Lam Suet - The Chinese Cinema

The Chinese Cinema

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Lam Suet

A collection of 9 posts

The Running Out of Time Series (Johnnie To, 1999 and 2001)

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The Running Out of Time Series (Johnnie To, 1999 and 2001)

Missbehavior (Pang Ho-cheung, 2019)

Missbehavior (Pang Ho-cheung, 2019)

This Hong Kong New Year's film⁠ is the only one to play here (at least at the theatre I went to) in Cantonese. It’s also the only Lunar New Year film this year to follow the tradition of the all-star comedy fests that define the New Year's movie as

Missbehavior (Pang Ho-cheung, 2019)

Missbehavior (Pang Ho-cheung, 2019)

This week’s snow has certainly thrown a wrench into my Lunar New Year movie-watching plans, but fortunately my kids’ school actually started on time today so I was able to make the long drive to the Pacific Place to catch an early morning show of Pang Ho-cheung’s latest

The Mission (Johnnie To, 1999)

The Mission (Johnnie To, 1999)

After a few rough years at the start of his Milkyway Image studio, producing great movies that never really caught on at the box office, and constantly at odds with his subordinate directors, in 1999 Johnnie To just decided to give up the pretense and begin directing most of his

Trivisa (Jevons Au, Frank Hui, & Vicky Wong, 2016)

Trivisa (Jevons Au, Frank Hui, & Vicky Wong, 2016)

Trivisa is the latest product of Johnnie To’s Milkyway Image studio (at least, until his new film opens here on June 24th). Directed by the young trio of Jevons Au, Vicky Wong, and Frank Hui, it’s a crime story set on the eve of Hong Kong’s handover

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2 (Johnnie To, 2014)

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2 (Johnnie To, 2014)

Beginning one year after the first film ends, financial analyst Cheng Zixin (Gao Yuanyuan) is still engaged to the winner of that film’s love triangle, reformed alcoholic Qihong (Daniel Wu) (recall that for her he quit drinking and built a skyscraper in the shape of her silhouette). They communicate

The Midnight After (Fruit Chan, 2014)

The Midnight After (Fruit Chan, 2014)

The end of the world, maybe. A late-night minibus, packed with commuters traveling from (if my geography is correct) the center of the city to one of its satellite neighborhoods, seems to drive instead into the Twilight Zone: everyone else in Hong Kong seemingly disappears, and then the passengers themselves

The Legend is Born: Ip Man (Herman Yau, 2010)

The Legend is Born: Ip Man (Herman Yau, 2010)

Oh yeah, another movie about Ip Man. This one covers his early years, growing up in a kung fu school, his first romance, years in college, and such. The emphasis, more than in any of the others, is on the specifics of the Wing Chun technique itself, with a whole

Drug War (Johnnie To, 2012)

Drug War (Johnnie To, 2012)

From the beginning, it explains that this is not your typical heroic bloodshed Triad film, concerned more with codes of honor and brotherhood and the mirroring of good and evil than anything else. No, instead this is going to be a straight police procedural, with no metaphysical mumbo jumbo: “You’