The Hong Kong films released in 2025 ranked from worst to best

It was a rough year for Hong Kong cinema – only Another World made more than HK$14 million locally – but there were still some gems released

There were, ultimately, no miracles for Hong Kong cinema in 2025. It was a regrettable year that began with reports of further cinema closures and ended in collective mourning after the Tai Po fire tragedy, which in turn pushed back the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash (now renamed Avatar 3) – previously earmarked as a saviour for cinema operators this Christmas. The forecast downturn in film investment has been keenly felt; even several “urban myth” titles – the label jokingly given to high-profile projects wrapped years ago but left indefinitely, and often inexplicably, on the shelf – were summoned to fill the increasingly sparse slate. While long-time followers of Hong Kong film were relieved to finally witness such fabled productions as Remember What I Forgot, Atonement, Sons of the Neon Night and Golden Boy on the big screen, the general public’s enthusiasm for local narratives appears to have cooled.

No releases in 2025 came remotely close to matching the record-breaking runs of A Guilty Conscience, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In and The Last Dance in the previous two years, all three of which surpassed the HK$100 million (US$12 million) mark. Indeed, this year’s numbers make for grim reading: fewer than 40 Hong Kong films opened in cinemas domestically, and the highest-grossing title, the animation Another World, was the only film to take in over HK$14 million at the local box office.

To illustrate the severity of the slump, this is the first time the local box office champion of any year has fallen below HK$20 million since Michael Hui Koon-man’s 1981 comedy blockbuster Security Unlimited, whose nearly HK$18 million box office was a record at the time.

One can only hope that Hong Kong cinema can rediscover its spark soon with the coming releases of the Lunar New Year comedy Night King, which reunites A Guilty Conscience director Jack Ng Wai-lun and star Dayo Wong Tze-wah, as well as the two much-anticipated “urban myth films” Back to the Past and Ciao UFO.

Once the glow of these nostalgic treasures fades, one wonders what new dreams will rise to fill the void. Here we rank, from worst to best, the Hong Kong films released in the past 12 months that we have reviewed.

A goofy Lunar New Year comedy that is awkwardly framed around a premise taken straight out of a dark psychological sci-fi thriller, Ha Ha Ha Happy New Year is scattershot, often terrible, and as confused about what it really is as its temporarily amnesiac protagonist. This Hong Kong-Malaysia co-production looks to be a passion project for Philip Keung Ho-man, who is both its producer and leading man. Unfortunately, the film is so ill-served by its frivolous and tonally uneven screenplay that it barely registers as a nonsensical comedy, family melodrama or sci-fi suspense thriller – all of which it lays claim to being without ever coming close to succeeding. Read the full review