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Asian cinema

Asian cinema
Views, news, and reviews of films from the continent's biggest movie production centres.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM
Visitors feel the weight of the Forbidden City as they step through its gates. Photo: Getty Images

Power behind the throne: why the Forbidden City was built to intimidate

How the stone, timber, symmetry and sheer size of a 600-year-old complex made Beijing’s imperial kingdom feel almost divine.

Reading Time:5 minutes
Sophia the singing robot and Johnny Poon, conductor and dean of creative arts at the Hong Kong Baptist University. Photo: Alexander Mak

Sophia the robot learns to sing as Hong Kong teaches androids the joys of music

Reading Time:7 minutes
Crabs are quickly sorted for size then steamed to lock in their freshness, in Tortosa, Negros Occidental, in the Philippines. Photo: Jocelyn Tam

Taste the Philippines: Bacolod’s slow-food ethos and sustainable future

Reading Time:8 minutes
The ancient temples of Angkor Wat provide a stunning backdrop for the Angkor Empire Marathon. Photo: Cambodia Tourism Board

Why Cambodia’s Angkor marathons are a big winner with runners from around the world

In partnership with:Cambodia Tourism Board
Reading Time:4 minutes
The grounds of the Sentosa Janda Baik resort are a riot of lotus leaves, statuesque traveller’s palms, coconut trees and fragrant frangipani. Photo: John Brunton

Escape KL’s bustle with a short trip to Janda Baik, a Malaysian eco-gem

Reading Time:7 minutes
Roganic, designed by Atelier E. Photo: courtesy Roganic

Meet the Hong Kong designers turning trash into treasure

Reading Time:7 minutes
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Content from SCMP's Specialist Publications
Fennie Yuen in a still from Pedicab Driver (1989).
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How Fennie Yuen went from Hong Kong teen idol to serious actress

A popular Hong Kong actress in the 1980s and 90s, Yuen started in teen comedies like the Happy Ghost films before pivoting to dramatic roles.

Singapore

‘Overwhelming’ demand sparks extra Teochew shows for Dear You in Singapore

Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Profile | Cantopop star, scandal, redemption: Andy Hui’s turbulent 40-year career

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Asian cinema: Chinese films

Review | Dear You: nostalgic Teochew family drama is a surprise box office hit in China

Lan Hongchun’s film on love, loyalty and immigrant struggles is a sensation in China, with lead Li Sitong giving a career-making performance.

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Li Sitong as the young Nanzhi in a still from Dear You (category IIA, Teochew), directed by Lan Hongchun. Wang Yantong and Wu Shaoqing co-star.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | Palimpsest: The Story of a Name – Mary Stephen’s riveting study of identity

Hong Kong-born director Mary Stephen’s documentary explores her obscure heritage against a background of colonialism and self-reinvention.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | Dog Day Evening: Kafkaesque comedy reflects on a Hong Kong hostage incident

Inspired by a true story, Dog Day Evening explores the often infuriating world of customer hotlines and service cancellations.

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Singapore

Lost in translation? Singapore wants Dear You film mostly in Mandarin, not Teochew

Linguists and the local Teochew community say watching the hit Chinese film in its original form can help sustain cultural diversity.

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

Why Hirokazu Koreeda paired Haruka Ayase and a TV comic in Sheep in the Box

A-lister Haruka Ayase and television comic Daigo Yamamoto star as a grieving couple confronting an AI ‘resurrection’ in Sheep in the Box.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How Pang Ho-cheung’s early black comedies disrupted Hong Kong cinema

The writer-director’s You Shoot, I Shoot (2001) and Men Suddenly in Black (2003) injected a dose of dark satire into a waning local industry.

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K-drama news

Profile | Meet Park Ji-hyun, star of Flex X Cop and See You at Work Tomorrow!

After making a late start in acting, Park quickly rose to the top playing layered characters in K-dramas from Yumi’s Cells to Reborn Rich.

Park Ji-hyun in a still from Wild Sing (2026). The Korean actress broke into the acting industry relatively late in life, but then quickly became a household name known for her depth and versatility. She will star in the upcoming drama series See You at Work Tomorrow! on Prime Video.
Hong Kong society

Paul Chan praises blockbuster film about Teochew community during local premiere

Hong Kong’s finance chief, who is of Teochew descent, applauds Dear You for moving depiction of characters’ deep-rooted sense of home, kinship.

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Paul Chan (centre) at the film premiere of “Dear You”. Photo: Dickson Lee
American cinema

When RZA cut his teeth as a kung fu director in The Man with the Iron Fists

The Wu-Tang Clan leader’s directorial debut with Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu was an ambitious ode to the martial arts films he grew up loving.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Hong Kong animations are finally turning heads. Meet the artists behind them

Hong Kong animators making waves at global festivals talk about growing the city’s niche but resilient industry and the challenges they face.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | Beyond Hostage Crisis: Manila tragedy spawns misguided faith-based movie

This dramatisation of the 2010 Manila hostage crisis, in which eight Hongkongers died, fails to explore the tragedy in any depth.

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A still from Beyond Hostage Crisis (category IIB, Cantonese, English), directed by Tony Leung Hung and starring Chris Tong (first from right) and Zhang Yaodong (second from right). Sahronizam Noor and Fish Liew co-star.
Law

Legal Tales | ‘We’re Nothing At All’: why Hongkongers must avoid collective apathy

Charity screening of Herman Yau’s latest film sparks reflection on marginalisation, justice and social responsibility in Hong Kong.

A still from the film “We’re Nothing At All” directed by Herman Yau. Photo: Golden Scene
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | The Furious: an instant classic if you like gory, bone-crunching violence

Generic, unfunny and emotionally hollow, The Furious will nevertheless delight those who simply want to watch people getting slaughtered.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How the Young and Dangerous films of the 1990s made triad gangsters sexy

As Young and Dangerous turns 30, we look back at the six-film series that marked a shift in how gangsters were portrayed.

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Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Profile | How Hong Kong wuxia ‘princess’ Michelle Yim has kept shining for 55 years

After her wuxia TV roles wowed viewers across Asia in the 1970s, Yim moved to movies and plays. Now 70, she will hold her first solo concert.

Michelle Yim has enjoyed a prolific career in television, movies and on stage, and recently announced her first solo music concerts, which will take place in June 2026. Photo: Instagram/mixue_michelleyim
Fame and celebrity

Bridgerton’s Katie Leung on her love of Hong Kong film stars and motherhood

In an interview with Style at Hong Kong’s first Comic Con, the actress speaks about representation and being at peace with herself.

American cinema

The rise of liminal space horror movies like Backrooms and Exit 8

Box-office hit Backrooms highlights a growing obsession with eerie liminal spaces like hallways, alleyways and empty shopping centres.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How Sharla Cheung excelled next to Stephen Chow in 1990s Hong Kong cinema

Sharla Cheung Man’s cool glamour and movie-star looks were a feature of 1990s Hong Kong cinema. Here are some of her best films.

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Sharla Cheung Man in a still from the Ming dynasty wuxia drama Swordsman (1990). Photo: Fortune Star Media
China’s Communist Party

Actress Lin Chi-ling quits Taiwan culture board amid backlash

Lin withdrew from the board of the Taiwan Creative Content Agency after backlash from the island’s arts community and Beijing.

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Actress and model Lin Chi-ling at a jewellery promotion event in 2023 in Taipei. Photo: VCG via Getty Images
India

Reel politik: India tells filmmakers to drop ‘China-bashing’ as ties warm

India’s diplomatic thaw with China is causing films about the 2020 Galwan Valley clash to be retitled, reshot or shelved entirely.

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Asian cinema: Chinese films

Review | Unexpected Courage: Rene Liu’s mid-40s career woman risks life over pregnancy

Rene Liu stars as a woman whose successful career is put on hold when she continues a risky pregnancy in this poorly conceived drama.

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ByteDance

ByteDance AI films shake up Cannes as TikTok owner challenges Hollywood norms

A new cinematic tool, Seedance 2.0, can generate feature-length movies for a fraction of traditional costs.

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In this photo illustration, the logo of ByteDance’s AI video model, Seedance 2.0, is displayed on a smartphone screen in China’s Jiangsu province. Illustration: Getty Images
European cinema

Best movies from the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, from Fjord to Minotaur

The 2026 Cannes Film Festival may have lacked its usual blockbusters, but that gave indie films more exposure. Here are 10 of the best.

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Virginie Efira in a still from All of a Sudden – one of the highlights of the Cannes Film Festival – directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

The best car stunts in Hong Kong cinema: Police Story, Initial D and more

The most famous car stunt in Hong Kong movie history, and one that made its stuntman instantly famous, feature on our list of the best.

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Asian cinema: Japanese films

Review | The Samurai and the Prisoner: Kiyoshi Kurosawa back with feudal-era thriller

The veteran Japanese director’s new film with Masahiro Motoki as a besieged warlord is an intelligent, captivating spin on the samurai genre.

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