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This past March, the cinematographer Christopher Doyle was under Covid-19 lockdown in Shanghai, waiting to return to Hong Kong. “They take us floor by floor, apartment by apartment, name by name to the school around the corner for testing… then they march us back,” he wrote in an email. While waiting to return to Hong Kong, he was finalizing a book of poetry and collages. He had recently finished a feature in the south of China; before that he shot “Love After Love” for director Ann Hui.

Based on an Eileen Cheng short story, “Love After Love” (currently streaming on Mubi) charts the decline of wealthy playboy George Chiao (Eddie Peng), coupled with the corruption of Ge Weilong (Sandra Ma), who will ultimately become his wife. Set in Shanghai largely before World War II, it is a hypnotic, feverish look at a privileged world disappearing faster than anyone realizes.

With over 120 films to his credit,...

Marking the third time Ann Hui adapts a novel by Eileen Chang (after “Love in a Fallen City” and “Eighteen Springs”), “Love After Love” is based on the short story “Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier”, a work that the director herself admitted was quite hard to bring to the big screen, particularly due to its dialogue-heavy nature. Nevertheless, Hui managed to gather an all-star team, including actors like Ma Sichun, Eddie Peng and Feye Yu, Dp Christopher Doyle and Ryuichi Sakamoto who handled the score. Let us see how the movie fares however.

“Love After Love” is screening at Asian Pop-up Cinema

Weilong is a young woman from Shanghai, who has come to Hong Kong to finish her education away from her strict father. Facing intense financial issues, however, she ends up at the gates of Madame Liang’s mansion, her father’s sister who was excommunicated from the family...

Asian Pop-Up Cinema: Season 14 will present 28 films in downtown Chicago and the north suburbs, with select films available for online streaming. The joint virtual and in-person festival opens March 13 and runs through April 10.

The diverse lineup celebrates the best of Asian cinema from South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Taiwan. Programming highlights include work from female filmmakers and an in-person special guest appearance from Sunday LEAGUEdirector Yi Sung-il.

Season 14 opens with the Midwest Premiere of Heaven: To The Land Of Happiness (AMC Niles 12) from director Im Sang-soo. Korean stars Choi Min-sik (Oldboy) and Park Hae-il (War of the Arrows) lead this crime comedy as two terminally ill men on one last, unexpected journey of their lives. The international premiere of sports comedy Sunday League will follow, a heartwarming story of a former rising soccer star who reluctantly coaches a ragtag team of amateur players. Writer/director Yi is...

Next month’s Mubi lineup for the U.S. has been unveiled, with a major highlight being their recent release Lingui, The Sacred Bonds and more films from director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (read our recent chat with him). Matías Piñeiro’s Isabella and Kazik Radwanski’s Anne at 13,000 Ft., two of last year’s highlights, will also arrive.

Two recent Cannes premieres, the Adèle Exarchopoulos-led Zero Fucks Given and Peter Tscherkassky’s Train Again will also finally come to the U.S. courtesy of Mubi. In terms of older highlights, Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, Hong Sang-soo’s The Power of the Kangwon Province, Jafar Panahi’s Crimson Gold, Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion, and more will arrive.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

March 1 | The Willmar 8 | Lee Grant | Down and Out in America: Lee Grant’s Documentaries

March 2 | Train Again | Peter Tscherkassky | Brief Encounters

March...

Other contenders include biopic ‘Anita’, ‘Drifting’ and ‘Raging Fire’, the final thriller by the late Benny Chan.

Soi Cheang’s crime thriller Limbo leads the pack for the 40th Hong Kong Film Awards (Hkfa) with 14 nominations, as the event prepares to return as an in-person ceremony following last year’s cancellation as a result of the pandemic.

The black and white crime noir, which premiered in Berlinale Special in 2021, secured nods including best film, best director and for actors Lam Ka Tung[/link], Cya Liu and Fish Liew. The thriller centres on a veteran detective and rookie copy who team up to catch a serial killer.

Marking the third time Ann Hui adapts a novel by Eileen Chang (after “Love in a Fallen City” and “Eighteen Springs”), “Love After Love” is based on the short story “Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier”, a work that the director herself admitted was quite hard to bring to the big screen, particularly due to its dialogue-heavy nature. Nevertheless, Hui managed to gather an all-star team, including actors like Ma Sichun, Eddie Peng and Feye Yu, Dp Christopher Doyle and Ryuichi Sakamoto who handled the score. Let us see how the movie fares however.

“Love after Love” is available from Fortissimo Films

Weilong is a young woman from Shanghai, who has come to Hong Kong to finish her education away from her strict father. Facing intense financial issues, however, she ends up at the gates of Madame Liang’s mansion, her father’s sister who was excommunicated from the family when...

Veteran Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui, one of Venice’s two Career Golden Lion recipients this year alongside Tilda Swinton, brings prewar Hong Kong to exquisite if restrained life in her latest historical drama, Love After Love (Di Yu Lu Xiang). This is the veteran Hong Kong New Wave filmmaker’s third adaptation of a work by Chinese-born writer Eileen Chang, whose writings were also the basis for Hui’s Love In a Fallen City from 1984 and 1997’s Eighteen Springs, as well as another film from the Biennale’s storied history: Ang Lee’s Golden Lion winner Lust, Caution. Besides Hui at the helm, the involvement of star ...

Veteran Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui, one of Venice’s two Career Golden Lion recipients this year alongside Tilda Swinton, brings prewar Hong Kong to exquisite if restrained life in her latest historical drama, Love After Love (Di Yu Lu Xiang). This is the veteran Hong Kong New Wave filmmaker’s third adaptation of a work by Chinese-born writer Eileen Chang, whose writings were also the basis for Hui’s Love In a Fallen City from 1984 and 1997’s Eighteen Springs, as well as another film from the Biennale’s storied history: Ang Lee’s Golden Lion winner Lust, Caution. Besides Hui at the helm, the involvement of star ...

While the coronavirus pandemic has canceled major festivals such as Cannes and Telluride, the 2020 Venice Film Festival is moving ahead as planned and will be the world’s first major film festival since Sundance and Berlin at the start of the year. Venice 2020’s main selection will be split into three sections: Venezia 77 (aka the main competition), Out of Competition, and Horizons. The titles selected for the main competition will compete for the Golden Lion, which was awarded last year to Todd Phillips’ “Joker.”

As previously announced, Daniele Luchetti’s drama “Lacci” will open the 77th Venice Film Festival on September 2. The movie is the first Italian title to open Venice in 11 years. The last Italian opener was Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Baarìa” at the 2009 festival. “Lacci” is included in this year’s Out of Competition section. Chloe Zhao’s “The Rider” follow-up “Nomadland” was also confirmed for a world premiere...