Hong Kong Film: Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and director John Woo remain icons of the local film industry, which suffered a real downturn and creativity deficit during the 1990s. However, a new breed of ‘household name' stars and a growing demand for more creative cinematic fare has revitalised Hong Kong film. Released in 2000, Ang Lee's seminal Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon thrust itself onto the global stage. It turned Lee into one of Hollywood's most sought-after directors - leading him to make the Oscar-winning movie Brokeback Mountain (2006) - and made an international celebrity of Zhang Ziyi, who has since starred in, among other things, Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). 2003's Oscar-nominated Hero featured the finest cast list of Hong Kong stars ever assembled, and crime thriller, Infernal Affairs (2002) (currently being ‘remade' in Hollywood). 2004 saw Fruit Chan Goh's creepy and deeply-disturbing movie Dumplings, and international hit House of Flying Daggers, revealing a new depth and breadth previously missing from Hong Kong cinema.
There are several cinema multiplexes including IFC Mall, Exchange Square, Central (tel: 2388 6268) UA Pacific Place, 1 Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Admiralty (tel: 2869 0322), UA Times Square, Times Square, Matheson Street, Causeway Bay (tel: 2506 2822), Golden Gateway Multiplex, The Gateway, Ground Floor, 25 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui (tel: 2956 2003) and Palace IFC, Podium L1, IFC Mall, 8 Finance Street, Central (tel: 2838 7380). English-language movies are mostly screened in the original language with Cantonese subtitles, although some screenings are dubbed. Likewise, Cantonese-language films almost invariably have English subtitles. Arthouse films are mostly screened at the Lim Por Yen Film Theatre, in the Hong Kong Arts Centre.