With another four days to catch the very best of BAPFF 2015, you won’t want to miss these awesome action flicks.
The festival’s closing night screening will be the Australian premiere of The Taking of Tiger Mountain (Hong Kong PRC), a kinetic reworking of a famous Chinese tale from veteran Hong Kong action film Director Tsui Hark. Variety described the film as having the finest 3D visuals in recent mainland Chinese cinema and the film marks a truly explosive end to the 2015 program.
Another must-see is The Assassin, set in in the dying days of the Tang Dynasty. Lethal and mysterious assassin Nie Yinniang is charged with a mission to kill the governor of Weibo – the man to whom she was once betrothed. Revered Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien reinvents the wuxia (martial arts) genre with The Assassin: an impeccably controlled exercise in serene contemplation, punctuated by bursts of visceral action. The Assassin won Best Director at this year’s Cannes and has been nominated for three APSAs.
Rounding out the Top Three is A Touch of Zen (Taiwan), considered to be one of the primary inspirations for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Total Film calls this restoration “as fresh as if it was made yesterday… A Touch of Zen is Eastern cinema at its most dynamic and grown-up”.
If you’re really into the action genre, join film aficionado Sam Ho and BAPFF Head Programmer Kiki Fung for a free panel discussion about art and martial arts. Is Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin an art flick or a martial arts film? Both? Neither? The panel discussion is followed by a screening of The Assassin and A City of Sadness at The Australian Cinèmathéque at QAGOMA.
For more information and to book these films:
THE ASSASSIN
https://brisbaneasiapacificfilmfestival.com/film-archive/the-assassin/
THE TAKING OF TIGER MOUNTAIN
https://brisbaneasiapacificfilmfestival.com/film-archive/the-taking-of-tiger-mountain-3d/
A TOUCH OF ZEN
https://brisbaneasiapacificfilmfestival.com/film-archive/a-touch-of-zen-restored/
