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Asian cinema

Asian cinema
Views, news, and reviews of films from the continent's biggest movie production centres.
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Potatoes dry in the sun in Peru’s Sacred Valley. Photo: Shutterstock

Revealed: the ancient Andean secrets behind Peru’s vibrant potato varieties

With 90 microclimates, Peru is home to an astonishing array of unique ingredients. Its greatest treasure, however, is the humble potato, of which there are more than 4,000 native varieties. PostMag heads to the Andes and discovers a growing appreciation for the spud in its ancestral home.

Reading Time:7 minutes
Amahs in Hong Kong, in 1971. Many joined a family as a teenager and devoted the rest of their lives to serving that household. Picture: SCMP

Language Matters | Where Hong Kong got ‘amah’, old word for maidservant, from

Reading Time:2 minutes
The Charles K. Kao Auditorium, affectionately known as the “Golden Egg”, is the architectural centrepiece of the Hong Kong Science Park, in the New Territories. Photo: courtesy HKSTP

Hong Kong Science Park: Asia’s tech powerhouse celebrates 25 years

Reading Time:10 minutes
Tourists listen to a tour guide outside the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, northwestern Spain. Photo: AP

How to be a good tourist; a guide for the modern traveller

Reading Time:4 minutes
Cats returns to Hong Kong, putting a Cantonese twist on “The Moments of Happiness”. Photo: Nardus Engelbrecht

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats musical returns to Hong Kong, with a Cantonese twist

Reading Time:2 minutes
Louisa Lam (standing), one of the city’s 700 registered tour guides, introduces Hong Kong’s many attractions on a sightseeing bus, in 1973. Photo: SCMP Archives

In pictures: from film to smartphone – how Hong Kong has been photographed through the decades

Reading Time:1 minute
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Content from SCMP's Specialist Publications
Meru Nukumi in a still from The Last Song You Left Behind (category I, Japanese), directed by Takahiro Miki. Shunsuke Michieda co-stars.
Asian cinema: Japanese films

Review | The Last Song You Left Behind: Japanese teen romance plays a familiar tune

Shunsuke Michieda and Meru Nukumi star as classmates who slowly develop feelings for each other over an unusual musical collaboration.

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US-China relations

Can Chinese sleeper hit Dear You conquer the US box office next?

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Asian cinema: Chinese films

Review | I Know Who You Are: Hu Ge leads Chinese spy drama that falters at the finish

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Crime in Hong Kong

Man, 87, arrested after gravestone of film star Linda Lin Dai found vandalised

Marble altar at Lin’s Happy Valley grave found covered in cement, with police saying cemetery staff reported suspected vandalism.

Linda Lin’s grave at St Michael’s Catholic Cemetery in Happy Valley was previously found damaged. Photo: Edmond So
American cinema

Desk job to Jackie Chan stunts: martial artist Alfred Hsing’s rise in film

After leaving a financial career, the wushu champion became a fight coordinator, stuntman and actor working with some of film’s top stars.

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Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Profile | How Josie Ho rejected her billionaire heiress destiny for indie filmmaking

Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho’s eighth child has built her own legacy as a musician, award-winning actress and movie producer.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | Wakesurf Lovers: Jeffrey Ngai, Renci Yeung make a splash in uneven sports drama

Full of beautiful bodies but paper-thin characters, Fung Chih-chiang’s film about wakesurfing and cybershaming drifts nowhere in particular.

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Renci Yeung (left) and Jeffrey Ngai in a still from Wakesurf Lovers (category IIB, Cantonese), directed by Fung Chih-chiang.
Asian cinema: Chinese films

The Chinese Mulholland Drive? Why ‘so bad it’s good’ film Niu Lai is special

Initially mocked, the low-budget film by a first-time animator and his mum is now being hailed as a bastion of hard work and free expression.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How Ronny Yu and Jet Li made Fearless (2006) a martial arts masterpiece

Director Ronny Yu put Jet Li’s martial arts skills and acting chops to good use in this classic, blending superb fights and a human story.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | A Mighty Adventure: wordless animation by McDull director is breezy if flawed

Hong Kong director Toe Yuen’s film about insects surviving the city is a visual marvel, though dialogue would have made it more expressive.

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A still from A Mighty Adventure.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | The Dating Menu: a drifter chef looks to connect in wistful romantic drama

Lo Chun-yip plays a chef who tries out a dating app and cooks for four very different women as he tries to get over a previous relationship.

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Lo Chun-yip (left) and Crystal Cheung Man-ka in a still from The Dating Menu.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How ‘Siuyea’ Lo Chun-yip shed his indie director mindset to become a leading man

The ‘late bloomer’, who switched directing for acting in 2015, takes on his first main lead role with new film The Dating Menu.

K-drama news

Profile | Who is Kim Hye-jun, star of K-dramas A Shop for Killers and My Bias, My Boss?

Kim Hye-jun, who started in advertisements and on Saturday Night Live Korea, first dreamed of being a designer or a nurse, not an actress.

Asian cinema: Chinese films

Review | All Wishes Come True!: Chinese animation reinvents the Eight Immortals

This culturally authentic and wholly accessible origin story is a visually dazzling infusion of Chinese and Western storytelling conventions.

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A screen grab from from All Wishes Come True! from Pearl Studio, which also produced Kung Fu Panda 3 and Netflix’s Academy Award-nominated Over the Moon.
Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Profile | Alex To’s 40-year Cantopop legacy: R&B origins, comebacks, acting triumphs

The now 64-year-old Hong Kong-born singer and actor remains one of the industry’s most enduring and unpredictable figures.

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Alex To performs during the “2021 New Year Concert – Sailing in the Greater Bay Area” in Shenzhen in January 2021. Photo: Weibo
European cinema

How this British-Chinese filmmaker aims to build the Blumhouse of action

Inspired by John Woo and Chow Yun-fat, Chee Keong Cheung talks about his Action Xtreme studio and upcoming film Bad Day at the Office.

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American cinema

How did Snow Flower and the Secret Fan become such an ambitious failure?

Wayne Wang’s 2011 film blends past and present, but despite its ambition and talent, it struggled to resonate with audiences.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How Curry and Pepper showed Stephen Chow’s comedy genius before superstardom hit

The 1990 buddy cop film was released less than three months before All for the Winner turned Stephen Chow into a superstar in Hong Kong.

Jacky Cheung (left) and Stephen Chow in a still from Curry and Pepper (1990), a film that Chow starred in before his breakout role in the God of Gamblers spoof All for the Winner.
Asian cinema: Korean films

Review | Number One: Parasite stars reunite for food-themed family drama

Choi Woo-sik and Jang Hye-jin star as a pampered son and his doting mother who always cooks for him until tragedy strikes their family.

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Asian cinema: Chinese films

Review | Back to Love: the Teochew romance that led to smash hit Dear You

Exploring family dynamics and modernity in a heartfelt Teochew romance, Lan Hongchun’s Back to Love charms with its cultural themes.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

10 must-see movies and programmes at Hong Kong’s Summer IFF 2026

This year’s Cine Fan Summer International Film Festival boasts 37 features, from regional premieres to 4K restorations of Hong Kong classics.

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Hwang Jung-min in a still from Hope, one of our picks of features to catch at the 2026 Cine Fan Summer International Film Festival in Hong Kong.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

What makes the 1981 horror film The Imp such a terrifying cult classic?

Directed by Dennis Yu, The Imp blends elements of Western horror classics with Taoist beliefs to create a thoroughly modern shocker.

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Charlie Chin in a still from The Imp (1981), a unique, suspenseful Hong Kong horror film that avoids parody and embraces genuine scares.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Why Daniel Wu is swapping ‘broken’ Hollywood for Hong Kong films

Wu discusses his coming films including Cold War 1995 and the Twilight of the Warriors sequel, and how Hollywood has ‘dropped diversity’.

Art

Hong Kong artist channels Leslie Cheung film Farewell My Concubine for live show

Berlin-based Isaac Chong Wai’s all-male Hong Kong show An Intimate Surrender draws on the 1993 gender-fluid romance to explore vulnerability.

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Why Jacob Cheung’s Cageman and Intimates became his most memorable films

In Cageman, Cheung leaned on social observations and light drama. In lesbian romance Intimates, he focused on romance, not sexual passion.

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A still from the 1992 film Cageman.
Asian cinema: Japanese films

The appeal of Ghibli: why films like Totoro continue to find fans

The US-based Studio Ghibli Fest began in 2017 and, as Ghibli films continue to attract new fans of all ages, it keeps growing.

A scene from the 1988 film My Neighbour Totoro. Studio Ghibli films like Totoro and Spirited Away continue to captivate audiences even today. In the US, the annual Ghibli Fest has been running since 2017. Photo: GKids via AP
Hong Kong entertainment

Screen legend Patrick Tse saved my brother from drowning, woman recalls

Social media user pays tribute to the late actor, reveals how he came to her younger brother’s rescue.

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Asian cinema: Korean films

My Sassy Girl at 25: how Jun Ji-hyun’s star turn changed South Korean cinema

Jun Ji-hyun’s role as a brash young woman in the 2001 romcom subverted gender stereotypes, today inspiring actresses like Park Eun-bin.

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