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Winner of Best Picture at the 9th Hong Kong Film Awards and the 36th Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan, among others, “Ordinary Heroes” has Ann Hui focusing on another type of boat people, this time the Yau Ma Tei, people who ended up living on their boats for a variety of reasons. As their living circumstances deteriorated at the end of the 70s, a number of protests, both by them and by activists, took place, against the fact that the government had never carried out a tenancy registration for them, which made it very difficul for them to resettle on land. One of the key figures in their fight was Father Franco Mella, who referred cases to volunteers and social workers, bringing more and more NGOs, such as the Society of Community Organization and Kwun Tong Inquiry Service, into the issue, while also helping with their education. The film focuses...

“Keep Rolling” is the directorial debut of Man Lim-chung, a veteran art director and costume designer who has worked with directors like Tsui Hark Stanley Kwan, Sylvia Chang and Pang Ho-cheung Crucially, he has worked on a number of Ann Hui’s films including “July Rhapsody” “The Golden Era” and “Our Time Will Come” (2017).

On the occasion of his documentary about Ann Hui, “Keep Rolling”, screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival, we speak with him about his many collaborations, the changes he has witnessed in the industry, working with and shooting a documentary about Ann Hui, and many other topics.

You have worked with directors like Wong Kar-wai, Tsui Hark, Stanley Kwan and Sylvia Chang. Can you give us details about your experiences with them?

I’ve worked with all of the directors you’ve mentioned above as art director. All of them have a very strong artistic sense, and...

Mubi has revealed its picks for November with a slate packed with recent festival hits and rediscovered classics. Nimic, the latest work by award-winning director Yorgos Lanthimos, premieres exclusively on Mubi November 27. Starring Oscar nominee Matt Dillon and written by Lanthimos with frequent collaborator Efthimis Filippou, Nimic is a compact thriller about identity, perception, relationships, and circularity.

November will kick off with the exclusive online premiere of Angela Schanelec’s I Was at Home, But…,an enigmatic story of family and loss that confirms the German auteur’s status as a modern master. To coincide with the US election on November 3rd, Mubi is proud to exclusively present a new restoration of Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind. Making its way through 400 years of American history, this thought-provoking documentary by John Gianvito visits the resting places of such famed figures as Malcolm X, Mother Jones, Frederick Douglass, Cesar Chavez, Susan B. Anthony and Crazy Horse,...

A woman’s 30-year longing for the man she can’t stop loving is chronicled in “Somewhere Winter,” a rewarding adaptation of the novel by prolific author and screenwriter Rao Xueman. by top Mark Lee Ping Bing (“In the Mood for Love”) and features fine performances by Ma Sichun (“Soulmate”) and Wallace Huo (“Our Time Will Come”) as lovers torn apart by fate, family responsibilities and political forces. This handsomely packaged item from producer Jimmy Huang and director David Wang Weiming (“Sex Appeal”) should receive a warm reception when it opens in China and North America on Nov. 15.

The film’s title refers to “Possibly in Winter,” a 1987 hit by Taiwanese singer Chyi Chin that inspired a teenage Rao Xueman to write to her idol. Chyi’s ballad about long-distance relationships provided the linking device for Rao’s 2018 novel about a woman’s romantic journey during times of great social and economic change in China.

Chinese romantic drama, “Somewhere Winter” is set to release in North America next month following a deal between China Lion Film Distribution and Tencent Pictures.

China Lion will release the film day-and-date in the U.S. and Canada simultaneously with the Chinese Mainland release of Nov. 15, as well as in Australia & New Zealand. In other territories, rights are handled by Hong Kong-based sales agency Distribution Workshop.

Directed by David Wang Weiming (“Sex Appeal”), “Winter” stars Ma Sichun and Wallace Huo (“Our Time Will Come”), in a love story about two generations and three cities. Destiny brings the lovers together and then tears them apart. With all ups and downs over the years, only the song “It’s About in Winter” remains the same.

The story is based on the eponymous novel by Rao Xueman which was in turn inspired by famous singer Chyi Chin’s popular 1987 song “It’s About in Winter.

“Somewhere Winter,” a Chinese-language romantic drama, has joined the sales slate of Distribution Workshop in time for the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Film Market.

The film is directed by David Wang Weiming (“Sex Appeal”) and stars Ma Sichun and Wallace Huo (“Our Time Will Come”).

The movie tells a love story about two generations and three cities. Destiny brings the lovers together and then tears them apart. With all ups and downs over the years, only the song “It’s About in Winter” remains the same. The story is based on the eponymous novel by Rao Xueman which was in turn inspired by famous singer Chyi Chin’s popular 1987 song “It’s About in Winter.”

Production is by Jimmy Huang. Production companies and investors include: Beijing Dino Films, Jiangsu Xue Man She Film Production, and Tencent Pictures (Hong Kong). Cinematopgraphy is by ace Mark Lee Ping Bing.

Distribution...

Ma Sichun and Wallace Huo head the cast of the China-Hong Kong co-production.

Taipei-based Distribution Workshop has added romantic drama Somewhere Winter to its Busan slate.

Based on Rao Xueman’s novel of the same name, inspired by singer Chyi Chin’s 1987 song It’s All About Winter, the film tells a love story across two generations and three cities.

Directed by David Weiming Wang and produced by Jimmy Huang, the China-Hong Kong co-production stars Ma Sichun (Soul Mate) and Wallace Huo (Our Time Will Come). Distribution Workshop has worldwide rights excluding North America, Australia and New Zealand.

Award-winning cinematographer...

Lee was an avid film buff from his school days in Hong Kong before immigrating with his family to the Us at the age of 19 where he later started making short films. As a producer, he worked with the director Ann Hui three times – with “Summer Snow” (Best Actress award for Josephine Siao at Berlin Iff in 1995), “A Simple Life” (Best Actress award for Deanie Ip at Venice Iff in 2011), and “Our Time Will Come“. The script for “A Simple Life” was based on the true story of his maid who worked for four generations of the Lee family for almost 60 years. His book “Taojie and Me” was published in 2012. His play “The Amahs” was produced by Hong Kong Arts Festival in 2015.

On the occasion of his films with Ann Hui screening at Five Flavours, we speak with him about his career, Hong Kong cinema, his collaboration with Ann Hui,...

Young directors Michelle Hung (“Little Shop of Horrors”) and Ashley Cheung (“Life on the Line”), cinematographer Eric Tsang (“Liu Yang River”) and their short movies are part of the Hong Kong 2017 Fresh Wave Short Film Competition. Now at its 11th edition, Fresh Wave is an independent organization founded by Johnnie To, to fund Hong Kong young talents in film-making, showcase their projects and give them a truly effective platform to start their career from. Fresh Wave Alumni includes Jevons Au of “Ten Years” and “Trivisa”, and Wong Chun of multi-awarded Mad World.

On the occasion of their films screening at Five Flavours Film Festival in Warsaw, we speak with them about their experience in Hong Kong as young, independent filmmakers, their inspirational directors and their short movies in the Fresh Wave competition.

Let’s start with some general questions for all of you. It looks like in Hong Kong at...

Crew includes DoP Christopher Doyle, costume designer Emi Wada and art director Zhao Hai.

Ann Hui’s Love After Love (working title) has started shooting in China with Eddie Peng, Ma Sichun and Faye Yu heading the cast.

The crew includes cinematographer Christopher Doyle (In The Mood For Love), costume designer Emi Wada (Hero), art director Zhao Hai (The Golden Era), sound designer Tu Duu Chih (In The Mood For Love) and editor Eric Kwong Chi-Leung (Battle Of Wits).

Peng starred in Hui’s 2017 drama Our Time Will Come and action hit Operation Mekong, while Ma’s credits include Lou Ye’s The Shadow Play,...

Eminent Indian filmmaker Zoya Akhtar’s new film, “Gully Boy,” had its world premiere at Berlin as part of the Berlinale Special screenings strand.

Set in Mumbai’s Dharavi area, one of Asia’s largest slums, the film is loosely based on the lives of street rappers Divine and Naezy, whose music Akhtar first heard in 2014. Akhtar is known for her successful dramas set among the world of the hyper-wealthy in films such as “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara” (2011) and “Dil Dhadakne Do” (2015) or in elite Bollywood circles such as her debut feature, “Luck by Chance” (2009). “Gully Boy” marks a significant departure in milieu for the filmmaker.

“It’s not so much the theme as the world and the music that is attractive to me,” Akhtar says. “Thematically, the same kind of story that I end up making, which is coming of age, finding your voice, it is similar. It is...

It’s that time of the year and here at Asian Film Vault, we decided to have our first ever poll regarding the best films of the year. The votes were cast and counted and we came up with 18 films from 2017, that we consider the best of the year. And although Japan has the lion’s share in the list, we feel that we covered a large portion of Asia with our picks, since the titles include films from India, Thailand, Hong Kong, S. Korea, and Indonesia

Without further ado, here is the countdown.

(By clicking on the title of each movie, you can read the whole article)

Jagga Jasoos

As a musical with younger target audiences in mind, “Jagga Jasoos” lives up to the expectations and ends up as a visual treat through a brilliant performance of the protagonist. (Sankha Ray)

Kodoku Meatball Machine (Yoshihiro Nishimura,...

Contemporary Chinese Cinema is a column devoted to exploring contemporary Chinese-language cinema primarily as it is revealed to us at North American multiplexes.The sneakiest major release of the year is surely the latest from Japanese director Shunji Iwai, whose new movie opens this Friday at a dozen multiplexes around North America courtesy of the distributor China Lion Film. Last Letter is Iwai’s first film made in China, and stars Zhou Xun, who starred in one of last year’s best films, Ann Hui’s Our Time Will Come, which was also distributed here by China Lion. That he would be working in a new country is no surprise: Iwai is one of the more eclectic filmmakers of his generation: having started in TV and video in the early 90s before moving into film, he’s since made documentaries and music videos, science fiction films and anime, epics of...

Love him or hate him, Jiang Wen is a director you cannot ignore. In 2018, he completes his Republican Era gangster trilogy, which started in 2010 with “Let the Bullets Fly” and also includes 2014’s “Gone with the Bullets”, with the Eddie Peng starring “Hidden Man”

Synopsis

On the cusp of the Second Sino-Japanese War, a spy returns to China set on revenge, but finds himself plunged into a high-stakes game of intrigue, love, and scheming. Young Li Tianren escapes to America after his master is killed by the power-hungry Zhu Qianlong and his Japanese sidekick Nemoto. 15 years later, the boy, now called Bruce, returns to Beijing as a spy for the Americans but has bloody revenge on his mind.

Loosely based on Zhang Beihei’s wuxia novel “Xia Yin”, “Hidden Man” stars Taiwanese heartthrob Eddie Peng as Bruce, Liao Fan as Zhu Qianlong as well as Jiang Wen himself. The film...

Veteran director of the Hong Kong New Wave, Ann Hui is back this year with “Our Time Will Come,” a movie that retains all the trademark comfort elements that made her a legend. Produced and distributed by Chinese Bona Film Group this WWII drama movie arrives just in time for the 20th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to China even if Ann Hui’s work is far from celebratory, and it was presented as a world premiere at the Shanghai International Film Festival.

Our Time Will Come is screening at Art Film Fest Kosice

“Our Time Will Come” is set in Hong Kong in 1942, during the Japanese occupation and it immediately introduces a spy thriller atmosphere, opening in a secret meeting where a group of activists is planning a mass evacuation of Chinese intellectuals from Hong Kong to help them to cross the border with China. In the meantime,...

Lee was an avid film buff from his school days in Hong Kong before immigrating with his family to the Us at the age of 19 where he later started making short films. As a producer, he worked with the director Ann Hui three times – with “Summer Snow” (Best Actress award for Josephine Siao at Berlin Iff in 1995), “A Simple Life” (Best Actress award for Deanie Ip at Venice Iff in 2011), and “Our Time Will Come.” The script for “A Simple Life” was based on the true story of his maid who worked for four generations of the Lee family for almost 60 years. His book “Taojie and Me” was published in 2012. His play “The Amahs” was produced by Hong Kong Arts Festival in 2015.

Here are his top ten Hong Kong films, in reverse chronological order.

1. The Odd One Dies (1997) Johnnie To & Patrick Yau

The secret world of contract killing comes to focus in the dark,...

Cinestaan International Sales has sold rights Shubhashish Bhutiani’s “Hotel Salvation” to pay-tv group Astro for 12 Southeast Asian territories including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. The film had previously been licensed to some 30 other territories including the U.K., U.S., Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

The film premiered at Venice in 2016, where it won the Grand Prix Enrico Fulchignoni and the Unesco Gandhi Medal. Sajida Sharma and Sanjay Bhutiani produced for India’s Red Carpet Moving Pictures with a grant from Venice’s Biennale College and a post-production package from Busan’s Asian Cinema Fund.

Separately, Celestial Tiger Entertainment, which is part-owned by Astro’s ultimate owner Ananda Krishnan, has bought rights to six of the movies recognized at Sunday’s Hong Kong Film Awards.

Cte has exclusive first-run rights for its Celestial Movies and cHK channels in key Southeast Asian markets, for best film winner “Our Time Will Come.

Louis Koo on Sunday continued his awards-winning streak, picking up best actor honors for his performance in the action film Paradox at the 37th Hong Kong Film Awards.

Koo also won the best actor prize at the Asian Film Awards and the Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild Awards. Accepting the latest accolade, Koo, who plays a father in search of his missing daughter in Thailand in Paradox, dedicated his win to Hong Kong's film industry. 

Filmmaker Ann Hui took home the best director award for a record-breaking sixth time for her film Our Time Will Come, the World War II-set film about the Japanese occupation...

Chen Kaige’s Legend Of The Demon Cat took the most awards winning four prizes.

Chinese director Feng Xiaogang’s period drama Youth scooped best film at this year’s Asian Film Awards, which were held at the Venetian Macao on Saturday night (March 17).

Chen Kaige’s Legend Of The Demon Cat, a co-production between Hong Kong, China and Japan, took the most prizes overall winning four awards, including best supporting actress (Zhang Yuqi), best costume design (Chen Tongxun), best production design (Tu Nan, Lu Wei) and best visual effects (Ishii Norio).

Japanese filmmaker Ishii Yuya won best director for...

The move from Hong Kong to Taipei comes in response to a “changing market”.

Nansun Shi and Jeffrey Chan’s Distribution Workshop is relocating its international sales team from Hong Kong to Taiwan from the beginning of April.

In a note sent to buyers, the company said: “In order to enhance our operational efficiency, we have decided to relocate our international sales business to our Taipei office, effective April 1, 2018. Sadly, our colleagues will not be moving with the relocation and have decided to pursue new paths in their career.”

The note added that June Wu would be on board as...

Veteran director of the Hong Kong New Wave, Ann Hui is back this year with “Our Time Will Come,” a movie that retains all the trademark comfort elements that made her a legend. Produced and distributed by Chinese Bona Film Group this WWII drama movie arrives just in time for the 20th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to China even if Ann Hui’s work is far from celebratory, and it was presented as a world premiere at the Shanghai International Film Festival. It is the opening movie of the Five Flavours Film Festival 2017.

“Our Time Will Come” will screen at at the 9th International Chinese Film Festival, that will be on 23 February to 28, 2018.

“Our Time Will Come” is set in Hong Kong in 1942, during the Japanese occupation and it immediately introduces a spy thriller atmosphere, opening in a secret meeting where a group of activists is planning...

Director Ann Hui’s WWII-set drama Our Time Will Come led the 37th Hong Kong Film Awards nominations, which were unveiled Tuesday, with 11 nods, while actioner Paradox and Love Education, an exploration of romance, followed with nine each.

The Hui-helmed Our Time Will Come revolves around the underground resistance in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation in the 1940s. It got nominations for best film, director, screenplay, actress for Zhou Xun, supporting actress for Deanie Ip, cinematography, film editing, art direction, costume and makeup design, original film score, and sound design. Hui is a five-time winner of the best director award,...

2017 has been a very interesting year for the Chinese-speaking world (allow me not to dwell on the politics of the matter). The collaborations between China and Hong Kong have resulted in a number of blockbusters, Chinese filmmakers continue to produce unique (original if you prefer) films, Hong Kong is trying to reinstate its former status with the help of governmental initiatives, while Taiwan keeps producing masterpieces of all genres.

Here are ten of the best samples of the aforementioned, with a focus in diversity. Some of the films premiered in 2016, but since they circulated mostly in 2017, I took the liberty of including them. (By clicking on the titles, you can read the full reviews)

10. Wolf Warrior 2 (Wu Jing, China)

Granted, this does feel more of the same of what came before it, but the film’s sense of fun overall makes it a more than worthy effort overall. On the whole,...

Angels Wear White, Youth and The Third Murder also score multiple nods.

Source: 21st Century Shengkai Film

‘Legend Of The Demon Cat’

Chen Kaige’s lavish period drama Legend Of The Demon Cat racked up the most nominations for this year’s Asian Film Awards, with six nods in all, including best director.

The co-production between Hong Kong, China and Japan was also nominated for best supporting actress (Kitty Zhang Yuqi), cinematography, costume design, production design and visual effects. However, the film wasn’t nominated in the best film category.

Three films scored five nods apiece and were all nominated for best film – Vivian Qu’s Angels Wear White and Feng Xiaogang’s Youth, both from mainland China, and Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda’s The Third Murder.

Rounding out the best film category are Newton from Indian filmmaker Amit V. Masurkar and The Day After from South Korea’s Hong Sangsoo, which both racked...