News

The Hong Kong-Asian Film Collaboration Funding Scheme has selected two Hong Kong-Japan co-productions by seasoned producers Stanley Kwan and Shunsuke Koga as its first winning projects.

All The Things We Have Done Wrong That Led Us To This, produced by Kwan, and 38.83, produced by Koga, will each receive a grant of up to $1.1m (Hk$9m) to support their production. The announcement was made at the Hong Kong Night during the Cannes Film Festival on May 16.

All The Things… is to be directed by Japan’s Daishi Matsunaga, whose LGBTQ+ romance drama Egoist played in competition at Tokyo in 2022 and...

Despite a series of issues the whole Chinese language movie world is experiencing, it seems, and as we also mentioned last year, the local industries are also moving intensely forward, with the productions of quality from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong increasing significantly. In that fashion, Hong Kong seems to have made a rather successful turn towards social/family dramas, Taiwan continues on the rather high level it has established for some years now, while China's local blockbusters and international, diaspora movies continue to lead the way, both locally and beyond the borders of the country.

Without further ado, here are 20 movies that highlighted all the aforementioned in 2023, in reverse order, although the difference of quality is so small here, that the order could be completely different. Some films may have premiered in 2022, but since they mostly circulated in 2023, we decided to include them.

20. Who'll Stop the Rain by Su...

Leaff 2023 brings a diverse programme from East and Southeast Asia, including international and UK premieres. This year, our programme will be showcased through these strands: Retrospective: Director Chung Ji-Young, Leaff’s Official Selection, Competition, Stories of Women, Halloween Horror Special, Cherish the World, Lgbtqia+ and Classics Restored. The festival will open and close at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square. Other screenings and Q&As will take place at Odeon Luxe West End and the Cinema at Selfridges.

For more information about tickets, please visit: https://www.leaff.org.uk/2023tickets

Here is the full programme:

Opening Gala

The Boys + Q&a with the Director | Dir. Chung Ji-Young | Korea | 2023 | 124 mins

Closing Gala

Concrete Utopia + Q&a with Director, Actor Park Bo-young | Dir. Um Tae-hwa | Korea | 2023 | 130 mins

Leaff Official Selection

The Breaking Ice | Dir. Anthony Chen | Singapore | 2022 | 97 mins

Dan Dan | Dir. Song Chuan | China | 2022 | 103 mins

Hidden Blade | Dir. Cheng Er | Hong Kong | 2022 | 128 mins

In Broad Daylight | Dir.

A Hong Kong superstar, Louis Koo has appeared in everything from thrillers and sci-fi blockbusters to romances and comedies. This year he received the Extraordinary Star Asia Award at the New York Asian Film Festival.

The festival showcased three of his recent projects: In Broad Daylight, a drama about abuse in an assisted living facility; The White Storm 3, part of a trilogy of action films about drug cartels; and Vital Sign, a drama about emergency service workers. Koo’s One Cool World produced the first film; he stars in the other two.

As the veteran in a three-man ambulance crew, Koo plays a moodier character in Vital Sign than his fans usually see. A father and widower, Ma Chi-yip is nearing the end of his career, struggling with bureaucracy and his own physical ailments.

“I saw a different side of him, maybe because of the story,” director Cheuk Wan-chi said about Koo’s performance.

Cheuk Wan-chi is an eclectic Hong Kong public personality; a radio host, a stand-up comedian, a writer, and a screenwriter for the likes of Sylvia Chang and Pang Ho-cheung, she is now at her third feature film as a director. After the girly action-comedy “Kick Ass Girls” in 2013 and “Temporary Family” in 2014, another comedy with a stellar cast addressing speculation on property in Hong Kong, her third film is yet again dealing with some very local issues. This time, though, the comedy tone gives way to a compelling drama where family and work tightly entwine.

Vital Sign is screening at New York Asian Film Festival

Protagonist Ma Chi-yip (Louis Koo) is a veteran Hong Kong paramedic working “on field” on ambulances, whose stubborn reluctance to follow protocols at all costs and to play along with the workplace bureaucracy has taken him nowhere. In fact, despite his experience and dedication, his...

The acclaimed actor accepted an honorary award at the New York Asian Film Festival.

Filmmakers will never be surpassed by artificial intelligence (AI), according to acclaimed Hong Kong actor and producer Louis Koo.

Speaking on stage at the New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff), Koo referenced the SAG-AFTRA strikes in the US, which has seen tens of thousands of actors and screenwriters walk out over concerns about pay, working conditions and the industry’s use of AI.

“I know that in America there has been strikes, writers strikes as well as actors strikes,” he told a packed cinema on Wednesday...

Producer Pellin Chou set to attend special screening.

Netflix animation The Monkey King has been set as the closing film of the 22nd New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff), marking the first time the festival has partnered with the streaming giant.

The special screening will take place on July 30, more than two weeks before the August 18 premiere on Netflix worldwide. It will be attended by Netflix Animation producer Peilin Chou, a former Oriental Dreamworks executive who produced Abominable and was Oscar-nominated for Over The Moon.

The feature is directed by Anthony Stacchi, who was nominated for an Oscar in 2015 for co-directing The Boxtrolls,...

Nyaff unveils first wave of features from China, Hong Kong, Japan and beyond.

The New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff) has unveiled the first wave of features for its 22nd edition and announced that Japanese actor Ryohei Suzuki will receive the Screen International Rising Star award.

Nyaff will run from July 14-30 at the city’s Film at Lincoln Center, with a programme of more than 60 titles, and Suzuki will be presented with the award recognising emerging talent from East Asia on July 15.

Suzuki has been acting on screen for more than 15 years, with a string of roles in Japanese...

Hong Kong star and producer to be honoured for his contribution to the film industry.

Acclaimed Hong Kong star and producer Louis Koo is set to receive the highest honour bestowed by the New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff) next month.

Koo will receive the Extraordinary Star Asia Award for Exceptional Contribution to Asian Cinema at New York’s Film at Lincoln Center on July 19.

As one of Hong Kong’s biggest stars, Koo has more than 100 credits to his name including sci-fi action thriller Warriors Of Future, which became the highest-grossing Asian film of all time in the territory following its release last August.

Bali International Film Festival (Balinale) kicks off its 16th edition from Thursday, 1 June until Sunday, 4 June 2023 bringing together a diverse group of acclaimed filmmakers and prominent professionals from the film, entertainment, and creative industries to celebrate cinema.

Balinale showcases the finest Indonesian and International movies.

Over our 4-day event will present forty-five films from thirteen countries at Park23 Creative Hub Cinema Xxi, Tuban Kuta, Bali. Several of these films are world, Asian, and international premieres. Opening Balinale is A Guilty Conscience directed by Jack Ng. actor, Dee Ho, will be at the festival to present the film.

Notable films include Sisu from Finland, directed by Jalmari Helander; Klondike from Ukraine, directed by Maryna Er Gorbach; Where the Wind Blows from Hong Kong, directed by Philip Yung; and Women Talking from the United States, directed by Sarah Polley.

In competition 2023

In 2023, the festival's juried competition will present awards in several artistic and technical categories: Narrative Features,...

Huang Ji and Otsuka Ryuji’s “Stonewalling” won the Chinese-language section of the Hong Kong International Film Festival’s Firebird Young Cinema competition. Lila Aviles’s “Totem” won the equivalent Firebird Award for international films.

The festival began on March 30 and concluded on Sunday evening with a world premier screening of “Vital Sign” at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre’s Grand Theatre. The screening was accompanied by cast and crew including Louis Koo, director Cheuk Wan-chi, producer Jacqueline Liu and performers Neo Yao, Angela Yuen, Ng Wing-sze, Tony Wu and So Yuet-yin.

In total, “Stonewalling” picked up three awards. In addition to the best film prize, it also collected the best actress prize for leads Huang Xiaoxiong and Yao Honggui and the Fipresci Award. The tale of an unwanted pregnancy, the film premiered at Venice and Toronto last year. The Hkiff jury said it “[reminds] us of the confusion, difficulty and...

Stonewalling, co-directed by Huang Ji and Otsuka Ryuji, was the big winner at Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff), taking home three prizes including best film in the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese Language) of the Firebird Awards.

While Hkiff did manage to hold some postponed, but in-theatre, editions during the pandemic, this year was the first time the festival had been able to welcome overseas guests after Hong Kong dropped it strict Covid quarantine requirements towards the end of last year. The festival wraps today (April 10) and held its awards ceremony with a screening of closing film, Cheuk Wan-chi’s Vital Sign, last night.

Part of a trilogy that focuses on the struggles of young women in contemporary China, Stonewalling also won best actress, which was shared by its two female leads, Huang Xiaoxiong and Yao Honggui, playing mother and daughter, and also picked up the Fipresci prize.

The Hkiff...

’The Dream, The Bubble, And The Shadow’ is from ‘Ip Man’ director Wilson Yip.

Hong Kong-based One Cool Pictures is launching a string of new titles featuring Louis Koo, Jennifer Yu, Kay Tse and Lim Min Chen as it returns to Hong Kong Filmart, the company’s first physical market since 2019.

The Dream, The Bubble, And The Shadow, directed by Wilson Yip, produced by Soi Cheang and starring Koo, reunites the same team behind 2017’s Paradox from the Spl franchise, which won Koo the best actor award at the Hong Kong Film Awards and Asian Film Awards.

The upcoming suspense...

Hkiff set to run from March 30 – April 10.

Three local films - Soi Cheang’s Mad Fate, Ann Hui’s documentary Elegies and Cheuk Wan Chi’s Vital Sign - will bookend the 47th Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff) as it returns to a full physical event and welcomes international filmmakers back in person.

The festival unveiled its full line-up today at a press event well attended by local filmmakers and cast. Some 200 films from 64 countries and regions will be presented during the 12-day festival, including nine world premieres, six international premieres and 67 Asian premieres. There will be 320 (mostly in-theatre...

The Asian premiere of Soi Cheang’s “Mad Fate” is just one of three locally-produced movies that have been set as the opening and closing titles of the upcoming Hong Kong International Film Festival.

“Mad Fate” is joined in the festival opening slot on March 30 by “Elegies,” Ann Hui’s documentary portrayal of the topography of contemporary local poetry, which will have its world premiere. The closing film, another world premiere, is “Vital Sign,” an affecting drama directed by Cheuk Wan-chi and starring Louis Koo, Yau Hawk-sau, and Angela Yuen, which will wrap up proceedings on 10 April.

In total, the festival has programmed some 200 films from 64 countries and territories. These include nine world premieres, six international premieres, and 67 Asian premieres.

“Mad Fate,” an intense examination of murder, local superstition and the lower depths of society, premiered last month at the Berlin festival in a special section. Cheang will be a major feature of the Hkiff,...

This year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff) will open with two local films – Soi Cheang’s noir thriller Mad Fate and the world premiere of Ann Hui’s Elegies, a documentary about contemporary local poetry.

Mad Fate, starring Gordon Lam and Lokman Yeung, a member of hot boy band Mirror, recently had its world premiere at the Berlin film festival. Soi Cheang has also been chosen as the Filmmaker In Focus at this year’s Hkiff.

The world premiere of Cheuk Wan-chi’s Vital Sign, starring starring Louis Koo, Yau Hawk-sau and Angela Yuen, will close the festival.

Hkiff, which runs for 12 days from March 30 to April 10, is returning to its usual spring dates after being postponed to August last year due to Hong Kong’s fifth and most serious wave of Covid.

Overseas filmmakers, including Taiwan’s Tsai Ming-Liang and Lee Kang-Sheng, will be returning to the...

Well Go USA Entertainment has announced that Fruit Chan’s genre-bending The Midnight After will be available on DVD and digitally on 21 June 2016.

The film premiered at the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival and was the recipient of numerous prestigious nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Cinematography at the Hong Kong Film Awards, where it also won in the Best Original Score category.

Based on a cult internet novel by Hong Kong writer “Mr. Pizza“, The Midnight After follows a group of 16 bus passengers who find that, in the time between entering and emerging from a traffic tunnel, the city was struck by an apocalyptic event.

The innovative Chan sculpts a blend of horror, comedy, mystery and sci-fi, flinging his unique cast of characters into increasingly bizarre scenarios.

The film received critical praise for its tone, most notably the blasé manner in which characters respond to the otherworldly circumstances they find themselves in.

Speculate on property. This is Hk lifestyle!To speculate on property amid Hong Kong's rapidly changing real estate market conditions is to speculate on emotions, according to Cheuk Wan Chi's (aka Vincci/Gc Goo Bi) Temporary Family, a simple but perfectly enjoyable urban comedy that gets most of its energy from the all-around impressive chemistry between Nick Cheung and Sammi Cheng. Beyond finely tuned performances from the four top-billed actors (the aforementioned veterans of Hk cinema + Angelbaby and Oho), what makes Temporary Family stand out from the crowd of recently released run-of-the-mill Hk comedies is a very straightforward and credible script that fortunately doesn't place too much emphasis on the ongoing romantic shenanigans, but puts an amusing spin on the 'unlikely flatmates' formula instead.Through various more...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Somewhere deep inside of us there's a spot that still hasn't forgiven director Fruit Chan for what he did to our psyche with his disturbing flick Dumplings (we can still hear that crunching). Will his next flick have the same effect?

Screen Daily reports that Hong Kong’s Golden Scene is producing Chan’s (pictured) first Hong Kong-set feature in almost a decade, sci-fi thriller The Midnight After, based on bestselling novel Lost on a Minibus by Mongkok To Tai Po.

Chan plans to start shooting in June with an ensemble cast including regulars from his previous films like Wong You Nam (Hollywood Hong Kong), Chui Tien You (Little Cheung) and Sam Lee (Made In Hong Kong). The cast also includes Hong Kong stars Simon Yam, Lam Suet, Janice Man, Kara Hui and Vincci Cheuk.

The story follows a group of passengers on a minibus who emerge from a tunnel...

Golden Scene and One Ninety Films Co. are set to produce the Hong Kong-set sci-fi thriller "The Midnight After".

Fruit Chan ("Three Extremes: Dumplings," "Made in Hong Kong") will helm the project, based on the story "Lost on a Red Minibus to Taipo" by Mr. Pizza, with shooting to begin in June.

The story follows a group of passengers on a minibus who emerge from a tunnel to discover that every single person has disappeared from Hong Kong.

Then the remaining passengers start to go missing one by one. Wong You Nam, Chui Tien You, Sam Lee, Simon Yam, Lam Suet, Janice Man, Kara Hui and Vincci Cheuk star.

Source: Screen Daily...