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In America, doing what Andy Lau does in Hong Kong film industry satire “The Movie Emperor” would likely net him an Oscar nomination. Or at least an MTV Movie Award. Or maybe just the admiration of his peers, considering how few stars are willing to poke fun at their own image, much less entertain the question of what might happen if their fans were to turn on them tomorrow.

Reteaming with “Crazy Stone” director Ning Hao for an ultra-polished, good-sport parody of A-list vanity, Lau plays Dany Lau — not quite himself, but a megastar of roughly his own stature. The movie is loaded with inside jokes, but like French series “Call My Agent,” it should have no trouble translating around the globe. Between Lau’s international standing — bolstered by roles in everything from “Infernal Affairs” to “A Simple Life,” plus a Cantopop singing career — and the script’s deft way...

Chicago, Il – – Asian Pop-Up Cinema: Season 13 will present 30 films at an in-person and drive-in festival, with select titles available for online streaming. The festival opens September 15 and runs through October 12, 2021, at AMC River East 21, The Davis Theater and ChiTown Drive-In.

The programming celebrates the best Asian-centric cinema, with new work made by filmmakers from China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the U.S. and Canada. This season will highlight women in film, stories with humanitarian themes and action thrillers, including four restored martial arts classics.

Season 13 opens with Jessica Kingdon’s Ascension, a documentary observing China’s growing class divide through labor, consumerism, and wealth. Structured in three parts, the film ascends through the levels of the capitalist structure and examines how the contemporary “Chinese Dream” remains an elusive fantasy for most.

Centerpiece film The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn’T Kill is Japanese director Kan Eguchi’s action/comedy follow-up to The Fable,...

By 1979, kung fu cinema had covered quite a bit of territory. In order to stay relevant, filmmakers had to aim their creative juices in different directions, regardless of how outrageous or asinine the premise may look on paper. Enter director Chung Ting’s “Of Cooks and Kung Fu”, a baffling and extremely peculiar outing which features a kung fu master who practices a rather intriguing form of martial arts. Each of his moves are named after popular Chinese dishes, though how each of these skills received their respective culinary moniker is never fully explained. Then again, why should it be? Jacky Chen — yes, you read that correctly — portrays our hero, your prototypical hot-shot kung fu student who thinks he’s more dangerous than he actually is. His master, a man who many refer to as the King of Chefs, is a rather interesting follow: in addition to sleeping in the...