Release Year: 2013

The simple fact is that Xiaogang’s latest work is the kind of slick, seamless film that one can admire as much as enjoy.

Full of strong performances and that subtle yet unrelentingly grim atmosphere that Asian films do so splendidly, ‘Pluto’ is a necessary film.

There is much to appreciate here, especially a plot with enough turns and twists to keep the viewer attentive and characters who go beyond their stereotypes as the villain’s motives unfold.

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.

Yu’s epic is often stunning to look at, is a lot less stuffy and longwinded than many a recent Chinese period epic, moves at a fair clip and delivers a surfeit of adrenaline surged spectacle.

The one thing in the film’s favour is some passable fisticuffs though even this becomes repetitive after the hundredth faceless drone is punched in the head at the end.

For a director known for lurid excess, ‘Shield of Straw’ is a subtly haunting thriller with an ending that asks questions of everything that went before it.

Bong Joon-Ho makes an incredibly confident and thrilling English language debut in ‘Snowpiercer’, which can sit comfortably alongside his already impressive filmography.

After a surge of period and fantasy styled films, Donnie Yen returns to modern day cop action territory in the somewhat schlocky but no less entertaining ‘Special ID’.

It isn’t a noisy blockbuster with shrill bells and whistles; it is a smartly made drama with a dash of redemption, a healthy chunk of political history and a level of tension cranked up to the zenith.

Ryoo Seung-Wan’s film is still compelling and stringently efficient like its two protagonists, a fact that outweighs the negatives that poke through.

Thankfully this low-budget Hong Kong drama has enough going for it to sidestep its lazier moments.