Author: Andrew Saroch

Andrew Saroch reflects on the career of Hong Kong actor Ng Man-Tat (吳孟達).

A visually splendid hybrid of family drama, survival story and environmental clarion call, ‘Anima’ is a haunting feature that certainly leaves an impression.

Brilliant. Heart-breaking. Life-affirming. Devastating. These are the first words that came to my mind as the credits rolled.

It’s just disappointing that the obvious craft at work by the experienced crew on ‘The Revenger’ never quite translates into a solid, coherent whole.

‘Vanguard’ tries to be a slick, Chinese version of ‘Mission: Impossible’ but has no idea what made the Tom Cruise film popular with viewers and critics alike.

It is a confident film that merely allows the people involved to tell their story without the need for the makers to chime in unnecessarily.

‘The Bravest Escort Group’ was one of those films you start watching while all the while thinking that it must have either been edited down from a much longer version or part of a series.

The cast is not without charm, the idea not without potential, but ‘The Real Iron Monkey’ is a certified dud.

The result is every bit as slick as viewers have come to expect from the film-makers, but severely lacking in genre staples like tension or excitement.

What could have been an amusing film sprinkled with a bit of action is more like a woefully over-exaggerated piece of fluff that wastes a good cast.

‘The Grand Grandmaster’ barely has enough good material for a TikTok clip though and it should be noted that this drudgery goes on for a full two hours.

‘Crocodile Island’ is deadly earnest which doesn’t quite work when characters are facing spiders the size of a shire horse.