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Matt Glasby
SCMP Contributor
Matt Glasby is a UK-based critic and author. His latest work, The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film, is an in-depth, illustrated guide to the scariest movies ever made.
Matt Glasby is a UK-based critic and author. His latest work, The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film, is an in-depth, illustrated guide to the scariest movies ever made.
Soursweet (1988), about a Hong Kong family’s UK struggles, was a progressive film, despite the narrative controlled by its British makers.
Unbreakable, starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, was not a hit at the box office upon release, but is now considered a masterpiece.
Peter Wang’s 1986 comedy-drama A Great Wall, which was filmed in San Francisco and Beijing, was better received in the US than in China.
It bombed upon release, but this 1995 sci-fi with Ralph Fiennes offers a vivid portrait of contemporary society, and some prescient warnings.
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Also the first UK film made by a director of Chinese descent, Leong Po-chih’s Ping Pong flopped upon release but is being rediscovered.
David Fincher’s bleak, gruesome 1995 film starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman has inspired the feel of many serial killer flicks since.
Kiss of the Dragon was a box office success in 2001, but its racial stereotyping, violence and sexual frankness caused it problems in China.
Herzog injected himself into the grizzly story of bear ‘protector’ Timothy Treadwell’s death in one of the best documentaries of its type.
The Hong Kong director’s segment from the three-part erotic anthology Eros outshone those by Steven Soderbergh and Michelangelo Antonioni.
Kevin Costner’s unappealing anti-hero and bad writing were only some of the problems this expensive box-office failure had to contend with.
In Wayne Wang’s 1997 drama, the many sides of a city on the brink of change were shown through the camcorder of Jeremy Irons’ English writer.
With its gritty realism and complex themes, Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins helped turn superhero films into a dominant cinema genre.
Radiohead songs, visual poetry and Shawn Yue and Josh Hartnett in Vietnamese-French director’s art-house thriller shot mostly in Hong Kong.
As the Star Wars sequel turns 45 we look at how it bolstered the franchise with its epic fights and plot twist and why it wasn’t fun to make.
Rated 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, 2018 film Air Strike with Bruce Willis, Liu Ye and Fan Wei is a mishmash of genres and underwhelming action.
Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington play officers at odds aboard a US submarine in a countdown to nuclear Armageddon in Tony Scott’s film.
This 2018 co-production starring Li Bingbing about deadly spiders in China was poorly made and scripted, earning well below its budget.
Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez’s film still looks incredible, with a stellar cast including Jessica Alba, Bruce Willis and Clive Owen.
The film tells the story of the Japanese massacre of Chinese civilians through the eyes of ‘good’ Nazi John Rabe.
Fans of trash cinema love Tank Girl, but mainstream audiences did not when it hit cinemas 30 years ago despite a cast including Iggy Pop.
Starring Johnny Hallyday, Anthony Wong, Lam Ka-tung and Lam Suet, the 2009 Hong Kong-France co-production brought the best out of both sides.
Starring Reeves, Shia LaBeouf and Tilda Swinton, 2005 film was initially poorly received but has gained popularity over the past 20 years.
It won three Oscars but the clunky 1955 movie casts Caucasians as Eurasians, features yellowface and had two leads who hated each other.
Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy star in this 1995 tale of strangers who meet on a train and spend a romantic evening in Vienna.
The Wachowkis and Tom Tykwer’s adaptation of David Mitchell’s novel was a box-office flop everywhere except China, despite a starry cast.
The Godfather Part II delves deeper into the history of the Mafia family at its heart. 50 years on from its making it remains a masterpiece.
Despite a cast that included Depp, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy and Rebecca Hall, sci-fi film pitched at China tanked at the box office.
Wes Craven’s 1984 horror classic that introduced us to Freddy Krueger was inspired by an article about Asian Death Syndrome.
Chan was so unhappy with his role as a cold-blooded killer in the James Glickenhaus-directed film he asked for a new version for Hong Kong.
