On SBS World Movies channel - John Snadden recommends three major titles from Asia DETECTIVE DEE: THE FOUR HEAVENLY KINGS, DEPARTURES and I AM NOT MADAME BOVARY

World Movies, an SBS digital channel now free to air, has a small but worthwhile selection of Asian cinema this week. DETECTIVE DEE: THE FOUR HEAVENLY KINGS (2018) is the third in this ongoing series which have all been directed by Tsui Hark. The film is the usual flurry of convoluted story-lines and impressive CGI. Although the pic revolves around the Sherlock Holmes-like skills of the title star, I actually prefer the ongoing role of the Dowager Empress which Carina Lau has made her own.

DEPARTURES (2008) is a Japanese drama which follows a young couple moving from the city to the country mainly for financial reasons. Obviously, it's much more than this and the departures become a major part of their lives. A human drama of the finest order which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film the following year.

Towards the end of the week sees the mainland film I AM NOT MADAME BOVARY (2016) programmed, and is one of my all-time favourite Chinese movies. It's a sly and beautifully observed tale about a Chinese nobody taking on the bureaucracy. A major film from superstar Fan Bingbing and director Feng Xiaogang. Unfortunately, of late both have fallen out of favour with the CCP and life has been made very difficult for them.

Maybe a case of lost in translation....This arvo I picked up some HK blu rays from a Chinese DVD seller in Box Hill, who I know pretty well. She's a businesswoman with many fingers in many pies. In our conversation today she asked : "You want to go Hong Kong? I can get veeeeery cheap ticket now". I replied "Not particularly with all the riots, fire bombings and police shootings" With a dead serious look she said "No, no you won't miss any of that - that all go on for long time!"

Images of Fan Bingbing, I am not Madame Bovary