
The latest edition of the Beautiful series, commissioned for the Hong Kong International Film Festival, which asks established and acclaimed directors from across Asia to contemplate the idea of what beauty really is in their own distinctive ways. Following on from Beautiful 2012, this selection sees Jia Zhangke (A Touch Of Sin, Mountains May Depart), Stanley Kwan (Rouge, Centre Stage), Alec Su (The Left Ear) and Hideo Nakata (Ringu, Ghost Theater) step up to the plate.

The latest edition of the Beautiful series, commissioned for the Hong Kong International Film Festival, which asks established and acclaimed directors from across Asia to contemplate the idea of what beauty really is in their own distinctive ways. Following on from Beautiful 2012, this selection sees Jia Zhangke (A Touch Of Sin, Mountains May Depart), Stanley Kwan (Rouge, Centre Stage), Alec Su (The Left Ear) and Hideo Nakata (Ringu, Ghost Theater) step up to the plate.
2016-03-23
0
6.8In Chengdu, China, a retired female opera singer named Master Chang takes in a trio of young tenants into her boarding home. The tenants include a rock singer and a college student who has run away from home.
6.4In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
6.4In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.
6.8Years after her boyfriend left her for the big city and promised to bring her there after he’s settled down, a Chinese woman sets out on a journey to be reunited with him.
6.0Just as Amelia thinks she's over her anxiety and insecurity, her best friend announces her engagement, bringing her anxiety and insecurity right back.
7.2A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
7.1Zhao is an ageing bachelor, who has not been fortunate in love. Believing that he has finally met the female of his dreams, Zhao makes her believe that he is opulent and consents to a lavish wedding.
5.8The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
6.4Back from a tour of duty, Kelli struggles to find her place in her family and the rust-belt town she no longer recognizes.
6.8Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
6.2After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé comes before her king with an unreasonable demand. Beguiled by John the Baptist, and then scorned for the sake of his god, lascivious Salomé—encouraged by her mother, the vindictive, Herodias—commands that John be executed and his head delivered on a silver platter.
6.6A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
5.9When motocross and heavy metal obsessed, 13-year-old Jacob's delinquent behavior forces CPS to place his little brother Wes with his aunt, Jacob and his emotionally absent father must finally take responsibility for their actions and each other in order to bring Wes home.
6.9Tells the story of prosecutor Han Ming who is involved in a difficult case where the intentional injury of people is turned into a legitimate defense.
6.5When seventeen-year-old Hannah stumbles upon a website about Thinspiration--an online community devoted to anorexia as a life choice--she becomes an obsessive follower of the site founder, ButterflyAna. By the time Hannah's family realizes what is happening and get Hannah the help she needs, the disease has fully taken hold and Hannah is refusing to eat. Will this family be able to exorcise the demon of anorexia from their lives?
6.2A young woman who is determined to maintain her independence finds herself at odds with her family who wants her to tame her wild side and get married.
6.3A man in his mid-20s, still living at home with his mother and stepfather, puts all his eggs in one basket: the girl who works at his local coffee shop. The problem is, she has a serious boyfriend. As they become closer, the line between friendship and intimacy is blurred, and the situation forces both to examine where they are in their lives.
6.4Stanley manages his boxer brother Lion but when a devastating loss in the ring leaves the pair in debt, an opportunity to recoup the cash leads to a series of misadventures that threaten to break the bond between them.
5.8Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.