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Asian cinema: Chinese films
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  • When Jimmy Wang Yu took on the leading role in Brian Trenchard-Smith’s film The Man from Hong Kong in 1975, the martial arts actor’s star was waning in Asia
  • Wang, long jealous of Bruce Lee, hoped the Bond-like film would propel his career to new heights – but, despite positive reviews, it did not click with viewers
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A migrant from China to Hong Kong (Raymond Lam) winds up in the Kowloon Walled City, where he befriends mobsters, in Soi Cheang’s lavishly funded yet edgy film, a spectacle let down by its storytelling.

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Starring Patra Au, Tai Bo and Leung Chung-hang, director Ray Yeung’s LGBTQ drama All Shall Be Well sees an elderly Hong Kong lesbian at risk of losing everything after her partner suddenly dies.

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In her first feature-length documentary, New York-based Zhao Yehui captures the story of four generations of her family, set against a backdrop of hardship high in the mountains of Shanxi province.

Hold You Tight and Lan Yu were daring films for their time. The first stars Chingmy Yau, then an actress in adults-only films, as a bored wife who has an affair, while the latter is a stylish gay drama.

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Donna Ong’s documentary examines cinema and Hong Kong history from the 1950s onwards through the eyes of a titan of the cultural scene. Fascinating and packed with archive material, it is narrated by Law.

A look at Ekin Cheng’s journey from actor and Cantopop star to husband to actress Yoyo Mung – and the public romances that made him a tabloid magnet and drew public criticism.

Director Sam Wong has tried to pack too much into Suspect, and the result is an incoherent mess. Playing a detective with unusual powers, Nick Cheung endures some frankly stupid set pieces.

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Golden Horse Awards winner Old Fox depicts Taiwan after the end of martial law, a time of rapid change. Director Hsiao Ya-chuan hopes its message resonates today as it did in the era in which it is set.

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In 1998, Rush Hour shot Jackie Chan to international fame. But after making the film with Chris Tucker, Chan ultimately decided not to abandon Hong Kong, and continued to make films in both places.

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As two Hong Kong films premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, we look back at the city’s cinema history at the event, including Wong Kar-wai’s many hits and Johnnie To’s successes in the 2000s.

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Christopher Nolan references and a love triangle don’t save Chinese drama Galaxy Writer, which follows two fledgling filmmakers navigating China’s commercialised movie industry.

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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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Martial arts film icon and the 2024 Hong Kong Film Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Sammo Hung talks about his movies, stars like Donnie Yen, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan – and eating.

Sandra Ng Kwan-yue, now a respected Hong Kong actress and producer, started out playing minor, unattractive roles in the 1980s. But through hard work and humility, she carved a path to success.

The same five titles dominate the nominations in all major categories of the Hong Kong Film Awards 2024. Post film editor Edmund Lee predicts the winners and reflects on who or what actually should win.

Writer and director Sasha Chuk stars in her debut film Fly Me to the Moon, which follows a young immigrant from mainland China as she struggles to live life in Hong Kong.

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Hong Kong actor and director Wu Ma had a prolific career in front of and behind the camera. His best film, The Dead and the Deadly, showed the formula for success.

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The big mystery about this suspense drama is how a film with such a promising scenario – a star-crossed romance, identity swap and cold-blooded murder – can turn out so dull, nonsensical and awful.

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Michihito Fujii’s 18×2 Beyond Youthful Days simple tale of a young Taiwanese man exploring his first love’s homeland, Japan, proves surprisingly effective – despite its needlessly clumsy title.

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The first two Ip Man movies, directed by Wilson Yip, use old-school kung fu, nationalism and fabrications to make the eponymous martial artist, and the actor who plays him, Donnie Yen, household names.

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Nicholas Tse, the son of actor Patrick Tse Yin and actress Deborah Lee, has not just had a successful singing and acting career, he also founded a restaurant chain and a post-production company.

A heist movie that looks like it was dreamed up by a five-year-old, We 12, starring all the members of Cantopop boy band Mirror, is witless, lifeless and above all dull. For true fans only.

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From Martin Scorsese as Vincent van Gogh in Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, to Kenji Sawada-led Yumeji and The Pillow Book by Peter Greenaway, 10 of the best films made in Asia about artists and their art.

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At the start of his career, Asian-American director Wayne Wang worked in his native Hong Kong and the United States, growing as a filmmaker, before shooting his first big hit, The Joy Luck Club.

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Chinese filmmaker and painter Yang Fudong explains the premise of his latest film, showing on the giant M+ facade, and why ‘abundant’ Hong Kong makes it the ideal city in which to shoot artistic movies.

Overweight thirty-something Leying, played by Jia Ling, takes up boxing to turn her life around in Yolo, which Jia wrote and directs. However, the emotional punch of the Japanese original is largely missing.

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Our pick of the 200 films being shown at the festival includes Korean mega hit Exhuma, 2024 Berlin best film winner Dahomey, and all the movies of The Banshees of Inisherin director Martin McDonagh.

The 41-year-old embarked on her professional journey as a humble cross-talk performer and comedic actress who struggled to make ends meet in Beijing 20 years ago.

Three hidden gems of Hong Kong action cinema, To’s judo film Throw Down, Lau’s kung fu comedy and Lam’s relationship drama within a crime story should be on the radar of any serious fan of the action genre.

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