The Invisible Guest [瞒天过海] (2023)

This film is apparently based on a 2016 Spanish film Contratiempo. I have not seen it but it has been generally well reviewed which would suggest that the Chinese version has strayed far from the original. Set in a fictional south-east Asian country where people speak Chinese (but the police generally speak very poor English),…

A Beautiful Bird Day [關山渡若飛] (2023)

A lengthy (44 minutes) Taiwanese short film. The film opens with a film shoot on location where a rather distracted member of the crew Tzu-chi [Miya Hsieh] is helping out. We gradually realise that she is a transgender person. Tzu-chi is sent back to base to get an urgently needed prop but, again paying no…

Yangzi’s Confusion [洋子的困惑] (2023)

An unusual (in a Chinese context) and interesting film from director and screenwriter Li Jue, her first feature. The film opens (in striking Yanjin city Yunnan) with a day in the life of divorced businesswoman Yu Meihui [Huang Xiaolei]. She gets stuck in traffic, charms a client, meets her friend in a beauty salon and…

Endless Journey [三大队] (2023)

Despite the different English title, this is the film version of the story in the recent iQIYI drama The Lonely Warrior starring the ubiquitous Zhang Yi (the Chinese title of both is The Third Squad). Set in a central Chinese city in 2002, the third detective squad - led by Captain Cheng [Zhang] - are…

Kill Sera Sera [誰殺了她] (2024) ep 1-2

This is a Singaporean drama in 12 episodes of 45 minutes (Chinese title Who Killed Her?). As the series opens, the dismembered body of a young woman Sera Sun [Chantalle Ng] is found in a river. The death occurs on 29 February 2020 so it is four years before her formal anniversary. As this date…

Seven Killings [刀尖] (2023)

Minguo [Republic era] spy dramas are currently quite popular, particularly in the world of dramas. Seven Killings (Tip of the Knife in Chinese) is a recent film in this genre staring the popular Zhang Yi (The Knockout). It's 1940, and the Nationalist government has fled to Chongqing. The Japanese set up the collaborationist Wang Jingwei…

Revival [回廊亭] (2023)

This movie is based on a novel by Japanese author Keigo Higashino called The Murder in Kairoute (or The Long Corridor), which was recently made into a Chinese drama starring Deng Jiajia. However, this film adopts a very different approach to the story. As the film opens, lawyer Zhou Yang [the prolific Ren Suxi, Where…