Leslie Cheung - The Chinese Cinema

The Chinese Cinema

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Leslie Cheung

A collection of 10 posts

Thrice a Thief (Ralph Nelson, 1965 and John Woo, 1991 & 1996)

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Thrice a Thief (Ralph Nelson, 1965 and John Woo, 1991 & 1996)

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’

A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986)

A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986)

After an up and down decade as a director for hire, working alternately in the wuxia and wacky comedy genres, John Woo finally hit it big in 1986 when he teamed up with Tsui Hark and the Cinema City studio to remake Patrick Lung Kong’s 1967 drama The Story

The Bride with White Hair (Ronny Yu, 1993)

The Bride with White Hair (Ronny Yu, 1993)

All the same comic book mythology elements as so many other post-Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain wuxia films, A Chinese Ghost Story, Swordsman II, and Ashes of Time in particular, but director Ronny Yu slows the pace down, both in plot and editing, which allows more time to take

Once a Thief (John Woo, 1991)

Once a Thief (John Woo, 1991)

If Cherie Chung hadn’t retired after making this movie, and maybe had gone on to star in some Wong Kar-wai movies, would she be better known today? She was one of the key Hong Kong actresses of the 1980s, beginning with her debut in Johnnie To’s first film,

The Aces Go Places Series (1982-1989)

The Odd One Dies

The Aces Go Places Series (1982-1989)

Aces Go Places (Eric Tsang, 1982) — November 20, 2013 The first of the smash hit action/comedy series that was one of the first big successes of the Cinema City studio that dominated 80s Hong Kong. Pioneering Cantopop star Sam Hui plays a master jewel thief who helps a bumbling

A Better Tomorrow II (John Woo, 1987)

A Better Tomorrow II (John Woo, 1987)

After its formation in 1980 by actors Dean Shek, Karl Maka, and Raymond Wong, the first film released by Hong Kong studio Cinema City & Films Co. was 1981’s Laughing Times, a comedy starring Shek as “the Chinese Charlie Chaplin” that is a kind of mashup of The Kid

Ashes of Time (Redux) (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)

Ashes of Time (Redux) (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)

As with My Blueberry Nights and 2046, a person trying to escape their own past romantic disappointments becomes witness to the stories of other people, and thus learns to cope with their own issues. Like Chow Mo-wan in In the Mood for Love, Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung) has lost the

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

Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar-wai, 1990)

Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar-wai, 1990)

Wong Kar-wai’s second feature is, I think, one of the great films about the post-war generation and the lingering effects the war had on their psyches and their visions of the world. Set in 1960, the main characters would have all been born in the mid to late 30s,