News

The Last Dance, one of the most highly anticipated Hong Kong films of the year, has been acquired for UK and Ireland distribution by Trinity CineAsia from Emperor Motion Pictures.

Trinity CineAsia plan to release the film theatrically on November 15, following its opening in Hong Kong on November 11.

The drama features a starry cast led by Dayo Wong, whose recent hits include Hong Kong’s highest-grossing film A Guilty Conscience and blockbuster Table For Six, alongside veteran Michael Hui, who won best supporting actor at the 2023 Hong Kong Film Awards for Where The Wind Blows.

Wong plays a debt-ridden wedding...

It seems that 2023 has been a great year for Hong Kong family/social dramas, with titles like “Fly me to the Moon” , “Lost Love” and “In Broad Daylight” having a significant impact in the industry. Nick Cheuk's feature debut “Time Still Turns the Pages” can easily be added in the same list, in a film that deals with how the actions of parents affect and shape their children.

Time Still Turns the Pages is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival 2024

High school teacher Cheng tries to be kind and considerate to all his students, but when a cleaning lady discovers a suicide note, a triggering memory of his rather demanding, rather harsh and violent father begins to resurface. Eventually, the faculty decides to ask a student for help in the matter. At the same time, Cheng is in the middle of a divorce, which he finds quite difficult to acknowledge.

Crime drama “The Goldfinger” was the numerical winner at the Hong Kong Film Awards, where it won six prizes on Sunday. But it missed out on the best film prize, which went to box office record breaker “A Guilty Conscience.”

“The Goldfinger,” a retro financial thriller starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Andy Lau Tak-wah, earned a slew of technical award as well as the lead actor prize for Leung.

Two films took three prizes each: “In Broad Daylight,” an investigation into abuse at a care home, and “Mad Fate,” Soi Cheang’s grungy examination of superstition in the city. “In Broad Daylight,” which opened anonymously this weekend in mainland Chinese cinemas, picked up three performance awards — best actress award for Jennifer Yu, best supporting actor for David Chiang and best supporting actress for Rachel Leung. “Mad Fate,” which premiered in Berlin in February 2023, picked up the best director award, best...

Lawrence Kan’s newsroom drama In Broad Daylight leads the pack going into the 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards with 16 nominations.

The feature, which follows an undercover journalist who exposes the abuse of residents in a nursing home, secured nods in all but three of the 19 categories. It marks the second feature by Kan and proved the fourth highest grossing local film in 2023.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

Also gaining multiple nominations was Nick Cheuk’s emotive drama Time Still Turns The Pages and Felix Chong’s financial crime extravaganza The Goldfinger, which secured 12 nods apiece, while Jack Ng...

Central City Media is proud to release the hard-hitting drama In Broad Daylight, inspired by shocking real events, in UK cinemas.

In Broad Daylight reveals a little-known truth about residential care homes for the disabled that hides beneath the headlines. Written and directed by Lawrence Kwan Chun Kan, the film recalls the likes of Spotlight and The Post, where dogged and fearless journalists uncover alarming levels of rampant abuse and corruption.

Jennifer Yu (Sisterhood) stars as Kay, a young journalist who is told by a jaded veteran colleague that their work doesn’t make any difference – and sets out to prove him wrong. The cast also includes Bowie Lam (Hard Boiled) and Rachel Leung (A Light Never Goes Out).

Nominated for Best Film and Best Director at the Shanghai International Film Festival, as well as receiving five nominations at the Golden Horse Film Festival in Taiwan, In Broad Daylight is...

Action comedy Rob N Roll is set to receive the biggest international rollout for a Chinese New Year title from Hong Kong since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The feature, starring Aaron Kwok and directed by Albert Mak, will be released in a dozen territories, including non-traditional markets such as Africa and Cambodia, over a span of three weeks.

Hong Kong star Kwok (Where The Wind Blows) plays a ruthless robber who accidentally teams up with two wannabe-robbers for a heist that leads to a string of shootouts and explosions. The stellar cast also includes Mad Fate star Lam Ka Tung and Richie Ren of Trivisa.

Festival Merger

The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and The India Center Foundation, two non-profit organizations working with South Asian film in the U.S., have agreed to merge. Already long-time collaborators, Iffla and Icf will, among other things, work closely to incubate and launch an industry development program to showcase the next generation of South Asian talent to studios, funders and media executives.

“We saw an opportunity to scale our work nationally as one of the leading supporters of emerging creative talent in the diaspora. By joining forces with Iffla we can bring much needed resources to support the stories that need to be told in the media. Our stories,” said Priya Giri Desai, a co-founder of Icf.

“[Icf] have been a financial and creative partner to Iffla over numerous festivals already, which makes this a natural fit. I have no doubt that we can bring even greater impact together.

Warner Bros.’ “Wonka” continued its reign over the U.K. and Ireland box office with £2.2 million ($2.8 million), according to numbers from Comscore.

After six weekends at the box office, the Timothée Chalamet starrer has a sweet total of £56.1 million.

Disney’s Golden Globe-winning “Poor Things,” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and featuring Emma Stone in a Golden Globe-winning performance, debuted with £1.8 million. In its third weekend, in third place, Sony’s “Anyone But You” collected £1,246,921 for a total of £5.3 million. Just below, with £1,246,292, in its second weekend, was Warner Bros.’ “One Life,” for a total of £5.8 million.

Rounding off the top five was Sky Cinema/Studiocanal release “The Beekeeper” with £956,380. The other debut in the top 10 was Warner Bros.’ “The Boys In The Boat” that bowed in 10th place with £270,297.

Among the new releases, opening mid-week on Jan. 17 is the keenly anticipated “Mean Girls,” starring Angourie Rice, Auli’i Cravalho, Reneé Rapp,...

Some films start slow, but slowly grow on you. Thus, In Broad Daylight, a gut-wrenching drama about corruption – and worse - in Hong Kong’s care homes for the mentally impaired.

At its centre, the investigative team, led by Kay (Jennifer Yu), a tough-as-nails, cynical young journalist who nonetheless rejects the view of a jaded veteran colleague that their work doesn’t make any difference. She treads a fine line between the world-weariness of that colleague, and the optimism of trainee journalist Siu-ling (Rachel Leung).

Posing as the grand-daughter of Chau Kin-tong (David Chiang), Kay volunteers to help at the Rainbow Home, where Kin-tong is a resident. It is a depressing place: an institution that provides families who can no longer cope with relatives who are old or mentally impaired, or both, a place to forget them; and where abuse and exploitation of the residents is everyday occurrence.

Comparisons will inevitably be drawn with.

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

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

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

The 17th Asian Film Awards Nomination List

Best Film

12.12: The Day (South Korea)

Evil Does Not Exist (Japan)

Paradise

Perfect Days (Japan)

Snow Leopard (Mainland China)

Best Director

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

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

Hamaguchi Ryusuke | Evil Does Not Exist (Japan)

Kore-eda Hirokazu...

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

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

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

Scroll down for full list of nominations

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

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

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

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

The financial crime drama reunites Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Andy Lau for the first time since ‘Infernal Affairs 3’.

Felix Chong’s The Goldfinger has made an impressive $3.2m (Hk$25m) in its home market of Hong Kong, reinvigorating the declining box office for local films.

The financial crime drama, which reunites superstars Tony Leung Chiu-wai with Andy Lau for the first time since closing out the hit Infernal Affairs trilogy two decades ago, has topped the Hong Kong box office since opening on December 30.

Released by Emperor Motion Pictures, it crossed $3.2m (Hk$25m) after just nine days (as...

I tried making a conscious effort to find posters in areas I might not have normally visited this year. That’s the effect of having been able to follow so many design firms and artists on Twitter before a majority (justifiably) bailed upon its sale. With such broad and instant access, the ease at which I discovered new releases made it so I often forget to look elsewhere.

Imp Awards is still a great resource, if only to sift through everything they’ve tagged as a given year to see if something got missed. Then there’s Brandon Schaefer‘s year-end collections and Adrian Curry’s extensive Mubi posts and Instagram to get an inside look from two poster artists and connoisseurs. And there’s a slew of other accounts who keep on the pulse of the art form when so many (e.g. studios who commission the work) can...

Hong Kong saw “A Guilty Conscience” become the highest-grossing film of all time at its local box office. But the wider cinema market in Hong Kong remained stuck far below pre-pandemic levels.

Data from Hong Kong Box Office Limited, a joint venture between Motion Picture Industry Association (Mpia) and the Hong Kong Theatres Association, showed annual cinema revenue of Hk$1.43 billion ($184 million) in 2023.

That was a 25% improvement on 2022, when the industry was battered by on-off closures due to government Covid-control measures, and managed only Hk$1.14 billion ($146 million). But the 2023 score also remained 25% shy of 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, when box office reached Hk$1.92 billion ($246 million).

Hyper-local courtroom drama, “A Guilty Conscience” earned Hk$115 million ($14.7 million), but it was the only local title to make it into the territory’s top ten chart in 2023. Next in line were “Oppenheimer” (Hk$72.8 million), “Mission: Impossible -Dead Reckoning Part 1” (Hk$60.5 million), “The Super Mario...

It seems that the 2018 movie “Distinction” by Jevons Au, has created some ripples to the Hong Kong movie industry, with a number of titles that focus on similar issues being presented this year. “In Broad Daylight” inspired by true events regarding the local health system and particularly the treatment of the elderly, is definitely one of those.

In Broad Daylight is screening at Five Flavours

Kay is a tough and harsh investigative reporter, who, after a tip about the residents of an elderly care home being abused by the staff, decides to go undercover in the facility, posing as the granddaughter of one of them, and see the truth for herself. Even though her methods are not legitimate, her research brings to the fore a series of shocking facts about the local healthcare system, which is as corrupt as it is ineffective. In her effort to shed light to what is happening though,...

It seems that 2023 has been a great year for Hong Kong family/social dramas, with titles like “Fly me to the Moon” , “Lost Love” and “In Broad Daylight” having a significant impact in the industry. Nick Cheuk's feature debut “Time Still Turns the Pages” can easily be added in the same list, in a film that deals with how the actions of parents affect and shape their children.

“Time Still Turns the Pages,” hits the UK cinemas on 24th November, courtesy of Trinity CineAsia

High school teacher Cheng tries to be kind and considerate to all his students, but when a cleaning lady discovers a suicide note, a triggering memory of his rather demanding, rather harsh and violent father begins to resurface. Eventually, the faculty decides to ask a student for help in the matter. At the same time, Cheng is in the middle of a divorce, which he finds quite difficult to acknowledge.