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Review

Sex and the Emperor

Another of Wong Jing’s Category III-rated 1990s historical sex-romps gets the rerelease treatment…

Interview

The Possible Love interviews: Zo In-sung & Cho Yeo-jeong

In the first of two interviews, we chat to the stars of Lee Chang-dong’s latest film…

Review

Human Lanterns

Sun Chung brings giallo-style horror to the wuxia genre…

Review

Mag Mag

A love-obsessed ghost causes mayhem in this spin on the usual J-horror formula…

Review

Moonglow

An effective if passionless noir…

Review
Inherit
Don’t cha wish your grandma was hot like mine…
Review
Ba’s Book
A thoughtful portrait of a family confronting trauma through storytelling and performance…
Review
Hex Vs Witchcraft
The second film in Kuei Chih-Hung’s Hex trilogy takes a comic and rather seedy turn…
Review
Filipiñana
A scorching hot social commentary on class hierarchy in the Philippines…
Review
A Girl Unknown
Origins lost in Zou Jing’s softly powerful feature debut…
Review
My Name Ain’t Suzie
Her name was Shui-Mei…

COMING SOON...

The Possible Love interviews: Jeon Do-yeon & Sul Kyung-gu
Review: Ghost Town
Review: Ghost in the Cell

BFI London Film Festival - 7 to 18 October 2026

Latest news

All the latest news from Asian cinema...

News
Five Flavours announces New Asian Cinema Competition selection
The 20th edition of Poland’s premiere Asian film festival is back from 10 November to 6 December…
News
Made in Taiwan returns to Garden Cinema, London
Running from 24 October to 6 December 2026…
News
London Korean Film Festival returns for 2026
Opening and closing films revealed for BFI Southbank part of programme…
News
First Asian titles at Lund Fantastic Film Festival
Lund Fantastic presents a Japanese genre retrospective in collaboration with TOEI…
News
Fourth Hong Kong Film Festival UK returns
From 25 September to 4 October 2026 across London venues…
News
East Asian films at BFI London Film Festival 2026
A roundup of East and South East Asian films from the 2026 programme…

Fantasia International Film Festival 2026

The 30th edition of Montreal’s annual celebration of niche, low-budget films of various genres, from horror to science fiction…

Review
When You Open the Door
Female awakening takes the shape of a werewolf…
Review
Unidentified Murder
An astonishingly funny indie discovery that overcomes its constraints with creativity…
Review
The Specials
Legendary yakuza stars face the music about their last dance, last chance for killing in a rather… unusual genre hybrid…
Interview
Eiji Uchida Interview: “I don’t like yakuza, but I like yakuza movies!”
We talk about the special ways and the special casting with which The Specials was conceived…
Review
The Last Footage
Myanmar’s first found footage horror has its world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival…
Review
The Mouths
Creepy, slow burning terror from the horror master Takashi Shimizu…

New York Asian Film Festival 2026

Serious classics, unmissable new releases, and a city-spanning lineup that has something for everyone. NYAFF returns with a 17-day programme running from 10 to 26 July…

Review
My Sassy Girl
Twenty-five years later, does Korea’s sassiest rom-com still hold up?…
Review
Cold War 1994
Enter the pre-handover Cold War universe as titans and underdogs fight for power and survival…
Review
10s Across the Borders
South East Asia is Burning…
Review
Kinki
Koji Shiraishi descends once more into the abyss of cosmic horror…
Review
Human Resource
Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit explores choice and responsibility in an emotionally detached workplace drama…
Review
Ky Nam Inn
Leon Lê once again paints a picture postcard of 80s Vietnam, but without the bite of Song Lang…
Review
Colony
Yeon Sang-ho’s triumphant return to the zombie genre is a claustrophobic high-concept, action packed nightmare that redefines the genre…
Review
Dear You
A touching drama about diaspora memory and female solidarity: tender, flawed, yet genuinely moving…
News
New York Asian Film Festival returns for 25th edition!
Serious classics, unmissable new releases, and a city-spanning lineup that has something for everyone…
Review
Girlfriends
Three timelines, three actresses, one woman searching for herself across Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau…

The Cinema Of King Hu: Volume One (1965 - 1973)

Imprint Films first volume celebrating the career of one of Hong Kong’s greatest and most influential filmmakers on 4k UHD and Blu-ray…
The Cinema Of King Hu: Volume One (1965 - 1973) 4K / Blu-ray boxset

Review
Four Moods
Four Taiwan-based directors including King Hu take on ghostly tales and more in this anthology…
Review
Come Drink With Me
A classic is brought back to the small screen…
Podcast
Episode 4: Who is King Hu?
Just who is King Hu? We answer that and more…
Review
The Fate Of Lee Khan
There’s something awfully familiar about King Hu’s inn-based follow up to A Touch Of Zen…
Review
A Touch of Zen
A bonafide classic of the Wuxia genre, finally restored to a state worth its status…
Review
Sons of Good Earth
A Touch of Zen director King Hu makes his debut with an uneven, though fun, Shaw Brothers war film…

28th Udine Far East Film Festival 2026

Europe’s largest Asian film festival returns to Udine for its 28th edition, promising 76 titles from 12 countries, while Fan Binging, Yakusho Koji and Yuen Woo-ping receive the Golden Mulberry Award for Lifetime Achievement…

Review
Filipiñana
A scorching hot social commentary on class hierarchy in the Philippines…
Review
Road To Vendetta
A likable if underbaked assassin film…
Review
Ky Nam Inn
Leon Lê once again paints a picture postcard of 80s Vietnam, but without the bite of Song Lang…
Review
Love Massacre
Patrick Tam’s all-but-lost arch, arty slasher movie, starring Brigitte Lin…
Review
The Seoul Guardians
A powerfully raw and direct documentary bearing witness to the unforeseen political upheaval in Korea…
Review
Unchained
Keisuke Yoshida charts similar territory to Himeanole, but with a surprising dash of humanity…
Review
Blood Moon Rite 8
A melodrama director reconnects with his resentful daughter by making one big hit that is more than trashy drama…
Review
Suzuki=Bakudan
An explosive thriller as detectives race against time to get the truth from a captivating psychotic…
Interview
Kim Dong-ho interview: “It’s about constant discovery and desire to watch new...
A conversation on theatres, film festivals, and the meaning of cinema…
Feature
Fan Bingbing extends her artistic legacy through a compelling performance in Mother...
The actress wins Golden Mulberry Award on the 28th Far East Film Festival…

Bullets and Brotherhood: The Films of John Woo

Celebrating the kinetic action and tales of camaraderie from one of Hong Kong cinema’s greatest directors…

Review
Bullet in the Head
The power of belief, brotherhood and bullets thunders onto the 4K UHD release of John Woo’s most tragic film…
Review
A Better Tomorrow II
Keeping up with a legacy — more violence, less coherence, but a sequel that earns its own kind of honour…
Review
A Better Tomorrow
The true colours of heroes and the birth of a myth…
News
Bullets and Brotherhood: The Films of John Woo
A season of John Woo movies at the BFI Southbank this July…
Review
The Killer
Framing heroes and killers in John Woo’s intimate reflection of violence…
Feature
The Woo-Xia in the Killer: John Woo’s Modern Cinematic Wuxia
Exploring the film’s construction of jianghu, aesthetics of violence and dialogue with key wuxia themes…
Review
Sunset Warriors
John Woo’s long-awaited lost film’s reemergence at last can make even heroes shed tears of joy…
Review
Heroes Shed No Tears
Woo’s style reached a pivotal point in its evolution — for this anything-but-evolved mess of a mercenary movie…
Review
Bullet in the Head
John Woo’s haunting tale of friendship and betrayal against set the Vietnam War is still powerful viewing almost 25 years on…
Review
Red Cliff II
Say what? Another two hours to find out how the Battle of Red Cliff actually goes? Is it worth it? Oh yes, all you John Woo fans out there, it really is…

cineXtremes

Celebrating the excesses of Hong Kong Category III, Asian extreme and exploitation cinema…

Review
Sex and the Emperor
Another of Wong Jing’s Category III-rated 1990s historical sex-romps gets the rerelease treatment…
Review
Mag Mag
A love-obsessed ghost causes mayhem in this spin on the usual J-horror formula…
Review
Hex Vs Witchcraft
The second film in Kuei Chih-Hung’s Hex trilogy takes a comic and rather seedy turn…
Review
Death Train
Another entry in the Hideshi Hino’s Theater of Horror series and a Japanese take on Carnival of Souls…
Review
Bakemono
A grotesque monster haunts a Tokyo Airbnb in this practical effects-driven creature feature…
Review
Hex After Hex
The third film in Kuei Chih-Hung’s black magic trilogy is a truly bizarre and scattershot horror comedy…
Review
Tomie: Beginning
The sixth entry in the long-running Tomie series is a direct prequel to the first film, exploring the origins of the seductive goblin…
Review
Ninja Strike Force
A classic 80s cut and paste job from Joseph Lai and Godfrey Ho which splices ninja footage into another entirely unrelated film…
Review
Lizard Baby
The wife of a genre scriptwriter gives birth to a lizard in this Hideshi Hino’s Theater of Horror entry…
Review
Teketeke
The ghost of a girl cut in half by a train haunts an overpass in this 2009 Kōji Shiraishi J-horror…

Shawscope Volume Four

The fourth volume in Arrow Video’s Shawscope series comes to Blu-ray on 8th December 2025, celebrating Hong Kong’s mightiest film studio and the special effects-driven horror and sci-fi cinema that dominated the global box office in the 1970s — taking things one step beyond!

Review
Hex Vs Witchcraft
The second film in Kuei Chih-Hung’s Hex trilogy takes a comic and rather seedy turn…
Review
Hex After Hex
The third film in Kuei Chih-Hung’s black magic trilogy is a truly bizarre and scattershot horror comedy…
Review
Black Magic 2
Ho Meng Hua’s 1976 sequel offers up more gruesome Gong Tau rituals and sleazy spells…
Review
Portrait in Crystal
Hua Shan brings a crazy blend of horror and swordplay…
Review
Bloody Parrot
Hua Shan presents a horror-infused wuxia tale with a touch of sex and gore…
Review
Bat Without Wings
Chor Yuen does what he does best while trying so much more for a wuxia mystery of grotesque beauty…
Review
The Oily Maniac
Classic exploitation howler where a man transforms to enact revenge upon those who have unwisely wronged him…
Review
The Seeding of a Ghost
One of the Shaw Brothers’ most infamous and sleazy shockers finally gets the rerelease it deserves…
Review
Black Magic
A little sleazy, a little gory and a lot dated. This film is everything you could want from a 1970s horror…
Review
Bloody Parrot
One of the crazier of the later Shaw Brothers films, mixing magic, martial arts and bloody madness…

The best in film festival coverage, year after year

Coverage of CinemAsia Film Festival 2019

Coverage of New York Asian Film Festival 2026

Coverage of Japanese Film Festival Ireland 2026

Coverage of New York Asian Film Festival 2021

Coverage of BFI London Film Festival 2023

The easternKicks Podcast

A regular magazine programme about East Asian film, with the latest news, reviews and interviews.

Podcast
Episode 58 – Spotlight on Mongolian Cinema
With If Only I Could Hibernate in UK cinemas, we talk to director Zoljargal Purevdash…
Podcast
Episode 57 – ek Picks for March 2024
Our guide to what to watch on streamers and in cinemas in February…
Podcast
Episode 56 – eK Picks for February 2024
Our guide to what to watch on streamers and in cinemas in February…
Podcast
Episode 55 – easternKicks Picks for January 2024
Our guide to what to watch on streamers and in cinemas in January and February…
Podcast
Episode 54 – easternKicks Picks for December
Our guide to what to watch on streamers and in cinemas…
Podcast
Episode 53 – easternKicks Picks for November
No idea what to watch or where to find it? Here’s our new guide…
Podcast
Episode 52 – Halloween Special: Visible Secret
We revisit Ann Hui’s classic and look at new HK horror Back Home…
Podcast
Episode 51 – A Tokyo Melody: Remembering Ryuichi Sakamoto
We interview Tokyo Melody director Elizabeth Lennard and more…
Podcast
Episode 49 – Mikhail Red interview / Deleter
We focus on the Filipino filmmaker with an exclusive interview…
Podcast
Episode 48 – Mark Dacascos interview / Brotherhood of the Wolf
easternKicks chats to martial arts star (and Iron Chef’s Chairman!) Mark Dacascos…

Interviews

Our interviews with filmmakers, directors, actors, composers and much more besides from the world of Asian film…

Interview
The Possible Love interviews: Zo In-sung & Cho Yeo-jeong
In the first of two interviews, we chat to the stars of Lee Chang-dong’s latest film…
Interview
Amie Song interview: “Cinema is great for ghosts and dreams and myths”
The director of Gu Shi talks memory, isolation, and storytelling…
Interview
Advik Beni interview: “It’s a kind of mediation on how we deal...
The director reflects on mixed media, mutability, and the potential of grief…
Interview
Eiji Uchida Interview: “I don’t like yakuza, but I like yakuza movies!”
We talk about the special ways and the special casting with which The Specials was conceived…
Interview
Connor Sen Warnick interview: “You could remove the nostalgic iconography and still...
New York native filmmaker talks on his reimagination of 1970s Chinatown, Characters Disappearing…
Interview
Karla Murthy interview: “I wanted people to know this person so intimately...
The director discusses The Gas Station Attendant, her moving and deeply personal reflection on the immigrant experience…
Interview
Kim Dong-ho interview: “It’s about constant discovery and desire to watch new...
A conversation on theatres, film festivals, and the meaning of cinema…
Interview
Jang Joon-hwan Interview: “If the original is a bizarre cocktail, Bugonia felt...
With Save the Green Planet! released in 4K, we look back at the cult classic with its writer and director…
Interview
Kazuya Shiraishi Interview: “I don’t try to make dark films – they just...
As full of surprises in conversation as career, Shiraishi talks all that makes him tick upon new theatrical and home releases of Bushido…
Interview
Bi Gan interview: “Our lives go through ups and downs, but films...
We talk to the acclaimed director about his latest feature Resurrection…

Shaw Brothers

With releases from Arrow Video, Shout Factory, 88 Films, Eureka and many more, we celebrate the greatest studio of the 20th century…

Review
Hex Vs Witchcraft
The second film in Kuei Chih-Hung’s Hex trilogy takes a comic and rather seedy turn…
Review
My Name Ain’t Suzie
Her name was Shui-Mei…
Review
Hex After Hex
The third film in Kuei Chih-Hung’s black magic trilogy is a truly bizarre and scattershot horror comedy…
Review
Killer Clans
Chor Yuen redefines wuxia with this classic Gu Long outing…
Review
Lust for Love of a Chinese Courtesan
Chor Yuen revisits his masterpiece Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan…
Review
Face to Face
Stephen Fung stars in this oddball 2002 Hong Kong Japan co-production based on an Edogawa Ranpo novel…
Review
Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan
Lily Ho and Betty Pei Ti star in Chor Yuen’s erotic wuxia masterpiece…
Review
Black Magic 2
Ho Meng Hua’s 1976 sequel offers up more gruesome Gong Tau rituals and sleazy spells…
Review
Portrait in Crystal
Hua Shan brings a crazy blend of horror and swordplay…
Review
The Enchanting Ghost
Chou Hsu-chiang delivers a character focused tale of horror with Chang Mei-yao as a vengeful spirit…

Sex and the Emperor

The Possible Love interviews: Zo In-sung & Cho Yeo-jeong

Human Lanterns

Mag Mag

Moonglow

Inherit

Ba’s Book

Hex Vs Witchcraft

Filipiñana

A Girl Unknown

My Name Ain’t Suzie

Five Flavours announces New Asian Cinema Competition selection

Made in Taiwan returns to Garden Cinema, London

London Korean Film Festival returns for 2026

First Asian titles at Lund Fantastic Film Festival

Fourth Hong Kong Film Festival UK returns

East Asian films at BFI London Film Festival 2026

When You Open the Door

Unidentified Murder

The Specials

Eiji Uchida Interview: “I don’t like yakuza, but I like yakuza movies!”

The Last Footage

The Mouths

My Sassy Girl

Cold War 1994

10s Across the Borders

Kinki

Human Resource

Ky Nam Inn

Colony

Dear You

New York Asian Film Festival returns for 25th edition!

Girlfriends

Four Moods

Come Drink With Me

Episode 4: Who is King Hu?

The Fate Of Lee Khan

A Touch of Zen

Sons of Good Earth

Filipiñana

Road To Vendetta

Ky Nam Inn

Love Massacre

The Seoul Guardians

Unchained

Blood Moon Rite 8

Suzuki=Bakudan

Kim Dong-ho interview: “It’s about constant discovery and desire to watch new...

Fan Bingbing extends her artistic legacy through a compelling performance in Mother...

Bullet in the Head

A Better Tomorrow II

A Better Tomorrow

Bullets and Brotherhood: The Films of John Woo

The Killer

The Woo-Xia in the Killer: John Woo’s Modern Cinematic Wuxia

Sunset Warriors

Heroes Shed No Tears

Bullet in the Head

Red Cliff II

Sex and the Emperor

Mag Mag

Hex Vs Witchcraft

Death Train

Bakemono

Hex After Hex

Tomie: Beginning

Ninja Strike Force

Lizard Baby

Teketeke

Hex Vs Witchcraft

Hex After Hex

Black Magic 2

Portrait in Crystal

Bloody Parrot

Bat Without Wings

The Oily Maniac

The Seeding of a Ghost

Black Magic

Bloody Parrot

The best in film festival coverage, year after year