Marking his first feature in five years, Election and Drug War director Johnnie To has quietly embarked on his next project. Although no official details have been announced regarding the title or plot, HK01 (via Frank Yan) spotted To filming a scene with Hong Kong pop star Anson Lo, who plays a driver in the film. There’ll surely be more to come, but it’s exciting to see one of our great directors back at work.
Darren Aronofsky has found his next film and star. Following The Whale, he’ll direct Austin Butler in Caught Stealing, Deadline reports, a sports crime drama scripted by Charlie Huston based on his own book. The Sony Pictures project is described as an “adrenaline-soaked roller coaster ride” and will follow Butler as Hank Thompson, “a burned-out former baseball player, as he’s unwittingly plunged into a wild fight for survival in the downtown criminal underworld of ‘90s NYC.
Darren Aronofsky has found his next film and star. Following The Whale, he’ll direct Austin Butler in Caught Stealing, Deadline reports, a sports crime drama scripted by Charlie Huston based on his own book. The Sony Pictures project is described as an “adrenaline-soaked roller coaster ride” and will follow Butler as Hank Thompson, “a burned-out former baseball player, as he’s unwittingly plunged into a wild fight for survival in the downtown criminal underworld of ‘90s NYC.
- 3/28/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Singer and actor Richie Ren is no stranger when it comes to Hong Kong cinema, as he is best known for his stand out performance in Johnnie To's “Breaking News” (2004) and later in “Trivisa” (2015). In “Fierce Cop”, a Mainland online film streaming on Youku video platform is his first venture into the martial arts genre.
Set in country M, somewhere in Southeast Asia, there lives Zhang Tu, a middle aged single parent with a young son, Xiao Jie, who is also a hard working detective. He always asks his boss for a promotion so he can be a better role model for his son who is everything to him. One day, his son comes back from school in pain and covered with bruises, obviously a victim of bullying at school. After finding out that a bunch of young adults are responsible, he sets out to teach them a lesson by beating them up.
Set in country M, somewhere in Southeast Asia, there lives Zhang Tu, a middle aged single parent with a young son, Xiao Jie, who is also a hard working detective. He always asks his boss for a promotion so he can be a better role model for his son who is everything to him. One day, his son comes back from school in pain and covered with bruises, obviously a victim of bullying at school. After finding out that a bunch of young adults are responsible, he sets out to teach them a lesson by beating them up.
- 3/27/2024
- by David Chew
- AsianMoviePulse
Scenes of gun shootouts have been an essential fixture in cinema since “The Great Train Robbery” (1903). Serving as a staple of cinematic spectacles, filmmakers have continuously competed to present their unique interpretations, whether through virtuosic camera work or unconventional set-up. Just think back to the final assault in Branded to Kill, John Woo ‘s personal rendition of the Mexican standoff in the iconic restaurant scene from A Better Tomorrow (1986) or more recently the climax shootout of Drug War. The list could go on forever.
Diao Yinan introduced a very peculiar variation of it in his noir film “Black Coal” set in far northern China. Fragments of a recently identified body have been discovered scattered across various coal mining sites, leaving Inspector Zhang with just one lead: a coal truck driver who has just resigned, and whose brother happens to be the proprietor of a hair salon. The scene unfolds as Zhang,...
Diao Yinan introduced a very peculiar variation of it in his noir film “Black Coal” set in far northern China. Fragments of a recently identified body have been discovered scattered across various coal mining sites, leaving Inspector Zhang with just one lead: a coal truck driver who has just resigned, and whose brother happens to be the proprietor of a hair salon. The scene unfolds as Zhang,...
- 3/17/2024
- by Jean Claude
- AsianMoviePulse
Though he’s known today as one of Hong Kong’s most distinctive contemporary filmmakers, in the early 1990s Johnnie To was still a gun for hire. Having apprenticed for the region’s Tvb broadcasting network for most of the ’80s, he had only recently established himself as a reliable maker of action and comedy films. And chief among his early successes is 1993’s wuxia superhero film The Heroic Trio, which is at once indebted to his genre forebears in Hong Kong cinema and possessed of his own idiosyncratic skills.
Like so many wuxia classics, the film’s plot is at once unnecessarily convoluted and little more than justification for moving from one stunt set piece to the next. In the sewers beneath present-day Hong Kong’s bustling streets, an ancient court eunuch, Evil Master (Yen Shi-Kwan), abducts newborns of imperial blood and raises them as potential new emperors in...
Like so many wuxia classics, the film’s plot is at once unnecessarily convoluted and little more than justification for moving from one stunt set piece to the next. In the sewers beneath present-day Hong Kong’s bustling streets, an ancient court eunuch, Evil Master (Yen Shi-Kwan), abducts newborns of imperial blood and raises them as potential new emperors in...
- 2/18/2024
- by Jake Cole
- Slant Magazine
Following a recipe pretty close to the one in “All About Ah Long”, Johnnie To adapts the Italian film “Incompresso” (1966) by Luigi Comencini, and focuses again on the struggles of a single father, upping, though, the (melo) drama, the tension and the violence, in a way that can easily be described as shocking.
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Lee Chi-leung returns to Hong Kong with the ashes of his wife and his two young boys, older Kin and younger Hong, which he now has to take care of by himself, along with a maid who does not seem particularly patient neither with the changes the death brought nor with the children's shenanigans. Furthermore, it is soon revealed that Lee is also plagued by debts, which become worse when a friend convinces him to bet what little he has left on horses, a decision that...
Follow Our Johnnie To Project by Clicking on the Image Below
Lee Chi-leung returns to Hong Kong with the ashes of his wife and his two young boys, older Kin and younger Hong, which he now has to take care of by himself, along with a maid who does not seem particularly patient neither with the changes the death brought nor with the children's shenanigans. Furthermore, it is soon revealed that Lee is also plagued by debts, which become worse when a friend convinces him to bet what little he has left on horses, a decision that...
- 1/14/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Following the canon of “All About Ah-Long”, Johnnie To directed another family drama that is filled with violence and pessimism, although this time, in tamer fashion, particularly due to the extensive (for a Milky Way film) dialogues and some notions of black humor.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Triad boss Michael has just been released from prison and checks into a rundown motel, grandiose-named International Hotel, run by widow June, who also takes care of her young son Tony. Michael shows his colors quite early on, with him fighting with three taxi drivers in an event that bring in the police, until June tells the story as it is and has him released. Michael, who is in search of his ex-wife and the money she owes him, soon starts taking a liking to June, and gradually, the three end up resembling a family. Neither the cabbies,...
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Triad boss Michael has just been released from prison and checks into a rundown motel, grandiose-named International Hotel, run by widow June, who also takes care of her young son Tony. Michael shows his colors quite early on, with him fighting with three taxi drivers in an event that bring in the police, until June tells the story as it is and has him released. Michael, who is in search of his ex-wife and the money she owes him, soon starts taking a liking to June, and gradually, the three end up resembling a family. Neither the cabbies,...
- 1/13/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Ning Hao’s The Movie Emperor will screen as the opening film of Macau’s Asia-Europe Young Cinema Film Festival, which is holding its inaugural edition from January 5-11. Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail, recently a hit in India, will screen as the closing film.
The event has two major sections – a programme of masterclasses and screenings aimed at young directors, film students and local audiences, and a Works-in-Progress (WiP) Lab, which will be attended by international sales agents, distributors and festival programmers.
The masterclasses will be held by leading international filmmakers including several from the Chinese-speaking world – Ning Hao, Li Dongmei, Johnnie To, Yon Fan and Lee Hong-chi – along with Japanese filmmakers Ryosuke Hamaguchi and Shinya Tsukamoto, Russia’s Aleksey German Jr, Italy’s Gabriel Menetti, India’s Anurag Kashyap, Lav Diaz from the Philippines and Iranian filmmaker Amir Naderi.
China Film Directors Association is actively involved in...
The event has two major sections – a programme of masterclasses and screenings aimed at young directors, film students and local audiences, and a Works-in-Progress (WiP) Lab, which will be attended by international sales agents, distributors and festival programmers.
The masterclasses will be held by leading international filmmakers including several from the Chinese-speaking world – Ning Hao, Li Dongmei, Johnnie To, Yon Fan and Lee Hong-chi – along with Japanese filmmakers Ryosuke Hamaguchi and Shinya Tsukamoto, Russia’s Aleksey German Jr, Italy’s Gabriel Menetti, India’s Anurag Kashyap, Lav Diaz from the Philippines and Iranian filmmaker Amir Naderi.
China Film Directors Association is actively involved in...
- 1/4/2024
- by Liz Shackleton
- Deadline Film + TV
In the godforsaken satellite city of Tuen Mun. 13-year-old Cookie suspects she's pregnant. Lately, things have not been going her way. Her mother left; her father ignores her; her best friend is in reform school; and her boyfriend Is off selling bootleg VCDs in bustling Mong Kok. Flanked by her ride-or-dies Banana, Sissy, and Bean Curd, she journeys into town to find an abortionist.
Director Lawrence Lau updates his 1988 debut Gangs—a shocking account of underage Triads— with an all-girls cast surviving on the lowest rungs of gang life after the bosses have long gone legit. Swimming in turn-of-century malaise, this Category Ill youth drama offers a slice of urban grime as our quartet, who can only rely on themselves, navigate drug abuse, bad boyfriends, and library books way past their due dates. Produced by Johnnie To (Election) and written by Lo Chi-leung (Viva Erotica).
This edition includes:
★New 2K...
Director Lawrence Lau updates his 1988 debut Gangs—a shocking account of underage Triads— with an all-girls cast surviving on the lowest rungs of gang life after the bosses have long gone legit. Swimming in turn-of-century malaise, this Category Ill youth drama offers a slice of urban grime as our quartet, who can only rely on themselves, navigate drug abuse, bad boyfriends, and library books way past their due dates. Produced by Johnnie To (Election) and written by Lo Chi-leung (Viva Erotica).
This edition includes:
★New 2K...
- 12/17/2023
- by Don Anelli
- AsianMoviePulse
Back in 2019, I wrote about “Believer”, a Korean adaptation of Johnnie To's “Drug Wars”: “Believer” is an impressive and quite entertaining action thriller, which highlights the fact that Johnnie To's productions can be very easily adapted to the current style of Korean cinema. I am sure the success of this one will open the way for more, and personally, I cannot wait. As such, I was really eager to watch the sequel, which premiered in Busan this year and started streaming on Netflix a couple of days ago. The result, however, as is frequently the case with sequels, was not exactly as expected.
Click on the image below to follow our Tribute to Netflix
The film begins with a sequence showing what happened in the first part, focusing on Brian's incarceration and the insistence of detective Won-ho that Mr Lee, the actual leader of the international drug cartel,...
Click on the image below to follow our Tribute to Netflix
The film begins with a sequence showing what happened in the first part, focusing on Brian's incarceration and the insistence of detective Won-ho that Mr Lee, the actual leader of the international drug cartel,...
- 12/16/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The film is out of the running due to a “conflict of interest” among the selection committee.
The producer of Hong Kong film A Light Never Goes Out has spoken out following the disqualification of the feature from the 2024 Oscars race.
The drama was submitted by the Federation of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong for the international feature film category of the 96th Academy Awards in September. But when the Academy revealed the list of eligible titles last Thursday, A Light Never Goes Out was not included and the Federation is trying to figure out why.
Despite the outcome,...
The producer of Hong Kong film A Light Never Goes Out has spoken out following the disqualification of the feature from the 2024 Oscars race.
The drama was submitted by the Federation of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong for the international feature film category of the 96th Academy Awards in September. But when the Academy revealed the list of eligible titles last Thursday, A Light Never Goes Out was not included and the Federation is trying to figure out why.
Despite the outcome,...
- 12/12/2023
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
Despite the fact that Asian directors and Western actors (or vice versa) do not seem to always get along very well, at least in terms of the results of their collaborations, the effort to achieve a result that will finally work seems to continue perpetually. As such, it is with great joy to state that John Woo definitely succeeded this time, by including almost every fan-favorite action movie element in the book, in a title that also signals a return to form for the Hk veteran.
Silent Night is screening at Red Sea Film Festival
The paper-thin, ultra-cliched script begins with a man chasing after two cars of opposing gang members, who are just shooting at each other while speeding on the narrow streets of what seems to be an almost dystopian US setting. The result, however, is him getting shot in the throat (among other parts) and rushed to the hospital,...
Silent Night is screening at Red Sea Film Festival
The paper-thin, ultra-cliched script begins with a man chasing after two cars of opposing gang members, who are just shooting at each other while speeding on the narrow streets of what seems to be an almost dystopian US setting. The result, however, is him getting shot in the throat (among other parts) and rushed to the hospital,...
- 12/4/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
In February 2024, The Criterion Collection will release The Heroic Trio and Executioners in 4K and Blu-ray. Yes, they will also release films by Michael Roemer's Nothing But a Man, Raoul Walsh's The Roaring Twenties, Eric Rohmer's Tales of the Four Seasons, and Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller in 4K (?!). You can read more about at the official Criterion site. But my personal takeaway is The Heroic Trio and Executioners in 4K and Blu-ray will be released. I'll just quote from Criterion's official verbiage: "The star power of cinema icons Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui, and Michelle Yeoh fuels these gloriously unrestrained action joyrides from auteur Johnnie To and action choreographer Ching Siu-tung. "The Heroic Trio and its sequel, Executioners, follow a new kind...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 11/16/2023
- Screen Anarchy
Congratulations to Johnnie To, whose achievements are such that almost anything else is pat. Yet he now has one of the best films in the Criterion Collection: his action-fantasy masterpiece The Heroic Trio––starring Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh, and Anita Mui––will retire its hard-subbed laserdisc rip for a 4K Uhd arriving in February, its sequel Executioners (perhaps not one of the best films in the Criterion Collection but welcome all the same) included as a two-feature set. (With appreciable credit given to co-director Ching Siu-tung.) Raoul Walsh’s The Roaring Twenties is likewise joining the collection in 4K, while 2016’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller disc gets an upgrade.
Arguably most eventful, though, is the long-awaited release of Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons, which Janus toured virtually and physically throughout 2021. And not to be discounted even slightly is Michael Roemer’s Nothing But a Man––arguably, it so happens,...
Arguably most eventful, though, is the long-awaited release of Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons, which Janus toured virtually and physically throughout 2021. And not to be discounted even slightly is Michael Roemer’s Nothing But a Man––arguably, it so happens,...
- 11/15/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Following the masterful “Limbo”, all fans of (classic) Hong Kong cinema were eagerly awaiting Soi Cheang's next step, with the director opting for an even more classic Hk approach, that will remind many of the Wa Ka-fai, Johnnie To classic, “Mad Detective” with the latter actually being the producer of “Mad Fate”.
Mad Fate is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival
Although the movie begins in a supernatural, but also slightly comical fashion, having occultist Feng Shui Master temporarily bury a woman underground in a cemetery in order to change her fate, it soon turns into crime thriller territory. During the same night, the Master ends up by chance in an apartment that functions as a brothel, where eventually a heinous crime is committed by The Murderer, a serial killer who has a tendency to be triggered by rain storms into killing sex workers. On the scene, there are also present Siu-tung,...
Mad Fate is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival
Although the movie begins in a supernatural, but also slightly comical fashion, having occultist Feng Shui Master temporarily bury a woman underground in a cemetery in order to change her fate, it soon turns into crime thriller territory. During the same night, the Master ends up by chance in an apartment that functions as a brothel, where eventually a heinous crime is committed by The Murderer, a serial killer who has a tendency to be triggered by rain storms into killing sex workers. On the scene, there are also present Siu-tung,...
- 11/12/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Lee Hae-young did in 2018 what many thought impossible when he successfully remade Johnnie To's much loved thriller “Drug War” into “Believer”, an accomplished thriller that boasted of a strong starcast, excellent visuals, an impressive score and the final on-screen appearance from the late-great Kim Joo-hyuk. While the story didn't really need a sequel per se, Netflix thought otherwise and here we are in 2023, with “Believer 2” ready to release imminently in the streaming platform.
Synopsis
A crime action film on the nerve-wracking war between Won-ho, who is still pursuing Mr. Lee's organization and the disappeared “Rak” after the bloody fight at Yongsan Station, and Brian, who has reappeared, and a new character “Big Knife.” “Believer 2” follows Won-ho's investigation of looking for “Rak,” who disappeared after Brian's incarceration, while getting to the core of the elusive drug cartel. Baek Jong-yeol, who has already received praise for sophisticated cinematography and...
Synopsis
A crime action film on the nerve-wracking war between Won-ho, who is still pursuing Mr. Lee's organization and the disappeared “Rak” after the bloody fight at Yongsan Station, and Brian, who has reappeared, and a new character “Big Knife.” “Believer 2” follows Won-ho's investigation of looking for “Rak,” who disappeared after Brian's incarceration, while getting to the core of the elusive drug cartel. Baek Jong-yeol, who has already received praise for sophisticated cinematography and...
- 11/4/2023
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
Just when you thought that the style of Hk action movies is long since gone, here comes “Limbo” to prove the exact opposite, in a rather impressive title that seems to combine “Seven”, Kim Ki-duk’s “Pieta” and Johnnie To’s action aesthetics in the most artful way possible.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
The film was initially reviewed back in 2021, when it premiered in Berlinale. However, now that one of the best movies of that year is getting a much awaited physical release in North America, we thought it was time to revisit the article.
Rookie, dandy-looking policeman Will Ren has his work cut out for him, since his first case is pursuing an obsessive and especially brutal murderer of women who has a fetish with cutting arms, and his partner is the almost ragtag, not-above-using-violence- to-get-what-he-wants, veteran cop Cham Lau. As Will soon realizes that his colleague,...
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
The film was initially reviewed back in 2021, when it premiered in Berlinale. However, now that one of the best movies of that year is getting a much awaited physical release in North America, we thought it was time to revisit the article.
Rookie, dandy-looking policeman Will Ren has his work cut out for him, since his first case is pursuing an obsessive and especially brutal murderer of women who has a fetish with cutting arms, and his partner is the almost ragtag, not-above-using-violence- to-get-what-he-wants, veteran cop Cham Lau. As Will soon realizes that his colleague,...
- 10/18/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Hong Kong multihyphenate Andy Lau may just be ready to star in a Hollywood movie after long being a box office king and pop star in Asia. But only if the major studios will meet him on his terms.
“I’m ready for Hollywood, as long as Hollywood is ready for me,” Lau said during an informal conversation at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday after a more than four-decade career stopping short of following his contemporaries and heading to Hollywood.
In Toronto to receive a special tribute award ahead of the Sept. 15 world premiere of Ning Hao’s The Movie Emperor, Lau said he always enjoyed playing the bad guy in movies as a change of pace early in his career. “I don’t know why in the beginning, everyone saw me as the good guy,” he insisted.
Lau, who sits near the top of China’s A-list...
“I’m ready for Hollywood, as long as Hollywood is ready for me,” Lau said during an informal conversation at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday after a more than four-decade career stopping short of following his contemporaries and heading to Hollywood.
In Toronto to receive a special tribute award ahead of the Sept. 15 world premiere of Ning Hao’s The Movie Emperor, Lau said he always enjoyed playing the bad guy in movies as a change of pace early in his career. “I don’t know why in the beginning, everyone saw me as the good guy,” he insisted.
Lau, who sits near the top of China’s A-list...
- 9/16/2023
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Benny Chan’s A Moment of Romance swiftly establishes the narrow perimeter of the world that triad member Wah Dee (Andy Lau) inhabits. Though Dee cuts a profile of louche cool in his denim jackets and sleek motorcycle, the gangster getaway driver moves through the emptiest and least exotic realms of the criminal underworld. His stomping grounds generally consist of rundown buildings and day-rate hotels where he works and sleeps, and his only visible means of letting off steam consists of heading to a nearby quarry to watch a kind of demolition derby with all the other fast-living losers who occupy the bottom rungs of triad life. He treats his bosses with the usual differences demanded by organized crime’s rigid power structures, and they in turn speak to him as little more than an indentured servant.
When one of Dee’s superiors, Trumpet (Wong Kwong-leung), stages a jewelry store robbery,...
When one of Dee’s superiors, Trumpet (Wong Kwong-leung), stages a jewelry store robbery,...
- 8/22/2023
- by Jake Cole
- Slant Magazine
TIFF has begun announcing their Conversation With… (Icw) series for this year’s fest with Oscar winner Pedro Almodóvar, Hong Kong actor Andy Lau and Concrete Utopia Korean stars Lee Byung-hun and Park
Seo-jun set to sit down for chats.
“TIFF’s 2023 In Conversation With… series exemplifies our belief that film can ignite perspectives and fuel
transformation,” said Anita Lee, TIFF Chief Programming Officer. “We are delighted to welcome a powerhouse lineup of international iconoclasts from Spain, South Korea, and Hong Kong for film lovers of all genres.”
Almodóvar is already set to receive TIFF’s Jeff Skoll Award in Impact Media this year at the fest’s Tribute Awards. His short, Strange Way of Life, which played at Cannes, will also make its North American premiere at TIFF. Short follows the relationship between a sheriff (Ethan Hawke) and a rancher
(Pedro Pascal) and their shared past.
Concrete Utopia stars...
Seo-jun set to sit down for chats.
“TIFF’s 2023 In Conversation With… series exemplifies our belief that film can ignite perspectives and fuel
transformation,” said Anita Lee, TIFF Chief Programming Officer. “We are delighted to welcome a powerhouse lineup of international iconoclasts from Spain, South Korea, and Hong Kong for film lovers of all genres.”
Almodóvar is already set to receive TIFF’s Jeff Skoll Award in Impact Media this year at the fest’s Tribute Awards. His short, Strange Way of Life, which played at Cannes, will also make its North American premiere at TIFF. Short follows the relationship between a sheriff (Ethan Hawke) and a rancher
(Pedro Pascal) and their shared past.
Concrete Utopia stars...
- 8/11/2023
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Period feature stars Jacky Heung and Andy On.
Well Go USA Entertainment has acquired North America distribution rights to 100 Yards, a period martial arts drama directed by Xu Haofeng and Xu Junfeng.
The deal was negotiated directly with producer Rainbow Fong on behalf of the filmmakers. Well Go plans to release the feature in 2024, following a festival run that began with its world premiere at Shanghai International Film Festival in June.
Hong Kong-based My Way Film Company is handling sales for Asean countries, with Fortissimo Films managing all other international sales excluding North America and Southeast Asia.
Xu Haofeng is director of The Sword Identity,...
Well Go USA Entertainment has acquired North America distribution rights to 100 Yards, a period martial arts drama directed by Xu Haofeng and Xu Junfeng.
The deal was negotiated directly with producer Rainbow Fong on behalf of the filmmakers. Well Go plans to release the feature in 2024, following a festival run that began with its world premiere at Shanghai International Film Festival in June.
Hong Kong-based My Way Film Company is handling sales for Asean countries, with Fortissimo Films managing all other international sales excluding North America and Southeast Asia.
Xu Haofeng is director of The Sword Identity,...
- 8/9/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
It’s as David Bowie sang: revolution comes in the strangest ways. When Apichatpong Weerasethakul curated a series for New York’s Film at Lincoln Center this spring, the 35mm screening of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Puppetmaster––a 30-year-old Taiwanese feature with 1/15th the Letterboxd logs of the Mission: Impossible movie that opened yesterday––constituted the biggest (local) cinephile event I’ve seen in… well, who could count so far? Scarcity’s to thank, of course: last screened in New York seven years back, it’s (supposedly) the sole English-subtitled print in the United States and was accordingly treated like a brittle object––cinema essentially on the edge of oblivion.
So this news comes like a salve for the medium itself. Italy’s Far East Film Festival announced that next year’s edition, running April 24 to May 2, 2024, will host restorations of Hou’s The Puppetmaster and A City of Sadness,...
So this news comes like a salve for the medium itself. Italy’s Far East Film Festival announced that next year’s edition, running April 24 to May 2, 2024, will host restorations of Hou’s The Puppetmaster and A City of Sadness,...
- 7/13/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The story behind the eventual release of “Where the Wind Blows” is a script in itself. Originally set for release at the end of 2018, its release was delayed due to trouble getting approved by the National Radio and Television Administration, probably due to the presentation of the true true-life stories of two of the “Four Great Sergeants” – the most notoriously corrupt police officers in 1960s and '70s Hong Kong and the impact the Kmz had in Hong Kong had after Chiang Kai-shek's defeat. The 144-minute epic was scheduled to make its world premiere and open the 45th Hong Kong International Film Festival on 1 April 2021, but was pulled from the lineup three days before. Eventually, it had its premiere the following year and opened the 46th Hong Kong International Film Festival on 15 August 2022 instead and was theatrically released in Hong Kong on 17 February 2023. It was also selected as the Hong...
- 7/12/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The Locarno Film Festival will fete Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård with its Honorary Career Leopard award at the upcoming edition, running August 2 to 12.
The award ceremony will take place August 4 at the Piazza Grande, followed by an audience Q&a at the Spazio Cinema on August 5, while the actor’s 1990 pic Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg by Kjell Grede, will screen on August 3.
Alongside his work with European filmmakers such as Lars von Trier, for whom he starred five times, including Breaking The Waves, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes, Skarsgård is known for his roles in big Hollywood films such as Pirates of the Caribbean films, Mamma Mia!, Thor, and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune — the second part of which will be released this fall.
Also active in television, Skarsgård won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a miniseries in the HBO drama Chernobyl. He recently starred in...
The award ceremony will take place August 4 at the Piazza Grande, followed by an audience Q&a at the Spazio Cinema on August 5, while the actor’s 1990 pic Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg by Kjell Grede, will screen on August 3.
Alongside his work with European filmmakers such as Lars von Trier, for whom he starred five times, including Breaking The Waves, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes, Skarsgård is known for his roles in big Hollywood films such as Pirates of the Caribbean films, Mamma Mia!, Thor, and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune — the second part of which will be released this fall.
Also active in television, Skarsgård won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a miniseries in the HBO drama Chernobyl. He recently starred in...
- 7/10/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
The whole world lost its mind at the turn-of-the-millennium, and it could be argued that sanity never returned. The dawn of the new century was a dark time, with fears over the dominance of tech creating mass hysteria (that now doesn't seem so hysterical). Despite this real-world panic, the years surrounding 2000 also happened to see a golden age in Asian cinema. It may not be an even tradeoff all things considered, but at least we had auteurs like Johnnie To, Park Chan-Wook, Takashi Miike, and Takeshi Kitano setting the tone for what 21st Century filmmaking could look like. The cyberpunk obsession of the time, reflected most potently in the Hong-Kong-and-anime-inspired “The Matrix”, also led to surge of interest in Woo-style kinetics and Asian sci-fi classics like “Akira” and “Ghost in the Shell”.
Now, more than two decades removed from the era's insanity, Y2K nostalgia has reached a fever pitch.
Now, more than two decades removed from the era's insanity, Y2K nostalgia has reached a fever pitch.
- 7/9/2023
- by Henry McKeand
- AsianMoviePulse
Following the masterful “Limbo”, all fans of (classic) Hong Kong cinema were eagerly awaiting Soi Cheang's next step, with the director opting for an even more classic Hk approach, that will remind many of the Wa Ka-fai, Johnnie To classic, “Mad Detective” with the latter actually being the producer of “Mad Fate”.
“Mad Fate” is screening at Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival
Although the movie begins in a supernatural, but also slightly comical fashion, having occultist Feng Shui Master temporarily bury a woman underground in a cemetery in order to change her fate, it soon turns into crime thriller territory. During the same night, the Master ends up by chance in an apartment that functions as a brothel, where eventually a heinous crime is committed by The Murderer, a serial killer who has a tendency to be triggered by rain storms into killing sex workers. On the scene, there are also present Siu-tung,...
“Mad Fate” is screening at Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival
Although the movie begins in a supernatural, but also slightly comical fashion, having occultist Feng Shui Master temporarily bury a woman underground in a cemetery in order to change her fate, it soon turns into crime thriller territory. During the same night, the Master ends up by chance in an apartment that functions as a brothel, where eventually a heinous crime is committed by The Murderer, a serial killer who has a tendency to be triggered by rain storms into killing sex workers. On the scene, there are also present Siu-tung,...
- 7/3/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang, the arthouse darling known for works including Venice Golden Lion winner “Vive L’Amour” and “The River,” which scored the Berlin Silver Bear, will be celebrated by the Locarno Film Festival with its Honorary Leopard achievement award.
The iconoclastic auteur, who is a key figure in Taiwan’s so-called Second New Wave, will receive the prize from the Swiss fest dedicated to indie cinema during an Aug. 6 ceremony held on its 8,000-seat outdoor Piazza Grande venue.
The tribute to Tsai Ming-liang will also involve an onstage conversation with the director on the future of cinema and a screening of the helmer’s 2020 film “Days” (Rizi), as well as an art gallery exhibition of his experimental works.
The Malaysian-born Tsai made his debut in the early 1990s, breaking out internationally with “Vive L’Amour” 1994, followed by “The River” in 1996 and “The Hole,” which bowed in Cannes in 1998. His “The Wayward Cloud...
The iconoclastic auteur, who is a key figure in Taiwan’s so-called Second New Wave, will receive the prize from the Swiss fest dedicated to indie cinema during an Aug. 6 ceremony held on its 8,000-seat outdoor Piazza Grande venue.
The tribute to Tsai Ming-liang will also involve an onstage conversation with the director on the future of cinema and a screening of the helmer’s 2020 film “Days” (Rizi), as well as an art gallery exhibition of his experimental works.
The Malaysian-born Tsai made his debut in the early 1990s, breaking out internationally with “Vive L’Amour” 1994, followed by “The River” in 1996 and “The Hole,” which bowed in Cannes in 1998. His “The Wayward Cloud...
- 6/20/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
The Locarno Film Festival will fete multi-award-winning Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang with an Honorary Career Leopard award at the upcoming edition running from August 2 to 12.
Regarded as a key figure in the Second New Wave of Taiwanese cinema, Malaysian-born Tsai Ming-liang made his debut in the early 1990s, breaking out internationally with Vive L’Amour, which won Venice’s Golden Lion in 1994.
Other award-winning titles include with The River, which won the Jury Award at Berlin in 1996, while in 2009, his work Visage (Face) became the first film to be included in the collection of the Louvre Museum’s “Le Louvre s’offre aux cineastes”.
Tsai’s connections with the art world have grown over the years and he has been invited to participate in various art exhibitions and festivals, while he developed aesthetic ideas such as “Hand-sculpted Cinema” and “The removal of industrial processes from art making”.
The festival’s celebration...
Regarded as a key figure in the Second New Wave of Taiwanese cinema, Malaysian-born Tsai Ming-liang made his debut in the early 1990s, breaking out internationally with Vive L’Amour, which won Venice’s Golden Lion in 1994.
Other award-winning titles include with The River, which won the Jury Award at Berlin in 1996, while in 2009, his work Visage (Face) became the first film to be included in the collection of the Louvre Museum’s “Le Louvre s’offre aux cineastes”.
Tsai’s connections with the art world have grown over the years and he has been invited to participate in various art exhibitions and festivals, while he developed aesthetic ideas such as “Hand-sculpted Cinema” and “The removal of industrial processes from art making”.
The festival’s celebration...
- 6/20/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
The 6th Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) held a press conference today to unveil the complete lineup of programmes for its upcoming edition, featuring 42 films from 15 countries. The festival also announced the distinguished presence of acclaimed filmmaker Johnnie To as the Jury President of the competition section. In addition, MIFFest bestowed the Lifetime Achievement Award on renowned actress Sylvia Chang for her exceptional contributions to the world of cinema. The event also revealed the top 10 finalists and nominations for the BMW Shorties 2023.
Over 300 record-breaking submissions were received for the 6th MIFFest
With over 300 record-breaking submissions received for the 6th MIFFest, the festival continues to attract talented filmmakers from around the world. The high number of submissions is a testament to MIFFest's growing prominence and its commitment to recognising outstanding talents in the film industry.
“This year, we had the pleasure of receiving and watching over 300 films. This is an impressive...
Over 300 record-breaking submissions were received for the 6th MIFFest
With over 300 record-breaking submissions received for the 6th MIFFest, the festival continues to attract talented filmmakers from around the world. The high number of submissions is a testament to MIFFest's growing prominence and its commitment to recognising outstanding talents in the film industry.
“This year, we had the pleasure of receiving and watching over 300 films. This is an impressive...
- 6/16/2023
- by Adam Symchuk
- AsianMoviePulse
MIFFest to open with the world premiere of ‘Eraser’.
Acclaimed Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To has been named jury president of the 6th Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest), which will also honour Taiwanese actress Sylvia Chang with a lifetime achievement award.
To will chair the festival’s competition jury, which also includes Vietnamese actress Truong Ngoc Anh, Japanese filmmaker Ryuichi Hiroki, Malaysian star Zizan Razak and Singaporean director Eric Khoo. To is a leading director of films such as Breaking News, Election, Exiled, Mad Detective and Drug War, and sat on the Berlinale international competition jury earlier this year.
MIFFest...
Acclaimed Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To has been named jury president of the 6th Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest), which will also honour Taiwanese actress Sylvia Chang with a lifetime achievement award.
To will chair the festival’s competition jury, which also includes Vietnamese actress Truong Ngoc Anh, Japanese filmmaker Ryuichi Hiroki, Malaysian star Zizan Razak and Singaporean director Eric Khoo. To is a leading director of films such as Breaking News, Election, Exiled, Mad Detective and Drug War, and sat on the Berlinale international competition jury earlier this year.
MIFFest...
- 6/15/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
MIFFest to open with the world premiere of ‘Eraser’.
Acclaimed Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To has been named jury president of the 6th Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest), which will also honour Taiwanese actress Sylvia Chang with a lifetime achievement award.
To will chair the festival’s competition jury, which also includes Vietnamese actress Truong Ngoc Anh, Japanese filmmaker Ryuichi Hiroki, Malaysian star Zizan Razak and Singaporean director Eric Khoo. To is a leading director of films such as Breaking News, Election, Exiled, Mad Detective and Drug War, and sat on the Berlinale international competition jury earlier this year.
MIFFest...
Acclaimed Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To has been named jury president of the 6th Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest), which will also honour Taiwanese actress Sylvia Chang with a lifetime achievement award.
To will chair the festival’s competition jury, which also includes Vietnamese actress Truong Ngoc Anh, Japanese filmmaker Ryuichi Hiroki, Malaysian star Zizan Razak and Singaporean director Eric Khoo. To is a leading director of films such as Breaking News, Election, Exiled, Mad Detective and Drug War, and sat on the Berlinale international competition jury earlier this year.
MIFFest...
- 6/15/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Malaysian Mission
Hong Kong icon Johnnie To will head the jury of the sixth edition of the Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) next month. Other jurors include: Truong Ngoc Anh from Vietnam, Ryuichi Hiroki from Japan, Zizan Razak from Malaysia, and Eric Khoo from Singapore.
The event will open with the world premiere of “Eraser,” directed by Mark Lee See Teck. The Malaysian film features the final on-screen appearance of the late Adibah Noor, a beloved Malaysian gem known for her timeless charisma. MIFFest will play “See You at the Rally,” directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Kanny Chang as its closing title. The festival is set to take place at Lalaport Bbcc from July 23-29 and will play a total of 42 films from 15 countries.
The festival is building its impact through a series of collaborations with other events. It will screen a selection of genre titles from this month’s Bucheon...
Hong Kong icon Johnnie To will head the jury of the sixth edition of the Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) next month. Other jurors include: Truong Ngoc Anh from Vietnam, Ryuichi Hiroki from Japan, Zizan Razak from Malaysia, and Eric Khoo from Singapore.
The event will open with the world premiere of “Eraser,” directed by Mark Lee See Teck. The Malaysian film features the final on-screen appearance of the late Adibah Noor, a beloved Malaysian gem known for her timeless charisma. MIFFest will play “See You at the Rally,” directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Kanny Chang as its closing title. The festival is set to take place at Lalaport Bbcc from July 23-29 and will play a total of 42 films from 15 countries.
The festival is building its impact through a series of collaborations with other events. It will screen a selection of genre titles from this month’s Bucheon...
- 6/15/2023
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
The film festival founded by Johnnie To has faced restrictions in recent years.
Three titles at Hong Kong’s Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival have reportedly been censored following decrees by the city’s authorities.
The films were not pulled from the lineup but do feature blacked out sections and muted sound during scenes deemed problematic by Hong Kong’s Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration (Ofnaa).
The city amended regulations in 2021 to censor any film that poses a threat to national security.
The festival did not formally identify titles or share details of the cut scenes but...
Three titles at Hong Kong’s Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival have reportedly been censored following decrees by the city’s authorities.
The films were not pulled from the lineup but do feature blacked out sections and muted sound during scenes deemed problematic by Hong Kong’s Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration (Ofnaa).
The city amended regulations in 2021 to censor any film that poses a threat to national security.
The festival did not formally identify titles or share details of the cut scenes but...
- 6/12/2023
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
By 2004, Jackie Chan thought that it was time to reboot the “Police Story” series, which eventually led to the 5th installment in the franchise, with him playing not Chan Ka-kui anymore, but Inspector Chan Kwok-wing. The most important difference with the previous installments, however, is that “New Police Story” is essentially a drama, almost completely leaving the comedic premises of the previous series to the background.
Click on the image below to follow our Tribute to Netflix
The movie begins with Inspector Chan being a total mess, completely drunk, with even the taxi drivers avoiding him. Flashback one year earlier, he and his group of young cadets are about to be in a showdown with Joe, the leader of a gang, and his crew of youths who, apart from robbers, are also cop killers. The fight between the two groups ends up in a devastating defeat for the police, with...
Click on the image below to follow our Tribute to Netflix
The movie begins with Inspector Chan being a total mess, completely drunk, with even the taxi drivers avoiding him. Flashback one year earlier, he and his group of young cadets are about to be in a showdown with Joe, the leader of a gang, and his crew of youths who, apart from robbers, are also cop killers. The fight between the two groups ends up in a devastating defeat for the police, with...
- 5/27/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSNon-Fiction.The Writers Guild of America went on strike Tuesday; this is the first major Hollywood strike since 2007. Michael Schulman of the New Yorker speaks with several screenwriters about the conditions they are advocating to change, highlighting the ways in which streaming has transformed their livelihoods.Olivier Assayas is cooking up a new project with his current muse Vincent Macaigne, titled Hors du temps, per the actor’s Instagram. Macaigne wonderfully held the center of Assayas’s limited-series rewiring of Irma Vep (2022), and brought a similarly melancholy pathos to Non-Fiction (2018).The Cannes Film Festival has announced that John C. Reilly will preside over the Un Certain Regard jury—a worthy recognition of his Mvp status in Claire Denis’s Stars at Noon (2022). Alongside...
- 5/3/2023
- MUBI
The Chinese Wuxia feature is from the co-writer of Wong Kar Wai’s ‘The Grandmaster’.
Amsterdam and Beijing-based sales outfit Fortissimo Films has secured international rights to Chinese martial arts drama 100 Yards, directed by Xu Haofeng and Xu Junfeng, and will launch sales at the Cannes market this month.
The film, locally titled Men Qian Bao Di, is in post-production for release this summer, and Fortissimo has already secured a pre-sale of the feature with Splendid for Germany. It is produced by Beijing-based Lumen Art and Culture.
Xu Haofeng is director of The Sword Identity, which played Venice and Toronto...
Amsterdam and Beijing-based sales outfit Fortissimo Films has secured international rights to Chinese martial arts drama 100 Yards, directed by Xu Haofeng and Xu Junfeng, and will launch sales at the Cannes market this month.
The film, locally titled Men Qian Bao Di, is in post-production for release this summer, and Fortissimo has already secured a pre-sale of the feature with Splendid for Germany. It is produced by Beijing-based Lumen Art and Culture.
Xu Haofeng is director of The Sword Identity, which played Venice and Toronto...
- 5/3/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Hong Kong On Screen (Hkos) is proud to present the first ever Hong Kong On Screen Film Festival (Hkosff). Running April 28-30, 2023 at the Starlight Whittier Village Cinemas, it will showcase 8 feature films, 2 documentaries, 8 shorts curated from a global open call for submissions, and a 20th anniversary tribute of the passing of Hk icons Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui.
Founded in 2022 in response to the ongoing political upheaval in Hong Kong and China’s encroaching presence in the international city-state, Hkos is a collective of academics, artists, students, and concerned global citizens dedicated to preserving the voice of freedom from Hong Kong and to promote its local culture through cinema, cultural exchange, and dialogue.
Since its inception, Hkos has proactively engaged in and/or supported a variety of cultural programming in order to serve the Hong Kong diaspora in the Greater LA area and beyond. This has included a special...
Founded in 2022 in response to the ongoing political upheaval in Hong Kong and China’s encroaching presence in the international city-state, Hkos is a collective of academics, artists, students, and concerned global citizens dedicated to preserving the voice of freedom from Hong Kong and to promote its local culture through cinema, cultural exchange, and dialogue.
Since its inception, Hkos has proactively engaged in and/or supported a variety of cultural programming in order to serve the Hong Kong diaspora in the Greater LA area and beyond. This has included a special...
- 4/26/2023
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Eagle-eyed YouTube TV users are spotting something new on their service this week. The service has quietly added two add-ons to its Premium Channel lineup: Qello Concerts and Hi-yah!. These are available now to all YouTube TV users.
Sign Up $72.99 / month tv.youtube.com
Qello offers full-length concert recordings, as well as music documentaries spanning from the 1920s all the way up to the present day. Its offerings include a myriad of genres, from classical to rock to hop-hop, and everything in between. Artists like Paul McCartney, Elton John, Metallica, Adele, Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses, Tony Bennett, Justin Timberlake, The Weeknd, Andrea Bocelli, Avenged Sevenfold, Carrie Underwood, and many more are available.
Hi-yah! focuses its spotlight on martial arts action films. There are hundreds of hours of content available on the service, and its library is refreshed with new material monthly. World-renowned martial artists like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan,...
Sign Up $72.99 / month tv.youtube.com
Qello offers full-length concert recordings, as well as music documentaries spanning from the 1920s all the way up to the present day. Its offerings include a myriad of genres, from classical to rock to hop-hop, and everything in between. Artists like Paul McCartney, Elton John, Metallica, Adele, Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses, Tony Bennett, Justin Timberlake, The Weeknd, Andrea Bocelli, Avenged Sevenfold, Carrie Underwood, and many more are available.
Hi-yah! focuses its spotlight on martial arts action films. There are hundreds of hours of content available on the service, and its library is refreshed with new material monthly. World-renowned martial artists like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan,...
- 4/6/2023
- by David Satin
- The Streamable
Johnnie To, Watanabe Hirobumi and Jang Sun-woo set to attend.
The Far East Film Festival (Feff), held in the Italian town of Udine, has revealed the full line-up for its landmark 25th edition, which is set to include appearances from filmmakers Johnnie To, Watanabe Hirobumi and Jang Sun-woo.
Running April 21-29, the festival will open with a double bill: He Shuming’s Ajoomma, the first co-production between Singapore and South Korea; and black comedy Bad Education by Taiwan’s Giddens Ko. It will close with Zhang Yimou’s Chinese blockbuster Full River Red.
The festival will screen 78 Asian films from 14 countries,...
The Far East Film Festival (Feff), held in the Italian town of Udine, has revealed the full line-up for its landmark 25th edition, which is set to include appearances from filmmakers Johnnie To, Watanabe Hirobumi and Jang Sun-woo.
Running April 21-29, the festival will open with a double bill: He Shuming’s Ajoomma, the first co-production between Singapore and South Korea; and black comedy Bad Education by Taiwan’s Giddens Ko. It will close with Zhang Yimou’s Chinese blockbuster Full River Red.
The festival will screen 78 Asian films from 14 countries,...
- 4/6/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Italy’s Far East Film Festival unveiled a power-packed lineup Wednesday for its 25th anniversary edition. The largest cinema event in Europe specializing in popular moviemaking from Asia, Feff will open April 21 with an inspired double bill, He Shuming’s hit Korea-Singapore co-production Ajoomma followed by first-time Taiwanese director Kai Ko’s black comedy Bad Education. And on April 29, the curtain will come down on the festival with the Italy premiere of legendary Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s latest blockbuster, Full River Red. Between those dates, the festival will screen 78 Asian films from 14 countries, including nine world premieres.
The organizers of Feff, founded in 1999 in the picturesque northern Italian city of Udine by festival pioneers Sabrina Baracetti and Thomas Bertacche, say the 2023 selection “aims to showcase the immense complexity of Asia more than ever before.” The lineup indeed presents a compelling snapshot of a wildly diverse content’s commercial cinema in flux.
The organizers of Feff, founded in 1999 in the picturesque northern Italian city of Udine by festival pioneers Sabrina Baracetti and Thomas Bertacche, say the 2023 selection “aims to showcase the immense complexity of Asia more than ever before.” The lineup indeed presents a compelling snapshot of a wildly diverse content’s commercial cinema in flux.
- 4/6/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Udine Far East Film Festival is back with a record line-up to celebrate its 25th edition. 78 films, 14 countries, 9 world premieres – Golden Mulberry for Lifetime Achievement to Baisho Chieko – On the red carpet also Johnnie To, Watanabe Hirobumi and Jang Sun-woo.
If there are 78 films (record number!) and they come from 14 countries, it should certainly be emphasized that the line-up includes 15 women directors and 12 newcomers. In brief, the 2023 selection aims to restore great complexity more than ever of Asia. A selection that combines the recent past with today, seamlessly, among different communities, different expectations and choices of life, languages and dialects, politics, religions, habits, inclinations, beliefs, myths and legends and, last but not least, different gender identities. A selection that tells in real time how the cinematography of East and Southeast Asia have re-emerged from the sad period of the pandemic, not all in the same way, and not all with the same results.
If there are 78 films (record number!) and they come from 14 countries, it should certainly be emphasized that the line-up includes 15 women directors and 12 newcomers. In brief, the 2023 selection aims to restore great complexity more than ever of Asia. A selection that combines the recent past with today, seamlessly, among different communities, different expectations and choices of life, languages and dialects, politics, religions, habits, inclinations, beliefs, myths and legends and, last but not least, different gender identities. A selection that tells in real time how the cinematography of East and Southeast Asia have re-emerged from the sad period of the pandemic, not all in the same way, and not all with the same results.
- 4/5/2023
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Michelle Yeoh has just won the Academy Award for best actress with her hysterically good performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, making Oscar history as first Asian woman winning that category. It has been a long way since the year 1937, when white actress Luise Rainer won the same category for sporting a “yellowface” and play a Chinese villager in “The Good Earth.” But the Malaysian-born actress had already built up a reputation in the 1980s and '90s as Hong Kong's kick-ass action star.
Check out the interview of Michelle Yeoh An Interview with Michelle Yeoh : One of Asia's Biggest Film Stars
A ballet dancer since 4, she moved to London to study at the Royal Academy as a teen, but her dancer career didn't last long. After winning the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant title and the Miss Moomba beauty pageant title in Australia in the early 1980s, she...
Check out the interview of Michelle Yeoh An Interview with Michelle Yeoh : One of Asia's Biggest Film Stars
A ballet dancer since 4, she moved to London to study at the Royal Academy as a teen, but her dancer career didn't last long. After winning the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant title and the Miss Moomba beauty pageant title in Australia in the early 1980s, she...
- 3/20/2023
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
On the Adamant.Competition(Jury: Kristen Stewart, Golshifteh Farahani, Valeska Grisebach, Radu Jude, Francine Maisler, Carla Simón, Johnnie To)Golden BearOn the Adamant (Nicolas Philibert)Silver Bear — Grand Jury PrizeAfire (Christian Petzold) (read interview)Silver Bear — Jury PrizeBad Living (João Canijo)Silver Bear for Best DirectorPhilippe Garrel (The Plough) (read more)Silver Bear for Best Leading PerformanceSofía OteroSilver Bear for Best Supporting PerformanceThea Ehre (Till the End of the Night) (read more)Silver Bear for Best ScreenplayAngela Schanelec (Music) (read more)Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic ContributionHélène Louvart (Disco Boy)HereENCOUNTERS(Jury: Dea Kulumbegashvili, Angeliki Papoulia, Paolo Moretti)Award for Best FilmHere (Bas Devos)Special Jury AwardOrlando, My Political Biography (Paul B. Preciado)Samsara (Lois Patiño)Award for Best DirectorTatiana Huezo (The Echo)Generation — Kplus(Jury: Venice Atienza, Alise Ģelze, Gudrun Sommer)Crystal BearSweet As (Jub Clerc)Special MentionSea Sparkle (Domien Huyghe)Best Short FilmQueenie (Lloyd Lee Choi)Special...
- 3/14/2023
- MUBI
Exclusive: MakerVille, the recently launched entertainment subsidiary of Hong Kong media group Pccw, is set to make a splash at Filmart, unveiling an ambitious slate of movies and premium series, following its debut feature Mad Fate, which had its world premiere at Berlin film festival.
Lofai Lo, MakerVille’s CEO and former General Manager of Pccw’s free-to-air channel ViuTV, sat down with Deadline to talk through the slate and outline the company’s production strategy. In addition to movies with international appeal, which Hong Kong has long been known for, he aims to put local creators on the map with a slate of high-end Cantonese and Mandarin-language TV series that can travel beyond Hong Kong.
“We produce around 2,000 hours of programming a year for ViuTV, and while most is targeted at the local market, it’s allowed us to create an incubator structure where we can experiment with new ideas,...
Lofai Lo, MakerVille’s CEO and former General Manager of Pccw’s free-to-air channel ViuTV, sat down with Deadline to talk through the slate and outline the company’s production strategy. In addition to movies with international appeal, which Hong Kong has long been known for, he aims to put local creators on the map with a slate of high-end Cantonese and Mandarin-language TV series that can travel beyond Hong Kong.
“We produce around 2,000 hours of programming a year for ViuTV, and while most is targeted at the local market, it’s allowed us to create an incubator structure where we can experiment with new ideas,...
- 3/14/2023
- by Liz Shackleton
- Deadline Film + TV
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...
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...
- 3/10/2023
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
The Teachers' Lounge (İlker Çatak).Following a year that was widely seen as lackluster for major premieres at the big film festivals—though certainly many excellent films found their ways to local theaters and living rooms—2023 has had an unsteady start. After a mostly forgettable Sundance, the marquee titles at February’s Berlin International Film Festival did not remedy this lack of excitement, though its limited number of headliners is possibly attributable to the impact of the Covid pandemic on film production. Industry coverage frequently elevates the sales potential or news of these higher-profile movies, projecting a discourse that these festivals are, above all, marketplaces for commercial cinema. But to prioritize the market in a space intended for variety, quality, and curation—that is, a showcase for a cinema of diverse makers, subjects, genres, and formats—is to poison the most visible platforms for the art with the insidious and...
- 3/4/2023
- MUBI
The gender-neutral acting prize was won by Spain’s Sofía Otero for ’20,000 Species of Bees’.
Nicolas Philibert’s documentary On The Adamant, about a floating care centre in Paris, was awarded Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival tonight (February 25).
The film, which is being handled internationally by Les Films du Losange, is the fourth documentary to take top honours at the Berlinale.
German films found particular favour with the jury, presided over by Kristen Stewart, with no less than three of the Bear statuettes going to local productions: the Silver Bear Grand Jury award for Christian Petzold’s Afire,...
Nicolas Philibert’s documentary On The Adamant, about a floating care centre in Paris, was awarded Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival tonight (February 25).
The film, which is being handled internationally by Les Films du Losange, is the fourth documentary to take top honours at the Berlinale.
German films found particular favour with the jury, presided over by Kristen Stewart, with no less than three of the Bear statuettes going to local productions: the Silver Bear Grand Jury award for Christian Petzold’s Afire,...
- 2/26/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Los Angeles, Feb 26 (Ians) Veteran French documentary filmmaker Nicolas Philibert was the surprise winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.
He took home the prize for his film ‘On the Adamant’ which is a poignant observational study of a Paris mental health care facility, reports Variety.
He received the award from jury president Kristen Stewart, after the star offered an extended and plainly heartfelt ode to the film’s humanity and simplicity: “People have gone in circles for thousands of years trying to pin down what can be deemed art, who’s allowed to do it and what determines its value,” she said, citing the boundary-pushing nature of the festival, and name checking such opposing philosophers on the matter as Aristotle, Barthes, Sontag and Beavis & Butthead, before concluding: “For all of us, you just know it when you see it.”
Candidly and sometimes humorously surveying...
He took home the prize for his film ‘On the Adamant’ which is a poignant observational study of a Paris mental health care facility, reports Variety.
He received the award from jury president Kristen Stewart, after the star offered an extended and plainly heartfelt ode to the film’s humanity and simplicity: “People have gone in circles for thousands of years trying to pin down what can be deemed art, who’s allowed to do it and what determines its value,” she said, citing the boundary-pushing nature of the festival, and name checking such opposing philosophers on the matter as Aristotle, Barthes, Sontag and Beavis & Butthead, before concluding: “For all of us, you just know it when you see it.”
Candidly and sometimes humorously surveying...
- 2/26/2023
- by News Bureau
- GlamSham
The documentary “On the Adamant” has been named the best film of the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival, Berlin organizers announced on Saturday.
The film from director Nicolas Philibert follows life in a daycare center located on the Seine in Paris for adults with mental disorders. It is the first documentary to win the festival’s top prize since “Fire at Sea” in 2016.
German director Christian Petzold won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, essentially the runner-up award, for his drama “Afire,” while Philippe Garrel won the directing award for “The Plough.” The gender-neutral acting prizes went to Sofia Otero for “20,000 Species of Bees” in the leading performance category and Thea Ehre for “Till the End of the Night” in the supporting category.
The jury president was actress Kristen Stewart. The other jurors were actress Goldshifteh Farahani, directors Valeska Grisebach, Radu Jude and Carla Simón and Johnnie To and casting director Francine Maisler.
The film from director Nicolas Philibert follows life in a daycare center located on the Seine in Paris for adults with mental disorders. It is the first documentary to win the festival’s top prize since “Fire at Sea” in 2016.
German director Christian Petzold won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, essentially the runner-up award, for his drama “Afire,” while Philippe Garrel won the directing award for “The Plough.” The gender-neutral acting prizes went to Sofia Otero for “20,000 Species of Bees” in the leading performance category and Thea Ehre for “Till the End of the Night” in the supporting category.
The jury president was actress Kristen Stewart. The other jurors were actress Goldshifteh Farahani, directors Valeska Grisebach, Radu Jude and Carla Simón and Johnnie To and casting director Francine Maisler.
- 2/25/2023
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Winners have been announced at the 73rd Berlin Film Festival, with On the Adamant by Nicolas Philibert scooping the coveted Golden Bear prize as the best film of the festival’s International Competition. Scroll down for the full list of winners, which were revealed Saturday evening at the Berlinale Palast.
The film chronicles a unique day-care center in the heart of Paris that welcomes adults suffering from mental disorders, offering the kind of care that grounds them in time and space and helps them to recover or keep up their spirits.
Introducing the film, jury head Kristen Stewart said the pic is “masterfully crafted” and acts as “cinematic proof of the vital necessity of human expression.”
Other winners in the International Competition included Philippe Garrel, who picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director for his latest pic Le grand chariot (The Plough). Garrel dedicated the award to the late filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard.
The film chronicles a unique day-care center in the heart of Paris that welcomes adults suffering from mental disorders, offering the kind of care that grounds them in time and space and helps them to recover or keep up their spirits.
Introducing the film, jury head Kristen Stewart said the pic is “masterfully crafted” and acts as “cinematic proof of the vital necessity of human expression.”
Other winners in the International Competition included Philippe Garrel, who picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director for his latest pic Le grand chariot (The Plough). Garrel dedicated the award to the late filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard.
- 2/25/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Veteran French docmaker Nicolas Philibert was the surprise winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, taking the prize for his film “On the Adamant,” a poignant observational study of a Paris mental health care facility.
He received the award from jury president Kristen Stewart, after the star offered an extended and plainly heartfelt ode to the film’s humanity and simplicity: “People have gone in circles for thousands of years trying to pin down what can be deemed art, who’s allowed to do it and what determines its value,” she said, citing the boundary-pushing nature of the festival, and namechecking such opposing philosophers on the matter as Aristotle, Barthes, Sontag and Beavis & Butthead, before concluding, “For all of us, you just know it when you see it.”
It was an apt way to introduce a film that stood out in this year’s Competition...
He received the award from jury president Kristen Stewart, after the star offered an extended and plainly heartfelt ode to the film’s humanity and simplicity: “People have gone in circles for thousands of years trying to pin down what can be deemed art, who’s allowed to do it and what determines its value,” she said, citing the boundary-pushing nature of the festival, and namechecking such opposing philosophers on the matter as Aristotle, Barthes, Sontag and Beavis & Butthead, before concluding, “For all of us, you just know it when you see it.”
It was an apt way to introduce a film that stood out in this year’s Competition...
- 2/25/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
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