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Imagi Crystal, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Imagi International Holdings, is making its debut at Filmart as it expands into sales and distribution.

Its inaugural slate includes Due West 2: Tokyo Adventure, an erotic film starring Hong Kong’s first adult-video actress Erena So.

Christopher Sun, director of 2011’s 3D Sex And Zen: Extreme Ecstasy and producer of 2012’s Due West: Our Sex Journey, will direct alongside Terry Cheng. Justin Cheung (Breakout Brothers franchise) co-stars in the film, which is backed by Imagi Crystal.

The Hong Kong-based company has also picked up international sales rights to Golden Boy, starring Louis Cheung...

Dayo Wong and Michael Hui head the cast of The Last Dance, which Emperor Motion Pictures (Emp) is launching at Hong Kong Filmart, along with Wai Ka Fai’s Detective Vs Sleuths 2.

Wong plays a debt-ridden wedding planner who finds unexpected success as a funeral planner, but he has to win over a traditional Taoist priest to stay in the business. It marks Wong’s first film after two massive hits, A Guilty Conscience and Table For Six, which made him one of Hong Kong’s most bankable actors.

The Last Dance, currently in post-production, is the third film from...

Ray Yeung’s All Shall Be Well has been set as the opening film of the 48th Hong Kong International Film Festival, which has unveiled its full lineup today.

It will mark the Asian premiere of the Hong Kong feature, which debuted in the Panorama strand of the Berlinale last month and won the Teddy Award. Starring Patra Au and Maggie Li, it centres on a lesbian couple in their twilight years. After one of them dies, the other struggles to retain both her dignity and the home they shared for more than 30 years.

Miyake Sho’s All The Long Nights,...

The Hong Kong-Europe-Asian Film Collaboration Funding Scheme being launched this week in Berlin is intended as a major component of an exercise in rehabilitating and internationalizing the Hong Kong film industry.

In unprecedented fashion, the territory’s Film Development Council is getting ready to start giving cash grants to movie projects that don’t necessarily have to shoot in the city or even use one of its three official languages.

Whereas in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, Hong Kong produced over 300 movies a year, for local, regional and international consumption, creating stars including Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, the 21st century has witnessed a downsizing and recalibration of the Hong Kong production system.

For much of the past two decades the city operated as a highly-skilled but smaller system that sat alongside and fed into the mainland Chinese industry during a period when the Chinese economy...

With its charming ensemble cast, Sunny Chan's ‘Table for Six' mixed slapstick comedy with melodrama, creating a number one box office hit in Hong Kong in 2022. The original film explored romantic complications and family issues, and most of this film took place at a single apartment dinner table. More ambitious in scope, the sequel ‘Table for Six 2' has an expansive budget, the same charismatic cast and takes place in a multitude of locations, replacing the apartment dinners with three respective wedding ceremonies. Despite this new makeover, ‘Table for Six 2' feels lackluster in script and story when compared to its predecessor, with only its stellar cast keeping it alive.

“Table for Six 2” is screening in UK and Irish cinemas, courtesy of Trinity CineAsia

Returning to their roles as half-brothers, Louis Chung and Charm Man Chan are Bernard and Lung. Although the siblings are seemingly...

Much anticipated sequel to the successful 2022 Hong Kong film doesn’t make the best use of its gifted ensemble

Structured around a series of family dinners that spiral into chaos, Sunny Chan’s Hong Kong comedy Table for Six was a record-breaking box office hit on release, thanks largely to a charming ensemble cast. Most of them return for this highly anticipated sequel, also directed by Chan and conceived as a special lunar new year vehicle. While the first film was almost entirely set in a single apartment, number two is much more ambitious in scope: this time, instead of dinners, it is a series of weddings that escalates into a whirlwind of comical mix-ups.

Reprising their original roles, Louis Cheung and Charm Man Chan star as half-brothers Bernard and Lung, who suddenly find themselves thrown into wedding preparations with their respective long-term girlfriends Monica (Stephy Tang) and Josephine (Ivana Wong). Here,...

Trinity CineAsia has acquired UK and Ireland rights to Table For Six 2, sequel to the smash hit Hong Kong comedy, in deal with Edko Films.

The ensemble comedy is again written and directed by Sunny Chan, whose 2022 film Table For Six centred on an awkward family reunion and became the third highest-grossing Chinese-language in Hong Kong on release in 2022 with takings of $9.85m ($77.1m).

The sequel revolves around three weddings and how a family of aunts, uncles and cousins all get involved with the nuptials. Original cast returning for the follow-up includes Stephy Tang, Louis Cheung, Ivana Wong, Lin Min Chen...

“If you really missed not seeing us on screen together, then ‘The Goldfinger’ is your opportunity to do so,” says Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau of his new crime movie where he is again paired with Tony Leung Chiu-wai (“In the Mood for Love”).

The film releases at the end of the month in different parts of Asia and North America (from Dec. 30). Pre-release marketing and promotional efforts make much of the Lau-Leung repairing some twenty years after the “Infernal Affairs” trio of hit movies. The movies were both critical and commercial hits and contained an iconic rooftop scene in Hong Kong’s Wanchai district with the police undercover agent and the mobster’s mole facing off guns drawn.

The pair clearly rate each other highly for their acting skills and for the kind of professionalism that has kept them both a the top of the game for more than two decades.

Hong Kong-based studio Edko Films will launch “Table for Six 2,” a sequel to its 2022 smash hit, at Tiffcom, the rights market attached to the Tokyo International Film Festival.

The heartfelt comedy is again written and directed by Sunny Chan, who enjoyed breakout success with “Table for Six,” a comedy-drama that starts with an awkward family reunion dinner where past and present romantic relationships are tangled and almost anything that could go wrong did.

For the sequel. Chan has reunited the original cast – Stephy Tang, Louis Cheung, Ivana Wong, Lin Min Chen, Peter Chan Charm Man – for three weddings and their aftermath. “Marriage isn’t just about two individuals; it involves a whole family of aunts, uncles, and cousins,” says Edko,

Now in production, the film is being produced by Bill Kong, Ivy Ho and Tang Wai But. Rights will also be pitched at the American Film Market.

The firm is...

The ceremony was held on Sunday evening.

Mabel Cheung’s controversial documentary To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self was named best film at the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards (Hkfa), which also saw Wai Ka Fai’s Detective Vs. Sleuths walk away with best director.

Held on Sunday evening (April 16), the awards ceremony returned to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre for the first time since 2019. It was a star-studded event with a big presence of nominees and guests on the red carpet. Most notable was Michelle Yeoh who recently won the best actress Oscar.

As the first presenter of the night, Yeoh...

Mabel Cheung’s controversial documentary To My Nineteen-year-old Self scooped Best Picture at the Hong Kong Film Awards on Sunday night (April 16), where the crowds also applauded an appearance by Best Actress Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh.

Malaysia-born Yeoh, who recently became the first Asian woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress, started her career in the Hong Kong film industry and has been making a celebratory return trip to the city over the past week. At the Hong Kong Film Awards, she presented the award for Best New Performer, which went to 10-year-old Sahal Zaman for The Sunny Side Of The Street.

Cheung’s documentary, which follows six schoolgirls over a perod of ten years, won Best Picture despite being earlier pulled from the awards after some of the girls said they hadn’t consented to any public screenings.

The film was resubmitted by its co-director, William Kwok,...

A victim of Covid 19, this Chinese New Year film missed its scheduled February date but it finally hit the cinemas in early September 2022. Premiered at the Udine Far East Film Festival in April garnering the Best Screenplay Award, it made its way to the 21st New York Asian Film Festival in July. However it did exceptionally well after its local release and took in over 77 millions and eventually became the 3rd highest-grossing domestic film in Hong Kong.

A follow-up to his “Men on the Dragon” (2018) starring Francis Ng, Chan's light-hearted comedy follows the life of Steve Chan (Dayo Wong Chi Wah) and his two brothers. They live in a large apartment which used to be a charsiu (BBQ pork) factory owned by their late parents. Since he is the eldest brother, he regards himself as the head of the family. After breaking up with his girlfriend Monica (Stephy Tang), he...

Kowloon Walled City — one of Hong Kong’s most famous landmarks, or infamous trouble spots, depending on your point of view — fell prey to the developers’ bulldozer 30 years ago. But it remains an icon of the territory’s gritty spirit and is being painstakingly re-created for action thriller feature “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In.”

The film is a beacon for how Hong Kong cinema is now evolving. Directed by hot-shot Soi Cheang, whose “Mad Fate” recently played in Berlin and is set for imminent local release, “Twilight” boasts leading stars Louis Koo, Sammo Hung and Richie Jen, plus emerging talents Philip Ng, Raymond Lau and Terrance Lau.

The film’s Hk$300 million ($39 million) budget makes it one of the most expensive Hong Kong productions of all time. But principal backer Media Asia is sparing no expense promoting the title. The company’s corporate booth at the FilMart rights market...

Hong Kong’s Filmart content market has for 27 years positioned itself as both the largest of its kind in Asia and the most influential, what with its hundreds of exhibitors from the far reaches of the region and its seminars which seek to chart the course of the industry’s future.

But for three years — like most of the pandemic-hit world — Filmart lay mostly dormant, in a physical sense at least, forced online due to circumstance and safety almost at the very moment in 2020 that Bong Joon-ho’s phenomenal Oscars success with the dark, dystopian comedy Parasitehad fixed the global industry’s focus on Asian storytelling, and Asian talent.

But this week – from March 13-16– Filmart returns to its home at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and its 27th edition is again appearing in physical form, with guests converging over the past few days, and (almost) all signs...

At previous in-person editions of Filmart, Hong Kong’s major film companies, including Edko Films, Emperor Motion Pictures (Emp), One Cool Group, Universe Films and Media Asia, always anchored the trade show floor with huge, elaborate booths promoting the latest Hong Kong films, animation and TV series.

Despite a difficult few years, during which they’ve had to navigate Covid-related cinema closures, stringent travel restrictions and Hong Kong’s political upheaval, all these companies and more are re-erecting their stalls at the first physical edition of Filmart in three years, and even have some good news to share.

Just last week, Edko Films’ legal drama A Guilty Conscience, starring Dayo Wong as a sharp-tongued barrister defending a single mother against ruthless tycoons, became the first Hong Kong film ever to gross more than Hk$100M (US$12.7M) at the local box office. The film is also currently topping the mainland China box office,...

Hong Kong courtroom drama film “A Guilty Conscience” edged aside Chinese and Hollywood tentpole films to top the mainland China box office in its opening weekend.

According to data from consultancy service Artisan Gateway, the film earned $8.5 million (RMB58.4 million) in its opening three days between Friday and Sunday.

“The Wandering Earth 2,” which has been in cinemas for over a month, earned $7.4 million to elevate its cumulative total to $568 million.

“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which opened on top a week earlier, collected $7.0 million, giving it a 10-day cumulative of $31.4 million.

Zhang Yimou’s “Full River Red” placed fourth with $5.5 million over its sixth weekend. Its cumulative since Jan. 22 now stands at $648 million.

Bring up fifth place was another Lunar New Year release, “Boonie Bears: Guardian Code” with $3.9 million over the weekend, good for a cumulative of $207 million.

The weekend total box office was a modest $39.6 million, the smallest...

Milestone has only previously been surpassed by Hollywood blockbusters.

Courtroom drama A Guilty Conscience has made history at the Hong Kong box office as the first local film ever to reach Hk$100m ($12.75m), a figure only previously achieved by Hollywood tentpoles.

The feature from first-time director Jack Ng reached the milestone on February 21, just 32 days after its release on January 21 – the eve of Chinese New Year.

Only a handful of Hollywood films have previously hit Hk$100m at the Hong Kong box office, with recent titles including Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way Of Water. Others include Marvel...

Spring has arrived.

For the Hong Kong film industry, the harsh three-year-long winter of the Covid era — with multiplexes forced to close for extended periods, industry professionals losing their livelihoods, and an indifferent administration that didn’t deign to lift a finger to help this once-mighty cultural industry that put the auteurs from the tiny former colony into the annals of global cinematic history — has finally come to an end.

Despite cinemas reopening their doors only in April 2022, two Hong Kong-made films released in late 2022, Warriors of Future and Table for Six, have become the top-grossing local productions of all time, taking in 10.5 million and 10 million in Hong Kong, respectively. And a third, A Guilty Conscience, released this January, is now the highest-earning Hong Kong film ever, grossing 11 million in its first three weeks of release. Hongkongers have rediscovered their love for homegrown films that tell stories they can relate to,...

An unusual five films picked up ten or more nominations for the Hong Kong Film Awards, with court room drama, “The Sparring Partner” picking up 16. But the event was partially overshadowed by a row over “To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self,” a documentary feature.

“To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self” is a warm portrait of six girls at a Hong Kong school that was made over a period of ten years. It was co-directed by the veteran Mabel Cheung, who has tackled thorny historical subjects in “The Soong Sisters,” and was producer of 2010 hit “Echoes of the Rainbow,” a nostalgic elegy to old Hong Kong.

The film played at the Hong Kong International Film Festival in August last year and was released theatrically earlier this year. But it was withdrawn from the city’s cinemas this week after one of the youngsters featured in the film published a complaint in a newspaper, saying that...

‘My Nineteen-Year-Old Self’ withdrawn over public screening consent issues.

Courtroom drama The Sparring Partner has received 16 nominations for the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards, which saw the last-minute withdrawal of Mabel Cheung’s documentary To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self.

The Sparring Partner, which marks the feature directorial debut of Ho Cheuk Tin, leads the pack with nominations in all but three categories. Based on the true story of a gruesome double murder case, its nods include best film, best director and five nominations for performers including lead actors Mak Pui Tung and Yeung Wai Lun. The film has become Hong Kong...

Bill Kong, Asia’s leading film producer, has turned quietly optimistic about the prospects for Chinese cinema. The sales and distribution arm of his Hong Kong-based Edko Films has picked up international sales rights to “Full River Red,” the Chinese film that’s the world’s highest grossing movie with a 2023 release.

The Chinese film industry had a torrid time in 2022, seeing box office plunge to 11-year lows, censorship and bureaucracy take an additional toll, and only a handful of mainland films make it to overseas festivals.

Now, selected distributors in Berlin could be in for a treat.

Directed by venerable Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou, period drama “Full River Red” was the number one film in mainland China over the recent Lunar New Year holiday and continues to ride high at the Middle Kingdom box office. To date, it has grossed 541 million in the space of 11 days.

Set in the 12th Century,...

Comedy drama film “Give Me Five” held on to the top spot at the mainland Chinese box office with a weekend score of just 7.4 million (RMB50.8 million).

The film is the story of a young man who is helping his father rediscover his lost memories. As he does so, he is transported back in time and accidentally alters his parent’s pasts. That means he must reunite the pair or risk never being born. It stars Ma Li Chang Yuan and Wei Xiang and is directed by Zhang Luan.

The film was released a week ago in time for the mid-autumn festival and scored 21.3 million in its opening weekend, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. But without the holiday boost, the film slumped by 65. It now has a cumulative of 36.5 million after ten days of a release handled by Wanda Pictures.

Light Chaser’s animated “New Gods: Yang Jian” again took second place,...

Asian Cinerama — Hong Kong Focus runs for 4 days — Thursday 15 – Sunday 18 September at Plaza Indonesia Xxi, Jakarta and presents six (6) current productions by promising and established Hong Kong filmmakers in a variety of genres. Asian Cinerama is the first collaborative event on the Road to Balinale 2023.

Asian Film Awards Academy (Afaa) together with Bali International Film Festival (Balinale) and supported by Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) and Film Development Fund (Fdf), will open with a premiere screening of Shadows directed by Glenn Chan. The film has been hailed as ‘one of the best films of the year’. The film’s producer and scriptwriter, Mani Man, will hold a post-screening Q&a and conduct a Filmmaking Seminar hosted by Binus University, Jakarta. The live event will also be broadcast virtually.

“We are pleased to have Mani Man, producer and scriptwriter to open the Asian Cinerama program with her film Shadows and conduct a...

Family comedy “Table For Six” has set an opening day local record for a comedy film in Hong Kong, to the relief of producers who were forced to digest a releasing delay of six months.

The Sunny Chan-directed film opened Wednesday in Hong Kong and Macau at 61 theatres, playing a total of 608 sessions. That gave it an accumulated box office of HK1,986,701.

“Table for Six,” which chronicles a family’s holiday gathering where food, love, friendship, jealousy and relationships are on the menu, had originally been planned as a dish to be served at Chinese New Year, in February. And producers had assembled a cast of major Hong Kong and regional talents, including Dayo Wong, Stephy Tang, Louis Cheung, Ivana Wong, Lin Min-Chen and Chan Charm Man.

But Hong Kong’s strict Covid-control measures, in response to a fifth wave of infections, closed cinemas for the first four months...