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The Wheel of Life
King Hu headlines but doesn’t dominate a roundly adventurous, exquisite reincarnation saga… In 1970, four major Taiwanese directors collaborated for omnibus film Four Moods, which was loosely built...
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Atrangi Re
AR Rahman flavours this offbeat offering for a fresh spin on an old-fashioned genre… Let’s just start by saying the obvious: The whole world loves A.R. Rahman. Seriously. Some parts of it have taken...
View ArticleBelle
Hosoda’s take on Beauty and the Beast is nothing short of sensational… Mamoru Hosoda became a notable name for me in 2000 with Digimon: The Movie, which I think is still one of his best. The quality of...
View ArticleLove and Leashes
Office romance gets a little kinky in the latest Korean Netflix production… The Korean takeover of Netflix continues with Love and Leashes, a romantic comedy which as the title suggests comes with a...
View ArticleLove, Life and Goldfish
A strait-laced banker finds his life turned upside down after being exiled to a small country town where people are crazy about goldfish… A live-action adaptation of the manga Sukutte Goran by Noriko...
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In Love with the Dead
A man caring for his cancer-stricken wife starts to suspect that she might be a ghost in this 2007 Danny Pang outing… It’s fair to say that by the end of the 2000s, the Pang brothers Danny and Oxide...
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Pretty Ghost
A classic slice of Hong Kong romantic ghost comedy nonsense from the glory days of the early 90s… It’s time again for that most uniquely Hong Kong of genres, the ghost comedy romance, with the 1991...
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Mama Boy
A quirk romantic comedy about a submissive son who falls for the maîtresse of a brothel… Mama Boy, written and directed by Arvin Chen, is a bittersweet romantic comedy about a sweet and melancholic...
View ArticleThe First Girl I Loved
A first love between two best friends leaves both lost when they go their separate ways… Wing Lee and Sylvia Lee are two best friends in secondary (senior high) school in Hong Kong, sharing everything...
View ArticleLesson In Murder
A visual elegant examination of the desire that drives us all… Kazuya Shiraishi has, in recent years, made a name for himself as the director that has shown that audiences can still appreciate...
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Grown-ups
Whose baby? The big question distinctly and grippingly explored through a contemporary Japanese lens… One of the great ironies of modern Japanese cinema is how the country has arguably the worst...
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His Motorbike, Her Island
And thus the legend of Riki Takeuchi is born: in the unlikely form of a breezy, rebellious romance from Obayashi… Many major Japanese actors had rather modest beginnings, with roles where they hadn’t...
View ArticleFar Far Away
This endearing romcom offers an interesting social realist study of Hong Kong life, but one perhaps more meaningful to local audiences… At one point in Far Far Away, the main character, a young guy...
View ArticleDecision To Leave
Park Chan-wook returns with a dizzying noir starring Park Hae-il and Tang Wei… Filled with nods to Hitchcock, director Park Chan-wook returns with his first feature film since 2016’s The Handmaiden, a...
View ArticleOur Blooming Youth
A cursed Crown Prince and a woman accused of murder become the ultimate crime-solving duo… The theme is nailed early on in this palace intrigue/murder mystery, when Min Jae-yi (Jeon So-nee, Encounter,...
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Egoist
A thought-provoking, authentic queer love story set in contemporary Tokyo that transcends clichés and stereotypes… Premiering in Europe at the 25th Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy and competing...
View ArticleGolgo 13
A pleasant action narrative that is all about celebrating the character… The manga Golgo 13 might not have the international renown as other manga, but the fact that its run, which started in 1968, in...
View ArticleEveryphone Everywhere
Amos Why’s latest is another sprint around Hong Kong, this time with a mobile phone theme… Director Amos Why follows Far, Far Away with another whimsical look at contemporary Hong Kong in Everyphone,...
View ArticleMotherhood
An enjoyable and engaging exploration of the destructive impact of a subject’s fixation on gaining the mother’s love… Adapting a novel is never an easy task. The pen allows for many different...
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Nomad
A captivatingly dynamic postmodern pastiche of a city and its cinema; just as fun and wild as it is sophisticated… Who is Patrick Tam? Nothing more than one of the most talented figures in Hong Kong...
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