Release Year: 2022

A beautifully shot portrait of grief, redemption and family, ‘A Light Never Goes Out’ deserves the plaudits it is receiving and much more.

‘Blade of the 47 Ronin’ is slick albeit silly fun that rightly plays everything just earnest enough to be taken seriously but having fun with the hokey concept of Samurai’s running around modern Budapest fighting evil witches.

‘Broker’ is deceptively gentle in the same way as the tide is – constant, soothing and yet with a power to erode even the hardest granite with its motion.

Joo Won and the stunt people do give it their all and there are some creative sequences on show, but it doesn’t quite come together into a satisfying whole.

‘Chilli Laugh Story’ is pure Hong Kong, a comedy drama about those that would probably be forgotten about by other film industries.

Watchable, slickly made, potboiler with a dash of decent action, ‘Eye for an Eye’ may not set the genre on fire but is an unfussy and mostly entertaining quick fix of blind warrior swordplay action.

While ‘Fierce Cop’ flip flops between melodramatic exploitation and a serious examination of trafficking, it thankfully keeps proceedings thundering along with Kenji Tanigaki’s excellent action design.

Undemanding fun that benefits from a likeable cast, a vibe that just wants to entertain, and lots of shiny fight action.

Penned by prolific director and writer Wong Jing, ‘Hit Team’ is a formulaic cop thriller done on a low budget, something that makes itself very apparent early on.

Perhaps too overly convoluted, po-faced and twist happy for its own good, ‘Hunt’ is nevertheless mounted with impressive verve and if one can forgive its flaws, is an exhilarating action charged political thriller.

A palpable sense of all-consuming dread is maintained throughout the runtime and the makers never resort to jump scares just for the sake of them.

‘Life Must Go On’ is not a cavalcade of hilarity nor is it remotely original, but it is a pleasant surprise and another reminder of the life left in Hong Kong cinema.