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With over 7,600 industry players from 42 countries converging in Hong Kong, FilMart 2025 and EntertainmentPulse roared back with a clear message: Asia’s entertainment engine isn’t just running — it’s accelerating into new markets, formats, and technologies.

Hosted by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (Hktdc), the four-day market featured more than 760 exhibitors and a noticeable surge in Southeast Asian representation. From co-production matchmaking to cutting-edge AI applications and a live showcase of Hong Kong’s film music legacy, FilMart proved once again why it’s considered Asia’s premier film and TV marketplace.

Here are the top takeaways from this year’s edition.

1. Asean Presence Explodes as Southeast Asia Takes Center Stage

One of the biggest headlines this year was the rise of Asean countries as strategic players in both market scale and content ambition. Exhibitor participation from the region grew more than 50% year-on-year, while buyer attendance increased by 15%.

Malaysia’s national film body,...

Hong Kong novelist and screenwriter Ni Kuang, who penned some 300 screenplays including The One-Armed Swordsman and The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin, has died. According to local media, he passed away on Sunday at age 87.

Tenky Tin Kai-man, actor and spokesman of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers, confirmed Ni’s passing to the South China Morning Post. The cause of death was reportedly skin cancer.

Hailed as a giant in the Chinese literary world, Ni rose to fame with the New Adventures Of Wisely series which was first published in Chinese daily Ming Pao in 1963. He specialized in martial arts, wuxia and science fiction.

Beginning in 1965, Ni branched out into screenwriting, often working for the Shaw Brothers. His credits include 1967’s The One-Armed Swordsman; 1975 superhero movie Infra-Man; and 1978’s The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin and Enter The Fat Dragon (the latter directed by and starring Sammo Hung); along with hundreds of others.

Ni Kuang, one of Hong Kong’s most distinguished screenwriters and novelists, has died. He was 87.

He died on Sunday in Hong Kong, with local media reporting skin cancer as the cause of death.

Ni wrote some 300 screenplays, many in the martial arts genre and many for the Shaw Brothers studio with co-writer Chang Chen. He wrote the scripts for classic films “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” and “One Armed Swordsman” and had a hand in two of Bruce Lee’s six movies “The Big Boss” and “Fist of Fury” though the writing credit went to Wei Lo.

As a novelist, Ni wrote the “New Adventures of Wesley” a series of detective stories that often featured aliens and extra-terrestrial creatures. These were initially serialized in the Ming Pao newspaper from the 1960s and spawned numerous films and TV series (some written as ‘Wisely’).

“For those who are a bit old,...

“The Fortune Buddies” is the latest big screen outing from Tvb and Shaw Brothers, following up on their successful “72 Tenants of Prosperity” and “I Love Hong Kong”. Produced as usual by Eric Tsang and directed by studio regular Chung Sue Kie, who was also recently responsible for the comedy “Adventure of the King”, the wacky film revolves around Louis Yuen, Wong Cho Lam and Johnson Lee, famed for their Tvb comedy sketch program “Fun with Liza And Gods” as three down on their luck men who end up becoming wrestlers. As well as a supporting cast that includes Fiona Sit (“The Way we Were”), Maggie Cheung (“Punished”), Hong Kong veteran Pauline Wong and Tsang himself, the film unsurprisingly packs in a huge number of cameos, including, but not limited to Michael Tse, King Kong, Richard Ng, Lam Suet, Tin Kai Man and Bosco Wong. Louis Yuen, Wong Cho Lam and Johnson Lee play Fook Yuen,...

Channel News Asia is reporting that Taiwanese singer Jay Chou has been snagged by Columbia Pictures to replace actor Stephen Chow as The Green Hornet’s sidekick, Kato, in the upcoming big-screen adaptation starring Nicolas Cage and Seth Rogen as the titular Green Hornet.

It’s reported that on Monday, Chou’s close friend, actor Tin Kai Man, blogged that Columbia had picked his friend Chou for the role because he was both a famous star and a fan of the late Bruce Lee. When reporters jumped all over him, Man insisted that “I have my source.”

Chou is currently at work finishing a film he is directing called Pandamen (I can only hope it’s really about Panda Men! ). After that, according to Man, the singer will make tracks for America to get down to Green Hornet business.

Update: Sony Pictures has just made it official! Chou Is Kato!

Killer Imports [1] is a regular feature on Film Junk where we explore foreign-language films from around the world that haven’t yet had their chance to shine. In 2007, Sean posted on Film Junk [2] about a sequel to Stephen Chow’s phenomenally successful Shaolin Soccer. The sequel would be financed and made by Japanese and only be produced by Chow (who is Chinese). The sport highlighted would be lacrosse rather than soccer. Only one comment was made. Chris thought the movie would be worth seeing for the lead actress, Kou Shibasaki. And then later in the year, Sean posted about a teaser trailer [3] for this movie, now titled, Shaolin Girl. And again only one comment was made. Mike said he would probably see it, but he was disappointed that Chow wasn’t directing. And I never gave a second thought about this movie again. Then I watched All About Women, which I reviewed.