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Asian cinema: Chinese films

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Asian cinema: Chinese films
The latest news, analysis and opinion on Asian cinema: Chinese films. In-depth analysis, industry insights and expert opinion.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM
Wanrong and Puyi, in Tianjin, circa 1925. Photo: Getty Images

Paul French lifts veil on final months of China’s last emperor in the Forbidden City

It is not the first biography of China’s Puyi, but Paul French’s latest book brings with it a feminine voice of modernity and fully exploits its place in the ‘doomed-monarchy’ sub-genre.

Reading Time:6 minutes
Wing Shya, Hong Kong-based photographer, artist and director, in Tai Hang. Photo: Alexander Mak

Wing Shya: photographer to Wong Kar-wai on working with the great and good of Hong Kong cinema

Reading Time:6 minutes
Chef-nun Jeong Kwan at the Bukhara Biennale, in Uzbekistan, as part of a kimchi-fermentation collaboration with the Koryo-saram community. Photo: courtesy Andrey Arekelyan and Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF)

Bukhara Biennial spearheads cultural blossoming of the city as well as the wider Uzbekistan

Reading Time:6 minutes
The city of Baguio, on Luzon island, in the Philippines, was favoured by American administrators for its climate. Photo: Thomas Bird

Escape Manila’s heat for northern Luzon’s pine-scented hills and Sagada’s hanging coffins

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The Yuen Long branch of Wing Wah Restaurant does a brisk mooncake trade ahead of the 1976 Mid-Autumn Festival. Photo: SCMP Archives

In pictures: the evolution of Hong Kong’s Mid-Autumn mooncake

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Architect Kisho Kurokawa with his creation, Japan’s Nakagin Capsule Tower, in 1972. Photo: Tomio Ohashi/M+

How Japan’s innovative Nakagin Capsule Tower is finding new life

Reading Time:6 minutes
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Content from SCMP's Specialist Publications
Hong Kong actress Helena Law at an interview with the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong’s Ho Man Tin neighbourhood in 2000. Law established herself as a Hong Kong TV show regular during the 1970s, but it wasn’t until 1993, when she was 58, that she played the villainous character she would become best known for. Photo: Dickson Lee
Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Profile | How Helena Law Lan, 91, became Hong Kong cinema’s grand dame of horror

Law was a Hong Kong TV staple in the 1970s, but it wasn’t until later that she became a cultural icon playing mystical villains in films.

American cinema

Loved Heart of the Beast? 10 more great movies where the dog takes the lead

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Hong Kong culture

Opinion | What Hong Kong cinema can take away from a popular Chinese war film

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

From Cheng Pei-pei to Michelle Yeoh, Hong Kong’s history of action heroines

Hong Kong studios embraced female action stars long before Hollywood. Here’s how some of the biggest triumphed in wuxia and kung fu films.

Michelle Yeoh (right) in a still from Wing Chun (1994). The Malaysian actress is one of many women to have starred in Hong Kong action movies over the decades. We look at her roles and those of others, from Angela Mao Ying to Brigitte Lin.
Wellness

He trained Jet Li. Wu Bin, 89, shares his secrets to great health in old age

Martial arts legend Wu Bin talks about mentoring Jet Li and other wushu stars, and how building good habits is key to health in older life.

Chinese culture

Famous Chinese women in folklore, from Mulan to a dynasty-toppling consort

These women have inspired countless poems, books, movies and TV shows over the centuries, but what are their stories and why do they endure?

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Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Profile | How Cantopop lyricist Wyman Wong became a cultural force in Hong Kong

Songwriter for the stars, fashion journalist, LGBTQ activist – Wong’s impact on modern Hong Kong culture cannot be overstated.

Wyman Wong attends the Ultimate Song Chart Awards 2016 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on January 1, 2017. The Hong Kong lyricist, actor and fashionista has written career-defining hits for many Cantopop singers, appeared in various movies, designed and written about fashion, and promoted LGBTQ visibility in his home city. Photo: Visual China Group via Getty Images
Wyman Wong (centre) and fellow Commercial Radio Hong Kong DJ Lois Kwok Ching (right) talk to Cantopop star Sandy Lam Yik-lin at her concert in 1994. Photo: SCMP
Wyman Wong (first right) attends the Ten Best Dressed Personalities Awards 2005. Photo: SCMP
Wyman Wong and influential fashion columnist Winifred Lai attend a fashion launch in Causeway Bay in 2007. Photo: SCMP
Wyman Wong arrives for a memorial service to honour and celebrate the life of Vivienne Westwood at Southwark Cathedral in London on February 16, 2023. Photo: AP Photo
Chinese language cinema

Review | Once Upon a Time in the Middle East: Shen Teng leads anti-war blockbuster

Full of roaring action and heart-wrenching tension, this mainland China hit delivers a message of peace through Chinese cooking appreciation.

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Chinese language cinema

Review | Arrested Memory: Ethan Ruan leads Sabu’s muddled police thriller

Ethan Ruan plays a detective with memory issues investigating a kidnapping case in this action-packed if confused police procedural.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

The wild days of Hong Kong’s Category III era: when sex and gore went mainstream

The adults-only, Category III rating was introduced in 1988, making stars of actresses including Shu Qi and Amy Yip.

Clockwise from left: Elvis Tsui (left) and Shu Qi in a still from Sex and Zen II (1996); Chingmy Yau Suk-ching in a still from Naked Killer (1992); Veronica Yip Yuk-hing in the film, Hidden Desire (1991); Simon Yam Tat-wah in a still from Dr Lamb (1992); Amy Yip Chi-mei in a still from Sex and Zen (1991); The Untold Story. (Pork bun murders) starring Anthony Wong.
US-China relations

Can Chinese sleeper hit Dear You conquer the US box office next?

After grossing nearly US$300 million in mainland China, its North American release will test its popularity beyond Chinese-speaking diaspora.

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A still from Dear You, the hit Chinese film shot in southern Teochew dialect. Photo: Handout
Chinese language cinema

Review | I Know Who You Are: Hu Ge leads Chinese spy drama that falters at the finish

Feng Xiaogang’s drama set during the early years of the People’s Republic of China entertains but is let down by an unsatisfying ending.

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American cinema

Desk job to Jackie Chan stunts: martial artist Alfred Hsing’s rise in film

After leaving a financial career, the wushu champion became a fight coordinator, stuntman and actor working with some of film’s top stars.

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China society

Opinion | How a Chinese kitchen in the Middle East could stir up global cinema

Upending Hollywood’s ‘saviour-hero’ convention in war films, a tale about a humble chef offers a quiet, distinctly Chinese perspective.

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A still from the Chinese film Once Upon a Time in the Middle East. Photo: Dirty Monkeys
Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Profile | How Josie Ho rejected her billionaire heiress destiny for indie filmmaking

Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho’s eighth child has built her own legacy as a musician, award-winning actress and movie producer.

Josie Ho attends the New York Asian Film Festival 2022, at Walter Reade Theatre, in New York, on July 16, 2022. Rather than following in the footsteps of her casino magnate father Stanley Ho, she has forged her own path in music and film, winning awards along the way. Photo: Getty Images for Josie Ho
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | Wakesurf Lovers: Jeffrey Ngai, Renci Yeung make a splash in uneven sports drama

Full of beautiful bodies but paper-thin characters, Fung Chih-chiang’s film about wakesurfing and cybershaming drifts nowhere in particular.

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Chinese language cinema

The Chinese Mulholland Drive? Why ‘so bad it’s good’ film Niu Lai is special

Initially mocked, the low-budget film by a first-time animator and his mum is now being hailed as a bastion of hard work and free expression.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How Ronny Yu and Jet Li made Fearless (2006) a martial arts masterpiece

Director Ronny Yu put Jet Li’s martial arts skills and acting chops to good use in this classic, blending superb fights and a human story.

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Jet Li in a still from Fearless, the acclaimed 2006 martial arts film directed by Ronny Yu. Photo: SCMP
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | A Mighty Adventure: wordless animation by McDull director is breezy if flawed

Hong Kong director Toe Yuen’s film about insects surviving the city is a visual marvel, though dialogue would have made it more expressive.

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Trending in China

Meme magic: how a crude Chinese animation reshapes country’s viewing habits

Expert cautions against replicating Niu Lai as a business formula, viewing it instead as a unique social phenomenon.

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China society

Opinion | Why Chinese film-goers are flocking to a movie they hate

Niu Lai’s runaway success is not an endorsement of its quality. Audiences are paying for the perverse enjoyment of seeing how bad it gets.

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A screenshot of Niu Lai, or The Arrival of the Ox, a little-known Chinese animated film that viewers have embraced despite it being described as “impossible to believe is a 2026 production”. Photo: Handout
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Review | The Dating Menu: a drifter chef looks to connect in wistful romantic drama

Lo Chun-yip plays a chef who tries out a dating app and cooks for four very different women as he tries to get over a previous relationship.

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Lo Chun-yip (left) and Crystal Cheung Man-ka in a still from The Dating Menu.
100 Top Picks

Video | Niu Lai is China’s latest box office hit

Chinese ticketing platform Maoyan predicted that the film could make 18.4 million yuan (US$2.7 million) within 30 days of release.

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How ‘Siuyea’ Lo Chun-yip shed his indie director mindset to become a leading man

The ‘late bloomer’, who switched directing for acting in 2015, takes on his first main lead role with new film The Dating Menu.

China’s film industry

How a ‘rough’ and ‘crude’ Chinese cartoon ox went from box office zero to hero

Widely slated on its release, Niu Lai has become the summer’s most surprising smash hit despite competition from The Odyssey and Spider-Man.

Niu Lai has been panned for its “rough” and “crude” animation. Photo: Handout
Chinese language cinema

Review | All Wishes Come True!: Chinese animation reinvents the Eight Immortals

This culturally authentic and wholly accessible origin story is a visually dazzling infusion of Chinese and Western storytelling conventions.

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A screen grab from from All Wishes Come True! from Pearl Studio, which also produced Kung Fu Panda 3 and Netflix’s Academy Award-nominated Over the Moon.
Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Profile | Alex To’s 40-year Cantopop legacy: R&B origins, comebacks, acting triumphs

The now 64-year-old Hong Kong-born singer and actor remains one of the industry’s most enduring and unpredictable figures.

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European cinema

How this British-Chinese filmmaker aims to build the Blumhouse of action

Inspired by John Woo and Chow Yun-fat, Chee Keong Cheung talks about his Action Xtreme studio and upcoming film Bad Day at the Office.

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