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Filmmakers have made the case that, instead of going to film school, young would-be directors might be better off just listening to director commentaries. And if that’s the educational route you’ve chosen, two of today’s most interesting directors are telling all on new Blu-ray releases. Want to know more about how Barry Jenkins brought James Baldwin’s powerful novel “If Beale Street Could Talk” (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) to the big screen, or how Karyn Kusama crafted the bleak neo-noir “Destroyer” (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)? They tell all on these essential new releases.

Also available: S. Craig Zahler is at it again with “Dragged Across Concrete” (Lionsgate), a cops-gone-rogue heist saga starring Vince Vaughn and Mel Gibson.

See Photo: See Nicole Kidman's Extreme Transformation for Karyn Kusama's Cop Thriller 'Destroyer'

New Foreign

Few directors in the history of cinema have...

No big revelations this year at the 38th Hong Kong Film Awards. The Sunday night ceremony has unveiled all the winners for this years Awards and they are all quite an easy guess. Felix Chong’s thriller “Project Gutenberg” was the star of the evening as, predictably – considering its 17 nominations – won Best Film along with other 6 Awards.

But despite the histrionic performances of Chow Yun-fat and Aaron Kwock, the acting Awards are not in the “Project Gutenberg”‘s pile. Anthony Wong took home the Best Actor award for his role as a middle-aged paralysed man in “Still Human“, and newcomer Chloe Maayan won Best Actress for Fruit Chan’s “Three Husbands”, while Kara Hui and Ben Yuen Foo-Wa scored Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor both for “Tracey“.

Finally, “Dying To Survive” won the Best Film from Mainland and Taiwan Award.

Here is the full list of Winners and...

Approaching its 25th anniversary, iconic Hong Kong Triad effort ‘Young and Dangerous’ made a huge splash upon its initial release and spawned an equally beloved franchise as well as made stars of its hip young cast. Now reuniting the main cast cast of that effort into this unrelated new film tackling the mega-heist genre of action film, ‘Golden Job’ arrived in digital download and Blu-Ray from WellGo USA on April 9.

Pulling off a successful mission, childhood friends Lion, Crater, Ding, Bill, and Mouse decide to go their separate ways when they’re called back together again. Believing they are stealing a shipment of medical supplies to deliver to a refugee camp, the group is shocked to discover the target is actually gold bars intended to be used to fund political coups in third world countries. Realizing that they’ve been duped and double-crossed by one of their own,...

The full list of nominations for the the 38th Hong Kong Film Awards has been revealed. On the 14 April 2019 we will know the winners but for now let’s have a look at the nominees.

Two films seem to lead the competition. Big budget “Project Gutenberg” by Felix Chong has the highest number of nominations (17) and both its protagonists, Chow Yun-Fat and Aaron Kwok, compete for the Best Actor Award. To follow, a much smaller (but not less loved) film, “Men On The Dragon” by Sunny Chan has 10 nominations.

Here is the full list:

Men On The Dragon

Best Film

Three Husbands

Operation Red Sea

Still Human

Men On The Dragon

Project Gutenberg

Best Director

Fruit Chan (Three Husbands)

Dante Lam (Operation Red Sea)

Sunny Chan (Men On The Dragon)

Oliver Chan Siu-Kuen (Still Human)

Felix Chong (Project Gutenberg)

Aaron Kwok and Chow Yun-Fat

Best Actor

Francis Ng (Men On...

Contemporary Chinese Cinema is a column devoted to exploring contemporary Chinese-language cinema primarily as it is revealed to us at North American multiplexes.Animal World2018 has been a remarkably strong year for Chinese language cinema, in terms of films on the international festival and arthouse circuit, retrospectives across the United States, and commercial films exhibited at multiplexes in a handful of North American cities. New movies from Jia Zhangke, Bi Gan (Long Day’s Journey Into Night), Wang Bing (Dead Souls), Hu Bo (An Elephant Sitting Still), Jiang Wen (Hidden Man) and Zhang Yimou (Shadow) electrified festival audiences around the globe, though none have as yet seen commercial release in North America. Rather than focus on these kinds of films, all of which have been covered elsewhere on the Notebook over the course of the year, this column has primarily been devoted to following those Chinese-language films that see small multiplex releases,...

‘Shadow’ climbs one place to second.

Following a rather disappointing weeklong National Day holiday, the second week of October (Oct 8-14) remained weak as it shrunk by 65.8% week-on-week.

The National Day titles continued to dominate the chart, with no new releases in the top five. Felix Chong’s Project Gutenberg, with Chow Yun Fatt and Aaron Kwok, topped again on $36.6m.

Its 15-day total of $133.9m has made it the eighth highest grossing local film of 2018 as well as the top grossing Hong Kong cop and crime thriller, surpassing 2016’s Cold War 2. But it is only about half of that...

Zhang Yimou’s Shadow takes second spot ahead of week-long National Day holiday.

The weekend box office battle kicked off on Sunday (rather than Friday) when new local releases swarmed the cinemas ahead of the official week-long National Day holiday.

After a weak September, Sunday’s daily box office finally shot back to the same level as the peak summer weekends, with Hello, Mrs. Money topping the one-day chart, followed by Shadow, Project Gutenberg and Fat Buddies.

Theatre troupe Mahua FunAge returns to the big screen again with Hello Mrs. Money, which took $15.2m on its opening day. The comedy...

On a pre-holiday weekend, in which new films unusually were released Sunday instead of the normal Friday, “Hello Mrs. Money” starring Celina Jade topped the Chinese box office. Zhang Yimou’s “Shadow” took the second spot.

Their first day of release gave “Mrs. Money” $16.8 million, and “Shadow” $10.4 million, according to data from Ent Group. They were followed by Hong Kong crime thriller “Project Gutenberg,” with $8.17 million.

China’s week-long National Day holiday begins Monday. For many people, Saturday was treated as an additional working day. Once the holiday period gets underway for more people, box office numbers are likely to swell.

“Money” was produced by Mahua FunAge, a company that is China’s market leader in live comedy and that made a successful transition into film with 2015’s “Goodbye Mr. Loser,” which made $218 million, 2016’s “Mr. Donkey” and last year’s sports comedy “Never Say Die.” “Never Say Die” was...

The Hong Kong thriller pipped Chin Ka Lok’s ‘Golden Job’.

China’s September box office continued its weak run despite coinciding with the first two days of the three-day Mid-Autumn festival holidays last weekend.

Last week’s box office (Sep 17-23) was the fifth lowest week in 2018, although it picked up a little from the week before, with five new films entering the charts.

Hong Kong anti-corruption crime thriller L Storm, starring Louis Koo and Julian Cheung, stayed top for the second week with $23.6m for $52.8m after 10 days.

It was slightly ahead of Golden Job, another Hong Kong film,...

“The Golden Job,” a Hong Kong action film that revives the 1980s “Young & Dangerous” action franchise, topped the mainland Chinese box office over the weekend. Directed by Eric Tsang, it earned a respectable $22.7 million in its opening three days, for a 34% share of a low-ball pre-holiday weekend.

Second place went to Chinese romance “Cry Me a Sad River.” It scored $11.2 million, according to data from Ent Group.

Last week’s box office winner, another Hong Kong picture, “L Storm,” dropped to third place with $9.2 million over the weekend. That lifted its 10-day cumulative score to $53.9 million.

“Mission: Impossible – Fallout” earned $6.87 million for fourth place. Its cumulative 24-day gross is $174 million, making it the fourth most successful Hollywood film in China this year, and the 11th-ranking film of the year.

“Ash Is Purest White,” the Jia Zhangke-directed low-life drama that played in competition in Cannes in May, took fifth place. It earned $5.83 million.

The House With A Clock In Its Walls opens top in UK; Searching is fourth highest Hollywood thriller in South Korea.

September 24 Update: Warner Bros’ horror hit The Nun held off Fox’s The Predator for the second consecutive weekend to lead international box office thanks to a $3m session that boosted the running total to $192.1m.

The Predator used a $15.7m session to climb to $54.9m, while Universal’s Johnny English Strikes Again grossed $18m for an early $22.9m, The House With A Clock In Its Walls opened top in the UK, Searching became fourth highest Hollywood thriller of all time in South Korea,...

The House With A Clock In Its Walls opens top in UK; Searching is fourth highest Hollywood thriller in South Korea.

Warner Bros’ horror hit The Nun held off Fox’s The Predator for the second consecutive weekend to lead international box office thanks to a $35.4m session that boosted the running total to $191.7m.

The Predator used a $15.3m session to climb to $54.5m, while Universal’s Johnny English Strikes Again grossed $17.2m for an early $22.1m, The House With A Clock In Its Walls opened top in the UK, Searching became fourth highest Hollywood thriller of all time in South Korea,...

The House With A Clock In Its Walls opens top in UK; Searching is fourth highest Hollywood thriller in South Korea.

Warner Bros’ horror hit The Nun held off Fox’s The Predator for the second consecutive weekend to lead international box office thanks to a $35.4m session that boosted the running total to $191.7m.

The Predator used a $15.3m session to climb to $54.5m, while Universal’s Johnny English Strikes Again grossed $17.2m for an early $22.1m, The House With A Clock In Its Walls opened top in the UK, Searching became fourth highest Hollywood thriller of all time in South Korea,...

The House WIth A Clock In Its Walls opens top in UK; Searching is fourth highest Hollywood thriller in South Korea.

Warner Bros’ horror hit The Nun held off Fox’s The Predator for the second consecutive weekend to lead Hollywood at international box office thanks to a $35.4m session that boosted the running total to $191.7m.

The Predator used a $15.3m session to climb to $54.5m, while Universal’s Johnny English Strikes Again grossed $17.2m for an early $22.1m, The House With A Clock In Its Walls opened top in the UK, Searching became fourth highest Hollywood thriller of all time in South Korea,...

Veteran Chinese actor and stunt man Kar Lok Chin has completed production on his third feature length film “Golden Job”. The film, which was funded by Jackie Chan, reunites Ekin Chang, Jordan Chan, Michael Tse, Chin Ka Lok, and Jerry Lamb. The actors previously starred together in the iconic 90’s Hong Kong Triad-themed movie series “Young and Dangerous”. Rounding up the star studded cast is veteran actor Eric Tsang, who acts as mentor to the group of thieves.

The film is set for a theatrical release on September 20th, a trailer for the film has been released.

Synopsis

Five years ago, a group of mercenaries disbanded after a failed mission. The quintet, led by Commander Rice, consisted of team leader Lion (Ekin Cheng), explosives expert Crater (Jordan Chan), intelligence officer Bill (Michael Tse), getaway driver Calm (Chin Ka-lok), and computer hacker Mouse (Jerry Lamb). Lion is now a modern-day Robin Hood,...