The Movie Prince

  In the landscape of 2017 Chinese-language cinema, one film made everyone sit up and take notice. It wasn't a big-budget production. It had no star-studded cast. Almost the entire film was in black and white. Yet it swept 10 nominations at the 54th Golden Horse Awards, ultimately winning 5 awards including Best New Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography. On Douban, over 300,000 users have given it a remarkable 8.7, ranking it as the second-highest rated Chinese-language film of 2018. That film is The Great Buddha+ . The "Plus" in the title is significant — director Huang Hsin-yao had made a 22-minute short film called The Great Buddha in 2014. With the help of producer Chung Mong-hong, he expanded it into this feature-length masterpiece. This is a film about "voyeurism." The poor peek into the lives of the rich. The audience peeks into the world on screen. But as you watch, you begin to realize — you're actually peeking into yourself. T...

In the landscape of Chinese-language cinema, there are films that will never be box office sensations — but they become "masterpieces" in the hearts of cinephiles. Blind Massage is one such work. In 2014, Blind Massage closed its theatrical run with just 12.72 million yuan, ranking near the bottom of that year's box office chart. Yet it swept six Golden Horse Awards — Best Feature Film, Best New Performer, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Sound Effects — setting a record for Mainland Chinese films at the ceremony. Earlier, it had won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. This is a film about blind people — but it's not just a film about blindness. With Lou Ye's signature style — shaky camera work, the dampness of Nanjing, repressed desire — it tears open a world we have never truly entered. Today, I want to talk about this film and why it deserves to be watched a...

  In 1994, a Tyrannosaurus Rex skull was stolen. A former secret agent who had been selling pork for ten years was urgently recalled. This is From Beijing with Love . Stephen Chow's directorial debut — a tribute — or rather, a parody — of the James Bond series. The film was banned from release in mainland China due to its "defamation of the image of people's police," as well as its elements of absurdist humor, dark satire, and violence. It wasn't until the spread of internet culture after 2000 that the film found a new audience — albeit in heavily censored form. Despite this, it remains one of Stephen Chow's most distinctive works. With a Douban score of 8.3, it ranks among the top three of Chow's films in the hearts of many fans. Today, I want to talk about this film — arguably "the best James Bond film ever made in Hong Kong" — and why it remains unparalleled to this day. Part One: A Pork-Selling James Bond The story is simple. Ling Ling Qi (St...