Menu
© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 21 movies from Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts
Yan is a basket ball fanatic who barely makes it to Form 6, not by studying hard but by his skill on the court.
Aug 2012
As Hong Kong's foremost filmmaker, Johnnie To himself becomes the protagonist of this painstaking documentary exploring him and his Boundless world of film. A film student from Beijing and avid Johnnie To fan, Ferris Lin boldly approached To with a proposal to document the master director for his graduation thesis. To agreed immediately and Lin's camera closely followed him for over two years, capturing the man behind the movies and the myths. The result is Boundless, a candid profile of one of Hong Kong's greatest directors and a heartfelt love letter to Hong Kong cinema.
Nov 2013
Ah Poon is a man of strong principles, and adopts Lu Xun’s quote of “Fierce-browed, I coolly defy a thousand pointing fingers” as his motto. When he gets into a fight with school authority because of something written by his daughter, he takes his daughter away in rage. Is Ah Poon right or wrong?
Nov 2010
Jun is a reckless, rebellious young man. His coming out enraged his father, with his mother (Han) stuck in the middle. Even after his father's death they are still unable to reconcile and the two barely communicate. Knowing that being gay is not accepted by his mother, there is a wall between the two even though they live under the same roof.
Mar 2014
Liza, once a notorious mob boss, has always been strategically planning the career of her only son Yan. It is however never in Yan’s intention to follow her mother’s footsteps - instead he aspires to be a filmmaker. As a mob, Yan is highly incompetent, and his disappointing performance already messed up a simple drug deal. Liza desperately tries to save her most sought-after son, but she ends up, along with her son, breaking into her neighbour Mr. Chan's home. They accidentally steal the head of Mrs. Chan, whom they assume was murdered by Mr. Chan. They recklessly decide to blackmail Mr. Chan, and everything goes out of control. Will Liza and her beloved son survive this crisis?
Dec 2015
Bill Wong works on a wide variety of films, some of modern setting, some with historical backgrounds; some are award winners, some lesser known. As a cinematographer, he does not strive for personal style. Instead, he concentrates on fulfilling the potential of the film and realizing his director’s designs. He is a consummate team player. This documentary features interviews with Wong and five directors with whom he has worked – Patrick Tam, Ann Hui, Tony Au, Lee Chi-ngai and Shu Kei, tracing the paths on which they have travelled together.
Aug 2010
Fai, a ten-year-old boy who is a new immigrant from mainland China, he lives in a narrow suite with his mother and his step-father.
Jun 2011
Roy has been learning pole dancing without telling his wife Chloe. In addition to the lack of personal space at home, he is also looking for a passion and the joy of self-exploration. Chloe, who works hard, and Roy, who hangs out to practise dancing, are becoming more and more alienated. Is it marriage or ignorance of each other that kills them?
Oct 2022
'...is unsuitable for any man's love.' (Xi Xi, A Woman Like Me) Sum-yin patches up wounds, masks scars and performs other beautician services that, when done well - as she always does - bring comfort to her and appreciation from grateful families. But inside she's hurting. Her job as a mortuary cosmetologist makes her self-conscious about the smell of death that seems to be seeping through and under her skin and looming over her stagnant relationship with Kwan, her oblivious boyfriend. No amount of cigarettes and perfume and cleaning will rid of it. At some point, a decision has to be made.
Nov 2012
Twenty years ago, Charlie came to Hong Kong to work as a domestic helper. Not only did she leave her home country Philippine, she also left her husband and her six-year-old son.Close to her retirement, she looks forward to going back home and living with her son again. However, her dream does not come true as she wishes…
Jun 2009
In the prosperous city, a monk wearing a brownish-yellow Buddhist gown begs for alms and blesses passers-by with a smile. After bring moved on by the police, after concerns voiced by a production unit, and after an encounter with an old woman who gives him alms, he begins to ask himself: Who am I really?
Mar 2008
Security guard Cheung is a loving father who takes good care of his children. As his kids grow older, they have their own lives and that leaves Chueng feeling lonely. He displaces his fatherly love onto his colleague Sheung's young children instead. This innocent act, however, makes his daughter suspect that Cheung and Sheung are having an affair and a small incident risks being blown out of scale.
Sep 2010
At some point in life an age-old question will inevitably crop up: Do we swim against the tide or go with the flow? The band, Against the Tide, was doomed before it even started. A year later, the songwriter is selling his soul to catchy pop tunes and commercial music, hitching his wagon to else’s grand schemes while being hitched by a young music devotee; the bassist is venturing north across the border; the drummer is working as an insurance agent and all set for fatherhood. Before the factory building is demolished for a lucrative redevelopment scheme, the band members, bar one, return to their studio to clear out the place, contemplating making a final appearance for a farewell gig. The reunion takes place, albeit obliquely, each member putting their best foot forward to steer their own course.
Dec 2013
We enjoy the adrenaline rush given by horror films. But what if we are personally involved in the horror? Director Chun has created a ghost story based on a real case with a dancer murdered, incorporating all marketable ideas like women, supernatural forces and violence. Successfully he persuades the boss to invest in his horror, but there is one “little” requirement – in order to pass the Mainland censorship, no ghost can be presented in the ghost story. So keen to make it work, Chun compromises. While he starts to change the script, an unexpected visitor shows up and leads him to a special journey. A film depicting the bittersweet life of film workers.
Dec 2014
Ting and her friends go to Mui Wo where they see cows freely walking around. Someone appears and reminds them not to disturb the cows. The next day comes the news that seven cows were killed in a car accident at Mui Wo, which catches Ting and her friends’ attention. Ting starts a fundraising campaign hoping to build a cows’ shelter but is taken as an act to trick people’s money. The disheartened situation brings Ting to revisit the site, where she meets Sunset, the cow caretaker whom they have met before. She eventually develops a sense of responsibility to protect the cows when one day Sunset asks her to inherit the post of caretaker from him.
Lok has been suffering from mental disorder for many years. Because of the misunderstanding and discrimination of others, he chooses to keep his illness in secret.
Jul 2006
Through a series of intricately composed long takes, Epilepsy exposes the robotic state of students today through the eyes of a young boy. For him, going to school simply means a continuous dose of discipline and punishment from all sides. His education simply means taking what he's given, and any dissent or deviation from the norm is discouraged with force. Even when a girl begins to inspire change in him, will he be able to face a strange, new world that is so different from the one he knows?
A 16-year-old girl falls in love with a boy and gets pregnant. The boy wants nothing to do with the baby, and the girl's mother, believing she's doing the right thing, forces her daughter to get an abortion. This story may happen everywhere, and we may read about them everyday in the news. However, what sets The White Balloon apart from those stories is the emotional journey the girl and her mother take as they realize that they have no one in the world but each other.
Dec 2011
The documentary offers a glimpse into the life of a farmer who worked in the fields with his father when he was young. After spending time in the city as an adult, he returns to the countryside to take over the family’s business and learns the essence of making a living from the land.
Sep 2020
Jesus match couples with red ropes, so they cannot separate with each other. However, the man thinks that she is not “the one”, who`s pregnant for 3 years. He decides to find his true love, instead to not follow Jesus`s arrangement anymore. It seems good at the beginning, but things did not went the way he think. Who is his “true love”? Does “true love” even exist?
Apr 2021