HONG KONG FILM ARCHIVE PRESENTS 100 MUST-SEE MOVIES1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteFantastic news for fans of Hong Kong Cinema both old and new! Today the Hong Kong Film Archive announces arguably its most ambitious film programme to-date: 100 Must-See Movies.
Director of Programming Sam Ho and his dedicated team have ploughed their way through the archive’s 90,000-strong collection to present 100 of the very best films the city has produced, from Benjamin Brodsky’s 1916 silent A TRIP THROUGH CHINA to Johnnie To’s 1999 masterpiece, THE MISSION.
The broad selection is a treasure trove of classics and previously undiscovered gems. There are obvious but essential choices like Tsui Hark’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA, Yuen Woo Ping’s DRUNKEN MASTER and John Woo’s A BETTER TOMORROW, as well as martial arts classics like King Hu’s COME DRINK WITH ME and A TOUCH OF ZEN, Sammo Hung’s THE PRODIGAL SON and Bruce Lee’s THE WAY OF THE DRAGON. The arthouse crowd is also well catered for with Wong Kar Wai’s DAYS OF BEING WILD and ASHES OF TIME, Ann Hui’s THE SECRET and Stanley Kwan’s ROUGE.
What is most exciting, however, is the opportunity to plunder areas of Hong Kong’s cinematic past that haven’t received nearly as much love as its action films. There is a strong contingent of melodramas from the 1950s in the series, featuring such underappreciated classics as Lee Sun Fung’s IT WAS A COLD WINTER NIGHT, Wong Tin Lam’s THE WILD, WILD ROSE or even screwball comedies like Li Pingqian’s AWFUL TRUTH.
