Chinese Film Forum UK

Johnnie To is one of Hong Kong’s most important contemporary filmmakers and this one of his greatest works. Starring Hong Kong acting heavyweights Simon Yam…

Centring on superstar Andy Lau’s Big, a Buddist Monk turned muscle-bound stripper, who struggles with the fact that he can see people’s future.

Johnnie To is one of the most important directors working in Hong Kong today and Life without Principle one of his most complex and satisfying…

One of the most original voices to emerge from the Hong Kong new wave of the late the 1970s, Ann Hui is now a major…

With a career-making central performance from Sam Lee as Moon, a down-on-his-luck teenager trying to make ends meet in the marginalised neighbourhoods of a Hong…

Director Herman Yau returns to a more socially conscious filmmaking in this morally complex but ultimately moving story of a woman who following a life…

This blood drenched horror reunites the legendary duo of director Herman Yau and actor Anthony Wong for this tale of a Neurologist whose father worked…

I Am Not Madame Bovary is a caustically comic contemporary fable from superstar director Feng Xiaogang (Aftershock).  Li Xuelian and her husband Qin Yuhe stage…

Set in an unspecified past, After this Our Exile is the story of a family, a father and a son, and the difficulty and disappointment…

To celebrate Lunar New Year 2017 we are bringing together some of the finest talents working in contemporary Chinese cinemas. This programme of short films is drawn from the Hong…

Er Housheng is a blind musician who tours a saucy musical act around Inner Mongolia with his partner, Liu Lanlan. Directed by Award-winning documentary maker…

A relative of the popular Young and Dangerous franchise, Portland Street Blues offers a significant lead role for Sandra Ng who takes the opportunity to…

With a string of successful and stylish films, director Dante Lam has established himself at the forefront of contemporary Hong Kong cinema. A muscular thriller…

Released on the eve of Hong Kong’s handover to the PRC in 1997, this darkest of dark comedy centres around a seemingly minor decision which…

Ray Lui’s performance as mobster Ng Shek-ko majestically leads this epic, and highly influential, crime drama that in true crime film style follows the rise…

Following his disappointment with the US produced The Protector (1985), Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan wrote and directed this crime story vehicle to showcase his…

Martin Scorsese’s remake of Hong Kong crime film Infernal Affairs transposes the action to Boston and focuses on the city’s Irish mob. The film was critically acclaimed…

In his solo directorial debut, Infernal Affairs co-writer Felix Chong playfully subverts the expectations of the gangster film. Here two gangsters Sparrow (Ekin Cheng) and…

A period set crime film; The Killer Constable bridges the gap between the Shaw Brothers studio films of the early 1970s and the more cynical…

Clearly bearing the influence of classics such as The Seven Samurai, this martial arts epic brings together some of Hong Kong's top film talent, including director Benny Chan (The White Storm), action director Sammo…

The Cheng Chi teahouse is a pivotal place within its community, providing local citizens with a respite from the encroaching criminality that increasingly seems to…

Filmed with Tibetan actors, set against the region’s sprawling landscapes, director Wang Qiang’s debut feature is both a rich meditation on love and faith, and…

The village of Dafen is home to hundreds of peasants-turned oil painters. Father-daughter team of directors Haibo and Kiki Tianqi Yu followed painter Xiaoyong Zhao,…

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of WWII, this documentary film describes the eight years of dauntless air-force fighting of the republic of…

The film follows Isa Yasan, a simple and kind boy from the countryside in Xinjiang, China, who spends his time split between looking after his…

A classic ink-wash animation, the film contains no dialogue. The animation is, essentially, Chinese painting in motion, with a heavy emphasis on the flute melody.

The story is based on the traditional Chinese folk tale about a boy named Chenxiang, who must battle with Gods and family a-like in order…

A UK premiere, this remastered version opened the 2019 Shanghai International Film Festival. Created from 1961 to 1964 and inspired by the Chinese classic novel…

Li and his family live in northern Thailand. When his daughter is assaulted, he is set on a trajectory that will bring him into an…

Girls Always Happy deftly portrays the complexities of family relationships as they move between the extremes of animosity and affection. 

Celebrate Chinese New Year at HOME with Godspeed one of the best recent films from Taiwan.

Angie Chen’s second feature film offers a human portrait of the red-light area of Wan Chai in Hong Kong and smashes the two-dimensional image offered…

Angie Chen’s latest, acclaimed documentary I’ve got the Blues is a striking film that focuses on Hong Kong painter, art director, blues musician and activist…

Acclaimed director Derek Chiu’s 18th feature follows four young people involved in the 1967 Hong Kong Leftist Riot; half a century later, another four face…

A heartfelt, feel-good Hong Kong comedy about a group of middle- aged men who join a dragon boat team to avoid layoffs and rediscover their…

Caridad Amaran and Georgina Wong learned the art of Cantonese opera in Havana during WWII and toured Cuba to perform.

Dead Souls is the third chapter of an in-depth inquiry into how the Communist Party dealt with ideological dissent by prolific Chinese artist and filmmaker…

As the film’s title suggests, Lucky goes missing and Guangsheng enlists his plain talking, occasionally foul-mouthed father in his odyssey to look for the missing…

Pickle works as a security guard at a Buddha statue factory. Urged by his best friend, he grabs his boss's dashcam. As they watch the…

Justifiably described by Screen Daily as ‘a real Hong Kong treat’, writer and director Oliver Chan manages to instil her characters with great dignity whilst exploring the city's…

Comedy film director Dong Chengpeng went back to his rural hometown, Tonghua, Jilin Province, on a whim, hoping to make an art-house film about how…

Ricky Hui and Richard Ng star as a pair of criminals who join forces to help a young woman retrieve her family’s jewels from Rich…

Another free standing film, the third instalment of Alan Mak and Felix Chong’s Overheard series focuses on corruption and land acquisition in Hong Kong’s new territories. Again…

This highly personal documentary chronicles director Louisa Wei’s efforts to reconstruct the life and career of Esther Eng, a Chinese-American director born in San Francisco…

Kwok Yun’s life is changed forever when she thinks she sees a UFO hovering over Three-Headed Bird Village. She alerts the authorities, who immediately send…

To celebrate Chinese New Year, we are pleased to present this special screening of You Are the Apple Of My Eye. Breaking box office records…

A young woman’s return from Beijing to visit her parents in their hometown of Nanjing sparks reflections on the changes their lives have witnessed. Actor…

One Tree Three Lives is an intimate documentary focusing on the Chinese American novelist Hualing Nieh Engle. Hualing Nieh Engle is a Nobel Peace prize…

Big Blue Lake is the deceptively simple tale of an actress, Lai-yee, who returns to her home village in an attempt to reconnect with her…

By the director of Beijing Bicycle, this semi-autobiographical story is set in rural Guizhou Province in the latter days of the Cultural Revolution. The mother…

This sumptuous showbiz melodrama stars Anna May Wong as a nightclub scullery maid whose rise to celebrity in the London clubs of the 1920s brings…

Revolutionary leader Dr. Sun arrives in colonial Hong Kong to attend a vital secret meeting that could potentially spark revolts across China, changing the country’s…

Controversial for its frank depiction of homosexual themes and contemporary politics, this film follows the tragic love affair between two men set against the rapid…

This romantic comedy finds middle-aged millionaire inventor Qin looking to end his bachelor life with online dating. Following some failures he meets the heartbroken Smiley.…

Director Angie Chen explores 10 relationships between dog owners and their furry friends.

Director Fruit Chan is widely acknowledged as one of the most important talents to appear in the Hong Kong industry after the handover to China.…

With The Boxer from Shantung legendary Shaw Brothers director Chang Cheh infuses a classic crime tale with his own inimitable Shaw Brothers’ style martial arts…

To celebrate Chinese New Year we are pleased to present this special screening of American Dreams in China. Peter Ho-Sun Chan’s comedy drama follows three…

Set in Singapore during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Ilo Ilo chronicles the day-to-day drama of the Lim family and their live-in maid Teresa, a…

A great, energetic, early example of the Hong Kong crime film, The Swallow Thief tells the story of a young woman, Yinniu, the grand-daughter of veteran crime…

The new Hong Kong action maestro Dante Lam is behind this taut and ultimately unsettling psychological thriller. Truth, reality and imagination begin to blur in…

Ringo Lam, the director of one of the most influential Hong Kong crime films City on Fire (1987), returns to the crime genre with this…

A box-office hit across Asia, the first Overheard film brings together Hong Kong superstars Lau Ching-wan, Louis Koo and Daniel Wu as a trio of Criminal Intelligence…

Another huge box-office success, Alan Mak and Felix Chong’s sequel to Overheard brings back the original’s stars Lau Ching-Wan, Louis Koo, Daniel Wu. Here the co-writer and…

A hilarious heist caper becomes a rallying cry for disaffected youth in this multi-layered comedy. Tired of being hounded for his high-school tuition fee, Lefty…

A full minibus leaves Kowloon heading for the New Territories. When it arrives at its destination, the normally busy streets are eerily empty. As tensions…

Award winning scriptwriter and director Ivy Ho returns with this Hong Kong crime story. A sexually motivated abduction leads to a car crash that brings…

Undoubtedly a landmark in contemporary Chinese cinema, Devils on the Doorstep centres on those living in the shadow of Japanese occupation. One dark night, the…

How far will you go for dance? Aspiring street dancer Fleur will do almost anything to challenge the dominance of Hong Kong’s greatest crew The…

Six Chinese-born filmmakers living in South-East Asia each made a short film to represent their feelings about their homeland. As a collection, Letters from the…

This specially selected programme of short films celebrates 20 years of Hong Kong’s Incubator for Film & Visual Media (ifva), organised by the Hong Kong…

Benny Chan delivers an old-school style, star-driven, Hong Kong action movie that is clearly inspired by the greats of the 80s and 90s. Three boyhood…

Set in the aftermath of the Sino-Japanese War (1937-45), Spring in a Small Town tells the story of the once prosperous Dai family. Having lost…

Big Blue Lake director Tsang Tsui Shan returns from her Best New Director win at the 31st Hong Kong Film Awards with moving documentary, Flowing…

A down-on-his-luck movie star moves into a rundown tower block inhabited by ghosts, spirits and vampires in this highly stylized horror film that draws on…

In Amos Why’s assured romantic debut, Chung arrives back in Hong Kong after living in Canada for many years. Finding the city has changed and…

Bound by morals and family values, the two men find their precarious relationship hanging in the balance.