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Asian cinema

Asian cinema
Views, news, and reviews of films from the continent's biggest movie production centres.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM
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

As Hong Kong’s premier science and technology ecosystem marks its silver jubilee, PostMag revisits the legacy of connection and invention that sustained 25 years of innovation, and meets the leaders driving the vision for the institution’s next chapter.

Reading Time:10 minutes
Matt Richardson, founder and managing director of Big Top Hospitality, spent two weeks in Dublin, Ireland, mastering the art of the perfect Guinness pour, ahead of the opening of The Boar. Photo: Alexander Mak

Exclusive: The Boar brings British pub vibes to Hong Kong’s Elgin Street

Reading Time:4 minutes
Nancy Kwan in 1969. Photo: SCMP Archives

Nancy Kwan’s enduring legacy – interview

Reading Time:8 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
Cordelia Chung, chairman of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, photographed in front of the Charles K. Kao Auditorium, in Hong Kong Science Park, in the New Territories. Photo: Alexander Mak

This week in PostMag: legacies from Hong Kong to Hollywood and beyond

Reading Time:2 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
MORE IN POSTMAG
Content from SCMP's Specialist Publications
Rodney Hicks in a still from Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?, directed by Shinya Tsukamoto. Geoffrey Rush, Mark Merphy and Tatyana Ali co-star.
Asian cinema: Japanese films

Review | Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? is a striking portrait of Vietnam war trauma

The Vietnam war drama, in competition at the Venice Film Festival, explores trauma, redemption through a US Marine’s true-life journey.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

The wild days of Hong Kong’s Category III era: when sex and gore went mainstream

Asian cinema: Japanese films

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

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US-China relations

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

After grossing nearly US$300 million in mainland China, its North American release will test its popularity beyond Chinese-speaking diaspora.

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A still from Dear You, the hit Chinese film shot in southern Teochew dialect. Photo: Handout
Asian cinema: Chinese films

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

Feng Xiaogang’s drama set during the early years of the People’s Republic of China entertains but is let down by an unsatisfying ending.

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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.

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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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Martial arts choreographer, actor and stuntman Alfred Hsing (left) worked as a member of Jackie Chan’s stunt team on the 2015 historical epic Dragon Blade. The California-raised wushu expert has also shared the screen with some of the world’s biggest movie stars, from Michelle Yeoh to Jet Li. Photo: Courtesy of Alfred Hsing
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.

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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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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A still from Niu Lai, a Chinese micro-budget animated feature by Xin Yumeng and Sun Lifang. Met with memes and widespread mockery upon its release on August 5, 2026, the movie has since become a must-see box-office hit that has made millions. Photo: courtesy of Dalian Jingyuan Culture Film and Television Media
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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Jet Li in a still from Fearless, the acclaimed 2006 martial arts film directed by Ronny Yu. Photo: SCMP
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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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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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.

Hong Kong actor and filmmaker Lo Chun-yip, also known as Siuyea, at an interview with the SCMP at the Golden Scene office in Jordan. Photo: SCMP/Jonathan Wong
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.

Kim Hye-jun in a still from A Shop for Killers season two. Photo: Disney+
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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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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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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Filmmaker Chee Keong Cheung on the set of one of his films. Cheung founded the UK’s first action-oriented film studio, Action Xtreme, while his new feature, Bad Day at the Office, will have its world premiere on August 13 at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
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.

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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Jang Hye-jin (left) and Choi Woo-sik in a still from Number One.
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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(From left) Lu Shan, Zheng Runqi and Zhong Shaoxian in a still from Back to Love.
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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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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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’.

Daniel Wu is pictured at the New York Asian Film Festival 2026. Wu is making his Hong Kong comeback as he loses optimism in a Hollywood system that feels as if it has “dropped diversity altogether”. Photo: Chris Kammerud
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.

A scene from Isaac Chong Wai’s An Intimate Surrender, running at Hong Kong’s Tai Kwun Contemporary until August 9. The live-art show draws heavily on the 1993 movie Farewell My Concubine starring Leslie Cheung to explore intimacy and collective vulnerability through movement. Photo: courtesy of Tai Kwun
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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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.

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