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.
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.
- 2/16/2022
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
Gong Li established herself as one of the biggest international stars to come out of China in the early 1990s, starring in the Oscar-nominated films “Ju Dou,” “Raise the Red Lantern” and “Farewell My Concubine” in a four-year stretch and then cementing her global stardom with films like “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Miami Vice.” And while director Niki Caro made good use of her imperious glamour in last year’s “Mulan,” the actress tried something different with “Leap,” this year’s Chinese entry in the Oscars Best International Feature Film race.
Peter Chan’s film is a real-life sports drama, and Gong Li’s usual style is nowhere to be seen in her performance as Lang Ping, a former women’s volleyball star who as coach helped lead the Chinese national team to worldwide success. It’s a different look for Gong — bespectacled, with close-cropped hair and a wardrobe...
Peter Chan’s film is a real-life sports drama, and Gong Li’s usual style is nowhere to be seen in her performance as Lang Ping, a former women’s volleyball star who as coach helped lead the Chinese national team to worldwide success. It’s a different look for Gong — bespectacled, with close-cropped hair and a wardrobe...
- 2/2/2021
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
A sport as quickfire as indoor volleyball deserves a nimbler workout than it gets in “Leap,” Peter Ho-Sun Chan’s lavish but curiously low-boil based-in-truth sports movie. Telling the decades-spanning tale of the Chinese Women’s Volleyball team and its star-player-turned-head-coach, Lang Ping, it’s essentially a rise-and-fall-and-rise-again story. But in presenting a sanitized vision of Chinese patriotism as pretty much the sole motivating force for any of its characters, despite a hefty runtime and some unimpeachably glossy craft, the film is a mis-hit spike, delivering far less penetration than its toned, muscular surface promises.
Ignoring or eliding whole decades of interim drama (Lang’s first stint as China’s coach is a particularly strange omission), the film is organized instead around three centerpiece matches: China versus Japan at the World Cup in 1981; China versus USA at the Beijing Olympics in 2008; and China versus Brazil at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Each...
Ignoring or eliding whole decades of interim drama (Lang’s first stint as China’s coach is a particularly strange omission), the film is organized instead around three centerpiece matches: China versus Japan at the World Cup in 1981; China versus USA at the Beijing Olympics in 2008; and China versus Brazil at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Each...
- 1/22/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Sometimes one woman can change the course of sporting history. Chan Peter Ho-sun's volleyball drama (which sometimes recreates events so closely that it feels more like documentary) tells the story of national legend Lang Ping in three parts, starting with her exploits as a player, progressing through her time overseas coaching the US team, and concluding with her return to prepare the Chinese national team for the 2016 Olympics. Lang's is a tale full of big achievements and one which inspires national pride, but can this very straightforward retelling connect with audiences who were not following the real life drama as it unfolded?
Though a huge hit at home, this is a curious choice for China's 2021 Oscar submission. Practically all of its big emotional beats depend on a sense of national pride or, at the very least on...
Though a huge hit at home, this is a curious choice for China's 2021 Oscar submission. Practically all of its big emotional beats depend on a sense of national pride or, at the very least on...
- 12/22/2020
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The film begins in 1979 – a time of historic change when the Chinese people yearned for the outside world to see them, according to text that scrolls across the screen. Chen Zhonghe (played as a young man by Peng Yuchang) joins the team as a trainer and meets the hard-working player Lang. The team’s training regime soon brings China the first of several world championship titles, and the two become lifelong allies.
- 10/4/2020
- by Don Anelli
- AsianMoviePulse
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.