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No streaming service does a director retrospective like the Criterion Channel, and March offers two masters at opposite ends of exposure. On one side is Michael Mann, whose work from Thief through Collateral (minus The Keep) is given a spotlight; on the other is Alain Guiraudie, who (in advance of Misericordia opening on March 21) has five films arriving. (2001’s duet of That Old Dream That Moves and Sunshine for the Scoundrels have perhaps never streamed in the U.S. before.) Meanwhile, three noirs from Douglas Sirk are programmed alongside a Lee Chang-dong retrospective that features three new restorations.

Showcases will be staged for Dogme 95, Best Supporting Actor winners, and French Poetic Relaism. Welles’ The Trial gets a Criterion Edition alongside Demon Pond; Horace Ové’s newly restored Pressure makes a streaming premiere alongside spruced-up copies of Amadeus, Love Is the Devil, Port of Shadows, and Burning an Illusion, as...

As we mentioned many times before, Rotterdam is the best international festival in Europe in terms of Asian selection, and the programmers did not disappoint once more. Even more so since the selection stays, thankfully, away from the stereotypes about what an Asian film is or it should be. Furthermore, the focus in S/Se Asia was definitely once more rewarding, with the emphasis in Indonesia obviously being indicative of how close IFFR is following what is happening in the region. The presence of the likes of Miike and Toyoda, along with the ‘film of the year’ “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In” covered the Far East.

Here is the sum of our articles for IFFR 2025.

1. Film Review: Kajolrekha (2024) by Giasuddin Selim

Though highly watchable, the movie ultimately lacks the social realism or revolutionary edge that might make for an interesting contemporary adaptation of this ancient tale. Instead, the director has made a comfortable,...

You can expect anything from Wei Shujun, the Chinese helmer behind the hypnotizing noir “Only The River Flows” (2023), and the wicked dramedy about the preparations for a film shooting – “Ripples of Life” (2021). He has already proved that each of his projects is unique and incomparable to others. “I Dreamed A Dream” which screens in the Harbour programme of IFFR, a deadpan docu-fiction about five rappers who were invited to participate in a film shoot on an exotic island without the slightest idea what the whole gig is all about, seals that verdict.

I Dreamed A Dream is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam

Summoned to join the project that is supposed to boost their careers and bring them some financial gain, nothing goes the way the young musicians were expecting. The filmmaker who goes by the name of Godod is absent, and his assistant supervises them. He is their proper shadow,...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2024, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

As always, what is considered best is first determined by what can be seen, and this year there were many films that I missed. When it came to popular releases, for example, some took too long to be released in the UK; some were showing while I was reviewing other films; and others just simply passed me by. And the same problems were even more pronounced when it came to watching short/experimental films. Nevertheless, there was much that I enjoyed this year, and several films that did not make the final cut might well do so if I were to make the list again at a later date. I hope that my current selection will point you towards something informative and/or entertaining, and that it will add,...

As we continue to explore the best in 2024, today we’re taking a look at the articles that you, our dear readers, enjoyed the most throughout the past twelve months. Spanning reviews, interviews, features, podcasts, news, and trailers, check out the highlights below and return for more year-end coverage.

Most-Read Reviews

1. The Goldfinger

2. From Darkness to Light

3. The Devil’s Bath

4. Only the River Flows

5. Longlegs

6. The Nature of Love

7. The 2024 Oscar-Nominated Animated Short Films, Reviewed

8. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2

9. Trap

10. Dune: Part Two

Most-Read Interviews

1. Richard Linklater on Sex, Murder, Hit Man, and the Infantilization of Culture

2. Will Menaker on the Year in Cinema: Oppenheimer, Scorsese, Friedkin & Beyond

3. Lee Daniels on The Deliverance, Shifting Culture, Douglas Sirk, and That Glenn Close Performance

4. “All Great DPs Become Alcoholics”: Rob Tregenza on Shooting Béla Tarr’s Werckmeister Harmonies

5. In a Violent Nature Director Chris Nash on Creating a New Kind of Slasher,...

Even though director Wei Shujun’s Chinese neo-noir crime thriller Only the River Flows is adapted from writer Yu Hua’s novella, Mistakes by the River, genre fans can’t help but notice the myriad similarities the movie shares with Bong Joon-ho’s masterpiece, Memories of Murder—be it through its narrative and visual composition, moody and atmospheric small town aesthetics, or its exploration of themes of ethics, social consciousness, and scope of morality through investigation of serial killings. But aside from all this, what’s going to excite genre fans—the subtle use of dark humor to poke at the decrepit administrative system and the degenerated state of conscience among people in power—are some of the major signifiers that the movie shares with its South Korean spiritual predecessor. Gorgeously shot in 16-mm film to capture the Chinese rural town in the mid-90s it uses as its setting,...

A Japanese heist, a Bollywood musical, London’s East End – noir has adapted and travelled the world from its 1940s Hollywood beginnings and thanks to a series of festivals and rereleases there are classics to see this autumn

Film noir was first identified at a distance. In 1946, Italian-born French critic Nino Frank coined the term to describe a cycle of coolly cynical crime thrillers produced by Hollywood earlier in that decade, but only recently available in Paris. “These ‘dark’ films, these films noirs, no longer have anything in common with the ordinary run of detective movies,” wrote Frank of films including Double Indemnity, The Maltese Falcon and The Woman in the Window. But the term still has legs, with films as recent, and as far removed from Hollywood, as the Chinese crime procedural Only the River Flows, which was released this summer, inspiring critics to reach for the word noir.

Popular police procedural dramas, like Fincher’s Zodiac (2007) or Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave (2022), often feature cunningly plotted mysteries that blend realistic police work with the forlorn heroism of classic hardboiled fiction. The narratives typically hit the ground running, filled with shocking twists, climactic build-ups, and often violent confrontations. Ultimately, they allow characters to carve meaning out of the darkness. However, the Chinese whodunit Only the River Flows is a slow burn that defies conventional approaches. Its artistic style presents the protagonist with a complex array of choices as he navigates an investigation that challenges his psychological well-being. The treatment and progression of the story are reminiscent of Diao Yinan‘s Golden Bear winner Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014). However, it is endowed with a distinctive meditative pace and a deeper exploration of the protagonist’s internal struggles. This approach makes the film even more bleaker and more sinister. It also...

Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (August 16-18) Total gross to date Week 1. Alien: Romulus (Disney) £3.7m £3.7m 1 2. It Ends With Us (Sony) £2.8m £11.4m 2 3. Deadpool & Wolverine (Disney) £2.4m £48.4m 4 4. Despicable Me 4 (Universal) £1.2m £38.8m 6 5. Coraline (Trafalgar Releasing) £558,581 £2.5m 2

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.29

Alien: Romulus clawed its way to the top of the UK-Ireland box office with a £3.7m opening weekend – the second-highest start for the monster franchise.

Romulus topped the £2.7m opening of 1997’s Alien: Resurrection and £1.6m of 1992’s Alien 3, and was only down on the £4.8m opening of 2017’s Alien: Covenant.

The new film...

Disney blockbuster Alien: Romulus crawls into 676 cinemas at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, as the first title in the franchise since 2017’s Alien: Covenant.

Directed by Fede Alvarez, Alien: Romulus is set between the events of 1979’s Alien and 1986’s Aliens, and sees a group of young space colonists scavenging a derelict space station and coming face-to-face with a xenomorph alien.

Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues wrote the script, based on characters by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett. Civil War and Priscilla star Cailee Spaeny leads the cast, alongside Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced and Screen Stars of Tomorrow David Jonsson and Spike Fearn.

His latest film is a sideways take on the crime genre and was a surprise hit in China. As it opens in UK cinemas, Wei explains why he’s working at the edge of reason

A village, a murder and a chain-smoking detective. The building blocks of the gritty new procedural, Only the River Flows, are familiar. But as the mysteries and secrets pile up, this spellbinding Chinese noir transports the viewer into a world of uncertainty that has made it a surprise hit in China. Its precociously young director hopes western viewers will be similarly enthralled.

Speaking via video from Los Angeles, Wei Shujun, a Beijing native, is confident about his work. “There’s no movie where the story isn’t intentional,” the 33-year-old says. But when it comes to the fate of a Chinese film in western cinemas, he is less certain. Attracting international attention to Chinese films is hard,...

Only The River Flows

Chinese director Wei Shujun's Nineties-set crime thriller, Only The River Flows (He Bian De Cuo Wu), follows Police Chief Ma Zhe's (Yilong Zhu) investigation into the murder of a woman found near the river in Banpo Town, rural China. Despite a quick arrest and the eagerness of his superiors to close the case, when Ma Zhe pursues other evidence, he struggles to explain why three unrelated murders resemble one another.

Only The River Flows represents a departure for Shujun after his 2020 feature debut, Striding Into The Wind (Ye Ma Fen Zong), about a film student's road trip across China, and his 2021 sophomore feature, Ripples Of Life (Yong An Zhen Gu Shi Ji), set on a chaotic film production in a remote town.

In conversation with Eye For Film, Shujun discussed philosophy, psychology, and the limitations of the human perspective. Readers should be aware that there is a spoiler in.

Sony’s “It Ends With Us” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office, with £4.5 million ($5.7 million), according to numbers from Comscore.

However, the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni drama-romance faced stiff competition from Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which held onto second place in its third week with £4 million, bringing its cumulative total to £42.9 million.

Universal’s “Despicable Me 4” continues to draw audiences in its fifth week, securing third place with £1.5 million and pushing its total to £35.5 million. Warner Bros. saw success with its new release “Trap,” which opened at No. 4, pulling in £1.1 million.

Lionsgate U.K.’s “Borderlands” rounded out the top five in its opening weekend, earning £843,159. Warner Bros.’ “Twisters” maintained its appeal in sixth place during its fourth week, adding £619,801 to surpass the £12 million mark.

Disney’s “Inside Out 2” demonstrated remarkable staying power, holding the seventh position in its ninth week with £618,055, bringing its total to £54.1 million.

Set along the banks of a remote Chinese river in the 1990s, Only the River Flows presents a gripping puzzle for Detective Ma Zhe to solve. But this is no ordinary crime procedural. Behind the initial murder lies a web of unspoken secrets that will take Ma Zhe on a disturbing journey.

Directed by Wei Shujun, who has garnered acclaim for his previous films at Cannes, Only the River Flows transports viewers to a small riverside town. Here, the local police force operates from an abandoned movie theater, a fitting background given how the town’s inhabitants conceal their truths behind closed doors.

We first meet Detective Ma Zhe as he begins investigating the killing of an elderly woman. All signs point to the “madman” who lived with her. But diligent Ma Zhe senses more lies just beneath the surface. As he delves deeper, he unwittingly exposes long-buried secrets, from...

Wei Shujun’s detective noir Only the River Flows (based on a story of the same name by Chinese author Yu Hua) is set in a small town along a river in China’s Jiangdong province where it seems the sun never shines. The atmosphere is unrelentingly melancholy: the town’s infrastructure is crumbling, the police have turned the local cinema into their headquarters (no one sees films there anymore), Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” plays frequently, and––yes––there is a murder.

Heading the investigation is Chief of Police Ma Zhe (played beautifully by Yilong Zhu), a talented investigator with a slightly depressive aura. An older woman is found murdered by the river, and as the team investigates they don’t exactly uncover misdeeds, but rather the secret lives of people crushed by the demands of conformity: a clandestine couple, a person repressing their gender identity, and a man so...

In Only the River Flows, Wei Shujun’s adaptation of the Yu Hua novella, an old woman (Cao Yang) is murdered on the bank of a Chinese town’s river. There are no taunting notes or occult artifacts left behind in the weeds. The body hasn’t been cut up or otherwise contorted into a nihilistic art project. It simply lies in the mud, blood trailing from a neck wound.

Wei has crafted a noir that rejects the more dramatic trappings of such stories. In a too-knowing bit of contrast, the rural town’s police operate out of an abandoned movie theater, as if to suggest that the tidy fictions once projected there are at odds with a reality that’s more mundane yet far less explicable. Even when an arrest is made, the loose ends haunt lead investigator Ma Zhe (Zhu Yilong), despite pressure from his superior (Hou Tianlai...

As you catch up on our list of the best 20 films from the first half of the year, it’s also time to look at what the latter half brings. While July may be a bit lighter in worthwhile cinematic offerings, it does provide a few promising wide releases, some of the year’s best documentaries, and a few TIFF and Sundance favorites finally arriving.

13. Eno (Gary Hustwit; July 12)

One of the most curious experiments to premiere out of Sundance this year was Gary Hustwit’s Eno, which uses generative technology to produce an entirely new movie every single time it’s screened. That experiment’s now being put to a major test as it opens at Film Forum with new versions every day. John Fink said in his review, “So what we’re left with is a random series of threads, some organized quite well (by Hustiwit and editors...

"Fate is all the truth we cannot see." KimStim Films in the US has revealed an official trailer for Only the River Flows, a Chinese film originally from the 2023 Cannes Film Festival last year. This is now scheduled for a limited US release this summer, starting at Metrograph in NYC, then to LA, Toronto, and other cities. A chief of police in a small town investigates a series of strange murders on a riverside in rural China in the 1990s. An arrest is made quickly, clues push the policeman to dive deeper into the hidden behaviour of the locals. "What kind of darkness is truly at play here?" is the question that lingers on his mind. A mysterious, unique film-noir throwback with some intriguing meta scenes within it. "Equal parts atmospheric tour-de-force and beguiling puzzler, Only the River Flows is a masterfully styled ode to a bygone cinematic era and...

It has been commonplace in academic circles to divide up and label Chinese filmmakers into generations that reflect socio-political currents as much as cinematic style.

Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, who were educated at the end of the Cultural Revolution, are considered the leading lights of the “fifth generation.” The rebellious cluster that followed them, Zhang Yuan, Wang Xioashuai, Jia Zhangke and Lou Ye are among those labelled as “sixth generation.”

But with substantial bodies of work under their belts and international reputations already established, the sixth generation are no longer quite so new, nor so angry.

The four Chinese films selected for the main competition – all world premieres – at this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival represent a showcase of directors who are also known-quantities, but who are worthy of higher profiles. (The festival’s Asian Talent selection has a further selection of six more directors seeking to break through.

Less than a decade ago, the Shanghai International Film Festival was the preeminent annual hotspot for Hollywood and European dealmakers determined to forge alliances and carve out a foothold in China’s then-booming commercial film sector. In the post-pandemic era, however, as the Chinese industry continues to mature and the Hollywood hype over the country’s market potential long ago gave way to grim reality, the festival has transitioned into a somewhat more inward-facing occasion.

That domestic focus is on display in the Shanghai event’s 2024 lineup, which features 10 Chinese movies among the 25 titles of the two main international competition sections (and not a single film from the U.S. or South Korea). For international film buffs, the Shanghai festival is now best viewed as an opportunity to take stock of current trends in Chinese filmmaking — and on that front, the event’s 2024 lineup is rich with potential.

The 26th...

Premiering in the Un Certain Regard section at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Wei Shujun’s stylish neo-noir Only the River Flows became one of the highest-grossing independent films in China and now it’s coming to the U.S. and Canada starting next month. The Zhu Yilong-led film will open in the U.S. from KimStim Films starting at NYC’s Metrograph on July 26, LA a week later, and followed by select cities. Ritual Films will also release it in Canada starting at the TIFF Lightbox on August 1, followed by an expansion on August 9. Ahead of its release, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the trailer and poster.

Here’s the synopsis: “1990s small town China. A woman’s body washes up in the local river. The chief of police, Ma Zhe, is tasked with heading up the investigation. An obvious perp leads to a hasty arrest,...

The Shanghai International Film Festival has unveiled a selection that is weighted heavily to world premieres and Chinese, local titles.

That gives the festival showcase screenings for the newest works by established Chinese directors Gu Changwei, Wei Shujun and Guan Hu (“Old Fish”).

Guan was rewarded in Cannes only last week for his Un Certain Regard-winning picture “Black Dog,” but will unveil his next effort “The Hedgehog in Shanghai’s main competition.

All but two of the 14 competition section films are world premiere screenings – only “Un Homme en Fuite” recently released in France, and “Le Seconda Vita,” recently released in Italy are international premieres – and all 11 films selected in the Asian New Talent Competition are debut screenings.

That makes the Shanghai lineup have little in common with other international festivals being held at this time of year. Most of those, typically, find house room for a sprinkling of standout titles from Sundance,...

The Shanghai International Film Festival unveiled the competition selection for its upcoming 26th edition Wednesday, featuring a lineup characteristically heavy on Chinese titles. As in recent years, the lineup also includes a bevy of European, Japanese and Central Asian movies, but not a single film from the U.S. or South Korea.

The most anticipated film from the festival’s 14-title main competition in 2024 is undoubtedly Chinese director Guan Hu’s drama A Man and a Woman, featuring a pair of lead performances from the big local stars Huang Bo and Ni Ni. Guan wowed critics at the Cannes Film Festival just a week ago with his darkly comic thriller Black Dog, which took home the French festival’s prestigious Un Certain Regard prize. Guan also is no stranger to the Shanghai festival. His WWII tentpole The Eight Hundred was scheduled to open the 2019 edition of the event, but it...

You might not get the dog you want, but you always get the dog you need. That old dog lover’s adage applies peculiarly well to Chinese director Guan Hu’s “Black Dog.” A far smaller-scale project than his recent blockbusters “The Eight Hundred” and “The Sacrifice,” Guan’s latest — an Un Certain Regard standout at Cannes this year — nonetheless has the grandly cinematic vision to lend an intimate tale a gloriously epic, allegorical edge.

Set in a dying town on the fringes of the Gobi desert, “Black Dog” has elements of the genre Western, like taciturn loner antihero Lang (a fantastic Eddie Peng), who returns to his eroded hometown himself hollowed out by repressed guilt for the incident that caused his recent imprisonment. But, dipped in the caustic soda of social commentary and steeped in the fatalistic mood of a place barely chugging by on borrowed time, the film...

Oscar winner Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s formalist arthouse drama Evil Does Not Exist won the best film prize Sunday night at the Asia Film Awards in Hong Kong.

The Japanese film industry had a big night overall at the 17th edition of the awards ceremony, which was hosted this year in Hong Kong’s gleaming new Xiqu Centre, part of the city’s $2.7 billion West Kowloon Cultural District development. Japanese festival favorite Hirokazu Kore-eda won best director for his mystery drama Monster, while the great Koji Yakusho took best actor for Wim Wender’s moving minimalist drama Perfect Days. Hamaguchi’s chief collaborator on Evil Does Not Exist, Eiko Ishibashi, won best music and the Kaiju critical and commercial sensation Godzilla Minus One claimed both best visual effects and best sound.

In many ways, it was Zhang Yimou’s night, however. The venerated Chinese director took the stage twice, once to...

Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” was Sunday evening named as the best picture at the Asian Film Awards.

The 17th edition of the prizes was held at the Xiqu Centre, part of the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong.

While “Evil Does Not Exist” and Korean blockbuster “12.12: The Day” had dominated the nominations with six each, including those in the best film category, the prizes on Sunday were much more evenly distributed. No title collected more than two prizes.

Outside, crowds failed to be muted by the March drizzle, though VIP guests were given escorts with purple umbrellas.

Filmmaker and industry attendance was also robust. Those spotted on the red carpet and pre-event cocktails included: Lee Yong Kwan (former chair of the Busan film festival), Tom Yoda, Udine festival heads Sabrina Baracetti and Thomas Bertacche, Anthony Chen, Stanley Kwan, Rina Damayanti, Hong Kong distributor Winnie Tsang,...

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever (“Banel & Adama”) has acquired international rights to “Shambhala,” the first Nepalese film to premiere in competition at the Berlinale or any other top film festival.

Directed by Min Bahadur Bham, “Shambhala” is also the first South Asian film to be selected in Berlinale’s competition lineup after three decades. Bham is best known for his feature debut, “Kalo Pothi,” which won a prize at Venice Critics’ Week in 2015. The helmer previously directed “Bansulli,” which was Nepal’s first selection at the Venice Film Festival in 2012.

“Shambhala” is set in a Himalayan polyandrous village in Nepal, where a newly married and pregnant woman, Pema, tries to make the best of her new life. But soon, her husband Tashi vanishes, prompting her to embark on a journey into the wilderness to find him, accompanied by her monk.

The film shot in the world’s highest settlement, located...

The 20th edition of the Glasgow Film Festival reveals an exciting programme featuring premieres, special events and screenings of some classics.

Running from February 28th to March 10th the UK premiere of Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding opens the festival. Closing gala is Janey – a touching documentary on Scottish Comedian, Janey Godley, about her life, career and terminal cancer diagnosis.

There are no less than eleven world and international premieres including Bucky F*ing Dent from David Duchovny adapting and his own novel which he also directs. Feature debuts at the festival include Glasgow director Ciaran Lyons’ Tummy Monster as well as The Old Man and The Land from Nicholas Parish.

The festival will feature a double dose of Ewan McGregor in UK premiere of Bleeding Love, starring alongside his daughter Clara McGregor, and also Mother.

A guarantee each Gff is great variety and this year is no different with...

A total of 35 films from 24 countries and regions have been shortlisted to compete for 16 awards at this year's Asian Film Awards.

Renowned Japanese director Kurosawa Kiyoshi will serve as the Jury President for this year's Awards. As the first Japanese director to hold this position, Kurosawa Kiyoshi is deeply honored. He will lead the Jury and over 200 Voting Members in selecting the winners for this year's Asian Film Awards.

The winners of other Afa awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, Excellence in Asian Cinema Award, Afa Next Generation Award, and Rising Star Award, will be announced later.

The 17th Asian Film Awards Nomination List

Best Film

12.12: The Day (South Korea)

Evil Does Not Exist (Japan)

Paradise

Perfect Days (Japan)

Snow Leopard (Mainland China)

Best Director

Kim Sung-soo | 12.12: The Day (South Korea)

Gu Xiaogang | Dwelling by the West Lake (Mainland China)

Hamaguchi Ryusuke | Evil Does Not Exist (Japan)

Kore-eda Hirokazu...

‘Snow Leopard’, ‘Paradise’, ‘The Goldfinger’ and ‘Godzilla Minus One’ also land multiple nods.

South Korean box office hit 12.12: The Day and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist lead the nominations for the 17th Asian Film Awards, with six nods each including best film.

Also up for best film is Prasanna Vithanage’s Paradise from Sri Lanka-India, Wim Wenders Perfect Days from Japan and Chinese feature Snow Leopard by the late Pema Tseden.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Hong Kong on March 10 and will be decided by a...

Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s latest feature, Evil Does Not Exist, and the period action pic 12.12: The Day, from Korea, lead the nominations at this year’s Asian Film Awards.

Both films received six nominations, including Best Film and Best Director. Directed by Kim Sung-soo, whose credits include Asura: The City Of Madness and The Flu, 12.12: The Day is set against the backdrop of the real-life military coup of 1979, which resulted in an eight-year military junta in South Korea. The cast includes Hwang Jung-min (The Wailing), Jung Woo-sung (Asura: The City Of Madness), and Lee Sung-min (The Spy Gone North). Released on November 22, the film sailed past the 12 million admissions mark at the Korean box office over the Christmas holiday period, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2023 in the market.

Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist — which debuted out of Venice — follows Takumi and his daughter Hana, who live...

Exclusive: New York-based arthouse distributor KimStim has acquired all North American rights to Wei Shujun’s Cannes Un Certain Regard title, Only The River Flows. Paris-based MK2 Films is handling international sales on the film.

The Chinese noir thriller has recently been a big hit at the Chinese box office, grossing $43M (RMB309.5M), an exceptional number for an independent film in that market.

Following its Cannes premiere, the film has screened in 33 international film festivals, including London (BFI), Busan, Chicago and Vancouver. It received its China premiere at Pingyo International Film Festival, where it won best film in the festival’s Fei Mu Awards.

Based on Yu Hua’s popular short novel Mistakes By The River, the film is set in a small town in 1990s China where the chief of police is heading an investigation after a woman’s body washes up in the local river.

Zhu Yilong,...

“The Marvels” narrowly missed the top spot at the mainland China box office on its opening weekend. And its debut was far short of its blockbuster predecessor.

Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway shows “The Marvels” earning RMB82.7 million or $11.5 million between Friday and Sunday in Chinese cinemas. Of that some $2 million or 17%, was earned in Imax theaters.

The film’s debut weekend haul was a fraction below the RMB84.2 million ($11.7 million) earned by Chinese film “Last Suspect” in its second weekend of release. Crime drama title, “Last Suspect” now has a cumulative of $51.5 million after ten days on release.

Figures for “The Marvels” compare badly with the $88.9 million earned by “Captain Marvel” when it opened in Chinese theaters in March 2019. Local ticketing service, Maoyan forecasts that “The Marvels” will have a career total of RMB152 million or $21 million in China. It opened poorly in other territories too.

Third place...

Another video game adaptation broke records this year as ‘Five Nights At Freddy’s’ gave Blumhouse its biggest global opening.

Worldwide box office October 27-29 Rank Film (distributor) 3-day (world) Cume (world) 3-day (int’l) 3-day (int’l) Territories 1. Five Nights At Freddy’s (Universal) $130.6m $130.6m $52.6m $52.6m 64 2. Killers Of The Flower Moon (Paramount) $24.2m $88.1m $15.2m $47.4m 66 3. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (various) $21.4m $203.0m $6.7m $53.7m 96 4. Trolls Band Together (Universal) $13.4m $36.1m $13.4m $36.1m 43 5. Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie (Paramount) $11.9m $166.4m $9.7m $107.2m 68 6. Only The River Flows (various) $9.2m $21.7m $9.2m $21.7m 1 7. Exorcist: The Believer (Universal) $7.3m...

Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke is relieved that the festival he founded in the ancient walled city of Pingyao in China’s Shanxi province is back on track after a tricky few years during the pandemic.

Now in its seventh edition, Pingyao International Film Festival (Pyiff) takes place in a purpose built festival centre, with five screening rooms, exhibition halls and other facilities, inside the stunning Unesco world heritage site of Pingyao. Lin Xudong, a critic, academic and documentary filmmaker, is artistic director of the festival, with veteran festival director Marco Mueller as chief artistic consultant.

The festival managed to keep going through the pandemic era, last year shifting its dates from October to January, but the centre was often closed for months at a time due to China’s strict Covid regulations. “We had some difficult days – we had to shut down completely for 18 months in the middle of the...

Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon opened on $44m worldwide.

Worldwide box office October 20-22 Rank Film (distributor) 3-day (world) Cume (world) 3-day (int’l) 3-day (int’l) Territories 1. Killers Of The Flower Moon (Paramount)

$44m $44m $21m $21m 64 2. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (various) $41.5m $164.8m $10.5m $35m 36 3. Leo: Bloody Sweet (various) $31.2m $48.5m $29.1m $43.9m 29 4. Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie (Paramount) $16.2m $148.4m $11.7m $92.3m 67 5. Trolls Band Together (Universal) $14.3m $16.0m $14.3m $16.0m 26 6. The Exorcist: Believer (Universal) $13.8m $107.6m $8.2m $53.4m 81 7. Only The River Flows (various) $12.5m $12.5m $12.5m $12.5m 1 8. Under The Light (various) $6.9m $173.1m...

“Only the River Flows,” a pitch-black crime noir from auteur Wei Shujun, comfortably topped the mainland China box office on a quietish weekend.

The film, ostensibly a murder mystery, but one concerned more with atmosphere than linear plotting, earned $12.6 million (RMB90.8 million) in its opening three days, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway, or close to a third of the market.

The film had its premiere in Cannes where Variety gave it a rave review, calling it an “inventive riff on Asian-noir” and making comparisons with films by Park Chan-wook and Diao Yinan.

“Only the River Flows” has since played at a succession of festivals ever since, including New Zealand, BFI London, Vancouver, Adelaide and last week’s Pingyao event in China.

Falling to second place at the box office after three weeks on top was Zhang Yimou’s “Under the Light,” which earned $6.9 million for a four-weekend cumulative of $176 million.

Geng Zihan has just won Best Director in the Fei Mu Awards of Pingyao International Film Festival for her debut feature, A Song Sung Blue, a coming-of-age tale set in Harbin in northeast China.

The film, which premiered in Directors Fortnight at this year’s Cannes film festival, is produced by Jane Zheng with backing from Liang Jing and Guan Hu’s Seventh Art Pictures. Zheng’s producing credits include Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, starring Awkwafina, and Cathy Yan’s Dead Pigs.

Written by Liu Yining, the story revolves around a teenage girl, Liu Xian, who is left with her father for the summer when her mother gets a job in Africa. While her father is more interested in his relationship with the receptionist at his photography studio, Liu Xian strikes up a friendship with the receptionist’s daughter, Mingmei – a glamorous older girl who is training to be...

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon East-West Award

Huang Jianxin

International Contribution to Chinese Cinema Award

Norman Wang

Fei Mu Awards

Fei Mu Awards: Best Film

“Only the River Flows” Dir. Wei Shujun.

Fei Mu Awards: Best Director

Geng Zihan for “A Song Sung Blue”

Film Review: A Song Sung Blue (2023) by Zihan Geng

Fei Mu Awards: Best Actress

Lyu Xingchen for “Carefree Days” (dir. Xu Lingling)

Fei Mu Awards: Best Actor

Zhang Yu for “Records Without Words” (dir. Li Lizhong)

Fei Mu Awards: Jury Award

“Dance Still” Dirs. Qin Muqiu, Zhan Hanqi

Fei Mu Awards: Special Mention (joint winners)

“The Night Rain South Township” Dir. Li Binbin.

“Undoing Time” Dir. Li Pu

Fei Mu Awards: Best Short Film

“Questions to Heaven” Dirs. Wenqi, Zheng Ziyi.

Roberto Rossellini Awards

Roberto Rossellini Awards: Best Film

“Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell” Dir. Pham Thien An

Roberto Rossellini Awards: Best Director

Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir for “City of Wind...

Two titles which debuted at Cannes this year were named as the major prize-winners at the seventh edition of the Pingyao International Film Festival in China.

Wei Shujun’s black comedy-thriller “Only the River Flows” won the festival’s Fei Mu prize for best Chinese film. “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell,” by Vietnamese feature film debutant Pham Thien An, won the Roberto Rossellini prize for best international film. The picture is a Vietnam, Singapore, France, Spain co-production and won Cannes’ Camera d’Or for best first film.

Other prizes went to Hong Kong-based Norman Wang, a veteran consultant, marketeer and festival scout, and to Huang Jianxin, a leading mainland Chinese director-screenwriter and producer whose directing career has ranged from satire to propaganda. He also produced Sun Zhou’s Gong Li- and Tony Leung-starring “Zhou Yu’s Train.”

The festival, originally conceived by Jia Zhangke and Marco Mueller, is held in the Unesco-heritage,...

Wei Shujun’s Only The River Flows was presented with Best Film in the Fei Mu Awards at this year’s Pingyao International Film Festival (Pyiff), while Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell, directed by Vietnam’s Pham Thien An, won Best Film in the festival’s Roberto Rossellini Awards.

The Fei Mu Awards recognise up-and-coming Chinese filmmakers selected in the festival’s Hidden Dragons section. The Roberto Rossellini Awards are presented to films in the Crouching Tigers section for emerging international filmmakers.

Both Only The River Flows and Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell premiered at this year’s Cannes film festival, the former in Un Certain Regard and the latter in Directors Fortnight where it won the Camera d’Or.

Geng Zihan won Best Director in the Fei Mu Awards for A Song Sung Blue, which also premiered in Cannes Directors Fortnight. Luc Besson, who was in Pingyao with Dogman,...

On the occasion of his presence at the Busan International Film Festival, Wei Shujun talks about adapting “Mistakes by the River” for “Only the River Flows” , shooting an art house crime film, individuality in China, the concept of kids being born with disabilities, the casting and the cinematography, what kind of a film he would shoot if he had unlimited resources, and other topics.

China’s Pingyao International Film Festival has announced the line-up for its seventh edition (October 11-18), which will open with Wei Shujun’s Only The River Flows and close with the world premiere of Fei Yu’s Football On The Roof.

Wei’s 1990s-set noir thriller, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at this year’s Cannes film festival, is also one of 11 titles competing in Pingyao’s Hidden Dragons competition for emerging Chinese filmmakers. Football On The Roof tells the story of a female soccer team fighting against the odds in the remote mountains of Yunnan province.

The Hidden Dragons line-up also includes Geng Zihan’s A Song Sung Blue, which premiered in Cannes Directors Fortnight, along with world premieres including Hao Feihuan’s Records Without Words, Li Binbin’s The Night Rain South Township and Yang Pingdao’s A Romantic Fragment (see full line-up below).

Pingyao has also...

Everyone is invited to the 67th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express!

The BFI London Film Festival, founded in 1957, now at its 67th edition, is a renowned annual event that celebrates international and British cinema. It offers a diverse array of films, premieres, and engaging discussions, attracting filmmakers, industry professionals, and movie enthusiasts. This festival is a vital platform for promoting cinematic excellence and storytelling. Once again, this year's selection of Asian titles is rich and articulated.

Find all the Asian films and the Festival's trailer, here:

Cobweb 

In this electric meta-comedy, The Good, the Bad, the Weird director Kim Jee-Woon captures the turbulence of South Korea's film industry in the 1970s.

Evil Does Not Exist 

Drive My Car director Ryusuke Hamaguchi's new drama sees a community fighting to preserve its principles and the integrity of their natural world.

Self-Portrait: 47 Km 2020 

The eleventh instalment in Zhang Mengqi...

Prior selections Close, Drive My Car, The Worst Person In The World all garnered international feature film Oscar submissions.

Aki Kaurismäki’s Cannes jury prize winner Fallen Leaves and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses starring Cannes best actress winner Merve Dizdar – both Oscar submissions this year – are among the international line-up at the upcoming 59th Chicago International Film Festival (October 11–22).

Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Pictures Of Ghosts are two other Cannes selections to feature in the roster, while Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist and Lina Soualem’s Bye Bye Tiberias both launched in Venice.

Berlin- and Paris-based Salaud Morisset, a leading short film production and distribution outfit, has acquired two feature films for world sales – one selected by Karlovy Vary Film Festival and the other by Locarno Film Festival – as the company accelerates into feature film sales and production.

Salaud Morisset has taken world sales rights on Cyril Aris’ feature documentary “Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano,” which premiered in the main competition at Karlovy Vary this week and received a Special Jury Mention, and Una Gunjak’s fiction feature “Excursion,” just announced as the opener of Locarno Film Festival’s Filmmakers of the Present section. Salaud Morisset, which is also a co-producer on “Excursion,” aims to continue fostering synergies between its production and sales operations as it commits to a full slate of feature projects.

“Dancing on the Edge of the Volcano”

Salaud Morisset will also continue handling selected shorts and represents...

As we have mentioned in the past, Chinese cinema has a knack of producing crime films that unfold in a distinct art house style, with titles like “Black Coal, Thin Ice”, “Mr Six”, and “Long Day's Journey into the Night” being among the first that come to mind. Cannes-favorite (all four of his movies have screened there) Wei Shujun returned in 2023 in the festival with, “Only the River Flows”, a movie that follows a similar approach.

“Only the River Flows” screened at Cannes Official poster – 76th edition © Photo © Jack Garofalo/Paris Match/Scoop – Création graphique © Hartland Villa

Adapted from the novella “Mistakes by the River” by the famous Chinese novelist Yu Hua, the almost entirely shot on 16mm film takes place in the small city of Banpo in China during the 90s. It is there that police detective Ma Zhe is tasked with finding the culprit of the murder of Granny Four,...

This year's edition of Cannes film festival offered a number of high quality titles from Asia, both in competiton(s) and side bar programmes. One of the most awaited films was Takeshi Kitano's “Kubi” screened in Premiere section, in director's presence. Back to the samurai genre, 20 years after the critically acclaimed “Zatoichi” and with a period piece based on his own historic novel published in 2019, Kitano struggled to bring his characters close to the audience, but stayed faithful to the title by making many heads roll. “Kubi” (which was also the title of his novel) means “neck”, a beloved target of the samurai sword. This is allegedly the last film by “Beat”, if we take his statement before the festival kicked off seriously.

A year after his drama “Broker” brought Palme D'Or for Best Actor to Song Kang-ho, and five after he was awarded Palme D'Or for “Shoplifters”, Hirokazu Koreeda...

They say that third is a charm, but in the case of Wei Shujun, all four of his movies were blessed with the honor of being shown in different segments of Cannes' competition programs. In 2018, his short “On The Border” won the Special Jury Award, his feature debut “Striding Into The Wind” entered the Official Selection in 2020 followed by the sophomore drama “Ripples of Life” screened in Directors' Fortnight in 2021. At this year's 76th edition of Cannes Film Festival the audience had the opportunity to see his beautifully accomplished noir “Only The River Flows” in the Un Certain regard competition.

Each of Wei Shujun works differs in topics and style, and it was intriguing to follow his artistic development over the years. In “Only The River Flows”, an intricate story about a detective who investigates a series of murders in times of significant political changes in China, viewers get challenged,...

Text written on June 6, 2023 by Jean-Marc Thérouanne

Asia in the juries :

Franco-Afghan writer and director Atiq Rahimi was the only Asian member of the prestigious jury at the 76th Cannes Film Festival

Fench-Cambodian director Davy Chou was the only Asia-related member of the Un Certain Regard jury

Davy Chou

Shlomi Elkabetz was the only member of the short film jury and the Cinef with a connection to geographical Asia.

Asia in the selections:

Asia, from the Near to the Far East, was present with 31 features and 13 shorts in all the official and parallel sections of the 76th Cannes Film Festival.

In compétition :

– China: Youth (Spring) by Wang Bing

– Japan: Monster by Kore-eda Hirokazu,

Kim Dong-ho, Hirokazu Koreeda

– Turkey: About Dry Grasses by Nuri Bilge Ceylan,

and The Pot-au-feu by French-Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung and Wim Wenders' Perfect Days, set in Japan.

Out of compétition :

– Korea: Cobweb by Kim Jee-won,...