Stanley Kwan

Perhaps we form our likings later in life, whereas our childhood memories shape what makes us feel at home. Yuan moves to Hong Kong with her mother from Hunan at the age of eight to reunite with her father. Everything in the city is dazzling and new to her. However, the family faces poverty and language barriers. Worse yet, her father, who is a drug addict, is temperamental and is often sent to prison, causing him to disappear from the family for long periods of time. This certainly is not the dream home Yuan has been looking forward to. All she wants is her younger sister to be reunited with them as soon as possible. Out of fear, the sisters try to please their father in their early years, but as soon as they reach adolescence, they start to resist and escape from him. However, even after they grow up and move away from him, Yuan realises that all the people she loves and treasures turn out to resemble her father in her childhood memories.

A short feature film by Stanley Kwan, bringing us back to the world of Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung in Rouge, with the new cast Cecilia Yip and Ng Siu Hin.

One of Hong Kong's most influential filmmakers, Ann Hui, becomes a “star” for the first time in Man Lim-chung's directorial debut. A forerunner of the New Wave, Hui’s tumultuous, forty-year career is an unequivocal testimony to her unyielding dedication to filmmaking, and her expedition into the metamorphic city. This biopic probes into the acclaimed director’s idiosyncratic world, where we witness her rashness and goofiness, as well as her humanistic concerns for the everyday nobodies which make her films so moving.

Yuan Xiuling, a former star and has-been actress plans to return to the spotlight of the theater a year after her philandering husband died. She decides to star in Two Sisters, written and directed by transwoman An Ouyang. But, her biggest rival, He Yuwen, a rising actress, also stars in the play. Yuwen plans her theatrical debut through it. During the preparation of the play, such a drama unfolds at the backstage as much as on stage. With the opening night at Hong Kong’s City Hall Theater just seven days away, tensions at rehearsal increase and tempers flare as actresses Xiuling and Yuwen’s buried resentments rise to the surface.

It’s 1994 and Lu Tu (Ethan Juan) is the youngest concierge ever at five-star Chinese hotel; smart, loyal and honest, he’s respected by his fellow employees and lauded by his superiors. When he’s tempted with an invitation to run a new hotel in the Big Apple, everyone around him looks to take advantage of the move, including a love interest (Du Juan) who may not be as trustworthy as she seems.

Stanley Kwan casts an impassive eye on a film crew in a recording studio in "One Day in Our Lives of…" with a diva, a young director, his lovelorn assistant.

In 2013, the Golden Horse Film Festival celebrated its 50th anniversary. The ministry of Culture commissioned director Yang Li-chou to make a documentary about the history of Golden Horse. What is unique to this film is that it's not an ode to celebrities but about the role cinema plays in ordinary people's lives. It's a love letter to cinema, filmmakers and audiences.

On the brink of the 90s, 18-year-old Zheng Wei steps into her university life with a hopeful heart for love. She forms a great friendship with her roommates and united as a group, they embark on their university life together. Wei meets Chen Hao-Zheng in a chance encounter, and despite initial reluctance, Chen accepts Wei as his girlfriend and the two become inseparable. Four years of university life pass and Wei looks forward to establishing a life together with Chen. However, Chen is forced into an impossible decision to leave Wei. Devastated, Wei decides to start afresh. A decade later, Wei’s previous lovers Lin and Chen both find their way back into her life and she has to make a choice on her next step in life.

Four short tales set in contemporary Hong Kong.

A documentary feature film that ties four narratives - from China, India, Scotland, and Tunisia - together with countless insights from venerable filmmakers and ordinary moviegoers. An aspiring actress in Mumbai battles to break into Bollywood; two friends in Scotland take a mobile film festival across the highlands; a young crew in Hong Kong embarks on the shooting of its first film; a Tunisian director anxiously anticipates the premiere of his controversial film at a major festival. These stories are woven together with scenes from video stores, projection booths, studios, cinemas, and slums into a vivid meditation on the power of cinema to shape our world.

The relationship between a middle-aged man and the elderly woman, who has been the family's helper for sixty years.

A HKIFF short film by Stanley Kwan. Stanley Kwan takes us on a real-time bus trip from the airport to Kowloon in 13 Minutes in the Lives of… The heady and deadly mix of Hong Kong and cinema; wonder never ceases.

Shanghai, 2009. After four years of studying, a group of dance students are wished well by their teacher as they start rehearsals for their graduation performance. Meanwhile, 5 members of a 1936 Shanghai theatre troupe, lead by Master Liu, are transported into the present to broaden their horizons.

Struggling to adjust to her new life in Taipei, introverted high school girl Miao Miao opens up after meeting outgoing classmate Xiao Ai who becomes increasingly enamoured with her new friend. Unaware of Xiao Ai's confused feelings for her, Miao Miao falls for brooding CD shop owner Chen Fei, who seems determined to block out the world with a pair of headphones.

Struggling to adjust to her new life in Taipei, introverted high school girl Miao Miao opens up after meeting outgoing classmate Xiao Ai who becomes increasingly enamoured with her new friend. Unaware of Xiao Ai's confused feelings for her, Miao Miao falls for brooding CD shop owner Chen Fei, who seems determined to block out the world with a pair of headphones.

A film adaptation of Wang Anyi's popular and influential novel "Changhen Ge". A person's life is destined to be shorter than that of a city. Having spent her whole life in Shanghai, Qiyao has her moments of prosperity and her fair share of loneliness. She finally fades and disappears but Shanghai remains a metropolitan city. Shanghai in the 1930s is glamorous and seductive. A pretty young girl from an ordinary family, Qiyao is lucky enough to win the 2nd runner-up of the "Miss Shanghai" contest. Mr. Cheng, her admirer as well as a photographer who assists her to her success, knows the girl is going to live an extraordinary life.

For 10 years, Ani, a young wife and mother, has sported the same hair style. She has a humdrum life and a platonic relationship with young Mr. Ahua, her hairdresser. She leaves home after he loses his job. There is love and new beginnings.

A love story between a country boy in Beijing to study and a wealthy businessman set against the backdrop of the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident.

A group of disparate characters find themselves trapped overnight on a island somewhere off the coast of mainland China. The circumstances force them to overlook their preconceptions of one another, and they forge a kinship that goes to the heart their identities.

The film gets under the skin of a very marginalized group: recent immigrants to Hong Kong from Mainland China. Belying the expectation that they will belong in a territory now returned to China's sovereignty, they find themselves lonely, frustrated, poor, and employable only in the most menial jobs, from elevator service staff to prostitution.

This highly personal film essay demonstrates that Chinese cinema has dealt with questions of gender and sexuality more frankly and provocatively than any other national cinema. Yang ± Yin examines male bonding and phallic imagery in the swordplay and kung fu movies of the '60s and '70s; homosexuality; same-sex bonding and physical intimacy; the continuing emphasis on women's grievances in melodramas; and the phenomenon of Yam Kim-Fai, a Hong Kong actress who spent her life portraying men on and off the screen.

Two women are bound for the same plane, one of whom makes the flight while the other does not. In a cruel twist of fate, the plane crashes, killing everyone on board, and leaving the friends and family of the two women to talk about what was and what could have been.

Three friends begin a contest to find Karen, a particular girl they all like. The limits: one month, and no advertising or radio. The prize: the losers withdraw and the winner gets free reign to woo her.

Stanley Kwan's view in this film is both personal and collective memories towards Hong Kong in 1997. He cites one famous line from Cantonese opera 'Princess Chang Ping', 'I deny, I deny, but in the end I cannot deny' as a metaphor for Hong Kongers' troubled minds when they have to recognize their identity as Chinese. To make a statement of the theme, Kwan adopts a complicated structure, mixing excerpts from his previous films, his stage play, even the soundtrack of Wong Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild.

Stanley Kwan's view in this film is both personal and collective memories towards Hong Kong in 1997. He cites one famous line from Cantonese opera 'Princess Chang Ping', 'I deny, I deny, but in the end I cannot deny' as a metaphor for Hong Kongers' troubled minds when they have to recognize their identity as Chinese. To make a statement of the theme, Kwan adopts a complicated structure, mixing excerpts from his previous films, his stage play, even the soundtrack of Wong Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild.

A boat load of illegal Chinese immigrants make it to the California coast. But many of those on board are in a sad state. One of them (Tony Liu) makes a run for it and jumps overboard. He knows what lies ahead for the unlucky few who have manged to survive. The illegal heads for the city to look for a certain individual. Simon Yam stars (in a low key role) as a former triad who's trying to go legit (for some shady ulterior motives. The illegal knows what Simon is all about and wants him in a big way.

Chronicles the love life of a man, Zhenbao. He has a steamy fling with the wife of a friend, the saucy and exciting Red Rose. Even though he feels happy with her, he knows he will not end up with her. To maintain his reputation, he marries an antiseptic, frigid but classy lady of a prim and proper background (White rose). Dissonance abound when he finds his bride irritating.

A tribute to the legendary Japanese film director featuring the reflections of filmmakers Lindsay Anderson, Claire Denis, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Aki Kaurismäki, Stanley Kwan, Paul Schrader, and Wim Wenders

Kin chan no Cinema Jack is an anthology film starring Yuen Biao and produced by Jackie Chan

Stanley Kwan's 1992 short film starring Josephine Siao and Maggie Cheung

Based on the tragic true story of China's first prima donna of the silver screen, Ruan Lingyu, chronicling her rise to fame as a movie actress in Shanghai during the 1930s.

Based on the tragic true story of China's first prima donna of the silver screen, Ruan Lingyu, chronicling her rise to fame as a movie actress in Shanghai during the 1930s.

Three Chinese women with vastly different backgrounds get acquainted and become friends amid the social desolation of New York.

A youth film about four city lasses.

The ghost of a courtesan who died in 1934 returns to Hong Kong fifty-three years later, seeking to reunite with the man she loved.

Four young people spend their time living the wild life - until one of them is brutally murdered in a burglary. The survivors come under the scrutiny of an eccentric cop, and their underlying fears and regrets slowly but surely emerge.

Jackie Chan stars as Asian Hawk, an Indiana Jones-style adventurer looking to make a fortune in exotic antiquities. After Hawk discovers a mysterious sword in Africa, a band of Satan-worshipping monks kidnap his ex-girlfriend Lorelei, demanding the sword as ransom as well as other pieces of the legendary Armour of God - a magical outfit dating back to the Crusades.

Chow Yun-Fat and Brigitte Lin have their incredible talents used to the hilt in this romantic mystery about a pair of tragic lovers from 2100 years before now reincarnated in modern Hong Kong.

Liang Pao-erh joins the carefree “Spinsters’ Club” when she discovers her husband is having an affair. Despite the seemingly happy front that her “sisters” put on, underneath it all each of them secretly yearns for a man in their lives. When her repentant husband begs forgiveness, Liang is forced to decide on what she truly wants.

A Japanese photojournalist revisits Vietnam after the liberation to document the nation, and begins following and documenting the young children from a poor Vietnamese family.

Four heroes embark on a secret mission for Dr Sun Yat Sen's Nationalist Guard. Relentlessly pursued by the warriors of notorious Warlord Yue Sai Hoi, they have seven days to reach the Lo Yang Pass with their secret cargo.

Wu Viet is a Vietnamese refugee who wants to leave his country behind and start over in the United States. First, he must make his way to Hong Kong, but as he passes through Thailand, he meets a beautiful woman who travels with him. Wu and his new love end up in a refugee camp in Thailand, where they discover many of their countrymen are disappearing under mysterious circumstances. As Wu tries to learn the truth about what's happening, he discovers his life is in danger, and he must flee to the Philippines for safety.

A father seeks revenge from a gang of thugs who raped his daughter and murdered his son.

A Cantonese opera company is attacked by an army of ghosts, thanks to a feud between the dead grandfathers of one of the company's actresses and a young man.

Inspectors Tong (Shaw Brothers regular Pai Ying) and Cheng (Kent Cheng) are investing a psychopathic serial killer who has been raping and murdering prostitutes. With the help of a young prostitute, they follow the bloody trail to...