China

Women Who Flirt

After dipping his toe into China with his 2012 sequel Love In The Buff, Hong Kong auteur Pang Ho Cheung embraces the inevitable and presents his first full-blown mainland production,… Read More
Breakup Buddies

The long, punishing arm of China’s censorship board still hangs heavy over the career of mainland filmmaker Ning Hao. The once-exciting auteur turns in another safe, audience-friendly offering with Breakup… Read More
But Always

Nicholas Tse proves he is better-suited to tough guy roles than romantic leads, but his inert performance here opposite Gao Yuanyuan is far from the only problem with Snow Zou’s… Read More
Transformers: Age of Extinction

The fourth instalment of Michael Bay’s big screen robot romp offers few surprises but an abundance of the series’ familiar tropes in another marathon-length, narratively vapid action spectacular. Bay’s trademark… Read More
Coming Home

Zhang Yimou returns to his more humble, socially conscious roots, reuniting with former muse Gong Li for an earnest, if rather underwhelming, adaptation of Yan Geiling’s The Criminal Lu Yanshi.… Read More
Black Coal, Thin Ice

This year’s surprise Golden Bear winner at Berlin is a bleak, yet engrossing whodunnit set in the wintry climes of Northern China. For his third feature film, writer-director Diao Yinan… Read More
A Touch of Sin

For his seventh fiction feature, Sixth Generation Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke strings together a quartet of stories – all adapted from infamous real-live events – into a compelling portrait of… Read More
A Touch of Sin and China’s New Cinematic Crimewave

Last month, the China Film Directors’ Guild Awards caused a stir at their annual ceremony, when the jury – made up solely of filmmakers – refused to name a winner… Read More
The Truth About Beauty

Mainland beauty Bai Baihe makes a likeable, if rather implausible, lead in Aubrey Lam’s cosmetic surgery rom-com, but her endearing central performance can only obscure some of the thematic inconsistencies… Read More
Special ID

Following a string of historical martial arts epics, Donnie Yen makes his return to contemporary action films with this high-octane tale of an undercover cop torn between duty and loyalty… Read More
REVIEW: Man Of Tai Chi

For his directorial debut, Keanu Reeves chooses the somewhat bizarre choice of a martial arts tournament flick, similar to Enter The Dragon or Bloodsport, shot almost entirely on location in… Read More
Man Of Tai Chi

For his directorial debut, Keanu Reeves chooses the somewhat bizarre choice of a martial arts tournament flick, similar to Enter The Dragon or Bloodsport, shot almost entirely on location in… Read More
My Lucky Star

After really enjoying Zhang Ziyi’s first foray into production, Sophie’s Revenge, I was certainly interested to see her return to the character for a second outing. However, My Lucky Star… Read More
Out of Inferno 3D

The Pang Brothers have had a rocky time in recent years, but their Guangzhou-set update of The Towering Inferno, they have produced their best film in years. That’s not to… Read More
Mr. Go

When her grandfather dies, 15-year-old Wei Wei (Xu Jiao) inherits his circus, particularly their star attraction: a baseball-playing gorilla, Ling Ling. Unfortunately, she also inherits his huge gambling debts and… Read More
City of Life and Death

Hardly a jolly romp, Lu Chuan’s gorgeously shot drama remains to my mind the “best” film to tackle the Nanking Massacre. Most interesting is the decision to depict sympathetic Japanese… Read More
Badges of Fury

Jet Li back doing action? Sounds great, but Badges of Fury proves to be more a goofy comedy for his co-star Wen Zhang than a kung-fu packed homage to old… Read More
So Young

Mainland actress Zhao Wei’s directorial debut has proved a huge hit on the mainland, and for 90 minutes of its over-long 130 minutes it is a charming story of young… Read More