The films of Wu Yonggang

Wu Yonggang (born 1907) is famous as the director of his first film The Goddess, starring Ruan Lingyu. This is justly regarded as one of the best ever Chinese movies and indeed a classic of silent cinema. But who has seen any of his other films? In fact, based on Douban, Wu directed 34 films…

Call If You Need Me [黑夜行路] (2009)

A later film by Malaysian director James Lee. Or Kia [Sunny Pang] moves to Kuala Lumpur to work with his cousin small-time gangster Ah Soon [Lee regular Pete Teo]. We get to know the gang members and Ah Soon's long-suffering girlfriend Ah Peng [Chuah Thien See] and see them at work (debt collecting and protection)…

The Fallen Bridge [断·桥] (2022)

This film, the latest from director Li Yu, opens in dramatic fashion in 2011 with the collapse of a bridge in a (fictional) central city . As investigators try to establish how and why the bridge collapsed, they come across the skeleton of a man buried in the concrete. The man. who was one of…

Yanagawa [漫长的告白] (2022)

Middle-aged Dong  [Zhang Luyi] is diagnosed with advanced cancer. He does not tell anyone but persuades his married older brother Chun [Xin Baiqing] to go on a trip with him to Yanagawa in Japan. The main purpose seems to be to see Chun's former girlfriend Liu Chuan [the always lovely Ni Ni] who suddenly left…

James Lee’s ‘Love Trilogy’

Amongst the works of the prolific Malaysian-Chinese film-maker James Lee are the loosely connected 'Love Trilogy' (2006-2007). Available on CathayPlay and the three films are also currently on YouTube on the James Lee's Film channel. Before We Fall in Love Again [念你如昔] (2006) Ling Yue [Amy Len/Len Siew Mee] left home one morning to go to…

Art films on CathayPlay

Mysterious Object at Noon [江湖说书] (2020) Borrowing, for unclear reasons, the title of a 'documentary', by Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Mysterious Object (a lengthy 52 minute short) is in one way a rather typical Chinese art film with a largely static camera filming largely static characters not doing very much. In this case, it is unclear…