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Asian cinema

Asian cinema
Views, news, and reviews of films from the continent's biggest movie production centres.
last updated:
9 September, 2024
HIGHLIGHTS FROM
ComplexCon Hong Kong 2025 unveils a star-studded music lineup featuring headliners Metro Boomin and Zico. Photo: ComplexCon

ComplexCon Hong Kong announces Metro Boomin and Zico as 2025 headliners

A meeting of American and Asian hip-hop, the concerts also feature Quavo, Hong Kong favs MC Jin and Jace, and South Korea’s Changmo and B.I.

Reading Time:2 minutes
The interior of a typical farmer’s residence in Kuk Po, Hong Kong. Photo: Handout

An abandoned village is brought to life in this debut Hong Kong festival

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Surf’s up: seasoned surfers flock to the famous Cloud 9 surf spot on Siargao Island in the Philippines. Photo: Getty Images

8 Asian surfing spots to ride the waves, from Phuket to Sri Lanka

Reading Time:3 minutes
Hong Kong Cantopop singer and actress Anita Mui wore a wedding gown at one of her last concerts in Hong Kong in November 2003. She died the following month on December 30. Photo: Reuters

When Hong Kong lost Cantopop superstar Anita Mui

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Tilda Swinton hits Hong Kong to make the case for film preservation and praise the magic of old cinema. Photo: Courtesy of Chanel

Tilda Swinton brings star power to a conversation on classic Hong Kong films

Reading Time:5 minutes
Diversity Hub, a multifunctional space in Chungking Mansions in Hong Kong run by Christian Charity, includes glass panels that can be used to create distinct rooms such as a kitchen and exhibition area. Photo: Jocelyn Tam

How a run-down flat in Hong Kong’s Chungking Mansions became a Diversity Hub

Reading Time:3 minutes
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Content from SCMP's Specialist Publications
Song hye-kyo as Sister Junia in a still from Dark Nuns.
Asian cinema: Korean films

Why Dark Nuns actress Song Hye-kyo is taking on darker roles

Back on screen in Dark Nuns, movie about nuns saving a boy who is possessed, Korean actress says The Glory reignited her passion for acting.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Martial arts maestro’s 36th Chamber of Shaolin sequels a mixed bag

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

The Hong Kong films released in 2024, ranked from worst to best

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

The 12 best Asian films of 2024, including The Last Dance

From a Thai tear-jerker to a Korean cross-dressing romcom and a hand-drawn Japanese anime, our pick of the best Asian films of the past year.

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Michael Hui in a still from The Last Dance.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How the Erotic Ghost Story films shocked and seduced Hong Kong

The trio of 1990s adult movies with Hong Kong sex symbols like Amy Yip and Japanese adult-video actresses like Kudo Hitomi were a huge hit.

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Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Profile | Takeshi Kaneshiro, Hong Kong cinema’s ‘most good-looking’ actor

Takeshi Kaneshiro, who debuted as a singer in Taiwan in 1992, has not appeared on the big screen since 2017, has no official social media and no one knows where he lives but he remains as popular as ever.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Hong Kong’s Category III adult film industry laid bare in 2 films

Viva Erotica (1996) and Vulgaria (2012) are two contrasting Category III satirical films that reveal a different side of Hong Kong’s once-famed, often crazy adult movie industry.

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Shu Qi in a still from Viva Erotica.
Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Profile | How Gillian Chung has risen above the Edison Chen photo scandal to thrive

Gillian Chung, one half of Hong Kong Cantopop duo Twins, is thriving as a singer and actress, but the road to success – marred by a scandal involving intimate photos – has not been an easy one.

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

8 classic Hong Kong movies that influenced filmmaking in the city

Hong Kong filmmaking underwent successive evolutions thanks to films like Fist of Fury, Infernal Affairs and John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow.

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The Philippines

‘Bombas’: the Philippine sex films whose stars were household names

Cheaply made and with female characters who were either predators or victims, bombas thrived despite Catholic Church opposition; they also often represented the hardships of everyday life for Filipinos under the Marcos dictatorship.

Filipino “bomba” movie star Pepsi Paloma strikes a pose.
Asian cinema: Japanese films

Review | Living in Two Worlds: obnoxious teen turns back on deaf parents

Where Oscar winner CODA was warm-hearted, Mipo O’s film makes its child of deaf parents in Japan so unsympathetic he is hard to root for.

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Ryo Yoshizawa as Dai, a child of deaf parents in rural Japan, in a still from Living in Two Worlds (category IIA; Japanese). Akiko Oshidari and Akito Imai co-star, while Mipo O directs.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

From Initial D to Sausalito, 5 films that show director Andrew Lau’s range

Known for the Infernal Affairs trilogy and Young and Dangerous films, Andrew Lau’s output is wide-ranging. We recall some lesser known films.

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Asian cinema: Korean films

Review | Dark Nuns: Korean exorcism horror with Song Hye-kyo, Jeon Yeo-been

Two nuns resort to extreme measures, including exorcism, to save the life of a possessed boy, and in the process defy their church superiors.

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Asian cinema: Japanese films

Review | Cells at Work!, live-action manga adaptation about body’s workings

Actors depict red and white blood cells in Hideki Takeuchi’s laugh-out-loud movie about how the human body battles cancer and loose bowels.

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Takeru Satoh (left) and Mei Nagano in a still from Cells at Work!.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | Ha Ha Ha Happy New Year: Philip Keung hams it up for bizarre comedy

Is it a sci-fi suspense thriller? A nonsense comedy? A family melodrama? Hong Kong-Malaysia co-production’s script so weak it’s hard to say.

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Philip Keung Ho-man (left) and Jessica Hsuan in a still from Ha Ha Ha Happy New Year.
Lunar New Year

China’s box office riding Lunar New Year wave to record Spring Festival haul

Ne Zha 2 and Detective Chinatown 1900 lead the way as billions of yuan in cinema receipts bode well for an industry still looking to bounce back to pre-pandemic numbers.

Fame and celebrity

Obituary | The rise of Meteor Garden star Barbie Hsu, dead at 48

Popularly known as ‘Big S’, Barbie Hsu began her career in 1994 in the pop duo SOS before starring in a number of films and TV series.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

3 of the best Chinese wuxia films made in the 21st century

Sword-fighting films were popular in the 1960s and 1990s. Tsui Hark and Derek Yee were among directors who reinvented the genre this century.

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Lin Gengxin as Third Master in a still from Sword Master. Photo: Bona Film Group
Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Profile | Meet Gordon Lam Ka-tung, a movie star decades in the making

An actor who grew up poor and had to wait decades for his first film awards, Gordon Lam has risen steadily to the top of Hong Kong cinema.

Asian cinema: Chinese films

Review | In Chinese fantasy Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force a star is born

Wuershan’s rollicking fantasy adventure sequel to his Creation of the Gods has an expanded role for Nashi, and the actress is a revelation.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | Queen of Mahjong: Wong Jing, Patrick Kong join forces on tasteless comedy

Sultans of sexism deliver a torrent of tasteless trash interspersed with shows of skill at the mahjong table. Decent human beings beware.

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Kenneth Ma and Samantha Ko in a still from Queen of Mahjong.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | Hit N Fun, warm-hearted boxing drama by Rob N Roll filmmaker

Albert Mak is back with bittersweet tale of a high-flyer, a washed-up actress and a failing gym boss forced to rethink their purpose in life.

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Chrissie Chau (left) and Louise Wong in a still from Hit N Fun.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | In My Best Bet, Charlene Choi and Louis Cheung battle gambling addiction

A man with an aversion to gamblers marries a gambling addict in Andy Lo’s comedy. The writer-director shows a gift for nonsensical humour.

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American cinema

Why Hong Kong-set Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing is plain offensive

It won three Oscars but the clunky 1955 movie casts Caucasians as Eurasians, features yellowface and had two leads who hated each other.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

10 best Golden Princess films, including John Woo and Tsui Hark classics

A library of Hong Kong films, including the likes of A Chinese Ghost Story and Hard Boiled, has been bought – good news for fans overseas.

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Chow Yun-fat in a still from A Better Tomorrow (1986). Photo: Cinema City & Films
Asian cinema: Japanese films

Review | Happyend: dystopian surveillance in chilling Japanese high school drama

The debut feature from Japanese-American director Neo Sora, Happyend is a deft cocktail of teen angst and invasive technology.

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Hayato Kurihara (left) and Yukito Hidaka in a still from Happyend.
Hong Kong

How Hong Kong director Ray Yeung is changing LGBTQ representation in Asian film

The writer and filmmaker on his struggles, successes, failures, funding for LGBTQ movies and coming home to Hong Kong.

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How Swordsman, Tsui Hark’s wuxia film, started a new fantasy era

Tsui Hark’s 1990 Hong Kong film Swordsman was a long and rambling affair that was difficult to follow, yet it was a resounding success.

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Asian cinema: Korean films

Review | K-Family Affairs: how a family endured 30 years of Korean political turmoil

Nam A-rum’s documentary is an intimate study of her family, her civil servant father and former activist mother, told through home movies.

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A still from K-Family Affairs.
A still from K-Family Affairs.
Asian cinema: Japanese films

Explainer | All you need to know before watching Attack on Titan: The Last Attack

As the finale of Hajime Isayama’s anime series opens in Hong Kong, a reminder of its plot, the controversies and why it is special.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Twilight of the Warriors named the best Hong Kong film of 2024 by critics

Director Soi Cheang Pou-soi scores third win in four years for martial arts drama set in Kowloon Walled City; Papa wins two major awards.

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Sammo Hung plays his and Jackie Chan’s schoolmaster in Painted Faces

1988 Hong Kong film follows Yu Jim-yuen, the master of the Peking opera school in Kowloon whose pupils included Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.

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Lam Ching-ying and Sammo Hung in a still from Painted Faces. Photo: Celestial Pictures
Hong Kong cinema

Can Hong Kong films top the successes of 2024 this year?

Academic Kenny Ng believes industry can continue to reinvent itself and build on momentum to produce wave of ‘human-centric’ films.

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Actors Louis Koo (left) and Raymond Lam Fung in Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In. Photo: Handout
Actors Louis Koo (left) and Raymond Lam Fung in Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In. Photo: Handout
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Why 2024 was a good year for Hong Kong’s film industry

Talented fresh directors and a need to experience ‘cathartic’ moments drove Hong Kong films to success in 2024

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | Remember What I Forgot: nostalgic tale of a Hong Kong cinema geek

Philip Keung and Fish Liew star in Keian Chui’s directorial debut that indulges the audience with memories of Hong Kong cinema.

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Asian cinema: Korean films

Exhuma, Twilight of the Warriors lead Asian Film Awards nominations

Both movies are up for best picture at the 18th Asian Film Awards, as are All We Imagine as Light, Black Dog and Teki Cometh.

Louis Koo Tin-lok (front) in a still from Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In.
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