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Asian cinema

Asian cinema
Views, news, and reviews of films from the continent's biggest movie production centres.
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Tilda Swinton hits Hong Kong to make the case for film preservation and praise the magic of old cinema. Photo: Courtesy of Chanel

Tilda Swinton brings star power to a conversation on classic Hong Kong films

Tilda Swinton recently visited Hong Kong’s M+ art museum, shining her A-list light on the vital role of film preservation in connecting audiences to a more authentic version of cinematic storytelling.

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ComplexCon Hong Kong 2025 unveils a star-studded music lineup featuring headliners Metro Boomin and Zico. Photo: ComplexCon

ComplexCon Hong Kong announces Metro Boomin and Zico as 2025 headliners

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NewJeans perform during Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2024 in Seoul, South Korea, in December 2023. Photo: Getty Images

NJZ, formerly NewJeans, are coming to ComplexCon Hong Kong

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Content from SCMP's Specialist Publications
(From left) Amy Yip, Man Siu and Kudo Hitomi in a still from Erotic Ghost Story.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How the Erotic Ghost Story films shocked and seduced Hong Kong

The trio of 1990s adult movies with Hong Kong sex symbols like Amy Yip and Japanese adult-video actresses like Kudo Hitomi were a huge hit.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

The Hong Kong films released in 2024, ranked from worst to best

Asian cinema: Korean films

Review | Dark Nuns: Korean exorcism horror with Song Hye-kyo, Jeon Yeo-been

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | The Last Dance: Dayo Wong, Michael Hui in exquisite funeral drama

Comic actors excel in purely dramatic roles, but Michelle Wai steals the show in an engrossing film that champions female empowerment.

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Dayo Wong (left) and Michael Hui in a still from The Last Dance (category IIB; Cantonese), directed by Anselm Chan. Michelle Wai co-stars. Photo: Emperor Motion Pictures
Asian cinema: Korean films

Review | Hidden Face, a Korean erotic thriller, serves up scandalous fun

This sexy K-movie follows a conductor who sleeps with the replacement player for his cellist fiancée, who seems to have disappeared.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

From worst to best, 4 fantasy wuxia films with weird monsters

We recall a lurid mix of wuxia and witchcraft, Cheng Pei-pei in Dragon Swamp, and two films featuring a risible lizard and non-giant spider.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Broken Oath, starring Angela Mao, is a hidden gem of kung fu film

Angela Mao, all glammed up, plays an assassin in Broken Oath, a 1977 remake of a Japanese classic. It is one of her greatest performances.

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Angela Mao in a still from Broken Oath. Photo: Eureka Entertainment
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Why Loletta Lee, Hong Kong star of the 80s and 90s, is acting again

A standout performer in this year’s gritty award-winning Hong Kong film Drifting, Lee reflects on her four-decade career and hopes more films can draw attention to social ills.

Asian cinema: Korean films

Review | Forbidden Fairytale: bubbly Korean sex comedy is closed-minded and prudish

Park Ji-hyun plays a youth protection officer who starts writing pornography to pay for car repairs in this non-risqué erotic comedy.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How Chingmy Yau shocked Hong Kong and became one of its biggest sex symbols

Chingmy Yau’s transition from respectable actress to star of Category III adult films full of sex and violence like ‘Naked Killer’ was quite the revelation in Hong Kong in the 1990s.

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Hong Kong actress and sex symbol Chingmy Yau in a still from Naked Killer (1992), which was a potent mix of lesbianism, gross violence and crude humour.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

‘Could have been 3 movies’: Chang Cheh’s The Brave Archer crams in a lot

Hong Kong filmmaker Chang Cheh wanted to do justice to Louis Cha’s The Legend of the Condor Heroes. But his trilogy is dense and confusing.

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Niu Niu as Huang Rong and Alexander Fu Sheng as Guo Jing in a still from The Brave Archer 3.
Hong Kong entertainment

Award-winning director Soi Cheang appointed to Hong Kong Film Development Council

‘Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In’ director will advise on local film production, nurturing talent, expanding markets and building audiences.

Asian cinema: Japanese films

Review | Grand Maison Paris: Takuya Kimura goes to France in Japanese chef drama

TV show La Grande Maison Tokyo spin-off with Ok Taec-yeon and Kyoka Suzuki a feast for the eyes but not the ears as Kimura butchers French.

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Cinema

Best movies to watch at the Hong Kong International Film Festival 2025

The 2025 HKIFF boasts a line-up of nearly 200 films to be shown over 12 days. Here is our pick of unmissable movies and programmes.

Anthony Wong Chau-sang in a still from Valley of the Shadow of Death.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | Peg O’ My Heart: great visuals, awful story in Nick Cheung horror thriller

Andy Lau cameo can’t save Cheung’s film starring himself, Fala Chen and Terrance Lau that is heavy on style but lacks convincing backstories.

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Fala Chen and Nick Cheung in a still from Peg O’ My Heart (category: IIB, Cantonese). Directed by Nick Cheung and co-starring Terrence Lau.
Asian cinema: Japanese films

Review | In 1st Kiss, Japanese time-travel romance, Takako Matsu woos a younger man

Director Ayuko Tsukahara’s story follows a middle-aged woman who travels back in time to save her marriage and her husband’s life.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

What other films did A Chinese Ghost Story’s Tony Ching Siu-tung direct?

From a film starring Kelly Chen and Donnie Yen to an Indiana Jones rip-off with Jet Li, 4 of Tony Ching’s lesser-known productions.

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European cinema

John Rabe, film with a Western angle on the Nanking massacre

The film tells the story of the Japanese massacre of Chinese civilians through the eyes of ‘good’ Nazi John Rabe.

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Ulrich Tukur plays the title role in the 2009 film John Rabe, which recounts the Nanking massacre from a Western standpoint. Photo: Handout
Asian cinema: Chinese films

Review | In fencing-themed drama Pierce, Liu Hsiu-fu and Tsao Yu-ning are brothers

Singaporean filmmaker Nelicia Low’s feature film debut has some visual flourishes but is let down by glaring weaknesses in its narrative.

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South Korea

Petition in South Korea demanding laws against celebrity bullying gains traction

Prompted by the death of K-drama star Kim Sae-Ron, the petition has garnered enough signatures to warrant a review by a committee.

Asian cinema: Korean films

Review | Revelations: Ryu Jun-yeol leads Yeon Sang-ho’s disappointing Netflix thriller

A flimsy plot and sketchy logic spoil this story of a pastor and a detective who go after a recently released sex offender.

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Ryu Jun-yeol as Sung Min-chan in a still from Revelations. Photo: Cho Wonjin/Netflix
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Riley Ip’s 3 best Hong Kong films, with stars such as Shu Qi and Eric Tsang

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Riley Ip made films featuring stars such as Takeshi Kaneshiro and Anthony Wong. Here are the 3 best.

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Eric Tsang (centre) and Nicholas Tse in a still from Riley Ip’s 1999 film Metade Fumaca, one of five he made around the turn of the century.
K-drama news

Profile | Who is Park Bo-gum, IU’s co-star in Netflix’s When Life Gives You Tangerines?

Park’s soft looks and easy smile made him popular, but it is his expressive performances and acting talent that have made him a star.

Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Profile | Fala Chen started out as a beauty queen. Now she’s a Hollywood star

From a chance pageant win to starring in international blockbusters, Fala Chen’s journey is a testament to her talent and determination.

Asian cinema: Japanese films

Review | The Solitary Gourmet review: beloved Japanese TV food comedy hits cinemas

Directed by and starring Yutaka Matsushige, The Solitary Gourmet movie gives a warmhearted tour of traditional Japanese small-town cuisine.

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Yutaka Matsushige in a still from The Solitary Gourmet (Category I; Japanese).
Asia travel

Why is once sleepy Luang Prabang now on tourists’ radar?

A railway from China, an unlikely film festival and a new generation of entrepreneurs are shaking things up in Luang Prabang, northern Laos.

Tourists taking part in an alms-giving ceremony by a procession of monks in Luang Prabang. Photo: Getty Images
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | True Love, for Once in My Life: self-indulgent Hong Kong romance

A self-financed autobiographical story, this film about a wife’s devotion to a love-cheat ex-husband is melodramatic and ill-judged.

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American cinema

Oscars 2025 as it happened: night of triumph for Sean Baker’s Anora

Sean Baker’s comedy-drama about a stripper takes the biggest award all after wins including best picture and best actress for Mikey Madison.

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Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Profile | Sam Hui, the ‘father of Cantopop’ whose music and film roles struck a chord

He popularised Cantopop and helped revive Hong Kong cinema after Bruce Lee died. We look at the enduring legacy of the ‘Elvis of The Orient’.

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Sam Hui performs in Hong Kong in December 2007. Photo: SCMP
Sam Hui performs in Hong Kong in December 2007. Photo: SCMP
Asian cinema: Chinese films

Review | In Salli, a dating scam leads Esther Liu to find her worth

Lien Chien-hung’s film follows a lonely chicken farmer who embarks on a journey of self-discovery after being scammed on a dating app.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | Little Red Sweet: Stephy Tang, Simon Yam in Hong Kong family drama

A family and their dessert shop are turned upside down by illness in a film that chooses nostalgia over substance.

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European cinema

How politics stop the Oscars celebrating the best of international cinema

When entries for the best international film Oscar are selected by government bodies, politics often rears its ugly head.

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Director Mohammad Rasoulof, whose film The Seed of the Sacred Fig wasn’t put forward for the Oscars by his country, Iran. Photo: AP
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

10 of the best movies from the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival

Sex, love, spies, fame, family, trauma and plenty of politics were on the menu at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival.

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Marion Cotillard in a still from The Ice Tower, screened at the Berlin International Film Festival. Photo: Handout
Marion Cotillard in a still from The Ice Tower, screened at the Berlin International Film Festival. Photo: Handout
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Hong Kong cinema had a terrible time in the early 2000s. Here’s why

Hong Kong’s film industry suffered a huge slump from 2000-2009, but did the mainland Chinese market and China co-productions save it?

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Asian cinema: Korean films

Review | What Does that Nature Say to You: Hong Sang-soo finds humour in domesticity

Korean director’s film examines, with humour, the difficulties of artistic life through the lens of a man meeting his girlfriend’s family.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How Johnnie To’s action thriller Vengeance hit all the right targets

Starring Johnny Hallyday, Anthony Wong, Lam Ka-tung and Lam Suet, the 2009 Hong Kong-France co-production brought the best out of both sides.

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Johnny Hallyday in a still from Vengeance (2009), a Hong Kong-France co-production directed by Johnnie To and also starring Anthony Wong, Lam Ka-tung, Lam Suet and Simon Yam.