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Last Site Update: January 18, 2012

Site Review Count: 2071
   

Romancing in Thin Air

ROMANCING IN THIN AIR
opens February 9th

Sammi Cheng returns to the Milkyway Image fold for Romancing in Thin Air, her first film with Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai since Yesterday Once More way back in 2004. The former box office queen stars with Louis Koo, Gao Yuanyuan and Wang Baoqiang in this snow-set romance opening February 9th in Hong Kong.

Latest Stuff
- Review: The Great Magician NEW
- Review: The Flowers of War NEW
- Review: Speed Angels NEW
- Awards: 18th Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award Winners NEW
- Review: Flying Swords of Dragon Gate
- Review: Turning Point 2
- Review: White Vengeance
- Review: Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale
- Review: Starry Starry Night
- Review: The Sword Identity

- Review: East Meets West

Hong Kong Film Critics Society
Announces Awards
Posted January 18, 2012

Sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly how they make their decisions, but fear not, they make them anyway. The Hong Kong Film Critics Society got together recently and handed out their yearly kudos, and Best Picture is super easy to guess. Come on, you can do it.

In other news, you may wish to check out the Webmaster's Site Blog because he's updating it again in honor of LoveHKFilm.com's 10th Anniversary. Yep, we've been around 10 years. We can hardly contain our excitement.

News, Notes and Nonsense

Updated January 8, 2011

Previous Updates archived at MySpace

Year 10
Posted January 8, 2012

This latest update features reviews of the big Christmas Hong Kong movies: Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, White Vengeance. Turning Point 2. We also have reviews of fest faves Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, Starry Starry Night and The Sword Identity. It's good times all around.

In a few short weeks, Lunar New Year will be upon us, which means at least 3 new Hong Kong movies, plus a few China/HK releases scattered in between. It's a big year for Chinese Cinema and also for this website, which is now 10 years old. Shocking.


Updates will arrive probably once or twice a month from here on out, and we'll try to resuscitate our site blogs for one last 10th Anniversary gasp. After that, we'll figure out what do with Year 11.

Thanks for reading and for supporting Hong Kong movies by not downloading them. At least, we hope you don't.

Message for LoveHKFilm readers
Posted December 15, 2011

This is pretty much the last update that LoveHKFilm.com sees in 2011, so we'll end it all with this message:

Merry Christmas!

You're totally awesome if you read this because we know more of our visitors arrive directly on review pages and then leave because there isn't a download link. So if you read this, it must mean you actually like this site!

Or, perhaps you're here because you wish to ridicule our latest attempts at review writing. That would be unfortunate.

But hey, you're here so thanks a whole bunch!

Sincerely,
The Management

So yeah, Merry Christmas to all and go watch a good Asian movie, like The Host or Departures. We know neither of those is from Hong Kong, but we really don't want to recommend Legendary Amazons or Lan Kwai Fong. Santa and Jesus would disapprove.

See you in 2012.


  Previous Updates

NEW for January 18, 2012
- Added Kozo's reviews of The Great Magician (2012), The Flowers of War (2011) and Speed Angels (2012).
-Winners of the 18th Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards were announced.

NEW for January 8, 2012
- Added Kozo's reviews of Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (2011), Turning Point 2 (2011), White Vengeance (2011), Starry Starry Night (2011) and The Sword Identity (2011).
- Added Kevin Ma's review of Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Taiwan, 2011).

NEW for December 15, 2011
- Added Kozo's reviews of East Meets West (2011), Magic to Win (2011), Rest on Your Shoulder (2011), 72 Martyrs (2011), Strawberry Cliff (2010) and Late Autumn (Korea, 2010).

NEW for November 29, 2011
- Winners for the 48th Golden Horse Awards were announced.
- Added Kozo's reviews of Legendary Amazons (2011), Let's Go! (2011), Sleepwalker 3D (2011), Big Blue Lake (2011), The Killer Who Never Kills (2011) and Jump! Ashin (Taiwan, 2011).

Featured Review

East Meets West
Tony Leung Chiu-Wai

The Great Magician
If you want to get the most out of The Great Magician, it helps to like fan service. Loosely defined as "giving the fans what they want," fan service may be the saving grace of Derek Yee's film about a dashing magician who comes between a naughty warlord and his would-be seventh wife. Great Magician marks the first screen appearance of Tony Leung Chiu-Wai since the blockbuster Red Cliff films, plus he's paired with Lau Ching-Wan, his co-star in nineties faves The Longest Nite and Dr. Mack, and more importantly, the eighties TVB drama Police Cadet and its sequel. With a star pairing like that, it almost doesn't matter that Zhou Xun is their leading lady. The magic, comedy, martial arts, even director Derek Yee – all minor compared to seeing TLCW and LCW share the screen. As long as the movie doesn't suck, many fans will be good. (more)

 

Newest HK/China Reviews Other Featured Reviews
East meets West
The Flowers of War
Zhang Yimou's The Flowers of War stars Christian Bale, and apparently, he's the hero that China deserves. But maybe not the one that they need. (more)
 
Purple and predictable
Speed Angels
Speed Angels is unsurprisingly terrible, and never reaches the depths of badness that would make it inadvertently entertaining. (more)
 
Your China patriotic film of the week
Flying Swords of Dragon Gate
Everything old is new yet again in Tsui Hark’s Flying Swords of Dragon Gate. A 3D remake-reimagining-sequel... (more)
 
Laughing Bore
Turning Point 2
Director Herman Yau goes overboard with Turning Point 2, the sequel to TVB drama Lives of Omission, which was a sequel to TVB drama E.U.... (more)
 
What's for dinner?
White Vengeance
White Vengeance has a puzzling English-language title, but beyond that this Daniel Lee-directed historical drama makes complete sense... (more)
 
More than nonsense
East Meets West
Jeff Lau is one amazing filmmaker - not because his films are always great, but because he attempts ambitious and emotional movies... (more)
 
Only losing here
Magic to Win
Magic to Win, money to lose. Producer Raymond Wong updates his Happy Ghost formula with this tepid comedy... (more)
 
Hong Kong Tokusatsu
Let's Go!
Let’s Go! Where? To see the new Wong Ching-Po movie! Stop the presses, because Wong Ching-Po, the director behind overrated triad thriller Jiang Hu... (more)
 
Heads will roll. A lot of them.
Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale
Wei Te-Sheng will never be criticized for lacking ambition - after all, Wei made Seediq Bale... (more)
 
No clouds in sight
Starry Starry Night

Starry Starry Night is the third of artist Jimmy Liao’s works to get the big-screen treatment, and the third time may be the charm. (more)

 
Words aren't everything
Late Autumn
Tang Wei and Hyun Bin impress in Late Autumn, director Kim Tae-Yong's involving if unremarkable update of a thrice filmed tale... (more)
 
So very dry
The Sword Identity
Xu Haofeng turns martial arts fiction on its head in The Sword Identity. Also the screenwriter of Wong Kar-Wai’s upcoming The Grandmasters... (more)
 

From gangster to gymnast

Jump! Ashin
Ashin loves gymnastics. As a kid, he was quickly hooked and as an adult it’s his number one love. Yes, more than girls... (more)
 
And a line entry on my resume
You Are the Apple of My Eye
Coming-of-age films have become one of the most popular genres in Taiwan commercial cinema. (more)
 
I'm jumping off first
Strawberry Cliff
Strawberry Cliff means well and that's probably the nicest thing you can say about it. From director Chris Chow, a screenwriter on Blood: The Last Vampire and Fearless... (more)
 
Money, Money, Money
Life Without Principle
Johnnie To has long been a great filmmaker, but a socially relevant one? Not as much. (more)
 

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Newer HK & China Reviews:
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Newer Taiwan reviews:
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