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Chinese filmmaker Guan Hu has been on the move relentlessly in 2024.

In May, his tenth feature as a director, Black Dog, won the Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious Un Certain Regard competition, giving him the highest international honor of his career to date. A few weeks later he premiered another finished film, the pandemic-set character study A Man and A Woman, in competition at the Shanghai International Film Festival. By July, he was prepping production on Dong Ji Dao, a big-budget WWII action film that is expected to be released next year. And now, Guan’s Black Dog is in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

A key member of China’s influential sixth generation of film directors, Guan debuted in 1994 with Dirt, a gritty portrayal of the Beijing rock scene in the early 1990s. He has since alternated between well-received low-budget projects, such as the black comedy Cow...

The Forge has acquired North American rights to Guan Hu’s Cannes award winner “Black Dog,” and worldwide distribution rights to Alison Tavel’s “Resynator,” which won the best documentary audience award at South by Southwest.

The Forge also recently acquired North American rights for French horror-comedy “The Balconettes,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and plays the American French Film Festival in Hollywood next week.

“Black Dog,” which won Un Certain Regard’s prize at Cannes 2024, follows ex-offender Lang (Eddie Peng) who “returns to his hometown where he forms an unexpected bond with a stray black dog. Both outcasts, they embark on a transformative journey together,” according to an official logline. The film grossed more than $2.4 million after just two days at the Chinese Box office.

“Resynator,” which serves as Tavel’s feature directorial debut, “follows the legacy of inventor Don Tavel through the eyes of his daughter Alison,...

A squadron of dog catchers, sent into the Gobi desert to round up a bevy of hounds, adds stark absurdism to this commentary on Chinese society

This isn’t the first film to serve up redemption through a furry emissary – and it won’t be the last. Guan Hu’s Chinese drama-cum-western-cum-state-of-the-nation missive won Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year – but more importantly, its heavy canine quotient meant it also bagged the second prize in the festival’s Palm Dog award. Its heartwarming aspect comes framed with real grandeur, and a stark absurdism and tightly wound sentimentality reminiscent at times of Takeshi Kitano.

Emerging from a long stretch in prison for his part in a murder, Lang (Eddie Peng) gets a job on a dog-catching patrol cleaning up a Gobi desert outpost in advance of the 2008 Olympics. When he finally lays hands on the rail-thin, and possibly rabid, critter...

Unfolding in a dilapidated corner of China on the edge of the Gobi desert, the setting for Black Dog looks almost post-Apocalyptic, although there’s more than a whiff of a Western about its lone protagonist Lang (Eddie Peng). That said, there’s just about something for everyone in this crowd-pleaser from Guan Hu, including the adorable, if often irascible, black dog of the title.

The country is building with the Beijing Olympics of 2008 on the horizon but this place is heading firmly in the opposite direction with large sections being ripped down. Meanwhile dogs abandoned by those who have already left, roam the landscape - writer/director Guan Hu employs them liberally throughout, so that there’s almost always one or two drifting in or out of shot. Lang was once a golden boy round these parts.

A guitarist with a band and nifty with a motorbike, all that ended for Lang when.

The Austin Film Festival (Aff) is set to showcase a remarkable lineup of films at this year’s event, Variety is happy to exclusively announce the first selection of films, including the world premiere of “Ravens,” a magical realist biopic featuring recent Emmy-nominee Tadanobu Asano (“Shogun”).

Also among the highly anticipated premieres is the Texas-made thriller by Chris Beier and Daniel Wolfman centered around a washed-up Youtube star titled “The Ego Death of Queen Cecilia,” “Silent Notes,” a romantic neo-noir starring Daniel Durant (“Coda”) and the film adaptation of the Broadway play “The Piano Lesson” from Netflix starring Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington, which just recently released a trailer. These films are part of Aff’s first wave of screenings, highlighting some of the year’s best in independent filmmaking.

Additional programming includes “Black Dog,” which received the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes this year as well as Ecuadorian horror film “Shaman.

After recent patriotic blockbusters such as “My People, My Country” (2019) and “The Eight Hundred” (2020), director Guan Hu is back to his “sixth generation” roots, with a film that might not be low budget, but it has a big indie heart. “Black Dog” bagged the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered in May of this year, and its lead canine, Xiao Xin, a Jack Russell-greyhound cross, received the Grand Jury Prize at the Palm Dog Award.

Black Dog will be released in UK and Irish cinemas on August 30 by Trinity Cine Asia

It's the summer of 2008 and the Beijing Olympics are about to kick off. On a dusty road in the outskirts of China's Gobi Desert, a rickety minibus is heading towards its destination when a pack of feral dogs appears on the street in front of it and causes the bus to tip over.

"I want to keep this dog." CineAsia UK has revealed an official UK trailer for a beloved Chinese film titled Black Dog, one of the best dog movies of 2024 (perhaps even of this entire decade). Black Dog premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival a few months ago, and it won top prize in the Un Certain Regard section. It's one of my favorite films from Cannes - here's my review. On the edge of the Gobi desert in Northwest China, Lang returns to his hometown after being released from jail. While working for the local dog patrol team to clear the town of stray dogs before the Olympic Games, he strikes up an unlikely connection with a black dog. These two lonely souls embark on a journey together... It is a story about these two friends, but also how a town changes after realizing it's not a good thing to round up all these animals.

Exclusive: The Forge has acquired North American rights to Guan Hu’s drama Black Dog, along with worldwide rights to Alison Tavel’s documentary Resynator, slating both acclaimed features for release in theaters in the fourth quarter of this year.

Winning the Un Certain Regard prize in its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Black Dog takes place on the edge of the Gobi desert in Northwest China, watching as Lang (Eddie Peng) returns to his hometown after being released from jail. While working for the local dog patrol team to clear the town of stray dogs before the Beijing Olympics, he strikes up an unlikely connection with a black dog; two lonely outcasts finding purpose in each other.

Released theatrically last month in China, the film grossed over $2.4M in just two days at the box office.

The winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature...

The inaugural Hong Kong Film Gala Presentation, to be held in Phnom Penh for the first time, is set to captivate audiences with a spectacular lineup of cinematic treasures. Presented by the Asian Film Awards Academy, in collaboration with Westec Media Limited and financially supported by Hong Kong's Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (Ccida), Film Development Fund and Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, the programme will showcase 7 specially selected Hong Kong films at Fable Cinema, Factory Phnom Penh from 3 to 7 July 2024!

As part of the programme, The Dynamic Cityscapes of Hong Kong Films Exhibition will be held concurrently at Factory Phnom Penh from 4 July until 4 August 2024, 10Am – 7Pm daily. The admission is free and exhibition materials are in English and Khmer. The Dynamic Cityscapes of Hong Kong Films Exhibition is a celebration and demonstration of Hong Kong's diverse cityscapes, recreating the most memorable scenes that appeared in the specially selected films,...

Trinity CineAsia has secured UK and Ireland rights to Chinese drama Black Dog, winner of this year’s Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes, in a deal with Playtime.

Directed by Guan Hu, the feature was released in China on June 15 and will open in UK and Irish cinemas on August 30.

It marks the second Cannes acquisition for Trinity CineAsia, which previously picked up Hong Kong action drama Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In ahead of its premiere in the Midnight Screenings section of the festival last month.

The distributor also handled the UK release of Guan’s previous film,...

What did five of the most critically acclaimed Asian movies that premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival have in common? They all were edited by rising Taiwanese studio Cutting Edge Films.

Formally established only in 2022, the company comprises a small group of film professionals who have worked together for over a decade. They are co-led by French editor Matthieu Laclau (Touch of Sin), known for his long-running collaboration with Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke, and Taiwanese producer Justine O. (The Chinese Mayor, Black Dog), whose work has nabbed a succession of festival prizes in recent years. The company says its recent successes point to the maturity and expanding reach of Taipei’s post-production sector, which has been buoyed by steady government support and a growing reputation for high-quality work at globally competitive prices.

“Taipei’s post-production scene is definitely having a moment,” says Laclau. “For VFX, editing or color grading,...

Foreign visitors were in short supply at Saturday’s opening ceremony of the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival, but that did little to diminish the festive atmosphere.

The ceremony was held at the Shanghai Grand Theater in the downtown area on an evening that was warm and spring-like and without the “plum rain” or summer downpours that the city is known for at this time of year.

Arguably the biggest names in attendance were Hong Kong actor and “Westworld” star Daniel Wu, Hong Kong director Dante Lam, Chinese star actor-director-producer Xu Zheng and Japanese actor Yakusho Koji, who won the best actor award a year ago at Cannes for his leading role in Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days.” Marco Mueller, a celebrated festival director and artistic consultant, was also on hand in his adopted home town.

Wu was representing new film “Decoded,” directed by Chen Sicheng, whose “Lost in the Stars...

Less than a decade ago, the Shanghai International Film Festival was the preeminent annual hotspot for Hollywood and European dealmakers determined to forge alliances and carve out a foothold in China’s then-booming commercial film sector. In the post-pandemic era, however, as the Chinese industry continues to mature and the Hollywood hype over the country’s market potential long ago gave way to grim reality, the festival has transitioned into a somewhat more inward-facing occasion.

That domestic focus is on display in the Shanghai event’s 2024 lineup, which features 10 Chinese movies among the 25 titles of the two main international competition sections (and not a single film from the U.S. or South Korea). For international film buffs, the Shanghai festival is now best viewed as an opportunity to take stock of current trends in Chinese filmmaking — and on that front, the event’s 2024 lineup is rich with potential.

The 26th...

In the derelict, scraggly city in northwest China where Guan Hu’s Black Dog is set, human life has all but disappeared and canines have replaced their masters. The year is 2008, a few weeks before the kick-off to the Beijing Summer Olympics, but the capital feels so distant in time and space that when a mural honoring the event pops up, the paint is so sun-bleached you’d be forgiven for thinking the Games were over by a few decades. Oil was tucked deep under the nearby hills until the reserves dried up and workers left––one of many migration waves that turned this unnamed corner at the edge of the Gobi Desert into an arid ghost town presided by the pets its former residents left behind. Dogs are everywhere you look; from the barren expanses that ring the city down to its maze of abandoned buildings, they roam this...

It is always a nice surprise when someone very talented and famous also turns out to be a very pleasant, down to earth person, and that is the case with Eddie Peng, the Taiwanese superstar whose career spans over two decades. His success didn't happen over night though, and it took his collaboration with Ann Hui on two titles to prove the versatility of his acting performance: war drama set up in the 1940s “Our Time Will Come” (2017), and romance “Love After Love” (2020). Already before this international breakthrough, Peng had a huge teenage following due to the success of Yang Daqing's TV series adaptation of the popular manga “Tomorrow” (2002). One could say that he was never shy of testing his acting capabilities by diving into diverse projects from romantic comedies and dramas, to adrenaline pumped action movies, which made him one of the most popular actors on the Asian continent.

Chinese director Guan Hu’s visually stunning new feature, Black Dog, starts off with a familiar premise: After spending a decade behind bars, an ex-con named Lang (Eddie Peng) returns to his tiny native city in Northwest China on the outskirts of the Gobi Desert. He tries to integrate into regular life, but certain demons from his past come back to haunt him.

If this sounds like any number of throwaway B-movies, or like the plot of the recent Sylvester Stallone series Tulsa King, be advised that Black Dog is not that kind of thing at all. First off, it’s unclear who, exactly, the title is referring to. Is it the film’s total outcast of a protagonist, who barely utters a full sentence to anyone — including his own father — as he attempts to settle into a place that doesn’t want him? Or is it the stray black greyhound he meets in town,...

Exactly ten years after the genre-mixing, canine-driven Hungarian thriller “White God” landed the Prix Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, this year’s ceremony culminated in the same prize going to a somewhat corresponding title: Chinese director Guan Hu’s “Black Dog,” a fusion of western, film noir and offbeat comedy with a highly lovable mutt at its center. The film, about a damaged loner returning to his desert hometown after a spell in prison and finding a kindred spirit in an equally world-weary greyhound, beat 17 other titles to take the top prize in the festival’s second-most prestigious competitive section. (The festival’s Official Competition awards will be handed out tomorrow night.)

Jury president Xavier Dolan, the actor-auteur behind such films as “Mommy” and “Laurence Anyways,” commended Guan’s film for “its breathtaking poetry, its imagination, its precision [and] its masterful direction.” He echoed the enthusiasm of Variety critic Jessica Kiang,...

Kodi, the canine defendant in Laetitia Dosch’s Dog on Trial, was named top dog at the Cannes Film Festival, snatching the Palm Dog prize for the best canine performance.

In a rare treat, Kodi, a 9-year-old Griffon, attended the event, a boozy and chaotic affair, as is the Palm Dog tradition, at the Plage du Festival in Cannes on Friday. He even gave a demonstration of his howling performance from the film, something the director said he had to be trained to do, not being a natural howler in real life.

In Dog on Trial, Kodi plays Cosmos, the four-legged companion of a visually impaired man (François Damiens) who, after a biting incident, finds himself at the center of an absurd trial to decide whether he will be put down. Avril (Laetitia Dosch), a lawyer accustomed to lost causes, decides to represent Cosmos.

Dosch said she insisted on having...

Is Messi’s reign as cinema’s current top dog over?

The Palm Dog — Cannes’ annual celebration of on-screen canine performances which was last year won by the blue-eyed border collie from “Anatomy of a Fall,” the first step in a dramatic bound toward furry fame — has crowned a new champion.

The 2024 Palm Dog, presented at a special event on May 24, has been given to Kodi, the senior stray at the heart of acclaimed Swiss-French comedy “Dog on Trial.” The Un Certain Regard title from director and star Laetitia Dosch sees Kodi — believed to be a blonde Griffon cross — plays Cosmos, an aggressive pet who’s taken on as a client by a defense lawyer in story exploring the status of dogs in society. According to Palm Dog founder Toby Rose, Kodi is nearing his 10th birthday and will soon retire from acting, but bow-wows out having delivered a “fine four-legged swan song.

You might not get the dog you want, but you always get the dog you need. That old dog lover’s adage applies peculiarly well to Chinese director Guan Hu’s “Black Dog.” A far smaller-scale project than his recent blockbusters “The Eight Hundred” and “The Sacrifice,” Guan’s latest — an Un Certain Regard standout at Cannes this year — nonetheless has the grandly cinematic vision to lend an intimate tale a gloriously epic, allegorical edge.

Set in a dying town on the fringes of the Gobi desert, “Black Dog” has elements of the genre Western, like taciturn loner antihero Lang (a fantastic Eddie Peng), who returns to his eroded hometown himself hollowed out by repressed guilt for the incident that caused his recent imprisonment. But, dipped in the caustic soda of social commentary and steeped in the fatalistic mood of a place barely chugging by on borrowed time, the film...

No matter how badly your week is going, it’s worth pausing to appreciate the fact that you’re not currently embroiled in a violent feud with a snake venom dealer who calls himself Butcher Hu. But we can’t all be so lucky.

Lang (Eddie Peng) is a changed man since coming out of prison. Emotionally callused and silent by choice, you’d never guess that he was once a beloved entertainer who played rock music and rode motorcycles in the local circus. But when he leaves the joint and returns to his small hometown in China’s Gobi Desert, there’s nothing waiting for him except bad vibes. His father is drinking himself to death at the local zoo, his neighbors resent him for his perceived crimes and assume he got a light sentence because of his celebrity, and his town is overrun with rabid dogs. To make matters worse,...

As the Cannes Film Festival and the Marché du Film are both set to open on the 14th of May, Taiwan Creative Content Agency (Taicca) is making a big splash with films and projects it has supported selected in multiple sections. It will also be making its presence felt with several projects pitching at the market. Six films supported by Taicca co-production initiatives or investment will premiere at the festival. These are Rendez-Vous Avec Pol Pot in Cannes Premiere, The Shameless in Un Certain Regard, Locust in Critics Week, Mongrel in Directors' Fortnight, Colored in the Immersive Competition, and Missing Pictures: Naomi Kawase in the Immersive Selection. Further Taiwanese talent will be on show as Traversing the Mist by Tung-Yen Chou is also selected for the Immersive Competition; actor Eddie Peng is headlining Black Dog in Un Certain Regard; and actors Lee Kang-Sheng and Wu Ke-Xi feature in Blue Sun...

Hong Kong’s One Cool Film group has announced five new movies, revealed through exclusive teasers and posters on the opening day of FilMart.

Upcoming films include “Love Lies,” starring Sandra Ng and M.C. Cheung Tinfu; “The Trier of Fact,” directed by Calvin Tong and featuring Louis Koo and Eddie Peng; “The Way We Talk,” produced, written and directed by Adam Wong, with Neo Yau, Chung Suet Ying and Ng Tsz Ho Marco in leading roles; “Good Game,” helmed by Dickson Leung, written by Lily He Xin and Sheng Ling Xiu Zhong, and starring Andrew Lam, Will Or and Yanny Chan; and “Behind the Shadows,” produced by Soi Cheang, directed by Jonathan Li and Chou Man Yu, and starring Koo, Chrissie Chou and Liu Kuan Ting.

“Love Lies,” which will premiere at the 48th Hong Kong Intl. Film Festival, tells the tale of an internet romance scam. Ng recommended Cheung,...

A big online drug auction, the first of that scale in Asia, is about to take place on the Dark Web Market and the Hong Kong Cyber Investigation Unit and its Senior Superintendant Eddie Fong Hing (Eddie Peng) are ready to fight against a man known as “boss” whose identity no one is completely certain about. It is believed that the drug baron is Chan Chin Sang (Philip Keung) who is on his way to Hong Kong, and Fong Hing wants to take the opportunity to seize both him and a large drug cargo that is supposed to arrive the same night. Five day before the announced big event, the department is in problem due to Chan's army of hackers and corrupted public servants working as his informants. The attempt to find the drugs fails due to heavy technical problems caused by them. “We have to nip it in the...

Fish out of water comedy film “Jonny Keep Walking” climbed to the top of the mainland China box office in its second weekend on release. Previous winner, “Shining for One Thing” dimmed quickly and tumbled to fifth place.

The first weekend of the new year and following a welter of Christmas-New Year releases, the latest weekend represented a reordering of holdover titles, rather than a session with an injection of significant fresh movies.

“Jonny,” in which a man from the countryside struggles to hold down a corporate job in a big city, earned $22.4 million (RMB159 million) from Friday to Sunday, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That was a modest fall from the film’s $26.1 million opening frame and elevated its cumulative total to $77.5 million since debuting on Dec. 29.

The film is directed by Peng Da, aka Dong Pengcheng, the prolific actor-writer-director who released two other films in 2023:...

"The cops may be able to trace us." "So what." Well Go USA has debuted another new official trailer for a Hong Kong action thriller film called I Did It May Way. That title seems to be an obvious reference to Frank Sinatra's classic song "My Way", though it isn't heard in the trailer or mentioned anywhere else, but it seems to connect with the bad guy's plot anyway. The film revolves around an undercover officer who goes up against the high-tech drug underworld of Hong Kong. Ho Sau, an undercover agent, has been working with Yau, a drug lord, for years, but his job and family are in trouble. The intense action thriller stars Andy Lau, Gordon Lam, Cya Liu, Eddie Peng, Kent Cheng, Philip Keung, with a special guest appearance by Simon Yam. This is an extraordinary violent trailer for what looks like an insanely violent Hk film - my goodness.

One dark night, AC repairman Wang Xueming (Eddie Peng) hits a pedestrian with his van, panics, and flees the scene. Tormented by the accident and desperate to escape his feelings of guilt, he approaches the widow, Mrs. Liang (Sylvia Chang) and strikes up a relationship. Meanwhile, her husband’s body is discovered—riddled with bullets. Though he’s determined to piece together the complete events of that fateful night, Wang is also being stalked by a shadowy killer (Lu Xin) who spotted his van at the site of the hit-and-run. To complicate matters further, the detective in charge of the investigation, Chen, becomes obsessed with the case. Years later, the trio remain trapped in a tangled web of memories and lies, desperately searching for a truth that refuses to be revealed.

Are You Lonesome Tonight? is available on DVD and Digital on July 18.

Enter for your chance to win a...

Unhappy Together: Shipei Concocts Romantic Neo-noir

Director Wen Shipei strikes an oddly satisfying balance between broody Neo-noir and simmering romance with his debut Are You Lonesome Tonight?, thus named for the Elvis Presley ballad, which makes several diegetic entrances. However, Suspicious Minds could have served the material if Shipei had wanted a more frenetic pace. Instead, Shipei falls into an anxious swoon with this two-hander which recalls early works by Wong Kar-Wai. Aided by Taiwan’s Eddie Peng at his most bedraggled and the ever-striking Sylvia Chang, theirs is a diametrically opposed attraction built on simple but highly effective motifs.…...

The award-winning writing/directing duo Longman Leung and Sunny Luk strike again with a star-studded cast in this sequel to the 2012 megahit, Cold War. Chow Yun Fat joins Aaron Kwok, Tony Leung Ka Fai and Eddie Peng as they reprise their roles in the tumultuous aftermath of Operation Cold War.

A suspected criminal mastermind escapes from police custody, throwing the city into turmoil. With the police department now divided, rival police chiefs are forced to take their fight to the streets of Hong Kong – with deadly consequences.

(Source: Well Go USA)...

Author-director Giddens Ko (“You Are the Apple of My Eye”) returned to Golden Horse Award-winning form in 2021 with “Till We Meet Again”, a movie adaptation of his best-selling novel “God of Love”. Ko cleverly refreshes the run-of-the-mill romance genre with an infusion of local mythology about life and death. Ko reimagines his underworld as a chaotic dystopian realm, more frightening for its bureaucratic red tape and glitchy It when dealing with an overpopulation of human souls awaiting either reincarnation or eternal damnation. Traditional deities like Yama the King of Hell, his ghostbuster sidekicks Ox-Head and Horse-Face as well as the usual host of demons (including cameos by Sadako and Toshio) are not who they seem.

Kai Ko turns in an endearing performance as the happy-go-lucky Ah Lun. He suffers an untimely death, has amnesia and faces a choice to either reincarnate as a snail or join the underworld’s matchmaking...

Click here to read the full article.

Jennifer Lawrence is making time for Longines.

The Oscar winner has linked up with Swiss watchmaker Longines to serve as its newest Ambassador of Elegance. The move comes as Lawrence has returned to the big screen courtesy of the dramatic feature Causeway from Apple TV+ and her production company Excellent Cadaver.

Though terms of the deal were not disclosed, Lawrence said she’s “thrilled” to join the Longines family while looking forward to their partnership “in the years ahead.”

“Longines is rooted in a legacy of innovation and quality trusted by some of history’s greatest trailblazers,” said the 32-year-old. “Longines has long been synonymous with timeless elegance, which to me, can be defined as a quiet powerfulness met with grace and confidence. And as a native Kentuckian, I’ve always associated Longines with the Derby and the embodiment of tradition.”

Adds Longines...

Film Movement has acquired North American rights from Wild Bunch International.

Film Movement has acquired North American rights from Wild Bunch International to Wen Shipei’s 2021 Cannes selection Are You Lonesome Tonight?

The story follows a man who believes he has caused a fatal accident and develops an ambiguous relationship with the dead man’s widow, while a police officer investigates the death.

Years later all three people remain tangled in a web of memories and lies, desperately searching for a truth that refuses to be revealed.

Shipei’s feature directorial debut and Camera d’Or nominee played TIFF last...

2021 Cannes Camera d’Or nominee played TIFF last year.

Film Movement has acquired North American rights from Wild Bunch International to Wen Shipei’s 2021 Cannes selection Are You Lonesome Tonight?

The story follows a man who believes he has caused a fatal accident and develops an ambiguous relationship with the dead man’s widow, while a police officer investigates the death.

Years later all three people remain tangled in a web of memories and lies, desperately searching for a truth that refuses to be revealed.

Shipei’s feature directorial debut and Camera d’Or nominee played TIFF last year and...

This past March, the cinematographer Christopher Doyle was under Covid-19 lockdown in Shanghai, waiting to return to Hong Kong. “They take us floor by floor, apartment by apartment, name by name to the school around the corner for testing… then they march us back,” he wrote in an email. While waiting to return to Hong Kong, he was finalizing a book of poetry and collages. He had recently finished a feature in the south of China; before that he shot “Love After Love” for director Ann Hui.

Based on an Eileen Cheng short story, “Love After Love” (currently streaming on Mubi) charts the decline of wealthy playboy George Chiao (Eddie Peng), coupled with the corruption of Ge Weilong (Sandra Ma), who will ultimately become his wife. Set in Shanghai largely before World War II, it is a hypnotic, feverish look at a privileged world disappearing faster than anyone realizes.

With over 120 films to his credit,...

TV series adaptations of “Fearless” and “Cold War,” two of the highest-profile Hong Kong action movies of the 21st century, are now in development.

The shift into TV represents a major expansion and diversification for Edko Films, the studio headed by legendary producer-financier-executive Bill Kong.

The original 2006 “Fearless” was an iconic portrait of martial arts ace Huo Yianjia that was directed by Ronny Tong and starred Jet Li. It received studio-level distribution in many territories through Buena Vista, Uip and Sony Pictures Releasing.

“Cold War” is a 2012 crime action film involving a mole inside the Hong Kong police. It was written and co-directed by Longman Leung and Sunny Luk and had Aaron Kwok, Tony Leung Ka-fai and Charlie Young in lead roles. It spawned a sequel movie in 2016 with an even higher profile cast that included Chow Yun-fat and Eddie Peng.

“We have often received inquiries from abroad about buying...

Marking the third time Ann Hui adapts a novel by Eileen Chang (after “Love in a Fallen City” and “Eighteen Springs”), “Love After Love” is based on the short story “Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier”, a work that the director herself admitted was quite hard to bring to the big screen, particularly due to its dialogue-heavy nature. Nevertheless, Hui managed to gather an all-star team, including actors like Ma Sichun, Eddie Peng and Feye Yu, Dp Christopher Doyle and Ryuichi Sakamoto who handled the score. Let us see how the movie fares however.

“Love After Love” is screening at Asian Pop-up Cinema

Weilong is a young woman from Shanghai, who has come to Hong Kong to finish her education away from her strict father. Facing intense financial issues, however, she ends up at the gates of Madame Liang’s mansion, her father’s sister who was excommunicated from the family...

Heading for release in Asia on January 20, a new trailer for Are You Lonesome Tonight? (original title: Re dai wang shi) paints a properly bleak and moody atmosphere for a Chinese film described as a crime thriller. Directed by Shipei Wen, making his feature debut, the film stars Eddie Peng, Shipei Wen and Sylvia Chang. The official synopsis lays out the story: "On a dark night, Xueming hits a pedestrian with his car and flees the scene. Desperate to escape his feelings of guilt, he decides to approach the dead man's wife, Mrs Liang. "Meanwhile, the body is discovered - riddled with bullets. Chen, the detective in charge of the investigation, becomes obsessed with the case. Years later, all three remain caught in a...

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

Marking the third time Ann Hui adapts a novel by Eileen Chang (after “Love in a Fallen City” and “Eighteen Springs”), “Love After Love” is based on the short story “Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier”, a work that the director herself admitted was quite hard to bring to the big screen, particularly due to its dialogue-heavy nature. Nevertheless, Hui managed to gather an all-star team, including actors like Ma Sichun, Eddie Peng and Feye Yu, Dp Christopher Doyle and Ryuichi Sakamoto who handled the score. Let us see how the movie fares however.

“Love after Love” is available from Fortissimo Films

Weilong is a young woman from Shanghai, who has come to Hong Kong to finish her education away from her strict father. Facing intense financial issues, however, she ends up at the gates of Madame Liang’s mansion, her father’s sister who was excommunicated from the family when...

“Dune” didn’t quite manage to spice up its China open after a middling $6 million first day in the country on Friday. The film grossed just $21.6 million in its debut three-day weekend, according to studio estimates.

The result is more or less in the ballpark of its $41 million weekend tally in North America, where it released day-and-date simultaneously on HBO Max. It is nevertheless a disappointing one considering the enormity of the world’s largest film market, which has delivered much more spectacular openings in recent weeks.

As a dense, cerebral sci-fi epic, however, “Dune” is a hard sell for viewers in China’s lower-tier cities, who have recently proven their spending power by coming out in droves for National Day propaganda movies earlier this month.

The film is currently projected to earn just $35.2 million in China according to estimates from the Maoyan database, which would mean it has already...

Yaro Abe’s celebrated manga series “Shin’ya Shokudo” had already been adapted into a Japanese television drama, two live-action films, a Korean and a Chinese TV series, before it also became a Chinese movie in 2019. Marking the directorial debut of Tony Leung Ka Fai, this time, the setting is placed in Shanghai, in another small, counter-only diner, which operates from midnight to 7 am.

The owner is a mysterious individual with a scar on his face, who runs his establishment without a set menu, but is always able to make any dish both regulars and passing customers desire. At the same time, Uncle, as everyone is calling the chef, is also eager to hear their stories and help them with their issues, occasionally even when his customers do not demand him to do so.

In that fashion, the movie presents the “adventures” of a number of individuals, and...

Distracted by a cow he tries to drive past one late evening while on the way to meet his girlfriend, Wang Xueming (Eddie Peng) briefly takes his eyes off the road and runs over a man whose corpse he then – deeply distressed – disposes off in a spontaneous attempt to ‘unsee’ the crime. Or does he? The recap of tragic event gets re-told so many times by Xueming himself that it becomes unclear what had happened to the man whose body police fished out of the river α few days after the incident. The forensic report also contradicts the first in a row of Xueming’s memories – the victim was allegedly not run over by a car, but murdered with two bullets to the head.

“Are You Lonesome Tonight?” screened at Cannes Film Festival

The feature debut by Weng Shipei “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” had its special screening in the official selection of Cannes Film Festival,...

Xue Ming (Eddie Peng) is in jail when we meet him. He’s talking about the boredom of living the same day repeatedly while thinking about how he got there. Deciding it’s better to show than tell, first-time director Shipei Wen sends us back to 1997 to find Xue on the telephone with an angry girlfriend just about fed up with waiting. It’s difficult to tell whether he’s on his way to the cinema late or simply going home when he finally leaves, but the path to his destination is fatefully blocked by a cow. He subsequently turns his air-conditioning repair van down a side street before his beeper takes his attention away from the road and a loud thud smashes his nose against the steering wheel.

It’s a moment we’ll see many more times as Are You Lonesome Tonight? reveals Xue’s choice to leave behind the man he hit.

Columbia Pictures’ “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway” hopped up to second in China this weekend, but was unable to scurry past local sports drama “Never Stop” despite an extra day’s lead.

“Peter Rabbit 2” grossed a relatively unremarkable $969,000 (RMB6.2 million) on opening day Friday but managed to pull in $7.8 million from 10,500 screens over the three-day holiday weekend, according to data from ticketing agency Maoyan. Monday marks the national Chinese holiday of the Dragon Boat Festival, and will likely bringing further sales for the family-friendly film. Based on early estimates, Sony projects that it will gross $11.1 million by the end of the extended four-day weekend — putting it 15% ahead of recent comp “Raya and the Last Dragon.”

Its total performance may not, however, be enough for the sequel to best the first film’s $26.3 million China cumulative back in 2018. Maoyan currently predicts “Peter Rabbit 2” will gross a total of $18.9 million in the territory.

Following up his love-it-or-hate-it Climax, director Gaspar Noé secretly shot a new film this past spring and it’s among the additions to the Cannes Film Festival lineup, which also includes new work by Ari Folman, a Bill Murray concert film, Noémie Merlant’s directorial debut, and more.

As for the Enter the Void director’s latest, he shot Vortex over twenty days between mid-March and April 2021, with a cast including Dario Argento, Françoise Lebrun, and Alex Lutz, as well as a budget of 3.3 million euros, more than his last two features. Check out a roughly-translated synopsis below via his Le Temps de Trout Tout:

Gaspar Noé, son of the Argentinian painter Luis Felipe Noé, finished his film at the last minute because he shot it quickly and late. A quasi-documentary film about the last days of a loving old couple suffering from senility, played by Françoise Lebrun and Dario Argento.

Film is a contemporary remake of 1970s French comedy The Toy by Francis Veber.

Wild Bunch International (Wbi) has boarded sales on director James Huth’s comedy The New Toy, co-starring Daniel Auteuil and Jamel Debbouze.

A remake of Francis Veber’s 1976 comedy The Toy, it revolves around a journalist who becomes the plaything of the son of his newspaper baron boss but uses the situation to open the young boy’s eyes to the fact that money can’t buy everything.

A 1982 US remake directed by Richard Donner and starring Richard Pryor as the journalist was a hit at the box office,...

Felix Chong is directing the crime thriller, which reunites talents from the Infernal Affairs series.

Hong Kong studio Emperor Motion Pictures (Emp) has started production on crime thriller Once Upon A Time In Hong Kong, starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Andy Lau and written and directed by Felix Chong.

The two stars previously worked together in the Infernal Affairs series, which Chong co-wrote with Alan Mak. Chong has since directed hit crime thrillers such as the Overheard series and Project Gutenberg.

Produced by Ronald Wong, producer of the Overheard series, Once Upon A Time In Hong Kong is set in...

The Rescue opened with $36.3m over soft weekend, while Wonder Woman 1984 took $18.8m.

Dante Lam’s The Rescue topped the China box office over its opening weekend (December 18-20), according to figures from Artisan Gateway, pulling in almost twice the gross of Hollywood tentpole Wonder Woman 1984, which opened on the same date.

The Rescue, a $90m action film revolving around an emergency rescue team working for the Chinese Coast Guard, grossed $36.3m in its first three days, compared to $18.8m for Warner Bros’ superhero sequel, starring Gal Gadot. However, both openings were considered soft as December is usually a...

Hong Kong’s highest grossing director, Dante Lam, will soon be releasing his next action-packed film, “The Rescue“. Arriving in theaters just in time for the holiday season, the film chronicles a Chinese rescue team’s death-defying mission to save survivors of a fiery offshore catastrophe. Comprised of men of women from various backgrounds and led by a maverick captain (played by heartthrob and action star Eddie Peng), the unit must set aside their differences to face escalating challenges across air, land and sea. In addition to Peng, the film’s ensemble cast includes Xin Zhilei (Crosscurrent) and Wang Yanlin (Operation Red Sea).

The Rescue is, to date, the largest Chinese film production set at sea. Many water scenes were filmed at Mexico’s Baja Studios facilities, which was first built in 1996 for James Cameron when he filmed his epic “Titanic.” The Rescue used the studios’ largest tank, which has...

The Rescue is the first film to showcase the China Rescue & Salvage (Crs), a lesser-known division of the Chinese Coast Guard. Founded in 1951, the unit is charged with responding to all maritime emergencies on Chinese waters, which range from shipwreck salvage missions to marine firefighting.

The film will hit theaters across the US December 18.

Boasting one of the biggest budgets ever for a Chinese film at $100 million, the stunt- and pyrotechnic-filled spectacle features an A-list Hollywood production team that includes Academy Award-winning cinematographer Peter Pau, production designer Martin Laing and special effects supervisor John Frazier. The film also stars major Chinese and Taiwanese talent, including Eddie Peng (“The Great Wall”), Wang Yanlin, Xin Zhilei, and Lan Yingying (“Pacific Rim Uprising”).

Check out the official trailer here:...

Mubi's series Ann Hui: Women Make the World is showing November 29 - December 31, 2020 in the United States.Ann Hui’s fascination with the late Eileen Chang is a story spanning four decades. Books by the revered Chinese writer had already served as inspiration for Hui’s 1984 Love in a Fallen City and her 1997 Eighteen Springs. In Love After Love, she summons Chang’s novella, “Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier”, to concoct a visually stunning, sprawling love story set in 1940s Hong Kong. At its center is Weilong (Ma Sichun), a Shanghainese student who’s left her family in hopes of continuing her education in Hong Kong. But money’s running out: as we first meet her, Weilong is tiptoeing inside the palatial villa owned by her estranged aunt Madame Liang (Faye Yu) to ask for help. Excommunicated from the family after she refused an arranged marriage, Madame Liang has...