Opening Soon

Election
(Hong Kong) Tammy Cheung’s documentary about the Legco election of 2004 may not quite rival Johnnie To’s triad extravaganza in excitement, but it offers plenty of insight into the bumps on Hong Kong’s road to democracy. Opens Aug 21.

I Just Didn’t Do It
(Japan) This taut courtroom drama about a young man falsely charged with sexual harassment takes a passionate, critical look at the Japanese legal system and its whopping 99 percent conviction rate. Directed by Masayuki Suo. Opens Aug 21.

I’m Not There
(USA) Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Marcus Carl Franklin, Ben Whishaw, Richard Gere, and Cate Blanchett all play Bob Dylan in this critically acclaimed biopic from Todd Haynes. Opens Aug 21.

HK Picks
Help Me Eros
(Taiwan) Lee Kang-sheng directs and stars in this manic experimental film about a chronic stoner who tries to escape his urban alienation and depression through a series of bizarre sexual escapades. Opens Aug 21.

HK Picks
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
(USA) Set between Episodes II and III, this CGI animation sees Anakin and Obi-Wan go off in search of a mysterious renegade group responsible for kidnapping Jabba the Hutt’s son, Rotta the Hutt. Directed by Dave Filoni. Starring Christopher Lee, Samuel L. Jackson. Opens Aug 21.

Opening

Crayon Shinchan Movie
(Japan) Expect more crass, juvenile fun in the latest big screen anime adaptation featuring Japan’s favorite foul-mouthed five-year-old. Directed by Yuji Moto. Opened Aug 14. AMC, BC, MCL

HK Picks
Elite Squad
(Brazil) Jose Padilha’s blistering portrayal of the Special Police Operations Battalion in Rio de Janeiro has critics up in arms over its open embrace of street justice and police brutality. Starring André Ramiro, Wagna Moura. Opened Aug 14. BC, MCL

Hellboy II: The Golden Army
(USA) See review, opposite. Opened Aug 14. AMC, BC, MCL

Journey to the Center of the Earth
(USA) See review, p.34. Opened Aug 14. AMC, BC, MCL

The One Man Olympics
(China) Just in time for the Beijing fanfare comes a dramatic story of China’s first Olympic athlete and his struggle to make it to the 1932 Los Angeles Games. Directed by Hou Yong. Opened Aug 14. AMC, BC, MCL

Continuing

The Dark Knight
(USA) See Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and the SAR at their darkest in the Batman film everybody’s been waiting for. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Also starring Aaron Eckhart. PPPPP AMC, BC, BEA IMAX, MCL, UA

Doraemon
(Japan) An enhanced update of the 1984 anime film starring everyone’s favorite robotic cat, known better locally as Ding Dong. PPPP AMC, MCL, UA

The Fox and The Child
(France) “March of the Penguins” director Luc Jacquet returns with another nature picture for the kids, this time about a special friendship between a young girl and a fox. PPP AMC, BC, MCL, UA

Get Smart
(USA) Steve Carell plays bumbling agent Maxwell Smart in this resurrection of Mel Brooks’ classic TV spoof of the CIA. PP AMC, MCL, UA

Kung Fu Panda
(USA) Jackie Chan and Jack Black do the voices for this epic animation about a lazy panda who becomes the martial arts savior of his local village in ancient China. Directed by Mark Osborne, John Stevenson. PPPP AMC, BC, BEA IMAX, MCL, UA

La Lingerie
(Hong Kong) Stephy Tang stars in this
chick-flick about the misadventures in love
of four young regulars at a local lingerie shop. Directed by Chan Hing-kar. Also starring Kate Tsui, Janice Man, Ronald Cheng. PPP AMC, MCL, UA

Red Cliff
(China) John Woo finally returns with the most expensive Asian film ever. Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhang Fengyi battle it out at the heart of the AD 208 war that laid the borders of the Three Kingdoms. Also starring Chang Chen, Hu Jun. PP AMC, BC, MCL, UA

Sketches of Frank Gehry
(USA) The late Sydney Pollack’s intimate venture into the mind and work of the visionary architect, five years in the making. PPP BC

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
(USA) Jet Li plays an ancient Chinese emperor who returns from the dead to try and enslave the modern world, in another resurrection of the blockbuster many critics believe should have been left buried. Also starring Michelle Yeoh, Isabella Leong. PP AMC, BC, MCL, UA

The X Files: I Want to Believe
(USA) Overgrown high-school geeks have been drooling all over the blogosphere about the return of Mulder and Scully. It’s an unsolved mystery to the rest of us. Directed by Chris Carter. Starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson. PP AMC, BC, MCL, UA

Wall-E
(USA) Critics everywhere are going all warm and fuzzy over Pixar’s latest animation about a relationship between two futuristic robots with more humanity than most Hollywood romances these days. Directed by Andrew Stanton. PPP AMC, BC, MCL, UA

Arthouse

bc Sunday
HK Picks
The Go Master
(China, 2006) Tian Zhuangzhuang’s austere biopic of  Wu Qingyuan depicts the Chinese Go champion’s life in Japan during the heights of World War II Sino-Japanese conflict. Starring Chang Chen, Sylvia Chang,  Keiko Matsuzaka, Ayumi Ito. Tickets $45 from Urbtix. Sun, Aug 17, 12:30pm. Broadway Cinematheque

An Emerging Society
The best of Cantonese cinema from the 60s. Tickets $30 from Urbtix. All screenings at the Film Archive.

The Young Swordsman
(1964) Different factions fight to land the secrets of the ninth style of the Buddha’s Palm in this martial arts classic. Directed by Ling Wan. Starring Tso Tat-wah, Patricia Lam Fung. Fri, Aug 15, 7:30pm.

Winter Love
(1968) Chor Yuen presents the tragic story of a doomed love affair between a novelist and a taxi driver. Starring Patrick Tse Yin, Josephine Siao, Wong Oi-ming. Sat, Aug 16, 7:30pm.

Girls Are Flowers
(1966) This bittersweet musical comedy from Wong Yiu spawned numerous sequels and catapulted starlet Connie Chan to fame. Sun, Aug 17, 6:30pm.
Summer International Film Festival

The annual program presented by Hong Kong International Film Festival Society. Tickets $60/$36 from Urbtix. For full listings see www.hkiff.org.hk.

The Chaser
(South Korea, 2008) This brutal debut from director Na Hong-jin follows one man’s attempt to track down a deranged prostitute killer. Thu, Aug 14, 7:30pm. UA Langham Place

HK Picks
Chaotic Ana
(Spain, 2007) “Sex and Lucia” director Julio Medem directs this sexually frank film about the journey into womanhood of a young artist brought up in an Ibizan cave. Sun, Aug 17, 4pm. Grand Cinema

Tea Fight
(Japan/Taiwan, 2008) The daughter of a tea shop owner goes in search of a magic tea leaf to fight an ancient curse in this odd mystery thriller. Directed by Wang Ye-Ming. Starring Kagawa Teruyuki, Toda Erika. Fri, Aug 15, 7:30pm. Grand Cinema

The Crowded Streetcar
(Japan, 1957) Ichikawa Kon’s biting satire about the frustrations of the Japanese marketplace follows the misadventures of a young graduate working in a brewery. Fri, Aug 15, 7:30pm. Space Museum

Childhoods (Enfances)
(France, 2007) Six portrayals of the childhoods of history’s six greatest directors - Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, Jean Renoir, Jacques Tati and Orson Welles – searching for possible defining moments. Sat, Aug 16, 7:15pm, Arts Centre; Sun, Aug 31, 7:30pm, Grand Cinema

The Magician
(Sweden, 1958) One of Ingmar Bergman’s more accessible works, this story about a professional conjuror examines the susceptibility of the human mind to the supernatural. Starring Max von Sydow. Sun, Aug 17, 12:15pm. Arts Centre

Water Lillies
(France, 2007) This story of a synchronized swimming team in a Parisian suburb looks at love and uncertainty in female adolescence. Directed by Celine Sciamma. Sun, Aug 17, 2pm. Grand Cinema

HK Picks
Shame
(Sweden, 1968) Ingmar Bergman’s exploration of the soul-destroying effects of war revolves around a musician couple on an idyllic island whose lives are shattered by a nightmare invasion. Sun, Aug 17, 7:15pm. Arts Centre