Movie Review – Post Truth

Post Truth (Bao ni ping an) China (2022) Dir. Da Peng No matter how much the internet and social media has done in connecting people across the globe and helping with real time sharing of news and information, it is equally guilty in sharing misinformation which is easily believed. What happened to the good old …

Movie Review – Young Ip Man: Crisis Time

Young Ip Man: Crisis Time China (2020) Dir. Li Liming We all know cinema can’t resist a franchise. It’s one thing to take a well known character and, in lieu of original stories having been exhausted, create new stories for them but to do this with an actual person, is not just egregious, you end …

Movie Review – Hidden Blade

Hidden Blade (Wu ming) China (2023) Dir. Er Cheng The world of international espionage is a dark and sinuous one, where nobody can be trusted and nothing is what it seems. It also makes for a great subgenre of thriller for writers and filmmakers alike. However, it helps if they don’t get too convoluted that …

Movie Review – One Second

One Second (Yi miao zhong) China (2020) Dir. Zhang Yimou The power of cinema can never really be explained no matter how hard we try. We can wax lyrical about how images astound us, performances move us, or stories provoke us, yet other art forms do the same. The shared element is that intangibility which …

Movie Review – The Battle at Lake Changjin: Water Gate Bridge

The Battle at Lake Changjin: Water Gate Bridge (Chang jin hu zhi shui men qiao) China (2022) Dir. Tsui Hark Because the UK Blu-ray of this film has been re-titled The Battle at Water Gate Bridge, I didn’t realise this was a sequel to 2021’s Chinese Communist Party-commissioned epic The Battle at Lake Changjin until …

Movie Review – Hey! Little Bones

Hey! Little Bones (Hei Xiao gu tou) China (2020) Dir. Ai Yan Ru Oscar Wilde famously said “There is one thing worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about!”, applying very much to this Chinese fantasy film as information about it is scant, whilst summaries of the plot differ from source …

Movie Review – Zero Point Five Love

Zero Point Five Love China (2014) Dir. GengXiao Can love be broken down to a mathematical equation? I’ll never find out but there is bound to be some boffin out there who might think so. Surely, if there was then it would be “you + me = love” or something equally as trite. Perhaps I’m …

Movie Review – Caught In Time

Caught In Time (Chu bao) Hong Kong/China (2020) Dir. Lau Ho-Leung “Persistence without respite” We’re always told that patience is a virtue which must be a vital requirement for anyone joining the police force - after all, who else could handle long fruitless stakeouts or undertake painstaking mission to catch a master criminal. But ten …

Movie Review – The Battle At Lake Changjin

The Battle At Lake Changjin (Chang jin hu) China (2021) Dirs. Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark, & Dante Lam If there is ever a caveat to making war films it is in the historical accuracy of the details and tone of the narrative. The former is where audiences will show some leniency due to dramatic licence, …

Movie Review – End Game

End Game (Ren chao xiong yong) China/Hong Kong (2021) Dir. Rao Xiaozhi “I need to be myself/ I can’t be no-one else” Those were the first words we heard Liam Gallagher sing when Supersonic heralded the arrival of Oasis in 1994 and almost 20 years later they are apropos to this Chinese/Hong Kong remake of …