October 9–December 27, 2026
38 Museum Drive
Hong Kong
M+ Cinema welcomes autumn with a bountiful season of restored classics, retro-futurist visions, and comic relief. Lightcatcher: The Cinematography of Mark Lee Ping-Bing features ten films celebrating four decades of the acclaimed cinematographer’s poetic visual language and iconic collaborations with master directors, including The Time to Live and the Time to Die (1985), Fallen Angels (1995), and The Assassin (2015).
For the inaugural M+ Restored Festival 2026, supported by CHANEL, all nine restored Hong Kong New Wave titles return to the big screen at M+ Cinema, bringing the museum's landmark restoration initiative home following worldwide presentations. Featuring 4K restorations of classics by T’ang Shushuen, Peter Yung, Patrick Tam, Tsui Hark, Allen Fong, Jacob Cheung, Ann Hui, Yim Ho, and Fruit Chan, the programme invites audiences to rediscover the artistic innovation and enduring legacy of Hong Kong cinema. Interactive workshops and conversations will reconsider the impact of the New Wave auteurs and their forerunners.
In dialogue with M+ Special Exhibition Myths and Monsters: The Art of Fantasy in Asia, Mamoru Oshii’s seminal anime films Ghost in the Shell (1995) and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) immerse audiences in a visionary cyberpunk universe, probing questions of technology, selfhood, and humanity. Also featured is the original 183-minute version of Masaki Kobayashi’s Kwaidan (1965), a reimagination of four traditional Japanese ghost stories collected by Lafcadio Hearn. This 2025 restoration, awarded the Jury Prize at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival, returns just in time for Halloween. The programme is supported by Exhibition Lead Sponsor HSBC.
The monthly Stair in the Dark series introduces its new comedy theme Laughing Matters, from Tommy Wiseau’s cult classic The Room (2003), to Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s box-office hit Initial D (2005), and Robert Bierman’s Vampire’s Kiss (1989), which has achieved enduring cult status as an internet meme. Previews presents emerging Hong Kong filmmaker Jiang Wenjie’s feature directorial debut, Almost Home (2026), an intimate documentary exploring notions of home through the eyes of Hong Kong writers Hon Lai-chu, Lee Wai-yi, and Human Ip.
M+ also offers rich digital programming. Winds of Hong Kong, a new M+ Facade commission by renowned artist Refik Anadol, presented by Julius Baer, draws on wind and environmental data in Hong Kong, transforming the Facade screen into a mesmerising ‘data painting’. Art at the Stair presents all-day screenings of You Inhuman Thing (2026), a video artwork by Xu Bing that complements his brand-new interactive M+ Web Commission. Taking the form of a fictional human identity verification test, the work blends found images, satellite surveillance footage, and AI-generated content to question what it means to be human.
Living Systems, a screening programme adapted from past M+ Web Commissions, joins 3ETV, an interactive TV channel initiated by Somerset House Studios. Works by Xu Bing, Zach Lieberman, Guo Cheng, Ryan Kuo, and Zheng Mahler explore technology, humanity, and nature as entangled forms of life shaped through interaction, feedback, and transformation.
The M+ Mediatheque features a playlist refresh with 30 selected Asian Avant-Garde Film Collection (AAGFC) films by Hong Kong artists May Fung, Mary Stephen, South Korean filmmaker Han Okhi, and others now available for viewing. Launched in 2023 with the support of CHANEL, the AAGFC is a landmark initiative preserving and promoting Asian experimental film and video art from the 1960s to the 1990s. The Media Play Room showcases Nawin Nuthong’s Play (2026), an interactive maze built from cartoons, video games, and short GIF animations, which visitors can navigate using a joystick.
The Avant-Garde Now series returns this December spotlighting Hong Kong video art pioneers Ellen Pau, May Fung, Comyn Mo, Wong Chi-fai, and Yau Ching. Celebrating Videotage’s 40th anniversary, this collaboration features new commissions alongside historical works that foster dialogues for moving images across time.
