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Views, news, and reviews of films from the continent's biggest movie production centres.
As Hong Kong mourns storyteller Ni Kuang and filmmaker Alex Law, it can take comfort from knowing their much-loved legacies will live on.
The film Shang-Chi, starring Simu Liu, Awkwafina and Tony Leung, showcases how Asian filmmakers and actors are moving ever further away from racist stereotypes. The cultural diversity now visible on screen is the result of larger demographic trends that the US far right cannot hold back even if it tried.
Hong Kong used to be a global player in the television, film and music sectors but the shine has worn off in the past couple of decades; now is the time for a reboot.
- The 2009 movie adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball manga was made on a shoestring, despite Jackie Chan warning the special effects required a huge budget
- Laughable CGI and writing abounded in this whitewashed film that left fans of the Japanese manga confused, and those involved feeling the need to apologise
When 13-year-old Alana (played by Anantya Kirana) and her friend are abducted and taken to a remote house, she escapes her abductor, and uncovers the extent of the atrocities he has committed.
With Lydia Sum ‘everything came from the heart’, said the TV producer who turbocharged the career of the comedian and actress. Known as Fei Fei, she is remembered for the joy she brought audiences.
Snow in Midsummer’s director reveals the challenges he encountered when making the film about Malaysia’s deadly sectarian riots that left hundreds of mainly ethnic Chinese dead on May 13, 1969.
As well as shining a spotlight on the conflicts in Ukraine and the Palestinian West Bank, the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2024 will for the first time show a movie made completely by AI.
Actor, director, playwright and musician Daniel York Loh talks about his latest play and how, despite a résumé that includes movie The Beach, he still loses parts for ‘not being Chinese enough’.
In 1975’s The Man from Hong Kong, Jimmy Wang Yu thought he had found the vehicle that would propel him to Bruce Lee-level international fame – but the James Bond-like film did not click with viewers.
The list of 19 Medal of Freedom honorees pays homage to ‘firsts’ in their field, including the Everything Everywhere All at Once star, the first Asian to win the Oscar for Best Actress.
An armed gang attacks an armoured car, kills the guards but leaves the money, then threatens to explode 13 bombs across Jakarta, in this Netflix action thriller that doesn’t match its lofty ambitions.
Seven classic 1950s Korean movies are being shown at this year’s Udine Far East Film Festival in collaboration with the Korean Film Archive. Those who can’t make the event can watch them on YouTube.
A migrant from China to Hong Kong (Raymond Lam) winds up in the Kowloon Walled City, where he befriends mobsters, in Soi Cheang’s lavishly funded yet edgy film, a spectacle let down by its storytelling.
Film lovers flock to cinema for final showings after nearly 60 years of operation.
Starring Patra Au, Tai Bo and Leung Chung-hang, director Ray Yeung’s LGBTQ drama All Shall Be Well sees an elderly Hong Kong lesbian at risk of losing everything after her partner suddenly dies.
In her first feature-length documentary, New York-based Zhao Yehui captures the story of four generations of her family, set against a backdrop of hardship high in the mountains of Shanxi province.
Hold You Tight and Lan Yu were daring films for their time. The first stars Chingmy Yau, then an actress in adults-only films, as a bored wife who has an affair, while the latter is a stylish gay drama.
Donna Ong’s documentary examines cinema and Hong Kong history from the 1950s onwards through the eyes of a titan of the cultural scene. Fascinating and packed with archive material, it is narrated by Law.
A look at Ekin Cheng’s journey from actor and Cantopop star to husband to actress Yoyo Mung – and the public romances that made him a tabloid magnet and drew public criticism.
Director Sam Wong has tried to pack too much into Suspect, and the result is an incoherent mess. Playing a detective with unusual powers, Nick Cheung endures some frankly stupid set pieces.
Golden Horse Awards winner Old Fox depicts Taiwan after the end of martial law, a time of rapid change. Director Hsiao Ya-chuan hopes its message resonates today as it did in the era in which it is set.
Some film fans say going to the cinema in city no longer affordable entertainment, particularly with transport and food added.
In 1998, Rush Hour shot Jackie Chan to international fame. But after making the film with Chris Tucker, Chan ultimately decided not to abandon Hong Kong, and continued to make films in both places.
Ryohei Suzuki stars as playboy detective Ryo Saeba in new Netflix movie City Hunter, the latest adaptation of the manga of the same name by artist Tsukasa Hojo.
If Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver holds little appeal to you, try these five related movies instead - they’re all amazing.
As two Hong Kong films premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, we look back at the city’s cinema history at the event, including Wong Kar-wai’s many hits and Johnnie To’s successes in the 2000s.
Singaporean director and writer Yeo Siew Hua talks about addressing the age of surveillance in his new film Stranger Eyes, Chinese philosophy, and why he is on the lookout for collaborations.
Christopher Nolan references and a love triangle don’t save Chinese drama Galaxy Writer, which follows two fledgling filmmakers navigating China’s commercialised movie industry.
Flower Drum Song (1961), the first Hollywood film with a mostly Asian cast, was a rare box-office dud for Rodgers and Hammerstein. Was it a coincidence? We look back at the groundbreaking musical.
Veteran Tony Leung takes best actor prize for his role as a flamboyant con-man in crime thriller The Goldfinger.
