel Cheung’s controversial documentary To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self was named best film at the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards (Hkfa), which also saw Wai Ka Fai’s Detective Vs. Sleuths walk away with best director.

Held on Sunday evening (April 16), the awards ceremony returned to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre for the first time since 2019. It was a star-studded event with a big presence of nominees and guests on the red carpet. Most notable was Michelle Yeoh who recently won the best actress Oscar.

As the first presenter of the night, Yeoh...

The Hong Kong Film Awards gave a huge dose of support to veteran filmmaker Mabel Cheung Yuen-ting, naming her documentary “To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self” as best film on Sunday, despite local controversy which saw it pulled from screens earlier this year.

The numerical winner on the night was “Detectives Vs Sleuths,” which earned four major awards: best director, best screenplay, best actor (Sean Lau Ching-wan) and best cinematography.

The hugely popular Sammi Cheng was named winner of the best actress award, her first win after six previous nominations.

Michelle Yeoh was on hand to present the prize for best new performer to 10-year-old Sahal Zaman, for his role in “Sunny Side of the Street.” Yeoh, who recently won the Oscar for best actress in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” established her career in Hong Kong and won the same award back in 1986 with “Yes, Madam.”

Cheung, who as both a...

Mabel Cheung’s controversial documentary To My Nineteen-year-old Self scooped Best Picture at the Hong Kong Film Awards on Sunday night (April 16), where the crowds also applauded an appearance by Best Actress Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh.

Malaysia-born Yeoh, who recently became the first Asian woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress, started her career in the Hong Kong film industry and has been making a celebratory return trip to the city over the past week. At the Hong Kong Film Awards, she presented the award for Best New Performer, which went to 10-year-old Sahal Zaman for The Sunny Side Of The Street.

Cheung’s documentary, which follows six schoolgirls over a perod of ten years, won Best Picture despite being earlier pulled from the awards after some of the girls said they hadn’t consented to any public screenings.

The film was resubmitted by its co-director, William Kwok,...

Having graduated from the department of chemistry, Ka Sing Fung ent into editing and reporting for Art Map's a.m. post, Ming Pao Weekly (明報周刊) and then Eat and Travel Weekly (飲食男女). During his time as a travel reporter in Eat and Travel Weekly, the entire industry started moving towards streaming media and he was able to learn how to shoot videos, write scripts, and things required for film production. This inspired Fung to become a film director. He quit his job and started a film company, and I started to join several competitions for film, including the Fresh wave International Short Film Festival. He and his wife wrote a script that entered the First Feature Film Initiative (Fffi) and won eight million dollars to make their first movie Lost Love (流水落花), which has been one of the closing movies of the 19th Hong Kong Asian Film Festival (Hkaff) in...

Sammi Cheng was named best actress by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society for her performance

Hong Kong-based Media Asia Film has sealed a raft of deals for Ka Sing Fung’s Lost Love, starring Sammi Cheng, including for North America

The drama has been picked up by Imagi Crystal and Illume Films for North America, Applause Taiwan (Taiwan), Lotus Five Star (Malaysia and Brunei) and Clover Films (Singapore). Media Asia is in discussion for Japan and the UK.

Cheng was named best actress by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society for her portrayal of a woman who provides a caring home for foster children.

The turn Hong Kong cinema has made during the recent years, towards more socially relevant themes, is a rather appealing one and also moves towards the realistic, real life story path international cinema seems to have taken, for the most part. “Lost Love” is a film that definitely leans towards this direction, as it explores the concept of foster homes through an approach that is both realistic and dramatic.

“Lost Love” is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival

Mei and her husband Bun have been stricken with pain by the death of their three-year-old son. When her work becomes too overbearing for her to continue, Mei convinces her husband to become foster parents, in an effort to make some money, and perhaps to deal with their grief. Their endeavor, however, is anything but easy, as they have to face the bullying these children experience in school, their emotional issues, the occasionally hostile foster parents,...

For his project under the lauded First Feature Film Initiative programme, director Ka Sing- fung tells the heartrending journey of a woman whose life is forever changed by the children she takes in as a temporary foster carer. In a career-best performance, Sammi Cheng stars as Mei, a woman trying to get over the death of her young son through the children she welcomes into her home. Each ward offers Mei a different challenge and a newfound appreciation for the difficulties of motherhood, but when her dedication to the job causes her marriage to turn sour, Mei is forced to make a choice. (Source: Hkaff 2022)

Lost Love premiered in November 2022 as one of the closing films for the 19th edition of the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival and is now scheduled for release in Hong Kong on March 2, 2023. Its cast also includes Alan Luk and Hedwig Tam.

‘My Nineteen-Year-Old Self’ withdrawn over public screening consent issues.

Courtroom drama The Sparring Partner has received 16 nominations for the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards, which saw the last-minute withdrawal of Mabel Cheung’s documentary To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self.

The Sparring Partner, which marks the feature directorial debut of Ho Cheuk Tin, leads the pack with nominations in all but three categories. Based on the true story of a gruesome double murder case, its nods include best film, best director and five nominations for performers including lead actors Mak Pui Tung and Yeung Wai Lun. The film has become Hong Kong...

Welcoming In 2023: The Year Of The Rabbit

New Chinese Family Movies Stream For Free In The U.S. & Canada

January 22- February 5, 2023

Chicago, Il – In honor of the Lunar Calendar’s Chinese New Year Celebration of 2023, Asian Pop-Up Cinema continues to present an excellent free streaming movie series for U.S. and Canadian viewers to enjoy.

Focused on family films, this series begins on the first day of the new year and end on the 15th day, the first full moon between January 22 and February 5, 2023. Sponsored by the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Chicago, and in partnership with China Lion Films Distributions, and Smart Cinema USA the online program brings some popular Chinese films to audiences in North America.

Films include two North American premieres So Long Summer Vacation, an only child’s perspective about being left alone at home while both parents work, and...

Based on “The Song of Everlasting Sorrow”, a highly popular 1995 Chinese novel by Wang Anyi, “Everlasting Regret” follows the story of Qiyao, from the mid-40s to the 80s, through an approach that also takes into consideration the intense sociopolitical changes Shanghai underwent during the time, which remain though, in the background.

The story is told through the perspective of a photographer, Cheng, who is introduced to Qiyao by her best friend Lili, who seems to have feelings for him. Cheng, however, is immediately smitten by Qiyao’s beauty, asking to photograph her, and eventually urging her to participate in the local beauty pageant, where she ends up winning. As soon as she does, she walks away from a respectable pre-arranged marriage and becomes the mistress of officer Li, a higher-up of the Nationalist regime, enjoying a rather luxurious life for the next few years. The rising of the communists,...

Five competitive local titles have announced as of Monday that they will be vying for box office supremacy in China over the May 1 Labor Day weekend, a public holiday.

They include a long-anticipated video game adaptation, an omnibus pandemic film helmed by three different female big shots from China, Hong Kong and the U.S., a sleek Aaron Kwok-starring thriller, a TV series adaptation and the first title from helmer Li Yu not to star the now-disgraced Fan Bingbing in 14 years.

Their sales will be worth tracking, as holiday periods tend to be the most money-making in the world’s largest film market, where the February Chinese New Year box office set world records with an impressive $1.2 billion in sales in just six days.

In years past, Labor Day was considered a less significant holiday for movie-going than Chinese New Year, the summer holidays, October’s weeklong National Day holiday in October,...

As if 2019 had not already been bad enough, it was looking like it was going to be the first year since 1995 in which neither Hong Sang-soo nor Johnnie To released a feature film. Hong, after putting out five movies in the previous two years, was taking a well-deserved break: his The Woman Who Ran wouldn’t premiere until the Berlin Film Festival in the early months of 2020. To, on the other hand, hadn’t released anything since Three in the summer of 2016. In the meantime, there were rumors of failed attempts to get his long-gestating Election 3 off the ground, the hold-up being its probable incompatibility with Mainland Chinese censorship requirements. There was also talk of an ambitious omnibus film To was producing in collaboration with a Mount Rushmore of Hong Kong directing legends called Eight and a Half. It was finally announced as one of the films that were slated...

Johnnie To has managed to carve an independent career out of the densely saturated Hong Kong film industry. Along with frequent collaborator Wai Ka-Fai, they have established one of the industries most successful studios, Milkyway Image, a production company that has sustained a sense of artistic freedom even against the backdrop of the highly commercialised cinema that dominates the same market. His brand of noir-inspired crime films has penetrated even the international circuits, no easy task in the highly (even still) Anglocentric industry. “Blind Detective” sees To once again operating within the genre confines of the crime film, yet this time he brings a splash of comedy and romance to the mix, to create a more mainstream endeavour.

The story follows Johnston, played by Andy Lau, a former police detective that has become blind. Now unable to work on the force, he solves cold cases for police rewards,...

Ghost stories are incredibly versatile. For their subjects’ distinct characteristics of being lost souls trapped in a limbo, troubled spirits, tormented entities with human traits like compassion or grudge, they can be applied to a wide range of metaphors and allegories; lingering memories, facing personal fears, regrets, guilt, regression, guardian angels and so on. And, of course, they can also just be played spooky or plainly funny. I love ghost stories and I love the heritage value in Hong Kong cinema they have now acquired, being and endangered (by Chinese censorship) species. A genre-fluid Milkyway product, directed by Jonnie To and frequent co-director Wai Ka-Fai, “My Left Eye Sees Ghosts” exploits the ghost movie tropes to tell a different story, with the aid of a strong cast.

We are introduced to May Ho (Sammi Cheng) at her husband’s funeral. May and Daniel met during a holiday...

During the peak of their careers, Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng join Johnnie To’s light farce “Love on a Diet”. The romantic comedy that follows up on To’s “Needing You” (2000) looks more superficial on first sight, but underneath the fat suits and slapstick interludes awaits us a social commentary movie.

Sammi Cheng (“Infernal Affairs” 2002) plays exchange student Mimi Mo from Hong Kong who goes to Japan and falls in love with pianist Kurokawa (Rikiya Kurokawa). Kurokawa leaves to study music in the USA and returns to Japan as a big hit. Meanwhile, Mimi is depressed and compensates her downtimes with food, causing her to gain 200lbs. As Kurokawa returns, he does not recognize her anymore. Mimi meets Fatty (Andy Lau), who motivates her to lose weight in order to fulfill a promise that Mimi and Kurokawa made 10 years ago. But Mimi and Fatso fall in...

The full list of nominations for the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards has been revealed. However, the dates are still unknown; the mid-April event in fact, will be probably postponed due to the Covid-19 (a.k.a. coronavirus). So for now let’s just have a look at the nominees.

This year’s edition sees Derek Tsang Kwok-Cheung’s “Better Days” leading the competition with an amazing 12 nominations, followed at close range by Heiward Mak’s “Fagara” with 11 nominations and Wong Hing-Fan’s “I’m Livin’ It” with 10. Moreover, Wilson Yip’s “Ip Man 4: The Finale” bagged 9 nominations, including Best Director and Best Action Choreography.

Read the full list of nominations below:

Better Days by Derek Tsang

Best Film

Better Days by Derek Tsang

Suk Suk by Ray Yeung

Fagara by Heiward Mak

I’m Livin’ It by Wong Hing-fan

The New King Of Comedy by Stephen Chow

Best...

Derek Tsang’s ’Better Days’ heads the awards race with 12 nods, followed by ‘Fagara’ (11) and ’I’m Livin’ It’ (10).

The Hong Kong Film Awards has announced the nominations for its 39th edition, with Derek Tsang’s Better Days leading the pack, but due to the coronavirus outbreak is considering postponing the ceremony or switching to a different format.

Usually scheduled for mid-April, this year’s awards are likely to take place the following month, ditch the red carpet and change venue away from the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. Organisers say nothing has been decided at this point but the intention...

“Spicy food can be a form of pain to numb another pain”

Director, producer, writer and wonder woman Heiward Mak who Amp had the pleasure to meet and interview at a previous edition of Five Flavours Film Festival, is back in excellent form with her family drama “Fagara”, named after the delicious and very hot Sichuan peppercorns, renowned for being so strong to numb your mouth (all true and tested!) Based on the popular 2011 novel “Spicy Love” by Hong Kong writer Amy Cheung Siu-han, “Fagara” is co-produced by Ann Hui.

“Fagara” is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival

The sudden dead of a father is a painful and intense shock even if, like Hong Kong travel agent Acacia (Sammi Cheng), the family bond has been neglected for quite some time. Even more shocking for Acacia is learning that she has two half-sisters the father Ha Leung had with two women in other countries.

Contemporary Chinese Cinema is a column devoted to exploring contemporary Chinese-language cinema primarily as it is revealed to us at North American multiplexes.This past weekend, inspired by the RZA, I watched a dingy, cropped, and badly dubbed copy of the 1983 Taiwanese kung fu film Shaolin vs. Lama. It’s not a great film: generic plot, mediocre acting, lame comedy; but the stunt work is extremely good. I’ve watched hundreds of Hong Kong and other Chinese language movies over the past few years, and in every case I’ve taken care to avoid this kind of shoddy presentation, going out of my way to find the best possible images with the original language soundtracks. Because of that, sometimes I forget that for most of my life cheap and dubbed was the only way to see many of the best action films in the world, while almost all of the...

Hong Kong’s leading studio Media Asia returned to FilMart on Monday with a slate of productions in the pipeline, ranging from pics with international names to daring projects helmed by homegrown talent addressing local social issues.

Headlining the line-up is “Bodies at Rest,” pictured above, the latest Chinese-language action thriller directed by Renny Harlin. Starring the award-winning Nick Cheung, Taiwanese singer-actor Richie Jen and mainland actress Yang Zi, the latest offering from the “Die Hard 2” helmer opened the 43rd Hong Kong Intl. Film Festival on Monday night.

Media Asia also recruited Japanese director Yojiro Kakita to work with a stellar Chinese cast for the first time on family drama “Silence of Smoke.” The film’s lead actors Han Geng, Zhang Guoli and actress Xu Qing said at the Media Asia event that they were thrilled to work with the famed helmer whose “Departures” (2008) won an Oscar for best foreign-language film.

Deal covers recent Chinese New Year release Integrity and Hong Kong Film Awards nominee The Lady Improper.

Hong Kong-based regional channel operator Celestial Tiger Entertainment (Cte) has renewed its exclusive, multi-year output deal with local studio Emperor Motion Pictures (Emp).

The deal covers recent Chinese New Year release Integrity, a crime thriller starring Lau Ching-wan, Nick Cheung and Karena Lam, as well as The Lady Improper, which recently picked up a Hong Kong Film Awards best actress nomination for Charlene Choi’s performance.

Cte will also have rights to Emp’s psychological suspense drama Fatal Visit, starring Choi, Sammi Cheng and Tong Dawei,...

The Silver Screen Awards will have four films by women filmmakers in competition.

The 29th Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff) announced its full line-up today, with 103 films from 44 countries, and the launch of a new Sgiff Film Fund.

The new funding scheme aims to nurture up-and-coming Southeast Asian filmmakers through two grants. The Tan Ean Kiam Foundation – Sgiff Southeast Asian - Documentary Grant will support four mid-length or feature projects annually, with a cash amount of S$25,000 each, while the Sgiff South East Asian – Short Film Grant will support two short films annually, with a cash amount of S$4,000 and...

Audiences looking for the next “Crazy Rich Asians” might take some delight in Stanley Kwan’s diva-licious “First Night Nerves,” a “Feud”-like behind-the-scenes rivalry which forces center stage all the drama between high-maintenance Hong Kong actresses Yuan Xiuling (Sammi Cheng) and He Yuwen (Gigi Leung). Set during the final week of rehearsals for a new play called “Two Sisters,” the film feels soapier than a broken dishwasher, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing for audiences who relish the chance to watch actresses display their full range of emotion in a movie that gives even the smallest female parts more dimension than most movies offer their ostensible leading ladies.

One of Hong Kong’s only openly gay directors, Kwan has crafted a movie that’s nearly Almodóvarian in the appreciation and respect it showers upon ladies of all classes — not just the city’s Ferrari-driving super-elite, but...

Stanley Kwan and Hong Kong star actress Sammi Cheng spoke Friday at the Busan International Film Festival of the physical pain of performance.

The director and co-star of “First Night Nerves” reminisced about Kwan’s previous Busan title “Everlasting Regret,” some 13 years ago. “Last time I was here, I was quite sick. I think I threw myself in too deeply to the film and the character,” said Cheng. “Since then. I’ve had time to recover.”

“In ‘Everlasting Regret,’ Sammi got too far into the film and suffered both mentally and physically,” Kwan said.

But with “First Night Nerves” portraying a transgender stage director and containing multiple Lgbt plot points, the conversation returned several times to sex, homosexuality and gender identity.

“My friends ask me if this film means that I want to be transgender. No. I prefer to live as a man with femininity and sensitivity. I’m a hermaphrodite,...

The festival will close with the world premiere of Yuen Woo-ping’s Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy.

South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (Biff) will open with the world premiere of Jero Yun’s North Korean refugee drama Beautiful Days, starring Lee Na-young (Howling).

The festival will close with the world premiere of Yuen Woo-ping’s Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy, featuring action stars such as Zhang Jin, Michelle Yeoh, Tony Jaa and Dave Bautista.

Set to run October 4-13, the 23rd Biff will screen 323 films from 79 countries with 140 world and international premieres. All the New Currents...

The festival will close with the world premiere of Yuen Woo-ping’s Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy.

South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (Biff) will open with the world premiere of Jero Yun’s North Korean refugee drama Beautiful Days, starring Lee Na-young (Howling).

The festival will close with the world premiere of Yuen Woo-ping’s Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy, featuring action stars such as Zhang Jin, Michelle Yeoh, Tony Jaa and Dave Bautista.

Set to run October 4-13, the 23rd Biff will screen 323 films from 79 countries with 140 world and international premieres. All the New Currents...

The director will return to Hong Kong for one of his new projects following mainland success with Operation Red Sea.

Operation Red Sea director Dante Lam made a surprise appearance at the end of Emperor Motion Pictures (Emp)’s media launch at Filmart today (Mar 19) to give a plug for two 2019 projects.

Standing on stage with his regular producer Candy Leung and the company’s group chairman Albert Yeung, Lam said his next project will be set on the sea again. It will be a mega-budget production co-produced by Emp and China’s state-run China Central Television (CCTV).

After having...

A prominent commercial filmmaker in Hong Kong since the mid-80s, the career path and status of Johnnie To is distinctive from contemporaries such as John Woo, Tsui Hark, and Wong Kar-wai. Solely committed to his national cinema, he made a point of never venturing to Hollywood and even formed his own production company, Milkyway Image, in 1996. Only in the mid-2000s when films like Breaking News (2005) and Election (2006) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival was Johnnie To given auteur consideration by Western critics and audiences. Even then, it was only his crime and action genre work, characterized by their elegant style and directorial control, that found critical success and was seen as commercially viable for international markets. With over 50 features under his belt, Johnnie To has a massive oeuvre not bound to any single mode and while he is one of contemporary cinema’s greatest formalist filmmakers, his fluency in visual storytelling transcends genre.

Feng Xiaogang’s comedy won best film, actress and cinematography, while The Handmaiden picked up four awards.Scroll down for full list of winners

Feng Xiaogang’s I Am Not Madame Bovary won best film, best actress for Fan Bingbing [pictured accepting her award] and best cinematography at the Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong on Tuesday night (March 21).

Fan plays a rural woman battling the authorities to restore her honour in the comedy-drama, produced by Feng’s Dongyang Mayla, Sparkle Roll Media and Huayi Brothers. Luo Pan was awarded best cinematography for the film, which was mostly shot in a circular frame.

Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden picked up the most awards of the evening – four in all, including best supporting actress for Moon So-ri and best newcomer for Kim Tae-ri. The erotic period drama was also awarded best production design (Ryu Seong-hie) and best costume design (Cho Sang-kyung).

Best director went to Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jing for supernatural horror...

Let’s talk remakes. Our series continues with a remake that was so good it won four Oscars, including Best Picture. This week, Cinelinx looks at The Departed (2006).

This week’s film is a rare occasion where the remake has won more awards, been on more Best Film lists and has received more overall acclaim than the original. That’s quite an impressive feat when you consider how good the original film was. Infernal Affairs (2002) is a great film from Hong Kong that won a whole cluster of cinematic honors internationally and is at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s 2006 American remake, the Departed, seems to get onto even more “Top 10” lists and also won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay at the Academy Awards. It has a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 86% on Metacritic.

The original Hong Kong film, which was the first film of a trilogy, was done...

Exclusive: Wartime drama stars Zhou Xun [pictured] and Eddie Peng.

Distribution Workshop is launching sales at Hong Kong’s Filmart on Ann Hui’s The Great Escape, starring Zhou Xun and Eddie Peng, a war drama set during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.

Produced by Bona Film Group and Class Limited, the film is shooting in Guangdong and Hong Kong. Roger Lee is on board as producer and the cast also includes Guo Tao (White Deer Plain).

The story follows a group of plucky youths fighting for Hong Kong’s freedom when Japanese forces occupied the city during the Second World War.

New titles on Distribution Workshop’s slate also include Liu Guonan’s romantic comedy The Wedding Game, starring Sammi Cheng, and Yip Wai Man’s thriller Phantom Of The Theatre, starring Ruby Lin, Tony Yang and Simon Yam. Both films are in post-production.

Speculate on property. This is Hk lifestyle!To speculate on property amid Hong Kong's rapidly changing real estate market conditions is to speculate on emotions, according to Cheuk Wan Chi's (aka Vincci/Gc Goo Bi) Temporary Family, a simple but perfectly enjoyable urban comedy that gets most of its energy from the all-around impressive chemistry between Nick Cheung and Sammi Cheng. Beyond finely tuned performances from the four top-billed actors (the aforementioned veterans of Hk cinema + Angelbaby and Oho), what makes Temporary Family stand out from the crowd of recently released run-of-the-mill Hk comedies is a very straightforward and credible script that fortunately doesn't place too much emphasis on the ongoing romantic shenanigans, but puts an amusing spin on the 'unlikely flatmates' formula instead.Through various more...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

It is great to see Nick Cheung returning to comedy following a string of hit thrillers like Beast Stalker, Stool Pigeon, Unbeatable and The White Storm. Many of the actor's early film roles were actually in comedies and films such as The Conman and The Duel prove how good a comic actor he is. In his latest film Temporary Family, he teams up with Hk's queen of romantic comedies Sammi Cheng (Needing You..., Love On A Diet) and the pair look to bring lots of laughs to audiences. Temporary Family is due to be released in Australian cinemas on August 21, and thanks to its distributor Magnum Films, we have Five double passes to give away. For a chance to win, all you have to do is to...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Edko Films will be launching sales on Cheuk Wan Chi’s Temporary Family, a romantic comedy starring Nick Cheung, Sammi Cheng and Angelababy, at the upcoming Filmart content market in Hong Kong.

Produced by Hong Kong’s Irresistible Films, the film takes a sly dig at Hong Kong’s over-heated property market, through the story of a real estate agent and three investors in a luxury penthouse apartment who end up living together in the property when their plans to make a fast profit go awry.

Cheung plays the agent while Cheng plays a recent divorcee in need of a new place to live and Angelababy plays the agent’s stepdaughter. The cast also includes Oho Ou as a mainland rich kid. The young singer became an idol in China after appearing on a Hunan satellite TV talent show.

The film will also feature cameos from actors and directors such as Jacky Cheung, Ivana Wong and [link...

The 33rd Hong Kong Film Awards is expected to be a hell of a show with some great films going head to head. Leading the way with nominations is The Grand Master with 14, followed by Unbeatable (Dante Lam).

There were complaints last year, that the show didn’t live up to expectations, mainly due to the fact the movie Cold Wars, won nearly every award. Best actor award see the likes of these guys going head to head, Tony Leung (The Grandmaster), Louis Koo (The White Storm) and also Anthony Wong (Ip Man: The Final Fight).

Take a look at the list and comment who you think will win. The winners will be announced on April 13.

Best Film:

- The Grandmaster

- Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons

- The Way We Dance

- The White Storm

- Unbeatable

Best Director:

- Wong Kar Wai (The Grandmaster)

- Johnnie To...

Ziyi Zhang: Best Actress at the 2013 Golden Horse Awards (photo: Ziyi Zhang in ‘The Grandmaster’) (See previous post: “Golden Horse Awards: Singaporean Movie ‘Ilo Ilo’ Is Surprising Best Picture Choice.”) Although Anthony Chen’s Ilo Ilo took home the top award at the 50th Golden Horse Awards, Wong Kar Wai’s Berlin Film Festival opening gala film The Grandmaster was this year’s big winner: six awards, including the Best Actress trophy for Ziyi Zhang. That marked Zhang’s first victory, after three previous nominations: Best Actress for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000 and for 2046 in 2004; Best Supporting Actress for Forever Enthralled in 2009. "It was a very long and suffering journey making The Grandmaster, but now I’m very happy," Zhang said in her acceptance speech. In Wong’s Hong Kong-Chinese martial arts drama she plays the daughter of fighting master, who, so as to restore her family’s honor,...

There are almost 300 films on average scheduled to take part in the 11 days that encompass the Toronto International Film Festival. Dozens of genres from all over the world play during the festival, allowing you to easily explore and discover the work of filmmakers and actors you may have ignored in favour of atypical mainstream Us fare. One such auteur that has evaded me is Johnnie To, the acclaimed Hong Kong writer/producer/director. Just mentioning his name in certain company evokes serious discussions of action movies and hard boiled thrillers from the past two decades.

Knowing this, I ventured into To’s latest film, Blind Detective, with a certain amount of excitement and trepidation. Was I setting myself up for failure? I had discovered Korean filmmaker Kim Ji-woon’s I Saw the Devil at the festival in 2010 and adored it for how thrilling and uncompromisingly brutal it was. Would this be a similar,...

The Toronto International Film Festival® has announced the addition of 3 Galas and 19 Special Presentations to the 2013 Festival programme, including a further 12 World Premieres. Representing countries from around the world, the Gala and Special Presentations programmes offer a lineup of diverse titles and genres.

Toronto audiences will be among the first to screen films by directors Fred Schepisi, Alberto Arvelo, Reha Erdem, Dexter Fletcher, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, Megan Griffiths, Arnaud Larrieu and Jean-Marie Larrieu, Kevin Macdonald, Arie Posin, Charlie Stratton, Nils Tavernier and John Turturro.

The 38th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 5 to 15, 2013.

Galas Blood Ties

Guillaume Canet, France/USA North American Premiere

New York, 1974. 50-year-old Chris has just been released on good behavior after spending several years in prison. Waiting for him reluctantly outside the prison gates is his younger brother, Frank, a cop with a bright future. Chris and Frank have always been different, yet blood...

Johnnie To reunites his dream team pairing of Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng for the first time in nearly a decade, but the results are far from perfect as this oddball comedy thriller proves an unwieldy and unsatisfying beast.When not crafting stylish crime dramas (The Mission, Exiled, Drug War), exploring fantastical thriller territory with collaborator Wai Ka Fai (Running on Karma, Mad Detective), or peering deep into Hong Kong's wounded socio-economic soul (Election 2, Life Without Principle), writer-producer-director Johnnie To has been known to dabble in romantic comedy.Over the years, through films including Needing You and Love on a Diet, To has cast superstar Andy Lau together with pop icon Sammi Cheng to hugely popular effect. However, after a crisis of confidence following the disastrous...

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We have the first teaser trailer for Johnnie To‘s upcoming Blind Detective movie! Originally titled Man Tam was selected to play as part of the Midnight selection at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, which is a good reason to check it out, don’t you think? Johnnie To directed the movie from a script written by Ka-Fai Wai, and the movie has a pretty cool cast on board. It includes Andy Lau as a former inspector of the Regional Crime Unit known as “The God of Cracking Cases” and Sammi Cheng as a female police inspector. They team up to solve the mysterious case, and that’s...

Blind Detective (Johnnie To, Hong Kong)

Midnight Projections

The second in our series of Cannes dialogues between Adam Cook and Daniel Kasman is on Johnnie To's Blind Detective, which screened out of competition as a Midnight Projection.

Adam Cook: Blind Detective stands out among Johnnie To’s recent work as one of his most outlandish and over-the-top films. In some ways, it feels like it meets halfway between his earlier comedies, made before he became such a rigorous craftsmen, and his present formalism. That being said, it retains a certain looseness and spontaneity that distinguishes it from just about anything he's made. How do you define this film within his oeuvre? 

Daniel Kasman: I've seen a lot of To but not in any way a majority, and have especially large gaps in his earlier work (80s thru early 90s) and in a certain amount of comedies which certainly...

Tone is one of the most important though less-commonly discussed facets of filmmaking, one that is almost entirely disregarded in Johnnie To‘s fascinating mess, Blind Detective, an entry into the Cannes Film Festival’s small MidnightScreenings branch. Chong (Andy Lau) is the titular blind detective, a formerly-sighted member of his profession who, in light of the blinding incident, takes on missions of his own accord, much to his frustration. His partner is Tung (Sammi Cheng), an incompetent rookie cop who wants to enhance her detective skills, and so goes about trying to solve the 1997 disappearance of her childhood friend Minnie. Along the way, the pair encounter far more than they bargained for, making this would-be training exercise a very real assignment indeed. Even audiences acquainted with To’s work are likely to find his latest effort particularly demented, meshing silly slapstick with grisly murder in a mix that less beguiles and more sours, in...

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

In the grand scheme of things in the detective procedural genre, the idea of a blind detective who relies on his other heightened senses, and an almost mystical sixth sense that allows him to relive crimes like a method actor doesn’t sound all that odd. So the revelation that Johnnie To’s quirky cop project is in fact a ribald comedy that pokes fun in liberal doses actually came as something of a surprise.

The film stars Hong Kong superstars Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng, in their seventh collaboration, as an unlikely detective duo – him blind and prone to clumsiness (at times it feels like we’re being invited to laugh at his misfortune a touch too much) and her a besotted sidekick with promising skills who acts as his foil and his aide. She employs him to help her find a missing childhood friend,...

Following the recent commercial success of Drug War, director Johnnie To's hot streak looks to continue with his new film Blind Detective. The film reteams Hong Kong superstars Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng, who have previously appeared in a number of To's romantic comedies and massive Hong Kong box office hits such as Needing You... and Love on a Diet. The difference this time is that the new film is a crime thriller. Some new stills and production photos for the film have just been released, and judging by the images, Blind Detective looks to be another intense and expertly crafted thriller from the master director. ...

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Ah, the excitement of a press conference! Actually, though it may sound dry and boring -- and I'm sure the repetition would dilute the impact quickly -- the first press conference I attended in Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago proved to be highly entertaining. For a long-time fan of Hong Kong cinema, there's the fun of seeing Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng live on stage, in front of dozens of photographers, not to forget director Johnnie To, all to introduce the teaser and first posters for the upcoming Blind Detective. And, though the event was conducted entirely in Cantonese, in which I am not fluent at all, it's not exactly difficult to follow what's going on in the highlights presented in the video...

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