Hong Kong New Wave - The Chinese Cinema

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Hong Kong New Wave

A collection of 11 posts

Killer Constable (Kuei Chih-hung, 1980)

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Killer Constable (Kuei Chih-hung, 1980)

Visible Secret (Ann Hui, 2001)

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Visible Secret (Ann Hui, 2001)

My Heart is That Eternal Rose (Patrick Tam, 1989)

My Heart is That Eternal Rose (Patrick Tam, 1989)

The following is a re-edited and slightly-modified version of the review I wrote for InReview Online's coverage of the Fantasia International Film Festival in the summer of 2023. One or two festivals ago, I can’t remember which—this time of year they all blend together, I wrote

Nomad (Patrick Tam, 1982)

Nomad (Patrick Tam, 1982)

The following is a re-edited and slightly-modified version of the review I wrote for InReview Online's coverage of the New York Asian Film Festival in the summer of 2023. One of the finest films of the Hong Kong New Wave, Patrick Tam’s Nomad plays at this year’

The Imp (Dennis Yu, 1981)

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The Imp (Dennis Yu, 1981)

Long Arm of the Law (Johnny Mak, 1984)

Long Arm of the Law (Johnny Mak, 1984)

The intersection of the Hong Kong New Wave and the crime movie. A gang of thieves crosses the border from China into the city to pull a heist, but everything goes wrong: one guy gets caught by dogs before he can get over the razor-wire border fence, then the jewelry

Ann Hui Capsule Reviews

Ann Hui Capsule Reviews

The Secret (1979) — July 29, 2019 In America this would have been followed by at least two more imitation movies where Sylvia Chang solves spooky murders, of declining quality and increasing morbidity, directed by men of course and not Ann Hui, whose debut this was. But they weren’t in

The Enigmatic Case (Johnnie To, 1980)

The Enigmatic Case (Johnnie To, 1980)

After getting his start working in television at Hong Kong’s TVB studio in the mid-1970s, Johnnie To made his feature debut in 1980 with a dark, stylish martial arts film made on the cheap for a small, leftist studio. Though quite similar in tone and style to the debut

Boat People (Ann Hui, 1982)

Boat People (Ann Hui, 1982)

Revolution is war is hell. Something in the air with the Hong Kong New Wave and Japanese leftists in 1982. Patrick Tam’s Nomad envisions the United Red Army as psychotic dead-enders while Ann Hui here depicts an idealistic photojournalist who sees past the Potemkin images provided for him by

Nomad (Patrick Tam, 1982)

Nomad (Patrick Tam, 1982)

This Patrick Tam film defies easy genre labeling. For much of its run, its feels like a slice of life teenage film, not unlike American Graffiti or Dazed and Confused or Metropolitan, but more in the style of later Taiwanese directors like Edward Yang or Hou Hsiao-hsien (though without their

The Butterfly Murders (Tsui Hark, 1979)

The Butterfly Murders (Tsui Hark, 1979)

Tsui Hark’s audacious debut film is a horror mystery about killer butterflies that has more in common with Roger Corman or Dario Argento than the Shaw Brothers. It begins with a lengthy narration, describing how the world came to an end in two battles where most of the martial