The Movie Prince

  In 1991, a school bus stopped at the gates of St. Andrew's High School in Hong Kong. The door opened — and stepping out wasn't a student in uniform, but a man in a suit, sunglasses, a cigarette dangling from his lips. He was an elite member of the Flying Tigers. That man was Stephen Chow. That year,  Fight Back to School  grossed HK$43.82 million — breaking the all-time Hong Kong box office record, a record set just the year before by  All for the Winner . It also triggered a wave of school comedies across Hong Kong and Taiwan. The era of  mo lei tau  comedy had arrived. Thirty years have passed. Countless campus films have come and gone, but none has matched  Fight Back to School  — a film that makes you laugh until your stomach hurts, then suddenly reminds you of your own school days. Today, I want to talk about this trilogy and why it remains an insurmountable peak in Chinese-language school comedy. Part One: An Elite Officer, Forced Back to ...

  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...