The Hong Kong International Film Festival has celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. This year’s special programme, “Revisiting Chinese Cinema: The Beginning of a New Journey,” features a curated selection of Chinese-language films for which HKIFF served as a gateway to international recognition for both the films and their filmmakers. The 1980s were a golden…
Tag: Asian Cinema
50th Hong Kong International Film Festival: “We Are Nothing At All” Review
Between 2023 and 2025, Herman Yau churned out seven China–Hong Kong co-productions and mainland Chinese films, including large-scale, action-packed blockbusters like the gritty customs thriller Customs Frontline (2024) and the trilogy capper The White Storm 3: Heaven or Hell (2023). These films demonstrate Yau’s capacity to produce commercially satisfying spectacles with remarkable speed and energy,…
50th Hong Kong International Film Festival: “We Are All Strangers” Review
Celebrating its Golden Jubilee, the Hong Kong International Film Festival 2026 opened with Anthony Chen’s We Are All Strangers. Spending over ten years, Chen wrapped up the “Growing Up” Trilogy after Ilo Ilo (2013) and Wet Season (2019), with these films determined to reflect on the revolving cityscape of Singapore alongside the growth of the…
28th Far East Film Festival: Wim Wenders to Present Lifetime Award to Koji Yakusho in Udine
It begins with a friendship – and then, a film that has moved audiences around the world. On 25 April, Wim Wenders will be in Udine to personally present the Golden Mulberry Lifetime Achievement Award to his friend and Perfect Days star, Koji Yakusho, on the stage of the Teatro Nuovo “Giovanni da Udine.” Shot…
To Be Seen, Yet Unheard: Mahesh Menon Explores Family and Identity in “A Letter for Tomorrow” – Exclusive Interview
When the Indian filmmaker Mahesh Menon brought his moving short A Letter for Tomorrow to this year’s BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, I was truly taken aback by how wonderful the film was. Drawing from his own upbringing in a matriarchal household, Menon explores the complexity within families – particularly how love is often…
Far East Film Festival 28 Unveils 76-Film Programme, Opening with Anthony Chen’s “We Are All Strangers”
What began in the spring of 1998 as a bold and somewhat puzzling experiment has grown into one of Europe’s most important showcases of Asian cinema. When the Centro Espressioni Cinematografiche (CEC) in Udine shifted its focus from Italian retrospectives to a programme dedicated to Hong Kong films, few could have predicted the outcome. Yet…
28th Far East Film Festival: FEFF Campus Returns for Its 12th Edition, Welcoming Ten Aspiring Voices to the Global Film Community
The Far East Film Festival Campus initiative continues to bring film lovers together from across the globe, and if that sounds like the beginning of a great film, it’s because, in many ways, it is. As the 28th Far East Film Festival returns from April 24 to May 2, 2026, the FEFF Campus celebrates its…
40th BFI FLARE: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival: “A Letter for Tomorrow” Review
Sometimes the LGBTQ community’s feelings are not hurt by open hostility, but by something harder to face: silence. Harm doesn’t always come from direct cruelty – often, it comes from people choosing not to see or engage. In many cultures, especially within traditional families, a person can feel really alone even among people who love…
40th BFI FLARE: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival: “Beyond the Fire – The Life of Japan’s First Pride Parade Pioneer” Review
Japan is one of those societies where discussions about sexuality have traditionally remained private. However, the country has made visible progress in LGBTQ+ awareness in recent years; local partnership systems now exist in dozens of prefectures, Pride celebrations are held in cities across the country, and public discussion around marriage equality continues to grow. Yet…
40th BFI FLARE: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival: “The Deepest Space in Us” Review
Grief can be especially difficult to process when it is complicated by discovery – when, after someone is gone, you begin to uncover things about their life you never knew existed. In The Deepest Space in Us, written and directed by Yasutomo Chikuma, this kind of loss is at the center of the story. The…
40th BFI FLARE: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival: In Conversation with Rahemur Rahman & Lily Vetch, Directors of “Body of Our Own”
Perhaps it is through artists that we come to see stories we might never have known otherwise, stories that exist beyond the margins. Body of Our Own is one such film. Centered on the lives of three women from the Hijra community, offering a perspective rarely seen on screen. The film is brought to life…
40th BFI FLARE: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival: “Body of Our Own” Review
Presented at this year’s BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, the documentary Body of Our Own follows three members of the Hijra community: Momo, Neshi, and Jannat. Directed by Rahemur Rahman and Lily Vetch, the film gives us a beautifully observant portrait of identity and friendship. Filmed over seven years, Rahman and Vetch take a…
Yuen Woo-ping’s “Blades of the Guardians” Review
In Blades of the Guardians, director Yuen Woo-ping returns to the wuxia tradition with a film that emphasises the physical and moral foundations of the genre. Known internationally for influencing the style of cinematic combat – just look at The Matrix trilogy and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – Yuen treats the film as a way…
Pavel and Pooh at Milan Fashion Week: Thai Stars on Gucci, Tod’s, Italian Food and Their Next Big Chapter – Exclusive Interview
Milan Fashion Week has a particular kind of chaos. Not the stressful kind, but the cinematic kind – alright, maybe a little stressful too. The kind where the streets around Via Montenapoleone and Via della Spiga feel permanently gridlocked, where espresso becomes a survival strategy, where publicists murmur into headsets like air-traffic controllers, and where…
