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Asian sales and production firm Distribution Workshop is using the Busan International Film Festival’s market to re-launch ambitious “Sons of the Neon Night,” a film it first became attached to in 2015. Only this time the Juno Mak-directed project is now in post-production, has a stellar cast and has expanded to become the highest-budget movie ever hatched in Hong Kong.

“Sons of the Neon Night” is pitched as a high-octane yet highly-stylized, police-crime-action-thriller set in a deconstructed and reimagined Hong Kong. It boasts an A-list cast headed by Takeshi Kaneshiro (“House of Flying Daggers”), Tony Leung Ka-fai (“Cold War”), Sean Lau Ching-wan (“Life Without Principle”), Louis Koo (“Warriors of Future”) and Ritchie Jen (“Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In”).

The original music score was composed by Nate Connelly, with the title theme by the late Sakamoto Ryuichi (“The Last Emperor”).

With a production budget of over $50 million, the movie is...

Taiwan-based sales agent Distribution Workshop is launching pre-sales on Juno Mak’s long-gestating Sons Of The Neon Night at the upcoming Asian Contents and Film Market (Acfm) during Busan International Film Festival.

The highly-stylized crime thriller stars Takeshi Kaneshiro (House Of Flying Daggers), Tony Leung Ka-fai (Cold War), Sean Lau (Life Without Principle), Louis Koo and Richie Jen, with the the latter two actors also appearing in Hong Kong’s Oscars submission Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In.

The film, which is set in a deconstructed and reimagined Hong Kong, also features original scores composed by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto.

The story begins with a gigantic explosion and shootout in a snow struck downtown Hong Kong, which turn out to be planned by the heir to a global pharmaceutical conglomerate (Kaneshiro), who is attempting to wipe out the global drugs trade.

Mak made his feature debut with Rigor Mortis in...

Taiwan-based Distribution Workshop is set to introduce Hong Kong director Juno Mak’s Sons Of The Neon Night, starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Sean Lau, to international buyers at Busan’s Acfm, along with a trio of Taiwanese titles.

It has been over a decade since Mak – who was a singer and actor before moving into directing – premiered directorial feature debut and vampire horror film Rigor Mortis at Venice and Toronto in 2013. His second feature, Sons Of The Neon Night, began filming in 2017 and has gone through a long gestation period including the Covid pandemic.

The $50m cop action thriller marks...

Hong Kong has selected box office hit Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In as its best international feature film entry for the 2025 Oscars.

The film’s selection was announced by the Federation of Motion Picture Producers of Hong Kong.

Directed by Soi Cheang, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In has grossed close to $100 million at the global box office. The film played out-of-competition as a midnight screening at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Based on Andy Seto’s Chinese comic City of Darkness, the film is set in the 1980s and follows Chan Lok-kwun (played by Raymond Lam), an illegal migrant attempting to pay his way to a fake ID. After having to flee triad boss Mr. Big (played by Sammo Hung), Chan takes refuge in Kowloon City.

The film also stars Louis Koo, Ritchie Jen, Terrance Lau, Kenny Wong and Philip Ng.

Cheang has also directed action films Limbo,...

Action thriller Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In has been selected as Hong Kong’s entry to the 97th Academy Awards.

The Federation of Motion Picture Producers of Hong Kong voted for the film, directed by Soi Cheang, to represent the region in the best international feature film category of the Oscars.

The feature played as a midnight screening at Cannes following its release in Hong Kong on May 1, where it proved a major hit with takings of $13.7m. Recording nearly 1.6 million admissions made it the highest ever ticket sales for a local film in Hong Kong and the second...

Hong Kong's top-grossing movie of the year is director Soi Cheang's Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In. Set largely in Kowloon Walled City (long since demolished), the martial arts blockbuster pits warring triads in a battle to the death over control of the tenement slum. Caught in the middle: hapless Mainlander Chan (Raymond Lam), whose search for an identity card has made him the target of expert assassins from both sides. Led by heavyweights like Louis Koo, Richie Jen, Aaron Kwok, and the legendary Sammo Hung, Twilight is also a showcase for a younger generation of performers, like Philip Ng, who plays Sammo Hung's top killer King. Philip Ng has starred in action films for almost 20 years, working with the some of the best...

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Stars: Louis Koo, Michelle Ye, Stanley Fung, Lam Suet | Written by Szeto Kam-Yuen, Nicholl Tang Nik-Kei | Directed by Soi Cheang

Accident opens on a seemingly innocuous occurrence, as a short-tempered man worries that he will be late while stuck behind a car with a flat tyre. As the man takes drastic action to drive around the car, the unfolding scene results in a chain reaction that ends with his death. What may seem like an accident for the man – revealed to be a Triad elder – is actually a carefully orchestrated assassination courtesy of the Brain (Louis Koo).

With a team made up of the voice of reason known as The Woman (Michelle Ye), the increasingly forgetful Uncle (Stanley Fung), and the unfortunately nicknamed Fatty (Lam Suet), the Brain has built a career from making his hits look like unfortunate accidents. Director Soi Cheang showcases the planning process in fascinatingly methodical ways,...

Since its local release in May, Soi Cheang’s action sensation Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In has become Hong Kong’s second-biggest domestic hit ever, earning $13.7 million in a city of just 7.2 million residents. But not only has the film reinvigorated Hong Kong’s fabled martial arts genre; it also has revived — if only fleetingly — one of the world’s most alluring architectural monstrosities: the Kowloon Walled City.

Once the most densely populated place on earth, the Kowloon Walled City was an effectively lawless enclave of Hong Kong that grew from the footprint of a small Chinese military fort into a labyrinthine urban microcosm. With no formal infrastructure, its towering, interconnected buildings were constructed haphazardly, creating a dark maze of narrow alleys and secret passages. Before its demolition in 1993, the Walled City had over 35,000 people living in an area of less than seven acres (which amounts to more than...

The Hong Kong action flick Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In delivers mostly what one expects… in a good way. Though set in 1980, the parts of city in which the action occurs are ominous, labyrinthine and bleak as the future dystopias found in a Blade Runner or Judge Dredd setting. The criminals are running the show while the authorities look elsewhere, having abandoned hope of protecting and serving on their turf. Or surviving any attempt to do so.

Raymond Lam stars as Lok – a nice young man just arriving in the big city, only to be immediately cheated out of his savings by one of the gang bosses – Mr. Big (Sammo Hung! No kiddin’!). He flees from them, innocently charging into the eponymous enclave, run by Mr. Big’s rival, Cyclone (Louis Koo), from which there’s no exit. Like a roach motel in which the lucky ones get to work for the gang.

The box office is still relying heavily on “Deadpool and Wolverine” to get us through the slower month of summer, but this weekend could offer an unlikely surprise. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

After two weeks at #1 and hitting $400 million domestic, “Deadpool and Wolverine” may finally have some competition, though it’s going to be tough to beat if it’s able to make $50 million or more in its third weekend, which is definitely possible.

Who better than to take on Ryan Reynolds‘ mega-blockbuster than Reynolds’ own wife, Blake Lively, starring in the romantic drama “It Ends With Us,” based on the best-selling novel by Colleen Hoover from 2016, which sold over a million copies worldwide by 2019 but only debuted as #1 in the New York Times bestsellers list in January 2022, thanks to a surge via TikTok.

In the movie, Lively plays Lily Bloom, a woman who moves...

About 40 minutes into Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, Raymond Lam cracks a smile. Hardly a momentous development out of context, but for Lam’s protagonist, Chan Lok-Kwan—a refugee in Hong Kong’s notorious Kowloon Walled City who’s spent every preceding moment of the film desperately clawing for survival—it marks a point of no return.

Sharing a game of mahjong with three newfound allies, Chan forges the kind of emotional bond that represents both a lifeline and a liability in the unforgiving world of Walled In. It’s one of the many small moments of humanity that dot Soi Cheang’s action epic, and evidence of the director’s capacity for personal expression even at the largest of filmmaking scales.

Though it’s been in the making for over a decade now, there’s still something hard to believe about Soi’s ascent to the top of the Hong Kong film industry.

The apartment complexes making up what used to be Kowloon Walled City effectively sealed it off from the rest of Hong Kong. Soi Cheang’s Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In imagines Kowloon as a kind of steampunk ghetto controlled by an aging gangster known as Cyclone (Louis Koo).

Cyclone’s domain is a marvel of production design (by Ip Man‘s Kwok-Keung Mak) and art direction (by Sai-Hung Chow). Cables snake through alleyways and up walls. Clouds of steam billow over clogged drains and trash cans burst with refuse. The homeless perch on corrugated roofing overlooking perpetually gloomy courtyards. They sleep in dingy doorways and stairways, gather around communal TVs, pushing past each other on endless delivery runs.

Part of a wave of Mainland China refugees, Chan Lok Kwun (Raymond Lam) needs an ID card to avoid deportation. He wins a bare-knuckle brawl in a nightclub, only to be...

We say it every year, but that’s only because it’s true every year: The New York Asian Film Festival is the most fun you could have at the movies this summer. And that’s especially true this summer, as the festival — which proudly brings American crowds into “the trenches” of Asian cinema — is expanding its mission statement with a blockbuster slate that incudes an ass-kicking Don Lee sequel (“The Roundup: Punishment”), the world premiere of a new “Baby Assassins” movie, a Louis Koo/Sammo Hung crime epic fresh from Cannes (“Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In”), and more can’t-miss spectacles that demand major international attention.

But Nyaff isn’t just growing bigger and wider; it’s growing deeper as well. The festival’s 2024 edition offers one of the richest and most inclusive slates that Nyaff has ever assembled (no mean feat), with programming that ranges from hard-hitting Taiwanese social dramas,...

While Furiosa may have made more headlines coming out Cannes Film Festival this year, another actioner at the festival also had our attention. Soi Cheang’s Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, which brings together the epic cast of Louis Koo, Raymond Lam, Terrance Lau, Philip Ng, Tony Wu Tsz Tung, German Cheung, Richie Jen, Wong Tak Pun Kenny, Fish Liew, Chu Pak Hong, Cecilia Choi, Lau Wai Ming, Aaron Kwok, and Sammo Hung, will now arrive in U.S. theaters on August 9. Ahead of the release the first trailer has arrived.

Here’s the synopis: “Many years after the bloody turf war that ushered in an uneasy era of peace in Hong Kong’s underworld, the notorious Kowloon Walled City serves as a fortified, lawless safe haven for gangs and refugees alike. But when a skilled underground fighter runs afoul of the most feared Triad boss in Hong Kong,...

"I'm warning you... don't cause trouble in the Walled City." Well Go USA has unveiled the official US trailer for a Hong Kong martial arts action movie titled Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, now ready for a US release in limited theaters this August. It first premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival a few months ago, and we featured the first promo trailer back then just before it opened in Hk. The film is an adaptation of the manhua City of Darkness by Andy Seto. It stars the action legend Sammo Hung as well as Louis Koo as Tornado (龍捲風), a martial arts master who is regarded as a legend within Kowloon Walled City. It's also produced by Wilson Yip Wai Sun and John Chong. The film follows the troubled youth Chan Lok-kwun (Raymond Lam) as he enters into the Walled City, discovers the order amidst its chaos, and...

Well Go USA has shared the official trailer and poster for Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, which will open in North American theaters on August 9, 2024.

Many years after the bloody turf war that ushered in an uneasy era of peace in Hong Kong’s underworld, the notorious Kowloon Walled City serves as a fortified, lawless haven for gangs and refugees alike.

But when a skilled underground fighter runs afoul of the most feared Triad boss in Hong Kong, a bounty is placed on his head despite his connections to the leader of the infamous enclave.

As his pursuers violate the tenuous territorial truce to exact their vengeance, the fallout reignites old grudges, bringing decades of building tension to a brutal, bloody boiling point.

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In stars Louis Koo, Raymond Lam, Terrance Lau, Philip Ng, Tony Wu Tsz Tung, German Cheung, Richie Jen, Wong Tak Pun Kenny,...

Essentially a mixture of Johnnie To's cinematic style (and casting) and the story of “Infernal Affairs” plus somewhat of John Woo's heroic bloodshed, “Line Walker” aims, though, mostly at entertainment. The film is based on the homonymous 2014 TV series, and later on spawned a sequel.

“Line Walker” is available from Echelon Studios

A Hong Kong police chief who has the identities of all undercover agents in his files manages to protect them by deleting the files before he is murdered. However, this also means that a number of them continue to work unbeknownst to the body of the Force. Agent Ding Siu-ka and her handler Inspector Q are working out their names with great success, with the exception of Blackjack, an undercover agent that has been working in the most notorious drug syndicate of Hong Kong.

Two years after they have started their research, they receive a message...

On the occasion of Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In getting one of the top places in Hong Kong box office, Panos Kotzathanasis, Adriana Rosati and Rhythm Zaveri discuss about making fun out of chaos, Kowloon and the way it was ‘remade' for the purposes of the film, Sammo Hung and Louis Koo, the action scenes, the cinematography, the mess of the ending and how it works, local street food and whether Soi Cheang's next film will be great or a bust...

Unfolding in the cramped corridors of Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City (it was one of the most dangerously dense urban areas on Earth before being demolished in 1993), Soi Cheang’s ’80s-set “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In” delivers on its blockbuster action promise. However, its martial arts spectacle is scattered across a sprawling refugees-and-triads saga that, while adequately laying foundation for the aforementioned fisticuffs, is seldom coherent or engaging on its own.

Based on the Chinese comic “City of Darkness” by Andy Seto, the film follows Chan Lok-kwun (Raymond Lam), a mainland refugee trying to pay his way to a fake ID by winning bare-knuckle brawls. When he ends up double crossed by remorseless triad leader Mr. Big (legendary actor-director Sammo Hung), the desperate outsider steals a satchel of the head honcho’s cocaine and makes a run for the Walled City, which Cheang and cinematographer Cheng Siu-keung capture as a darkened citadel,...

Hong Kong action thriller Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In, which screened at Cannes this week, is set to become a trilogy, reuniting director Soi Cheang and producers John Chong and Wilson Yip.

Like the first film, the two new instalments will be based on the novel City Of Darkness by Yuyi. Both are expected to go into production around the same time next year on newly built extensive sets, according to Angus Chan of Entertaining Power, who owns the film rights to the novel.

The second instalment, Twilight Of The Warriors: Dragon Throne will be set in the 1950s and 1960s,...

The Hong Kong-Asian Film Collaboration Funding Scheme has selected two Hong Kong-Japan co-productions by seasoned producers Stanley Kwan and Shunsuke Koga as its first winning projects.

All The Things We Have Done Wrong That Led Us To This, produced by Kwan, and 38.83, produced by Koga, will each receive a grant of up to $1.1m (Hk$9m) to support their production. The announcement was made at the Hong Kong Night during the Cannes Film Festival on May 16.

All The Things… is to be directed by Japan’s Daishi Matsunaga, whose LGBTQ+ romance drama Egoist played in competition at Tokyo in 2022 and...

One of the most anticipated movies of the year, Soi Cheang's “Twilight of the Warrior: Walled In” is a true powerhouse, featuring all those elements that made Hk action one of the most popular genres internationally. And even more so, an all star cast including Sammo Hung, Louis Koo, Raymond Lam, Philip Ng in the protagonists' seat, Kenji Kawai in the soundtrack, and John Chong and Wilson Yip as producers. The story is based on the novel by Yu Yi and the manhua by Andy Seto.

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In will be released in in UK and Irish cinemas from 24 May, courtesy of Trinity CineAsia

The film begins in a past arc, when Cyclone, a newcomer in Kowloon Walled City, and his gang fought the leader of the area, Lui and his right hand, The King of Killers Jin, eventually managing to win and take over. In the 80s,...

Cannes film festival

The choreography is impressive as people are hurled through walls, thrown off rooftops and otherwise beaten to a pulp, but the editing is frenetic and the characters cartoonish

Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City – once the most densely populated place on Earth – is the perfect movie setting: a Piranesian labyrinth of squalid high rises and dark, cramped alleys, teeming with crooks, lowlifes, addicts and impoverished families running small businesses, legit and otherwise. This 1980s-set action epic lovingly, meticulously recreates the notorious neighbourhood (which was demolished in 1994), but sadly, the backdrop is more interesting than the story.

At heart it’s a tale of a Chinese immigrant caught between rival gangs. Street fighter Chan Lok-kwan (Raymond Lam) is initially scammed by local triad boss Mr Big (a cigar-smoking caricature from veteran Jackie Chan sidekick Sammo Hung). Chan retaliates by stealing a package and, after a great bus-top chase scene,...

The shadow of Xu Zhonglin's influential novel “The Investiture of the Gods” looms long over Chinese popular culture. As one of the most well-regarded vernacular epics since the 16th century, its heady blend of history and mythology has been a creatively enticing gauntlet for many filmmakers. Before now, the last big-budget stab at the material was 2016's 3D flop “League of Gods”, led by an all-star cast including Jet Li, Tony Leung Ka-Fai and Louis Koo, and still somehow won Worst Picture at that year's Golden Broom Awards. The crown now lies heavy on the head of filmmaker Wuershan, a director experienced in the fantasy genre (his “Painted Skin 2: The Resurrection” was at one time China's highest grossing movie domestically) but still holding the great responsibility of condensing 100 chapters of beloved high-concept magic and action into a movie…or three. Does the first chapter, “Kingdom of Storms”, capture...

Since it was first announced back in 2013, the nostalgia-fuelled martial arts epic set within the labyrinthine back alleys of Kowloon Walled City has nurtured a mythical status to rival the notorious neighbourhood itself. Development of the project dates back to the early 2000s, with such prestigious names as John Woo, Johnnie To, Chow Yun-fat and Donnie Yen rumoured to be attached at one point or other. Filming finally commenced in November 2021, at the height of the pandemic lockdown, with director Soi Cheang at the helm, and Louis Koo, Raymond Lam, Sammo Hung and Philip Ng headlining the cast for Koo’s production company One Cool Films. Opening under the unwieldy English title Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, the 80s-set gangland throwdown opened...

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Soi Cheang’s action feature Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In topped the Hong Kong box office over the Labour Day holiday and opened strongly in mainland China.

The feature took $2.7m (Hk$21.1m) from its first five days on local release (May 1-5), including $677,000 (Hk$5.3m) on its opening day – the second biggest opening day ever for a Hong Kong film.

Set in the 1980s against the backdrop of the now demolished Kowloon Walled City, which was a notorious slum for crime and gangs, the cast includes rising stars such as Raymond Lam and Terrance Lau opposite established stars Louis Koo,...

Gang Dong-won once again stars in an adaptation of an Asian film, this time Soi Cheang's 2009 work “Accident”, with Lee Yo-sup's second directorial work “The Plot”.

Synopsis

Young-il leads a contract killing group that includes Jackie, Wol-cheon and Jeom-man. His job in the group is that of the designer. He designs murders into perfect accidental deaths, but he gets involved in an unexpected incident and struggles to survive while suspecting everyone around him to find out who is behind the accident after barely surviving.

In addition to Gang Dong-won, who seems to be taking on Louis Koo's role from the original, “The Plot” also stars Lee Mu-saeng, Lee Mi-seok, Lee Hyun-wook, Tang Joon-sang and Lee Dong-hwi, among others. It will be releasing in South Korean theatres on May 29th, 2024.

Trinity CineAsia has acquired UK and Ireland rights to Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In, the Hong Kong period action drama that will screen at Cannes next month, in a deal with Media Asia.

Directed by Soi Cheang, the highly anticipated feature is set to be released in Hong Kong and China on May 1 before it plays in the Midnight Screenings section of Cannes. An opening date in the UK and Ireland has yet to be announced but Trinity CineAsia said it is “scheduled for release across cinemas nationwide soon after” the festival, which runs May 14-25.

Distribution deals were...

“Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In,” a Hong Kong-produced action thriller, took the top spot at the mainland China box office over the latest weekend. But it was a quiet session and came ahead of a welter of new releases targeting the May Day public holiday.

The film, which is among those that have a Wednesday (May 1) official release date, earned $5.5 million (RMB38.9 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway.

The nationwide weekend total was a slender $18.7 million. That was the quietest theatrical weekend in China since the end of the country’s official anti-covid policies in December 2022.

Directed by the prolific Soi Cheang, “Twilight” stars the veteran martial arts star Sammo Hung and actor-producer Louis Koo in a tale of a youngster who stumbles his way into Kowloon’s notorious Walled City and discovers a new kind of order within its seemingly criminal chaos.

"The reason you can sleep soundly, isn't the Walled City. It's the people inside it." So let them fight! Ha. An official trailer is already available now for this Hong Kong action movie titled Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In. It was recently announced as one of the Midnight premieres in the line-up at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival coming up this May. It's also opening in China and Hong Kong first right at the beginning of May before heading to France after to premiere in Europe. The film is an adaptation of the manhua City of Darkness by Andy Seto. It stars the action legend Sammo Hung as well as Louis Koo as Tornado (龍捲風), a martial arts master who is regarded as a legend in Kowloon Walled City. It's also produced by Wilson Yip Wai Sun and John Chong. The film follows the troubled youth Chan Lok-kwun (Raymond Lam...

With Cannes Film Festival kicking off in less than a month, one title that is sure to rile up the crowds is the Midnight screening selection of Soi Cheang’s Hong Kong martial arts actioner Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In. Led by the formidable action duo of Louis Koo and Sammo Hung, it’ll premiere in Hong Kong and China a bit prior, on May 1, and has been picked up by Well Go USA for a subsequent U.S. release. Ahead of the premieres, the first trailer has now arrived.

Set in the 1980s inside the Kowloon Walled City, “a dangerous Chinese enclave within British colonial Hong Kong,” the story “follows a troubled youth as he accidentally enters the Walled City, discovers order amidst the chaos, and gains life lessons as he gets closer to the denizens as they resist a villainous invasion.”

Check out the trailer and poster below.

Actor Louis Koo is a household name in Hong Kong but off-screen, he’s an influential entertainment industry investor, producer and entrepreneur.

Rising to prominence during the “golden age” of Hong Kong cinema, Koo built a respected career over the decades but less flashy are his businesses and investments.

One Cool Group is one such revenue stream. Launched by Koo in 2013, the company has transitioned from a local film production entity to a dominant force in the Asian film industry. With over 300 staff across offices in Hong Kong, mainland China, Thailand and South Korea, the company manages every aspect of filmmaking from financing to distribution.

One Cool Group announced a slate of five films March 11 during FilMart.

“Diversified development has always been our major goal, like last year, when we broadened our business scope to music concerts and theatrical play production,” said Sean Man, One Cool Group’s business development and communications director.

China’s Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment Group and Hong Kong’s Media Asia Group announced a slate of new projects today at Filmart.

Among the new projects are Born Evil Seed by Time Still Turns The Pages director Nick Cheuk; crime thriller The Other One by Fung Chih Chiang (A Witness Out Of The Blue); and mystery thriller Behind The Scene, directed by David Lee Kwong Yiu and produced by Andrew Lau.

Alibaba Pictures president Li Jie and Media Asia Group CEO Yip Chai Tuck both attended the joint press conference held in Filmart’s Moonlight Theatre, which saw director Soi Cheang,...

Hong Kong’s One Cool Film group has announced five new movies, revealed through exclusive teasers and posters on the opening day of FilMart.

Upcoming films include “Love Lies,” starring Sandra Ng and M.C. Cheung Tinfu; “The Trier of Fact,” directed by Calvin Tong and featuring Louis Koo and Eddie Peng; “The Way We Talk,” produced, written and directed by Adam Wong, with Neo Yau, Chung Suet Ying and Ng Tsz Ho Marco in leading roles; “Good Game,” helmed by Dickson Leung, written by Lily He Xin and Sheng Ling Xiu Zhong, and starring Andrew Lam, Will Or and Yanny Chan; and “Behind the Shadows,” produced by Soi Cheang, directed by Jonathan Li and Chou Man Yu, and starring Koo, Chrissie Chou and Liu Kuan Ting.

“Love Lies,” which will premiere at the 48th Hong Kong Intl. Film Festival, tells the tale of an internet romance scam. Ng recommended Cheung,...

As Filmart gets underway, Hong Kong’s major production companies, including Edko Films, Emperor Motion Pictures (Emp), Media Asia, One Cool Group and Universe Entertainment, will be unveiling their new titles in enormous booths at the front of the trade show floor, some of which will be as elaborate as film sets.

Many of the films they are launching are big-budget Hong Kong-China co-productions, featuring top Hong Kong stars and directors, and aimed at audiences in both China and Hong Kong. Emp has Derek Kwok’s Raging Havoc, starring Andy Lau and Nicholas Tse; Mandarin Motion Pictures has The Prosecutor, starring and directed by Donnie Yen; and Media Asia is launching four new titles headed by Behind The Scene, produced by Infernal Affairs director Andrew Lau. One Cool’s slate includes a trio of action films starring Louis Koo and produced by Soi Cheang.

But behind all the glamour, stars and action,...

The late Benny Chan directed “The White Storm” back in 2013 starring Lau Ching Wan, Louis Koo and Nick Cheung. In “The White Storm 2: Drug Lords” (2019) which starred Andy Lau and Louis Koo, Herman Yau took over as director. Now in 2023, Yau is back in this in-title-only third installment again featuring Koo, Lau Ching Wan and Aaran Kwok, the newcomer to the series. All these actors play different characters altogether but the themes of war against drugs, royalty and brotherhood are still there but told in a new storyline.

Check also this article The 20 Best Asian Action/Martial Arts Movies of 2023

The year is 2021 and Kang Su Chat, a Thai-Chinese drug lord who runs his operation in Hong Kong has his men fish up a few barrels containing heroin off the coast. As they leave the docks after unloading their precious cargo, the police show up which results in an intense firefight.

Spa Selections

“Carmen,” “Foe,” “Limbo,” Australia’s Oscar contender “Shayda,” “Streets of Colour” and “The Royal Hotel” have received the six nominations for best feature film at this year’s Screen Producers Australia Awards. The Spa Awards will be held on Thursday, March 21, 2024, the final evening of the Screen Forever conference.

In the documentary feature section, the nominations are “Flyaways,” “Harley & Katya,” “Living With Devils,” “Onefour: Against All Odds,” “The Cape,” “The Giants,” “The Jewish Nazi?” and “The Platypus Garden.” Nominations for best telemovie or miniseries production are “While the Men Are Away,” “The Claremont Murders,” “Wellmania,” “The Messenger,” “Bad Behaviour” and “The Clearing.”

“2023 was a year filled with a number of challenges for our industry, but the Australian screen sector continued to delight audiences globally with stories that share our unique culture and creativity,” said Spa CEO Matthew Deaner.

Storm Brewing

Hong Kong-made crime action film “The White Storm 3: Heaven or Hell...

Ever wonder where Garfield the cat came from? How he met his “owner” Jon Arbuckle? How pizza entered the picture? A new trailer for Columbia Pictures and Alcon Entertainment’s The Garfield Movie can help.

Directed by Mark Dindal from a screenplay by Paul A. Kaplan & Mark Torgove and David Reynolds, The Garfield Movie stars Chris Pratt, voicing the title character, and Samuel L. Jackson voicing his long-lost father, a streetwise feline named Vic.

The official synopsis: Garfield, the world-famous, Monday-hating, lasagna-loving indoor cat, is about to have a wild outdoor adventure. After an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father – scruffy street cat Vi – Garfield and his canine friend Odie are forced from their perfectly pampered life into joining Vic in a hilarious, high-stakes heist.

Also in the cast are Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Harvey Guillén, Brett Goldstein and Bowen Yang. Producing are John Cohen, Broderick Johnson,...

Chris Pratt has traded in his plumber uniform for something with a little more fur in the first trailer for Columbia Pictures and Alcon Entertainment’s The Garfield Movie.

The famous lasagna-loving cat is back with Pratt as the man behind the whiskers in this nearly three-minute look (below) at the movie based on Jim Davis’ famous Garfield comic series.

The film sees Garfield, “the world-famous, Monday-hating, lasagna-loving indoor cat,” setting out on a wild, outdoor adventure following an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father, a scruffy street cat named Vic who’s voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. With his canine friend Odie at his side, Garfield is forced from his perfectly pampered life into joining his father for a comedic, high-stakes heist.

The trailer teases a tail of an abandoned kitten fighting to survive on the streets until he sees Jon Arbuckle, a lonely man eating a pizza, through a restaurant window.

Telugu star Ram Charan has joined his ‘Rrr’ co-star Ntr Jr. into the Oscars, as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) recently announced his induction into its prestigious Actors Branch.

Ram Charan, whose role as the freedom fighter Alluri Sitaraman Raju in director S.S. Rajamouli’s universally acclaimed historical-fiction-epic film ‘Rrr’ gained him global spotlight, he has joined a roster of established stars.

The Academy, the institution that overlooks the Oscars announcing his induction took to their Instagram and posted their roster of the recent inductees.

They wrote: “Through their nuanced portrayal and dedication to authenticity, these actors gift us with characters that leave a lasting impression on our hearts and minds.

“Their mastery of their art form transforms ordinary moments into extraordinary cinematic experiences, enriching our appreciation for the depth and complexity of human emotions.”

Announcing the roster, they added: “We’re thrilled to welcome these...

Telugu star Ram Charan has joined his ‘Rrr’ co-star Ntr Jr. into the Oscars, as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) recently announced his induction into its prestigious Actors Branch.

Ram Charan, whose role as the freedom fighter Alluri Sitaraman Raju in director S.S. Rajamouli’s universally acclaimed historical-fiction-epic film ‘Rrr’ gained him global spotlight, he has joined a roster of established stars.

The Academy, the institution that overlooks the Oscars announcing his induction took to their Instagram and posted their roster of the recent inductees.

They wrote: “Through their nuanced portrayal and dedication to authenticity, these actors gift us with characters that leave a lasting impression on our hearts and minds.

“Their mastery of their art form transforms ordinary moments into extraordinary cinematic experiences, enriching our appreciation for the depth and complexity of human emotions.”

Announcing the roster, they added: “We’re thrilled to welcome these...

Marks the second feature of Singaporean filmmaker M Raihan Halim.

Singapore-based Clover Films has lined up the release of comedy-drama La Luna in Asia, which is set to world premiere in Tokyo International Film Festival’s Asian Future competition.

Directed by Singapore’s M Raihan Halim, the Malay-language feature will open on November 9 in Malaysia through Skop Productions on a wide release of at least 70 cinemas, which will be followed by Singapore on November 16 through Golden Village Pictures.

The Singapore-Malaysia co-production will also be rolled out towards the end of the year in Indonesia (Cgv), Taiwan (Sky Films) and Hong...

A Hong Kong superstar, Louis Koo has appeared in everything from thrillers and sci-fi blockbusters to romances and comedies. This year he received the Extraordinary Star Asia Award at the New York Asian Film Festival.

The festival showcased three of his recent projects: In Broad Daylight, a drama about abuse in an assisted living facility; The White Storm 3, part of a trilogy of action films about drug cartels; and Vital Sign, a drama about emergency service workers. Koo’s One Cool World produced the first film; he stars in the other two.

As the veteran in a three-man ambulance crew, Koo plays a moodier character in Vital Sign than his fans usually see. A father and widower, Ma Chi-yip is nearing the end of his career, struggling with bureaucracy and his own physical ailments.

“I saw a different side of him, maybe because of the story,” director Cheuk Wan-chi said about Koo’s performance.

Cheuk Wan-chi is an eclectic Hong Kong public personality; a radio host, a stand-up comedian, a writer, and a screenwriter for the likes of Sylvia Chang and Pang Ho-cheung, she is now at her third feature film as a director. After the girly action-comedy “Kick Ass Girls” in 2013 and “Temporary Family” in 2014, another comedy with a stellar cast addressing speculation on property in Hong Kong, her third film is yet again dealing with some very local issues. This time, though, the comedy tone gives way to a compelling drama where family and work tightly entwine.

Vital Sign is screening at New York Asian Film Festival

Protagonist Ma Chi-yip (Louis Koo) is a veteran Hong Kong paramedic working “on field” on ambulances, whose stubborn reluctance to follow protocols at all costs and to play along with the workplace bureaucracy has taken him nowhere. In fact, despite his experience and dedication, his...

Mystery drama has proved a massive hit at the China box office.

China’s Blossoms Entertainment has secured a pan-Asian and Cis release for sleeper box office hit Lost In The Stars as the Chinese film industry gets back on its feet in a dynamic summer season post-Covid.

The Chinese mystery drama is dated to open in Malaysia and Brunei on July 27, Singapore (August 3), Cambodia (August 18), all through Purple Plan, and Indonesia (August 31) through Encore Films.

In August, it is also set to open in Hong Kong and Macau (Intercontinental Films), Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Philippines (all through Encore Films...

The acclaimed actor accepted an honorary award at the New York Asian Film Festival.

Filmmakers will never be surpassed by artificial intelligence (AI), according to acclaimed Hong Kong actor and producer Louis Koo.

Speaking on stage at the New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff), Koo referenced the SAG-AFTRA strikes in the US, which has seen tens of thousands of actors and screenwriters walk out over concerns about pay, working conditions and the industry’s use of AI.

“I know that in America there has been strikes, writers strikes as well as actors strikes,” he told a packed cinema on Wednesday...

Producer Pellin Chou set to attend special screening.

Netflix animation The Monkey King has been set as the closing film of the 22nd New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff), marking the first time the festival has partnered with the streaming giant.

The special screening will take place on July 30, more than two weeks before the August 18 premiere on Netflix worldwide. It will be attended by Netflix Animation producer Peilin Chou, a former Oriental Dreamworks executive who produced Abominable and was Oscar-nominated for Over The Moon.

The feature is directed by Anthony Stacchi, who was nominated for an Oscar in 2015 for co-directing The Boxtrolls,...

Reliably one of the most euphoric and rewarding events on the circuit, the New York Asian Film Festival emerged at a time when hardcore cinephiles were forced to import prohibitively expensive foreign-region DVDs if they wanted to watch the latest hits from the other side of the world, and the first editions of the fest — then hosted at the Anthology Film Archives — got a major boost by screening hard-to-find cult objects and/or future classics at a time when Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean cinema were all on the rise to one degree or another.

No disrespect to the prestigious New York Film Festival, but Nyaff beat them to the punch when it comes to major auteurs like Park Chan-wook, whose “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” screened at the 2002 event alongside millennial breakouts like Corey Yuen’s “So Close,” unheralded pop masterpieces like Fumihiko Sori’s “Ping Pong,” and what the fuck did I just witness?...

When it comes to big-budget productions made in Hong Kong, few could hold a candle to director Benny Chan whose resume includes such titles like “Rob-b-Hood”, “New Police Story” and “Raging Fire”, his last work before his death. As he was approached to do a remake of David R. Ellis' action-thriller “Cellular”, Chan did not have to think twice about the proposition since it gave him the chance to put the original premise within the Hong Kong culture, and therefore making his version much more than a mere copy as you might assume as first glance. “Connected”, which is currently streaming on Netflix, includes the ingredients typical for the kind of action thriller Chan is known for, as well as some impressive stunt work and great performances, especially leading man Louis Koo playing an unlikely hero.

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So far it...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is expanding its membership.

According to a press release, the organization that hands out Oscars each year at the Academy Awards has extended invitations to join the Academy to 398 artists and executives who have made notable contributions to the motion picture industry.

“The Academy is proud to welcome these artists and professionals into our membership. They represent extraordinary global talent across cinematic disciplines and have made a vital impact on the arts and sciences of motion pictures and on movie fans worldwide,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang in a joint statement.

Read More: The Academy Announces 2024 Oscars Date As Well As Submission Deadline

There are some big names and familiar faces among the invitees, including musicians Taylor Swift and David Byrne, and numerous actors, ranging from Selma Blair to Keke Palmer to “Elvis” Oscar nominee Austin Butler.