The Chinese Cinema

Chang Cheh

The New One-Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1971)

Even at the warp speed of Hong Kong generic cycles, it’d be weird to remake a movie that came out only four years earlier, so Chang Cheh, in the midst of probably the most frenetic period of production of any great director ever, didn’t remake his smash hit

Chang Cheh

Chang Cheh Capsule Reviews

The Magnificent Trio (1966) — November 5, 2017 Chang Cheh’s second wuxia film, and the oldest one to survive. The first, Tiger Boy, was a low-budget black and white film for which he did the choreography himself. By all accounts it has been lost. The Magnificent Trio is in color

The 36th Chamber

Chang Cheh

Chang Cheh: Visionary of Death — December 7, 2017 Chang Cheh: Death and Glory — May 23, 2018 Reviews: The One-Armed Swordsman (1967) — July 12, 2013 The Assassin (1967) — May 12, 2014 Return of the One-Armed Swordsman — July 25, 2013 Vengeance! (1970) — July 27, 2013 The Heroic Ones (1970) — July 29, 2013

Wilson Yip

SPL: Paradox (Wilson Yip, 2017)

It’s unclear if this film is actually a continuation of the SPL series or if it just started as one and then mutated into its own thing. I thought I saw the characters for “Sha Po Lang” on the title card of the movie though, so I’m just

Hong Sangsoo

Mysterious Object at Cannes: Claire’s Camera (Hong Sangsoo, 2017)

Claire’s Camera, barely over an hour long and shot in about a week at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, isn’t even the best Hong Sangsoo movie of the past year. That would be On the Beach at Night Alone. Nor is it likely to be the most

Herman Yau

Shock Wave (Herman Yau, 2017)

A kind of amalgam of The Taking of Pelham 123 and The Hurt Locker, the first of three Herman Yau films to be released in the first half of 2017 (released in late April, it was followed by The Sleep Curse in May and 77 Heartbreaks in June, with a

Yang Lei

The Legend of the Naga Pearls (Yang Lei, 2017

In what has been a strong summer for Chinese language releases here in Seattle (with Our Time Will Come, Wolf Warrior 2, Meow, Once Upon a Time, and The Adventurers following SIFF's minifestival of Hong Kong films and their presentation of the restored Taipei Story last week), Legend

Stephen Fung

The Adventurers (Stephen Fung, 2017)

Almost thirty years after A Moment of Romance, Andy Lau still looks impossibly cool riding a motorcycle. He does it here as the lead of a small gang of jewel thieves in Stephen Fung’s heist movie, his first film since the lunatic double punch of 2012’s Tai Chi

Tsui Hark

Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong: The Cinema of Tsui Hark

Tsui Hark⁠ has been the central figure in Hong Kong and Chinese language cinema for the past 40 years, responsible for at least a dozen different masterpieces as director and/or producer. He’s often likened to Steven Spielberg, though more for the universal popularity of his films and their

Zhao Xiaoding

Once Upon a Time (Zhao Xiaoding, 2017)

The intersection between myth and teen drama, between cartoon wuxia and soap opera, with a dash of Hitchcock just to make things interesting, Once Upon a Time is unlike anything likely to play on Seattle Screens this year. The directorial debut of longtime Zhang Yimou cinematographer Zhao Xiaoding (he shot

Wu Jing

Wolf Warrior 2 (Wu Jing, 2017)

Somewhat surprisingly, Wu Jing’s Wolf Warrior 2 is smashing box office records across China, on pace to overtake last year’s The Mermaid as the number one Chinese film of all-time. Wu is probably the greatest Chinese martial arts star of his generation, best known here in the US

Benny Chan

Meow (Benny Chan, 2017)

From Mao to Meow: Revolution in Contemporary Chinese Cinema Pop will eat itself. “A cat is never on the side of power.” — Chris Marker Last summer veteran Hong Kong director Benny Chan brought us the year’s best martial arts film with the High Noon variation Call of Heroes. This

Karl Maka

Karl Maka Capsule Reviews

Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog (Karl Maka, 1978) — July 21, 2017 The first of only two movies released by Gar Bo Films, the production company started by Sammo Hung and Lau Kar-wing. The company collapsed when several of its key collaborators left to form Cinema City and dominate 1980s Hong Kong

Ann Hui

Our Time Will Come (Ann Hui, 2017)

The most anticipated, and almost assuredly the best, World War II film of the summer, by one of the greatest filmmakers of the past forty years, opens here tomorrow exclusively at the Pacific Place: director Ann Hui’s Our Time Will Come . Based on true events in the resistance against

Chen Yu-hsun

The Village of No Return (Chen Yu-hsun, 2017)

Settling down for Village of No Return, I was expecting another mediocre Chinese genre film, an effects-driven action comedy along the lines of Vampire Cleanup Department or Mojin: The Lost Legend, amiable thanks to a star turn from Shu Qi and a supporting role by Eric Tsang, but ultimately weightless.

Wong Chun

Mad World (Wong Chun, 2016)

For more than a hundred years, all over the world, what is taken to be serious cinema has been defined more often than not by content. Films for grown-ups are supposed to be sober examinations of the social and political issues of the day. These are the movies that win

Chan Chi-fat

Weeds on Fire (Chan Chi-fat, 2016)

One of the three new films playing at SIFF this weekend as part of their miniseries commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China, along with Mad World and Cook Up a Storm, Weeds on Fire was one of the surprise hits of 2016

Hong Sangsoo

Between Work: A Conversation on Claire’s Camera and The Day After

Evan Morgan: The sun’s out, palm trees are in sight, and we’ve temporarily traded in soju for sancerre. Hong Sang-soo is en vacance again. I don’t know about you Sean, but I’m always happy to see Hong in the literally and figuratively breezy mode that he

Michael Hui

The Contract (Michael Hui, 1978)

I guess the BBC asked a bunch of people for their top ten comedy lists. They didn’t ask me, but as I’m completely incapable of resisting the siren call of list-making, I made one anyway and put this film in at the bottom, ahead of favorites like Trouble

Raymond Yip

Cook Up a Storm (Raymond Yip, 2017)

One of only two Hong Kong films to be playing at SIFF this year is this cooking movie from star Nicholas Tse and director Raymond Yip. It’s a Lunar New Year film, opening a week after the holiday both at home and abroad, to avoid box office competition from

Derek Hui

This Is Not What I Expected (Derek Hui, 2017)

One of two romantic comedies that tried and failed to unseat the powerhouse Fast & the Furious 8 at the Chinese box office this past May Day weekend, This Is Not What I Expected opens here on Friday, a week after its counterpart Love Off the Cuff. It’s a

Pang Ho-cheung

Love Off the Cuff (Pang Ho-cheung, 2017)

Love Off the Cuff starts with a horror movie, a tale set in the recent past about a village terrorized by a monster that eats children. As creepy as it is ridiculous, it functions as a none-too-subtle allegory for the crisis at the heart of the relationship between Cherie (Miriam

Zhang Yimou

Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002)

There’s a little making-of featurette on the Miramax DVD of Hero⁠[1] that has some decent interviews with the cast and crew along with some breathless Hollywood narration. Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, and Donnie Yen speak impeccable English, which makes one wonder what might have been if Hollywood wasn’

Hong Sangsoo

Yourself and Yours (Hong Sangsoo, 2016)

Yourself and Yours isn’t the latest film from South Korean director Hong Sangsoo, that would be On the Beach at Night Alone, which premiered a few weeks ago at the Berlin Film Festival (where it picked up a Best Actress award). But, Yourself and Yours may still get a

Introduction

The Chinese Cinema

Four years ago, in the spring of 2013, I caught a particularly vicious strain of cinephilia. I’d been a guest on the They Shot Pictures podcast a couple of times, talking about Josef von Sternberg, Yasujiro Ozu and Mikio Naruse, and we decided to sneak in an episode on