Anita (PG)
137 minutes/Now showing
3 stars
This biopic of late Cantopop superstar Anita Mui tracks her journey from a young girl performing with her sister to the month before her death from cervical cancer - when she sang her song, Sunset Melody, in a wedding dress at the Hong Kong Coliseum in November 2003.
Director Longman Leung and model-turned-actress Louise Wong, who makes her acting debut as Mui, serve up a loving, if overly reverential, version of the diva's dramatic life.
The film chronicles the singer's rise to fame, relationships with her elder sister Ann Mui and another late Cantopop legend Leslie Cheung, various love affairs, controversies and philanthropy.
While the more complicated details of Mui's life are glossed over, the film is fiercely nostalgic when it comes to reproducing the Hong Kong of the 1970s and 1980s. A mix of physical sets and computer graphics brings back demolished landmarks such as Lee Theatre and Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park. And the costume department faithfully recreates Mui's distinctive stage outfits.
Mui's fans will not want to miss this retelling of her life.
The Power Of The Dog (M18)
128 minutes
Netflix
Director Jane Campion's (The Piano, 1993) take on the western genre - her first feature film in 12 years - is an early awards season contender.
The Power Of The Dog has received widespread acclaim from critics and already bagged the Silver Lion award for direction at the Venice International Film Festival in September.
Starring A-listers Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst as well as Jesse Plemons, the film is an exploration of toxic masculinity in 1920s Montana.
Cumberbatch plays a cruel rancher Phil, whose meek brother George (Plemons) takes a shine to the widow Rose (Dunst). When they get married, Phil does not take well to Rose's intrusion into his close relationship with his brother. He intimidates and bullies Rose and her son Peter (Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee).
The dynamic within the family changes, however, when Phil and Peter start spending more time together and form an unlikely bond.
Light The Night (M18)
Netflix
A period drama with beautiful women, pretty costumes, complicated love affairs and a murder mystery. Taiwanese series Light The Night, produced by its leading actress Ruby Lin, checks all these boxes.
Set in 1980s Taiwan, the drama kicks off with an unidentified dead woman found in the woods, then jumps back in time to Light - a Japanese-style bar in Taipei patronised by wealthy businessmen.
The bar is run by Rose (Lin) with help from her best friend Sue (Cheryl Yang). But Sue is having an affair with Rose's boyfriend - a romantic but flirty screenwriter played by Rhydian Vaughan.
The hostesses working at the bar all have their own secrets.
Amid the complicated relationships, a murder takes place.
