News

The issue of the Vietnamese boat people, refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, and the subsequent humanitarian crisis their massive exodus resulted in, is one of the most shocking and significant events of the previous century, with Ann Hui having already presented their plights masterfully in the homonymous movie. Han Tram presents his take through an approach that follows his protagonists until their arrival to America, where they have to face a whole other set of issues. Han Tram wrote, directed and edited “Journey from the Fall” in an effort that was entirely financed by the Vietnamese American community and was released to sold-out screenings in the country before winning a number of awards in festivals all over the world, including the Grand Jury Prize at the San Diego Asian Film Festival.

Buy This Title

by clicking on the image...

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light was named best film at 18th Asian Film Awards on Sunday evening (March 16).

The Indian filmmaker attended the ceremony in Hong Kong and accepted the award from filmmaker, martial arts star and Afa jury president Sammo Hung.

Scroll down for full list of winners

It marked nearly 10 months since Kapadia became the first Indian filmmaker to win the Grand Prix at Cannes, where the film was the first Indian feature to play in Competition at the festival for 30 years.

“I’m so happy that we could end our journey here in Hong Kong,...

Japanese actor Koji Yakusho, known for his critically acclaimed performances in films such as Perfect Days and Shall We Dance?, is to receive the lifetime achievement honour at the 18th Asian Film Awards.

The veteran performer will accept the award at the ceremony in Hong Kong on March 16. As part of a schedule of events associated with the awards, he will attend a screening of Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days on March 15. Yakusho’s role in the film, as a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo, won him the best actor award at Cannes in 2023 and the same honour at last year...

Korean screen icon Jang Dong-gun and acclaimed Chinese actor Tang Wei will be honored with the Excellence in Asian Cinema Award at the upcoming 18th Asian Film Awards.

Jang, a leading figure in the Korean Wave (“Hallyu”) with a career spanning three decades, said: “It is a tremendous honor to receive this award, and I sincerely thank the Asian Film Awards for this recognition. Having my three-decade acting career acknowledged is deeply meaningful and inspires me to keep going.”

The actor, who debuted in 1992 with “Son and Daughter” before skyrocketing to fame with “The Last Match,” reflected on Hong Kong cinema’s influence on his development. “I can’t talk about my growth without mentioning Hong Kong films. The first movie I ever watched in a theatre was Jackie Chan’s ‘Drunken Master,'” Jang said, calling the 1980s “a golden age that still resonates with me today.”

His filmography...

Beijing born Hu Jin Quan, better known as King Hu, worked as an actor, scriptwriter, set decorator and assistant director after joining the Shaw Brothers Studio in 1958. Hu slowly worked his way up as the director of “Sons of the Good Earth” (1965) under the influence of director Li Han Hsiang. Besides launching the film career of its star Cheng Pei Pei, Hu’s highly acclaimed wuxia film “Come Drink with Me” (1966) would put him on the world map. After leaving Shaw, he directed “Dragon Inn” (1967) in Taiwan which became a phenomenal cult classic in Southeast Asia.

Hu continued to achieve more fame with films like “A Touch of Zen” (1971), “The Valiant Ones” (1975), “Raining in the Mountain” and “Legend of the Mountain” both in 1979. Although his later films were less successful commercially, he returned from California to direct “Swordsman” (1990) and “Painted Skin” (1992). Actually, producer Tsui Hark‘s team had to finish...

Renowned Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang-ke held a masterclass during Fica Vesoul, offering insights into his journey, the evolution of independent cinema in China, and the socio-political role of filmmaking. Known for capturing the realities of contemporary China, Jia spoke candidly about his early influences, creative challenges, and his vision for the future of cinema.

From VHS Tapes to Independent Filmmaking

Jia’s passion for cinema began in his school years, watching films in small VHS cabins outside the official circuit. This early exposure to Hong Kong and Taiwanese cinema, including King Hu, Johnny To, and Ann Hui, shaped his cinematic sensibilities. However, his true awakening came in 1991 when he watched Chen Kaige‘s “Yellow Earth“, a film that revealed to him how cinema could express social reality beyond traditional storytelling.

His first feature, “Xiao Wu”, was made without script approval or official authorization—a defining moment in his commitment to independent filmmaking.

Ann Hui is one of the foremost auteurs in Hong Kong cinema, the filmmaker behind some of the territory’s most thoughtful and touching productions about immigrants and social outcasts. But over the years she has also directed more commercial films, including “Love in a Fallen City”, produced by major studio Shaw Brothers. The film stands out in her filmography as more commercial and traditional than her usual fare, but it also paves the way for some of her later masterpieces.

Love in a Fallen City is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas

The story centers on Bai Liu-Su (Cora Miao), a divorcée living in Shanghai in the early 1940s and having to face the pressure of her declining aristocratic family, who shame and despise her for her failed marriage. Encountering the charming and womanizing businessman Fan Liu-Yan (the irresistible Chow Yun Fat), she follows him to...

Chinese sales agent Rediance is expanding into distribution, attending EFM as a buyer for China for the first time, on the lookout for commercial auteur films, both new releases and library titles.

It has established a new Beijing-­based joint venture, in collaboration with Zhijiang Pictures Media (Zhejiang) and China Magic Film, for theatrical distribution and marketing in mainland China, aiming to handle six to eight films per year. Rediance will act as the international interface, responsible for acquisitions.

“Many international films such as Anatomy Of A Fall and How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies have done incredibly well in Chinese theatres,...

The 31st Vesoul International Film Festival Asian Cinema, chaired by the international jury of the great Chinese director Jia Zhang-ke, presents the complete feature films of Jia Zhang-ke, in the presence of his muse, the actress Zhao Tao.

Two honorary Cyclos d’or are awarded to them during the opening ceremony at the Théâtre Edwige Feuillère.

92 films, including 47 unreleased ones, make up the official selection.

The fiction and documentary competitions offer a selection of 17 films from Bhutan, China, Korea, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Philippines, Malaysia, Yakutia, etc., judged by 7 juries and presented by the film teams:

Bhutan: I The Song by Dechen Roder – French premiere

Burma: Ma – Cry of silence by The Maw Naing – French premiere

China (Hong Kong): To Kill a Mongolian Horse by Jiang Xiaoxuan – French premiere

Korea: The Land of Morning Calm by Park Ri-woong – French premiere

Iran: The Witness by Nader Saeivar – French premiere

Japan:...

In 2012, Ann Hui directed a short 20-minute film for the Hong Kong International Festival as part of a program called Beautiful. The tile is “My Way” and is a story about a transsexual woman, starring Francis Ng and Jade Leung.

Follow the Ann Hui Project by clicking on the image below

The story unfolds in a various time axes, although the present one seems to be taking place within the doctor’s office, where the protagonist, Chow, is about to have a sex change operation. A number of women who have undergone similar procedures are giving him advice, with the discussion revolving around size of breasts for the most part. In another axis, the protagonist, crossdressed, is going to the cinema to watch a movie, only to get weird looks from the ticket booth attendant, while when he tries to go to the women’s bathroom, the rest of the women there immediately run out.

After shooting “Trigger Warning” with Jessica Alba in Hollywood, Mouly Surya returns to Indonesia, adapting Mochtar Lubis’ 1952 novel “A Road with No End”. Her influences from Hollywood are quite evident (the way music is implemented for example), as much as from Ann Hui (in the style of “Our Time Will Come”) and a bit from Korean cinema, in the style of “Assassination”. Let us see what the mix resulted into though.

This City is a Battlefield is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam

After a rather ironic intro where a propagandistic news video talks about the ousting of the Japanese Nazis from Indonesia and the greatness of British rule in the country, the narrative centers on the reality of 1946 in Jakarta. Food is scarce, the ‘rulers’ are nowhere to be found, instead implementing Dutch in British uniform and the Gurkhas to ‘keep the order’. Only in their case, order means...

Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 29th International Film Festival of Kerala (Iffk), adding to her impressive collection of career recognitions that includes the Venice Film Festival’s career Golden Lion.

The award, which comes with a cash prize of INR1 million, a sculpture, and a citation, will be presented by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at the festival’s opening ceremony on Dec. 13 at state capital Thiruvananthapuram’s Nishagandhi Auditorium.

Hui, 77, stands as a pivotal figure in Asian cinema, particularly known for her contributions to the Hong Kong New Wave movement. Her five-decade career has consistently focused on social issues, with particular attention to women’s experiences in Hong Kong society. Her work examines themes ranging from gender discrimination to the cultural shifts surrounding Hong Kong’s transition from British colonial rule to Chinese sovereignty.

Born in Anshan, China in...

American director, screenwriter and producer Todd Haynes has been named president of the international jury of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival. The Berlinale diamond jubilee (a 75th anniversary) will take place from February 13-23, 2025.

”Todd Haynes is a dazzlingly gifted writer and director with an impressive range; his body of work is at once stylistically versatile but also unmistakably his,” Berlinale Director Tricia Tuttle said in a Thursday statement. “Ever since his debut feature ‘Poison’ won the Teddy Award in 1991, the Berlinale has followed and loved his filmmaking, and we are overjoyed to have him join the festival as the President of the International Jury for our 75th edition.”

The Teddy Award is the festival’s queer-film prize. “Poison” also won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Haynes’ 2002 film “Far From Heaven” was nominated for four Oscars.

His other notable work includes “Safe” (1995), “Velvet Goldmine” (1998), the...

Ava DuVernay, Chloë Sevigny, Cailee Spaeny and Cannes Film Festival president Iris Knobloch were among the luminaries who took part in the chic vernissage (preview) hosted by Miu Miu for its first ever Tales & Tellers spotlight during Art Basel Paris at the Palais d’Iéna on Tuesday.

Running Oct. 16 – 20 as part of Art Basel Paris, the exhibition showcases more than 20 short films from the Miu Miu Women’s Tales series, bringing the work to life with bespoke installations and live performances by actresses and models dressed as characters from each title.

The retrospective exhibition, designed and curated by Goshka Macuga and Elvira Dyangani Ose, features Miu Miu commissioned shorts from the likes of DuVernay, Sevigny, Zoe R. Cassavetes (“Broken English”), Lila Avilés (“Tótem”), Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović (“Murina”), Crystal Moselle (“Skate Kitchen”), Carla Simón (“Alcarràs”), Catherine Martin (“Elvis”), Haifaa Al-Mansour (“Wadjda”) and Isabel Sandoval (“Lingua Franca”) – all of whom were on...

In times when the flux of people moving from one country to another has significantly increased, driven by a variety of factors including globalization, economic disparities, political instability, the concept of “home” has become a slippery one, introducing the distinction between a physical home and an emotional home. In Ann Hui‘s 1999’s semi-autobiographic film “Song of the Exile” two women try to make sense of their identities and homelands in 70’s China and Japan, but Aiko’s chainless but challenging titular exile and her struggle are bound to resonate strongly with today’s audiences.

Follow the Ann Hui Project by clicking on the image below

The film opens in 1974’s London where Hueyin (Maggie Cheung) has just finished her university course and is enjoying that fleeting mix of relief and excitement before starting a new chapter in life. When a phone call informs her that her younger sister is...

Ann Hui is one of the foremost auteurs in Hong Kong cinema, the filmmaker behind some of the territory’s most thoughtful and touching productions about immigrants and social outcasts. But over the years she has also directed more commercial films, including “Love in a Fallen City”, produced by major studio Shaw Brothers. The film stands out in her filmography as more commercial and traditional than her usual fare, but it also paves the way for some of her later masterpieces.

Follow our Ann Hui Project by clicking on the image below

The story centers on Bai Liu-Su (Cora Miao), a divorcée living in Shanghai in the early 1940s and having to face the pressure of her declining aristocratic family, who shame and despise her for her failed marriage. Encountering the charming and womanizing businessman Fan Liu-Yan (the irresistible Chow Yun Fat), she follows him to Hong Kong to escape her spiteful siblings.

Although the documentaries Ann Hui shot in the beginning of her career are not exactly renowned, since a number of them were TV productions, the approach she implemented in them is quite interesting, since she frequently experimented with the format and cinematic expression in general. “As Time Goes By” may be more down to Earth, but the level of introspection it exhibits in Ann Hui’s life and the way it makes a parallel with the history of Hong Kong since the 50s, is rather intriguing to watch.

Follow our Ann Hui Project by clicking on the image below

The documentary begins with a private dinner/classmates reunion including Ann Hui, where Michael Luk a lecturer/administrator, Margaret Ng, a barrister and member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1995 to 2012 and Dominic Tsim, a company strategist and former leftist activist, discuss about their past and how they changed through the years.

Second part of Ann Hui‘s adaptation of “The Romance of Book and Sword” novel by Louis Cha, “Princess Fragrance” screened one month after the first installment, concluding a production that took the Hk director three years to complete.

Follow the Ann Hui Project by clicking on the image below

Following the Emperor’s promise to help the Red Flower Society in their effort to overthrow the Qinq empire, after his relationship with Chen Jialuo was revealed, the latter finds himself in the midst of the Uighurs. While in southern Xinjiang, he falls in love with Kasili, the local princess, but gets entangled in a love triangle as her sister, Huoqingtong, also has feelings for him. At the same time, the Qinq army, under general Shao Wei is about to attack the Uighurs. Huoqingtong, who believes that tactics can give the Uighurs the victory against the three-times larger army of their opponents,...

A China-Hong Kong production, “Eighteen Springs” signaled the second time Ann Hui would direct a novel by Eileen Chang, following “Love in a Fallen City” and tailing “Love after Love”. The movie won a number of awards, mostly in festivals from the wider Chinese world and mostly for Anita Mui‘s performance.

Buy This Title

by clicking on the image below

The story begins during the 30s, when Manzhen works as a clerical assistant in a factory in Shanghai. Her elder sister, Manlu, works as a nightclub hostess, and is essentially the one providing for the whole family. Manzhen meets two former classmates in the factory, Shuhui and Shijun, and the three become friends. Soon, however, she falls in love with the latter, who is actually the son of a rich merchant from Nanjing, and has decided to leave his family, unwilling to take over the business. As the romance blooms gradually,...

Hk cinema had a tendency to employ many people during a film production, but “The Swordsman” must be a unique case. King Hu, Ching Siu-Tung, Tsui Hark, Raymond Lee, Ann Hui and Andrew Kam are referred as directors and Wong Ying, Edward leung, Tai Foo-ho, Lam Kee-to, Lau Tai-muk and Kwan Man-leung as scriptwriters. Btw, this is not an omnibus, just a compact movie based on a novel by Louis Cha titled “The Smiling, Proud Wanderer”. Of course, there is a story here, since King Hu was originally credited as the director, but allegedly left the project midway, and the film was completed by a team led by producer Tsui Hark. Ann Hui was also part of the team, although uncredited, and since we tend to be completionists here at Amp, we decided to include “The Swordsman” in her project.

Follow our Ann Hui Project by clicking on the image...

Following more of a career in socially conscious prestige films, director Ann Hui turned to genre fare much like her debut film “The Secret” to produce a solid hit in the quirky romantic ghost/comedy “Visible Secret.” After the underperforming “Ordinary Heroes,” “Secret” was a more suitable success with several acclaimed nominations at the Hong Kong Film Awards with one win and spawning a sequel a year later that earned the film a spot on an emerging impressive slate of releases from Radiance Films.

Check the interview with the director

After meeting at a club and starting a romance, Peter Choi (Eason Chan), an unemployed hairdresser, and June (Shu Qi), a strange nurse, decide that they can work as a couple and start a relationship. Since meeting her, Peter encounters unexplained things which she says are spirits she can see. They run into people apparently under attack by ghosts and unexplainable deaths,...

Let's put aside the film analysis for now. What we have here is merely a local TV news segment challenging the label of “documentary”, just good enough in quality as bonus on DVDs to encourage the purchase of a particular edition (as seen with the Criterion Edition of “Boat People”), usually finding its way soon after onto YouTube under Creative Commons licenses. No significant work on structuring or editing has been undertaken; the result is a compilation of Dv Cam footage, often with intrusive background sounds, along with archival materials and photographs, all patched together. That said, is the film worth viewing? Certainly, if you have an interest in Ann Hui or the English era of Hong Kong.

Check the interview with the director

Produced by Peggy Chiao as part of a Taiwanese series titled “Personal Memoir of Hong Kong” which includes contributions from Stanley Kwan among others, the project...

In his article “The Television Work of Ann Hui”, Shu Kei asserts that “when Hui was first employed by Tvp, the station had largely taken over the functions of Cantonese cinema in the fifties and sixties: i.e. to provide mass entertainment” He also reminds us that many young filmmakers who worked in television between 1976-78 — the Golden Age of Hong Kong television — used the industry as a stepping stone to enter the big screen. Collectively they became a force to be reckoned with… to herald the Hong Kong New Wave,' a phenomenon which many people then considered pregnant with possibilities.”. While Hong Kong film lovers mourn the drowning in commercialism of the hopes generated by the New Wave, it is again to television that Hui turned back to make innovative work. “The Prodigal's Return” was produced by her “alma mater,” Radio Television Hong Kong. (source: Berénice Reynaud (from...

After watching a couple of dozen of Ann Hui's movies, one thing that becomes apparent is that her Mainland (or about the Mainland) productions are on a lower level than the ones from Hong Kong (or about Hong Kong). “My American Grandson” is not an exception, with the film boasting an entertaining if somewhat cliched main theme, which is implemented, though, in a way that can only be described as propagandistic. Let us take things from the beginning though.

Buy This Title

by clicking on the image below

Retired widower, former musician and school teacher Mr Gu, is living a meager but calm life in Shanghai, despite his frequent squabbles with a neighbor who appears to have some plans about him and considers him as someone wasting his life. The daughter of his best friend, Jiao Li, whose mother also happened to be the love of his life as a young man,...

Despite her evident, indie-approach to filmmaking, Ann Hui always managed to have big names in her movies, something that continues to this day. In that regard, it is no surprise that “Goddess of Mercy”, a movie that includes the extensive flashback approach she later implemented in “The Postmodern Life of My Aunt”, features two such names, in Vicky Zhao and Nicholas Tse.

Buy This Title

by clicking on the image below Version 1.0.0

The story is based on a novel by Hai Yan, who co-wrote the script with Ivy Ho. The movie starts with the focus on Yang Rui, a Beijing executive and a genuine playboy, who retains a relationship with his boss while sleeping with a number of other women. One day, he meets a woman named He Yanhong who works at a local tae kwon do gym and, impressed by her beauty, proceeds to court her. Just like in his sessions in the gym,...

Ann Hui's eighth feature film highlighted once more her knack for including sociopolitical elements in genre titles, with the bloody 1967 trade union riots and the legislative elections of 1988 being the background of a romantic story that unfolds in two time axes.

Buy This Title

by clicking on the image below

The movie starts in the present, where 40-years-old Cai-Mei To is trying to fulfill a mission of bringing Cheung Tian-an, a whiz kid and aspiring stylist, back to his highschool where he has dropped out in order to make money. Initially posing as a friend who wants to help, and someone who has ‘spent a year at the Vidal Sassoon headquarters', she soon finds herself the object of his intense flirting, despite their age difference. Although initially resisting, as soon as she achieves her goal, her defenses fall. In the second axis, which takes place when she was a student herself,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Film at Lincoln Center

A retrospective of Mexican popular cinema from the 1940s to the 1960s is underway.

Film Forum

A career-spanning Jean-Pierre Melville retrospective has begun; restorations of Ann Hui’s July Rhapsody (watch our exclusive trailer debut), Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams, Fitzcarraldo and Seven Samurai continue.

Museum of the Moving Image

A 70mm print of Playtime screens this weekend; The Color of Pomegranates and Speed Racer play.

Anthology Film Archives

Robert Bresson plays in “Essential Cinema.”

Bam

Claire Denis’ monumental No Fear, No Die continues screening in a new restoration; Mapantsula begins playing.

Museum of Modern Art

A career-spanning Powell and Pressburger retrospective continues.

IFC Center

The Time Masters, Amadeus, and In the Mood for Love play daily; Fritz the Cat, Friday the 13th, The Last House on the Left, and The Matrix play late.

Metrograph...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Bam

Claire Denis’ monumental No Fear, No Die begins screening in a new restoration.

Museum of the Moving Image

A new 70mm print of The Searchers plays this weekend.

Japan Society

A restoration of Shinji Sōmai’s Moving and Toshiharu Ikeda’s Mermaid Legend play on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

Film Forum

New restorations of Ann Hui’s July Rhapsody (watch our exclusive trailer debut), Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams, and Fitzcarraldo begin screening; Seven Samurai and Powell and Pressburger’s The Small Back Room continue.

Anthology Film Archives

Enrique Gómez Vadillo’s rarely screened Death on the Beach shows in a new restoration this Friday; Stan Brakhage plays in “Essential Cinema.”

Museum of Modern Art

A career-spanning Powell and Pressburger retrospective continues, including A Matter of Life and Death and The Tales of Hoffmann.

Nitehawk Cinema

Lucio Fulci...

Ann Hui’s eclectic films are united by a consideration of the relationship between public and private worlds, of how the weight of history can be brought to bear on even the most intimate personal developments. The director’s beautiful 2002 drama July Rhapsody, now receiving its first stateside theatrical run courtesy of Cheng Cheng Films, both follows this thread and pulls it in a uniquely tender and thoughtful direction. Unlike much of her previous work, the histories excavated by the film are strictly personal, but they contribute to a far more wide-ranging treatise on the resonance of artistic expression across time and generations.

Another thread through Hui’s work is its kinship with Chinese literature, from the filmmaker’s three adaptations of Eileen Chang novels to last year’s Elegies, a documentary on Hong Kong poetry. That affinity is deeply felt in July Rhapsody, which follows a meek, middle-aged Chinese...

Ann Hui On-wah is a film director, producer, screenwriter and actress from Hong Kong who is one of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers of the Hong Kong New Wave. She is known for her films about social issues in Hong Kong which include: literary adaptations, martial arts, semi-autobiographical works, women's issues, social phenomena, political changes, and thrillers. She served as the president of the Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild from 2004 to 2006.

Hui has won numerous awards. She won Best Director at the Golden Horse Awards three times; Best Film at the Asia Pacific Film Festival; and Best Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards six times.

Only two films have won a Grand Slam at the Hong Kong Film Awards; they are Summer Snow and A Simple Life, both directed by Ann Hui. She was honored for her lifetime accomplishments at the 2012 Asian Film Awards. In 2017, the US based Academy...

It is always a nice surprise when someone very talented and famous also turns out to be a very pleasant, down to earth person, and that is the case with Eddie Peng, the Taiwanese superstar whose career spans over two decades. His success didn't happen over night though, and it took his collaboration with Ann Hui on two titles to prove the versatility of his acting performance: war drama set up in the 1940s “Our Time Will Come” (2017), and romance “Love After Love” (2020). Already before this international breakthrough, Peng had a huge teenage following due to the success of Yang Daqing's TV series adaptation of the popular manga “Tomorrow” (2002). One could say that he was never shy of testing his acting capabilities by diving into diverse projects from romantic comedies and dramas, to adrenaline pumped action movies, which made him one of the most popular actors on the Asian continent.

China- and Netherlands-based sales firm Fortissimo Films has picked up the international rights to new Chinese sports feature film “Wild Punch.” It will launch the film in territories outside mainland China next week at the Cannes Market.

Co-directed by well-established director Yu Lik-wai and Wang Jing (“The Best Is Yet to Come”), “Wild Punch is a sports and action drama about a top mixed martial arts athlete who has passed the peak of his career and faces competition from his young and gifted trainee. Both with something to prove, the two will have to face each other in the ring.

Yu has directed four feature films, including Cannes competition title “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and Venice title “Plastic City.” He is also well-established as a cinematographer who has worked on films including “Still Life,” “A Touch of Sin,” and “Mountains May Depart” by Jia Zhangke, Lou Ye’s “Love...

Directed by Ann Hui and written by Ivy Ho, who actually won a number of awards for her work, “July Rhapsody” presents a portrait of middle life crisis, by additionally including a rather interesting back story that finds its parallels in the present.

July Rhapsody will be screening in Canada and the US starting May 11th, while it will be coming out on home video in September, courtesy of Cheng Cheng Films

Lam and Ching have been married for 20 years and have two sons. While their relationship is smooth, Lam feels that his friends, who have found financial success in the entertainment and business sectors, are more accomplished than him, and their belittling every time they meet does not help. Lam is a teacher of classic Chinese literature at an elite school, and is happy with his job actually, but there is an issue there too. A rather beautiful, smart,...

I was lucky to see the new restoration of July Rhapsody, an oft-forgotten 2002 drama that represents a murderer’s row of Hong Kong cinema: directed by Ann Hui (Boat People), scripted by Ivy Ho (Comrades: Almost a Love Story), and starring Jacky Cheung and, in her final performance, Anita Mui. There’s little reason for the film to toil in obscurity, making essential Cheng Cheng Films’ theatrical release this summer––July 19 at Film Forum, July 26 at LA’s Laemmle Theaters, and expanding elsewhere. Ahead of this, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the restoration’s trailer.

Here’s the synopsis: “Brimming with unspeakable serene beauty, July Rhapsody by Hong Kong director Ann Hui (A Simple Life) and scriptwriter Ivy Ho (Comrades Almost a Love Story) is a profound and soothing tale about how one paddles through life’s chaos as many seemingly eternal inspiration sources of times, like the Yangtze river,...

In 1995, Hou Hsiao-hsien directed the last of the ”Taiwanese History” trilogy, which was his first film to be chiefly produced by a Japanese production company, Team Okuyama, although some Taiwanese companies also contributed. “Good Men, Good Women” won the Golden Deer for Best Director from the Changchun Film Festival, which was the first Chinese festival to accept entries from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Furthermore, the movie netted awards for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound Recording from Golden Horse and was screened in Cannes in the competition section, among numerous other festivals around the world.

on Amazon by clicking on the image below

The film is based on the autobiography by Chiang Bi-yu. The complex script unfolds in three intermingling axes. In today's Taipei, Ching Liang, is a young actress preparing to shoot a movie (sharing a title with the actual movie), in which she plays Chiang Bi-yu,...

Today, Asian Pop-Up Cinema announced the full lineup of films and programs included in its 18th edition, running March 20 – April 21, 2024. Each week throughout the festival is dedicated to works from a different region, with films screened in person on weekends at AMC Newcity 14 (1500 N. Clybourn Ave.) and available via streaming on weekdays. This year’s festival also features an inaugural partnership with Northwestern University, Asian Pop-Up Cinema at the Block Museum, featuring special screenings and guest lecturers. Screening schedules and tickets are available now at www.asianpopupcinema.org.

The 18th season of Asian Pop-Up Cinema opens on March 20, 2024, with the Chicago Premiere of Charles-Olivier Michaud’s Ru, the story of a young Vietnamese girl adapting to life in Quebec and featuring an in-person appearance from lead actor Jean Bui. Closing Night features the Midwest Premiere of We Are Family, following the founder of a rent-a-family business navigating personal and professional conflicts,...

Upping The Ante

France’s Canal+ Group said that it has increased its stake in multi-territory Asian streaming platform Viu to 30%.

“This additional investment underlines the confidence that Canal+ has in Viu and its teams. It also highlights the determination of Canal+ to make Asia its next growth vector, through its strategic partnership with Pccw, and through an acceleration of growth at Viu, a premium streaming service present in Asia, the Middle East and South Asfrica,” the French group said in a statement. Additionally, it said that its investment in Viu now amounted to some $300 million and that it retains an option to increase its stake to 50%.

In June last year, Canal+ announced that it was to pay $200 million for an initial 26.1% stake in Viu and that it would make a total staggered investment of $300 million.

In results published on Friday, Pccw said: “Viu saw 27% growth in revenue in2023 […] propelled...

After two weeks of new cinema, the Berlin Film Festival comes to a close this Sunday, February 25, with its annual awards ceremony. This year’s event marks one of change, as festival artistic director Carlo Chatrian, at his post since 2018, steps down to make way for Tricia Tuttle, who will take over for next year’s outing.

This year’s Berlinale has already stirred plenty of buzz for films like Alonso Ruizpalacios’s “La Cocina,” a drama set in a New York City kitchen and starring Rooney Mara, and Tim Mielants’ opener “Small Things Like These,” starring likely Oscar winner Cillian Murphy. Both films are eligible for awards, along with “Timbuktu” director Abderrahmane Sissako’s “Black Tea,” “Goodnight Mommy” filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s “The Devil’s Bath,” “The Guilty” director Gustav Möller’s “Sons,” Olivier Assayas’ “Suspended Time,” plus Aaron Schimberg’s Sundance hit “A Different Man,” and many more.

The 74th Berlin International Film Festival announced the winners of the fest at the awards ceremony held at the Berlinale Palast on February 24.

20 films competed for the awards in this year’s competition with Lupita Nyong’o heading the International Jury alongside Ann Hui, Christian Petzold, Albert Serra, Jasmine Trinca and Oksana Zabuzhko. The Encounters Jury, Lisandro Alonso, Denis Côté and Tizza Covi choose the winners for Best Film, Best Director and the Special Jury Award.

The Golden Bear for Best Film was awarded to Dahomey by Mati Diop. Emily Watson won The Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance for her role in Small Things Like These, while Sebastian Stan received The Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance in A Different Man. Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias was honored with The Silver Bear for Best Director for his film Pepe, and the Silver Bear Jury Prize went to Bruno Dumont for Empire.

Second and final part of Ann Hui's Tin Shu Wai series, after the rather different “The Way We Are”, “Night and Fog” focuses on a murder suicide in the area in 2004, involving a mainland immigrant, her Hong Kong husband, and their two children. Hui researched the actual event thoroughly, having multiple interviews with survivors of the real-life tragedy, and some of the film's locations are the actual ones.

Follow our Ann Hui Project by clicking on the image below

Wong Hiu-Ling is a mainland immigrant from Sichuan, who lives with her older husband Lee Sum, and their two daughters, in an apartment in Hong Kong. However, they face financial issues, since Sum lives off government benefits, which is why the woman decides to take a job as a waitress at a local diner, something that enrages her husband however. His toxic personality is revealed quite early in that regard,...

Based on a true story, “All About Love” signaled an effort by Ann Hui to focus on the issues bisexuals face in Hong Kong (at the time) through an approach, though, that is quite commercial as the movie unfolds as an ensemble romantic comedy/drama.

Follow the Ann Hui Project by clicking on the image below

Macy is a bisexual solicitor, who is even being shamed by her lesbian friends for her changes in the sex of her partners, while also being pregnant as the storu begins. Soon, she stumbles upon old flame Anita at a pregnancy seminar, with her being in the exact same situation (pregnant and bisexual). The two start bonding again as they narrate to each other how they came to be with child, and soon they rekindle their relationship. What they are doing with their upcoming babies, however, as much as the presence of the “donors...

The Berlin Film Festival officially kicked off Thursday evening with an eventful opening ceremony at the Berlinale Palast theater in the German capital.

After a divisive build-up to the fest, the opening ceremony was, in contrast, a relatively conventional affair. High-profile attendees included veteran German filmmakers Wim Wenders and Fatih Akin, Phantom Thread actress Vicky Krieps, and international jury president Lupita Nyong’o alongside her fellow jury members Brady Corbet, Ann Hui, Christian Petzold, Albert Serra, Jasmine Trinca and Oksana Zabuzhko.

The evening’s opening film was Small Things Like These, starring Cillian Murphy, who was in attendance with producer Matt Damon and co-star Emily Watson. Directed by Tim Mielants (Peaky Blinders), Small Things Like These is the first Irish film to open the Berlinale.

Related: ‘Small Things Like These’ Review: Cillian Murphy Plays A Father In Torment In ’80s-Set Irish Trauma Tale

Before the pic opened, the crowd inside the...

The build-up to the 74th Berlin Film Festival has been highly politicized, and the international jury press conference Thursday morning was no different.

Lupita Nyong’o presides over the International Competition jury, whose members include American actor and filmmaker Brady Corbet, Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui, German director Christian Petzold, Spanish filmmaker Albert Serra, Italian actress Jasmine Trinca and Ukrainian novelist and poet Oksana Zabuzhko.

This wasn’t like most jury press conferences, however, with members drawn into multiple — occasionally testy — discussions about their own political stances on events in Ukraine, Gaza and Germany.

Russia’s war in Ukraine was a central topic, with multiple journalists asking Serra about a 2018 interview in which he supposedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin. Serra was asked whether he had changed his mind on Putin since the war:

“I don’t know,” said the director. “This is a political question. Everyone is upset with Russia right now.

During a press conference on Thursday, Berlinale jury president Lupita Nyong’o responded to the festival inviting and then disinviting politicians from far-right group AfD to its opening ceremony.

“I’m a foreigner here. I don’t know the ins and outs of the political situation here,” Nyong’o said in response to a question asking if she would have attended the ceremony had the politicians still been invited. “I’m glad I don’t have to answer that question. I’m glad I don’t have to be in that position.”

Jury member Christian Petzold, the German director of “Barbara” and “Phoenix,” had a different perspective.

“I think it’s not a problem to have five persons of the AfD in the audience,” he said. “We are no cowards. If you can’t stand five persons of the AfD as part of the audience, we will lose our fight.”

He later added,...

The Berlin International Film Festival has confirmed its full juries for the 2024 edition (February 16-24), with Italian actress Jasmine Trinca and German filmmaker Christian Petzold among those joining president Lupita Nyong’o on the main international jury.

Also on the jury are filmmakers Ann Hui (Hong Kong) and Albert Serra (Spain) alongside Ukrainian novelist and poet Oksana Zabuzhko.

The international jury will select the winners of the Golden and Silver Bears from the 20 films playing in Competition.

The three-member jury for the Encounters strand comprises filmmakers Lisandro Alonso (Argentina), Denis Côté (Canada) and Tizza Covi (Italy).

The Encounters jury will choose the winners of best film,...

The Berlinale Film Festival has unveiled the jury members for its main International Competition, which will be presided over by Lupita Nyong’o.

The members of the International Jury are American actor and filmmaker Brady Corbet, Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui, German director Christian Petzold, Spanish filmmaker Albert Serra, Italian actress Jasmine Trinca, and Ukrainian novelist and poet Oksana Zabuzhko.

Nyong’o’s presidential appointment was announced in December.

The festival also unveiled the three-member jury for its Encounters strand. Lisandro Alonso (Argentina), Denis Côté (Canada), and Tizza Covi (Italy) will pick the competition sidebar’s Best Film, Best Director, and Special Jury award winners.

The 2024 Berlin Film Festival runs Feb 15 – Feb 25. The festival opens with the Cillian Murphy movie Small Things Like These. The film reveals truths about Ireland’s Magdalen laundries – horrific asylums run by Roman Catholic institutions from the 1820s until 1996, ostensibly to reform “fallen young women.” It...

Berlin has unveiled the international jury for the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, which runs Feb. 15-25.

The 2024 jury will include U.S. director Brady Corbet (Vox Lux), Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui (Summer Snow), Berlinale regular Christian Petzold (Afire, Undine), Spanish director Albert Serra (Pacification), Italian actress Jasmine Trinca (The Son’s Room) and the Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko.

Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave, Black Panther) will serve as president of the International Jury.

The four-woman, three-man jury will screen the competition titles at this year’s Berlinale and select the winners of the 2024 festival, including the Golden Bear for best film. The winners of the 74th Berlinale will be announced live at a gala ceremony in Berlin on Saturday, Feb. 24.

Petzold is probably the most familiar face for Berlinale audiences. The German director has had 6 films in competition in Berlin, most recently Afire, which won...

The international jury at the 74th Berlin Film Festival, led by Lupita Nyong’o, will include filmmakers Christian Petzold (Germany) and Ann Hui.

The international jury members also include actor-producer-director Brady Corbet (U.S.), filmmaker Albert Serra (Spain), actor-director Jasmine Trinca (Italy) and writer Oksana Zabuzhko (Ukraine). They will decide who will win the festival’s Golden and the Silver Bears.

The three-member jury that chooses the winners for best film, director and the special jury award at the Berlinale’s Encounters strand is made up of filmmakers Lisandro Alonso (Argentina), Denis Côté (Canada) and Tizza Covi (Italy).

Director and screenwriter Ilker Çatak (Germany), sound artist and researcher Xabier Erkizia (Spain) and director, screenwriter, video artist and lecturer Jennifer Reeder (U.S.) are the international short film jury for the 2024 Berlinale Shorts competition. They will be choosing the winner of the Golden Bear for best short film, the winner of the...

The 53rd edition of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will take place from January 25 to February 4, 2024. The full festival programme is available here and official ticket sales will commence on January 12. Here is an overview of the selection of Asian films screening this year at IFFR 2024 (synopses summarised from the IFFR 2024 website):

Harbour Trolley Times

Gurvinder Singh

153′ | India | 2023 | International Premiere

IFFR regular Gurvinder Singh returns to the festival with his first documentary feature “Trolley Times”, an unvarnished grassroots record of the protests that borrows its title from the newspaper printed and distributed at the camping site. The farmers recount their grievances directly to the camera, their words conveying a truth absent from state-aligned mainstream media, their timeworn, dignified faces familiar from Singh's fictional work.

100 Yards

Xu Haofeng, Xu Junfeng

108′ | China | 2023 | European Premiere

The 1920s, Tianjin. Master Shen has passed on, bequeathing his martial arts academy to star apprentice Qi,...

As we have mentioned many times before, the documentary format has been improving significantly through the latest years, particularly due to the increased exposure of the category due to both festivals and streaming services. With the main motto here being that ‘reality goes beyond any kind of imagination', the stories presented have been shocking and at the same time, quite entertaining, particularly since a number of Asian countries have started loosening the control over information available and the overall censorship. Even in countries that have not done the same, the result is actually similar, due to the diaspora filmmakers, who, outside the confines of authorities, managed to say all those things they were supposed not to. Lastly, the rise of the mockumentary, which seems to be included in various programs more as documentary rather than fiction, adds even more depth to the category.

Without further ado, here are the best...