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The pandemic hit Hong Kong cinemas hard. But the Cinema Day promotion offers a walk down memory lane.
The separate recognition of two of the city’s biggest screen stars – Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung – at major international film festivals should inspire a new generation of creative talent.
Hong Kong used to be a global player in the television, film and music sectors but the shine has worn off in the past couple of decades; now is the time for a reboot.
Censors are now allowed to decide whether films breach so-called red lines, but the rules remain murky to many.
- Hollywood doesn’t have a monopoly on hellscapes. From Hayao Miyazaki to Bong Joon-ho and Louis Koo, Asian filmmakers have delivered post-apocalyptic hits
- Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira offers a towering vision of a dystopian future, and Shinsuke Sato’s I Am a Hero revived the zombie feature ahead of Train to Busan
Star of category III soft porn films such as Erotic Ghost Story and Sex and Zen, Amy Yip talks about her time in Hong Kong’s adult movie industry, the ‘Yip tease’, and thoughts of acting again.
Infernal Affairs, the 2002 psychological Hong Kong cop drama starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Andy Lau, was a box-office hit, but proved a hard act to follow when the studio asked for two more films.
With Lydia Sum ‘everything came from the heart’, said the TV producer who turbocharged the career of the comedian and actress. Known as Fei Fei, she is remembered for the joy she brought audiences.
In 1975’s The Man from Hong Kong, Jimmy Wang Yu thought he had found the vehicle that would propel him to Bruce Lee-level international fame – but the James Bond-like film did not click with viewers.
The list of 19 Medal of Freedom honorees pays homage to ‘firsts’ in their field, including the Everything Everywhere All at Once star, the first Asian to win the Oscar for Best Actress.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sixty-three cinemas across city selling tickets at HK$30 each for second annual day offering big discounts.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Budding filmmakers take note. A government funding scheme aims to return Hong Kong cinema to its rightful place on the world stage, by encouraging collaborations with European and Asian filmmakers.
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.
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.
