10 highlights from Hong Kong Asian Film Festival 2021, from Anita Mui biopic to Haruki Murakami adaptation Drive My Car
- The most anticipated Hong Kong film is the biopic of Canto-pop diva Anita Mui, starring Louise Wong, Louis Koo Tin-lok and Lam Ka-tung
- Emily Chan’s romance Madalena, led by Chrissie Chau and Louis Cheung, paints gambling mecca Macau in a totally different light
At a time when the future of the local film industry has never looked bleaker, this year’s Hong Kong Asian Film Festival has chosen to champion a number of emerging young voices, giving their work prestige spots as opening and closing films, as well as gala presentations.
Elsewhere, the festival highlights the very best new cinema from across the region, and collaborates with Japan’s Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in its efforts to provide a stage for increasingly diverse works and talents.
Below are our 10 highlights from the programme that you won’t want to miss.
1. Anita
Easily the year’s most highly anticipated Hong Kong film is Longman Leung Lok-man’s biopic of Canto-pop diva Anita Mui Yim-fong, starring the largely unproven model-turned-actress Louise Wong as the “daughter of Hong Kong”.
Boasting a star-studded supporting cast that includes Louis Koo Tin-lok and Lam Ka-tung, Anita traces the meteoric rise and tumultuous romances of one of the city’s most beloved pop culture icons, who died from cervical cancer in 2003, aged just 40.
The festival will also be honouring Mui’s impressive onscreen legacy, with screenings of two of her best films, Kawashima Yoshiko (1990) and Midnight Fly (2001).
2. Madalena
