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TUESDAY, MARCH 19 2013
AT FILMART
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Editorial +852 2582 8958
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TUESDAY, MARCH 19 2013
AT FILMART
www.ScreenDaily.com
Star, Emperor
to Go Local!
BY LIZ SHACKLETON
Star Chinese Movies (SCM) is partnering with Emperor Motion Pictures (EMP) to launch a
local-language production initiative, Go Local!, starting with five
movies produced by Hong Kong
actor-producer Chapman To.
SCM and EMP will finance the
projects 50:50 with EMP handling
international sales and SCM
responsible for worldwide TV and
new-media rights. EMP will also
handle theatrical distribution in
Hong Kong and Taiwan. The initiative aims to create stories that are
relevant to local audiences. Initially
it will nurture Hong Kong talent,
but will later finance films from the
Greater China region and beyond.
Ward L Platt of Fox International Channels said: “There is a
need for more first-run local content, which will bring value to the
audience but also messages our
commitment to the market here.”
The first tranche of films, produced under To’s Hong Kong Films
banner, are expected to be in the
$645,000-$775,000 budget range.
Thailand plans
its Destination
BY JEAN NOH
Thailand Film Office is planning to
hold the inaugural Thailand International Film Destination Festival
in Bangkok from April 1-10.
“The idea is to promote Thailand as a film location around the
world. We have experienced film
crews and equipment ready to provide as well,” says Ubolwan Sucharitakul, acting director of Thailand
Film Office.
“Shooting in Thailand is maybe
20%-30% cheaper than in the US
or Europe.
“We will be screening more than
10 foreign films shot in Thailand,”
she added, with titles ranging from
The Hangover Part II to Formosa
Betrayed.
The event includes a one-day
seminar on the future of the production services industry and a
locations tour.
The festival will also hold a
short-film competition.
Editorial +852 2582 8958
Advertising ingridhammond@mac.com
Mystery solved as Lou Ye
celebrates AFA treble
BY LIZ SHACKLETON
Lou Ye’s Mystery scooped best film
and two other prizes at the Asian
Film Awards last night, while
Japan’s Takeshi Kitano took best
director for Outrage Beyond.
Mystery also picked up the best
newcomer award for Chinese
actress Qi Xi’s performance, along
with best script, which was cowritten by Lou, Mei Feng and Yu
Fan.
The Philippines swept both the
best actor and actress categories.
Best actress went to Nora Aunor
for her performance in Brillante
Mendoza’s Thy Womb, while best
actor went to Eddie Garcia for
playing a grumpy old gay man in
Bwakaw.
Best supporting actress went to
Japan’s Makiko Watanabe for Capturing Dad, while India’s Nawazuddin Siddiqui took best
supporting actor for his role as a
gun-toting gangster in Gangs Of
Wasseypur.
Lou Ye
Edko Films unveiled two-part horror feature Tales From The Dark at
Filmart yesterday, comprising six
segments adapted from stories
written by best-selling Hong Kong
author Lilian Lee.
The six segments will be
directed by Fruit Chan, Lee Chi
Ngai, Lawrence Lau, Teddy Robin
Kwan, Gordon Chan and actor
Simon Yam in his directorial debut.
Edko’s Bill Kong is producing with
Mathew Tang’s Movie Addict Productions.
Just Like A Woman
NEWS
Woman on top
Doc & Film closes deals for Rachid
Bouchareb’s Just Like A Woman
» Page 4
REVIEW
Saving General Wang
Ronny Yu takes on the Wang family
» Page 6
HAF PROFILE
A family affair
Naomi Kawase returns to the land of
her ancestors in 2 Ways
» Page 8
Chinese hits face
tough travels
BY SANDY GEORGE
Bahman Ghobadi’s Rhino Season
triumphed in the technical categories, taking best cinematographer,
best production design and best
visual effects. India’s Barfi! took
best composer (Pritam
Chakraborty), while best editing
went to Japan’s The Kirishma Thing
(Mototaka Kusakabe) and best cos-
Edko lights up Tales From The Dark
BY LIZ SHACKLETON
TODAY
The project’s ensemble cast will
include Yam, Kelly Chen, Maggie
Shiu, Yuen Qiu, Josephine Koo,
Tony Leung Kar-fai and Lam Suet.
Kong said the project was initiated after the huge success of
Edko’s Cold War. “The local audience is eager to see pure Hong
Kong movies, as evidenced by a
series of recent local box-office
hits.”
The two parts of the film will be
released on July 4 and August 1 to
coincide with Chinese hungry
ghost month.
tume design to Hong Kong-China
co-production The Silent War (Man
Lim-chung).
Other awardees included
Michelle Yeoh who was presented
with the Excellence in Asian Cinema Award, while Xu Zheng’s Lost
In Thailand took the 2012 TopGrossing Asian Film Award.
Cult hit for
Golden Network
BY LIZ SHACKLETON
Hong Kong-based Golden Network Asia has sold martial-arts
drama The Wrath Of Vajra to Germany’s Splendid Film. Directed by
Law Wing-cheong, the film about a
cult that trains children as assassins, was presented at a Filmart
press conference yesterday.
Produced by Kylin Network and
Ningxia Film Group, the film stars
martial artists turned actors such as
Shi Yanneng and Jiang Baocheng.
It is very difficult to sell Chinese
films internationally but the growth
of the country’s own exhibition
market means it no longer matters,
experts said at a Filmart conference
yesterday about selling and branding Chinese-language films.
“If you are recouping your costs
in your own territory, you don’t
need to go outside,” said Singapore-based producer and distributor Lim Teck of Clover Films.
The success of local films in territories such as Thailand and Indonesia is dampening interest, he said, as
is the lack of good marketing materials — and a good strategy. CZ12
was much more successful than Lost
In Thailand — the two biggest local
hits in China up to the end of 2012
— and it was no coincidence one of
CZ12’s producers, Jackie Chan,
knows international marketing.
There is a mismatch between
what is being made in China and
what the international market
wants, experts said. “The films that
are doing well in China are romcoms and fantasies and they are
very difficult to translate to the US
market,” said Doris Pfardrescher,
from distributor Well Go USA.
“What does well in the US for us is
martial arts and action films.”
Crowdfunder Catapooolt launches with HAF partnership
Mumbai-based crowdfunding
platform Catapooolt is launching in
Hong Kong this week as an official
partner of the Hong Kong Asia Film
Financing Forum (HAF).
The first Indian crowdfunding
platform to list international
projects, the new venture has a
unique business model that aims to
keep bringing funders back with
three tiers of rewards. More than
100 brand partners are on board.
“You can’t just replicate
Kickstarter in India. The US and
Europe have a more defined culture
for supporting creative artists and
indie film-makers, while India is more
value conscious,” said Catapooolt
managing director Satish Kataria.
Catapooolt associate director
Yogesh Karikurve added that the
platform is also reaching out to
Asians living overseas.
“Asians in the US and Europe
have a strong nostalgia for Asia —
they want a slice of the market but
don’t know how to get involved.”
Liz Shackleton
NEWS
All Rights
checks
into Party
Knight Rusty
Radiant
shows its mettle shines for
By Sandy George
Sola Media’s German 3D family
film Knight Rusty screens today at
Filmart with the ink still drying on
a stack of contracts signed since its
launch at Berlin’s EFM.
South Korea (Apex), Poland
(Kino Swiat), Israel (Five Stars),
Hungary (Cinetel), Turkey (Siyahbeyaz Movies), CIS (Big Movies)
and others in eastern Europe are
among the territories sold. Sola’s
Tania Pinto Da Cunha said negotiations are underway with a company in China. The film has
reached 600,000 admissions in
Germany for Universum.
By Liz Shackleton
Paris and Hong Kong-based sales
agent All Rights Entertainment
(ARE) is handling international
sales outside Asia on Doomsday.
Party, which has been selected for
this year’s HAF (see profile, p8).
Hong Kong’s Why Entertainment is handling Asian territories
on the film, while ARE will handle
festival exposure worldwide.
The feature debut of Hong Kong
commercials and short film director Ho Hong, the film revolves
around five strangers who are
thrown together when they are
caught up in a bank heist in which
the robbers are armed with bombs.
The film is produced by veteran
film-makers Teddy Robin Kwan
and Roddy Wong. Kwan, who is
renowned for his work with firsttime directors, also stars in the
film alongside Paul Wong, Kay Tse
and Kelvin Kwan.
ARE has also picked up mainland Chinese crime drama Witness, directed by Gao Zehao and
starring Taiwanese actor Jack Kao,
and Herman Yau’s 3D horror The
Second Coming, starring Joey
Leong and Kenny Wong. About
90% of the project’s funding has
already been secured from CL
Group and the Hong Kong Film
Development Fund.
Released in China last December, Witness tells the story of a man
who resorts to blackmail to clear
his debts.
mm2 strikes
Smart deal
By Jean Noh
Singapore’s mm2 Entertainment
is today announcing a partnership
with Hong Kong’s Smart Limited
to co-produce at least two films
a year.
The films will be shot in Hong
Kong, with partial financing from
China. Hong Kong actor Ha Yu
will oversee the partnership.
The first film, produced by Ha,
will be heartwarming comedy
ATM (working title), due to go
into production in August.
The second feature will be horror film Black Magic, to start
shooting in October.
Established in 2009, mm2
Entertainment produces and distributes films in Southeast Asia
and also has offices in Beijing and
Shanghai.
Doc & Film feels love
for Just Like A Woman
By Sandy George
French company Doc & Film
International is attracting interest
for Rachid Bouchareb’s Just Like A
Woman, with the latest sales covering Australia (Madman), Spain
(Golem), Brazil (Imovision), Serbia (MegaCom Film), Turkey (Bir
Film) and Taiwan (Swallow
Wings). Final documents are
being signed at Filmart on these
and other sales, and the film is also
being released in Italy (Minerva
Pictures), the US (Cohen Media
Group) and Greece (Strada).
The France-US drama stars
Sienna Miller and Golshifteh Fara-
hani as two women travelling
across the US. One wants to be a
professional belly dancer; the
other is running from the police.
Taiwan’s Swallow Wings has
pre-bought Martin Provost’s Violette — which has also gone to
Switzerland (Xenix) — starring
Emmanuelle Devos, Sandrine Kiberlain and Olivier Gourmet.
Doc & Film’s Alice Damiani says
negotiations are advanced with
Japan on Caroline Champetier’s
French drama Berthe Morisot, set
in 1865 Paris in the art world,
which has also been bought by
Swallow Wings.
Doc & Film is screening Marion
Hansel’s light-hearted BelgiumFrance road movie Tenderness at
Filmart. Palace in Australia
bought the film after Rotterdam.
The company also has Jacques
Doillon’s Berlin Panorama title
Love Battles, billed as a “radical”
film about love and already sold to
Adopt Films for the US, and Barmak Akram’s France-Afghanistan
drama Wajma (An Afghan Love
Story). The Kabul-set story of a forbidden relationship and its consequences won best screenplay
award in the dramatic world cinema section at Sundance.
Domingo cuts
to Barber’s
Filipino director Jun Robles
Lana’s HAF project Barber’s Tales
has confirmed actress Eugene
Domingo in the lead role. The
Filipina star won the People’s
Choice Best Actress prize at the
Asian Film Awards last year for
her performance in The Woman
In The Septic Tank.
The second instalment in
Lana’s small-town trilogy,
Barber’s Tales is about a widow
who defies gender role
expectations in the 1970s by
running her late husband’s
barbershop. Veteran actor Eddie
Garcia and Gardo Versoza from
Lana’s Bwakaw will also appear
in Barber’s Tales. Lana’s
Octobertrain Films is producing.
Jean Noh
n 4 Screen International at Filmart March 19, 2013
Showbox/Mediaplex is selling baseball-playing gorilla movie Mr. Go, shot entirely
in 3D and currently in post-production.
teen thriller
Jim Gillespie, whose credits
include I Know What You Did Last
Summer, will direct Take Down,
which Radiant Films International
is selling internationally.
Casting starts soon for an
autumn shoot in the UK. Alexander
Ignon (Ransom) wrote the script,
about a group of privileged
teenagers sent to a tough-love
school in the wilderness. With
high hopes the project will be
very commercial with franchise
potential, Ignon is already working
on the script of a first sequel.
“The marketplace is searching
for smart, robust thrillers for that
core teen demographic,” said
Mimi Steinbauer, founder of
Radiant, which is represented at
Filmart. “Take Down is a strong,
captivating script. We are just
thrilled to be on board.”
The producers are Ed Elbert,
Sarah Ryan Black, Stefan
Brunner, Alex Tate, Jamie Brown
and Alex Brown.
Sandy George
Ten Asian
projects in
ACE line-up
By Sandy George
Ten producers and feature films
from Asia are among the 16 attendees of the third Hong Kong co-production lab held by Ateliers du
Cinéma Européen during Filmart.
Yifan Lai (Knife In Clean Water),
Simon Sun (The Aristocrats), Wei
Zhong Zhang (KO! M. Tumor) and
Han Niu (A Most Peculiar Man)
are from China; Titus Ho (Love
Revolution), Teresa Kwong (A
Mighty Adventure) and Gilitte
Leung (Future Letters) from Hong
Kong; Bertha Bay-Sa Pan (Taiwan
Tiger) and Tony Yang (True Love
Agency) from Taiwan; and Flora
Goh (Mandala) from Singapore.
Five producers are European:
Cristiano Bortone (Coffee) from
Italy, Fernanda Del Nido (The
Moon In September) from Spain,
Reinette Van De Stadt-Ho (Hong
Kong Sister) from the Netherlands,
and Tom Dercourt (Arexes) and
Jérome Dopffere (Red Sky) from
France. Steven O’Meagher (Jonah)
is from New Zealand.
The four-day lab is held in conjunction with Hong Kong-Asia
Film Financing Forum (HAF) and
Filmart, with the support of Media
Mundus.
REVIEWS
HAF profiles, page 8
Reviews edited by Mark Adams mark.adams@screendaily.com
Saving General Yang
HKIFF In brief
Reviewed by Edmund Lee
The Great Passage
World Premiere/Gala. Dir: Ishii Yuya. Jap.
2013. 133mins
Cult director Ishii Yuya delivers another
absorbing drama featuring an oddball lead,
this time Mitsuya Majime (Ryuhei Matsuda),
a bookworm who lands a dream job researching for The Great Passage, a ‘living language’
dictionary. The gently paced film — which relishes language and utilises low-key performances — shows how he comes to realise that
even compiling a dictionary calls for teamwork, as he finds love with Kaguya (Aoi Miyazaki), whose obsession with cooking (and
super-sharp knives) tallies with his desire for
focus and attention to detail.
Mark Adams
CONTACT SHOCHIKU
www.shochiku.co.jp
Drug War
Gala Premiere. Dir: Johnnie To. HK-Chi.
2012. 105mins
Hong Kong auteur Johnnie To’s first action
film to be shot in mainland China is gritty,
uncompromising and exhilarating. It feels
like a step forward for a director whose more
recent bullet ballets had started to feel
increasingly stylised. There is nothing mannered about the anti-trafficking police operation charted in Drug War (Duzhan): perhaps
mindful of his need to prove to the censors
he is taking narcotics seriously, To spends
less time choreographing conflict and more
charting, at breakneck pace, the messiness of
a vicious war. It is proof of the maturity of the
Chinese production sector that it has bankrolled a film that comes on like The French
Connection meets The Wire.
Lee Marshall
CONTACT MEDIA ASIA
www.mediaasia.com
Tokyo Family
Masterclass. Dir: Yoji Yamada. Jap. 2012.
146mins
Whether a remake, a tribute or an update of
Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story — one of the
greatest cinema achievements ever — Yoji
Yamada’s variation of that masterpiece is
bound to bemuse any self-respecting
cinephile. Ozu’s visual precision and masterful restraint does not survive in Yamada’s
take of the story, and one wonders why it was
thought the film could be remade into a contemporary variation on a story set in the
aftermath of the Second World War.
Dan Fainaru
CONTACT SHOCHIKU
www.shochiku.co.jp
n 6 Screen International at Filmart March 19, 2013
As the latest in a long line of movies to dramatise
the heroic exploits of the Yang family of generals
(with the 1983 Shaw Brothers classic The Eight
Diagram Pole Fighter arguably the best of the
bunch), Ronny Yu’s historical war epic recounts a
variation of the much-adapted legend with largely
predictable results. The film premieres at Hong
Kong International Film Festival on March 28 and
opens a week later in various cities across Asia.
For a film that seems to go out of its way to invite
critical derision by casting some of Greater China’s
most popular heartthrobs in its key roles, Saving
General Yang is certainly never expected to be a triumph of ensemble acting. It is a credit to director
Ronny Yu — whose reputation is split between his
brilliant takes on Chinese folk legends (Fearless,
The Bride With White Hair) and dreary horror
sequels (Freddy Vs Jason, Bride Of Chucky) — that
his Song dynasty-set actioner still manages to be at
least intermittently engaging.
The patriotic General Yang (Adam Cheng) is
betrayed by an aggrieved ally — whose son was
accidentally killed in a sparring match with Yang’s
sixth son (Wu) — and ambushed by Khitan invaders. His seven sons (also including Hong Kong’s
Ekin Cheng and Raymond Lam, Taiwan’s Vic Chou
and mainland China’s Yu Bo) set out to rescue the
stranded patriarch despite a massive disadvantage
in numbers and, more alarmingly, a prophet’s
Forever Love
Reviewed by Mark Adams
A charmingly whimsical comedy romance that
plays affectionate tribute to the late 1960s heyday
of Taiwanese-language cinema, Forever Love is a
sweet-natured film told largely in flashback, featuring strong and charismatic lead performances by
Blue Lan (aka Lan Zheng-Long) and Amber An
(aka Amber An Xin Ya). The film has the style and
rom-com factors to work locally, and the frothy film
industry backdrop could make it appealing to other
festivals.
Forever Love, which premiered in Taiwan
recently, glossily blends old-fashioned romantic
themes with some amusingly recreated sequences
from 1960s Taiwan film-making — with black-andwhite scenes and animation thrown in for good
measure — and makes good use of its attractive
leads, model-turned-actor Blue Lan and Amber An,
who was named the world’s sexiest woman by
FHM’s Taiwan edition.
The film opens in contemporary Taiwan with
18-year-old Jie talking fondly about her all-action
grandfather Liu Chi-Sheng (played by Long ShaoHua) — he surfs, boxes and rides his mountain
bike at age 70 and loves to tell her tall stories about
his time as a screenwriter in Hollywood Taiwan.
When he is hospitalised after a biking accident
she visits him on the ward, and he tells her the
story of how he met her grandmother, who is suf-
World premiere
— gala
HK-Chi. 2013. 102mins
Director Ronny Yu
Production companies
Pegasus Motion Pictures
Production Limited
International sales
Pegasus Motion Pictures
Distribution Limited,
www.pegasusmovie.com
Producers Raymond
Wong, Ronny Yu
Screenplay Edmond
Wong, Scarlett Liu, Ronny
Yu
Cinematography Chan
Chi-ying
Editor Drew Thompson
Production designer Ken
Mak
Music Kenji Kawai
Action choreographer
Dong Wei
Main cast Xu Fan, Adam
Cheng, Ekin Cheng, Yu Bo,
Vic Chou, Li Chen,
Raymond Lam, Wu Chun,
Fu Xinbo
warning to their worried mother (Xu) that only
“six will return” — an ambivalently worded set-up
that will mislead more than a few viewers in the
course of the movie.
With its focus placed on family honour and the
obligatory bloodshed, it is no surprise the movie
appears to treat the brothers’ wellbeing as its only
concern. An hour into Saving General Yang — after
their troop of soldiers is vanquished — only the siblings and their wounded father are allowed to stay
in the picture as the susceptible targets of the Khitans’ relentless pursuit.
Notwithstanding an inspired, Kurosawa-esque
scene of arrow fighting, which is dynamically captured by cinematographer Chan Chi-ying in a field
of tall grass, Yu’s increasingly sombre portrait of
loyalty and violent revenge is let down partly by his
story’s superficial characterisation — if not also by
its continual reliance on momentary flashbacks as a
last-gasp attempt to flesh out the characters.
International
Premiere —
I See It My Way
Tai. 2013. 124mins
Directors Aozaru Shiao,
Kitamura Toyoharu
Production companies
Greener Grass, Pomi
Productions, Arrow
Cinematic Group, Serenity
Entertainment
International
International sales
Pomi International,
www.pomifilm.com.tw
Executive producers
Hu Chin-Chung, Jessica
Cheng, Lin Tian-Gui
Producer Tseng HanHsien
Screenplay Lin Chen-Hao
Cinematography Ghou
Yi-Hsien
Main cast Lan ZhengLong, Amber An Xin Ya,
Long Shao-Hua, Wang
Po-Chieh, Tien Hsin, Hou
Yen-Hsi
fering from dementia and cannot really remember
him. His story flashes back to 1969 when he (as
played by Blue Lan) was writing multiple scripts,
but increasingly annoyed by the clichéd films he
has to make.
Things change when he meets wannabe actress
Chiang Mei-Yue (Amber An) when she sneaks into
the premiere if his latest film Spy No. 7, mainly to
catch a glimpse of star Wan Bao-Long.
He helps her through an audition, and the pair
start a tentative romance. When he is forced into
directing the sequel — Spy No. 7: On The Moon For
Love — he gets her a bigger role.
Though perhaps a little too long, the film is
brimming with charming moments, and despite
being entirely predictable it is a gentle delight, with
the performances all pretty much spot on and the
recreations of the heyday of Taiwanese cinema
engagingly staged.
HAF Profiles
» Heart The Cleaning Company p8 » Camoes And Dinamene p10
» Doomsday.Party p8
» The Last Wedding On Earth p10
» 2 Ways p8
» Pseudo-Seculart p10
» Love And Hate p12
» Nude Project p12
» Of A Promise Kept p12
Heart: The Cleaning Company
Doomsday.Party
2 Ways
Country of origin Taiwan
Countries of origin Hong Kong-China
Country of origin Japan
Director Huang Chao-Liang
Director Ho Hong
Director Naomi Kawase
Produced by Taiwan’s Double Edge Entertainment
(DEE), Heart: The Cleaning Company tells the story of a
bankrupt entrepreneur who humbly takes on the job of a
cleaner at his father’s cleaning company.
Combining his savvy business management skills
with the help of a motley crew of workers, he successfully turns around the small company while rebuilding
his life.
DEE head of production Wolf Chen says: “When Ben
Affleck received the best picture award for Argo at this
year’s Oscars, he said, ‘It doesn’t matter how you get
knocked down in your life, because that’s going to happen. All that matters is you gotta get up.’ Likewise, this is
a story about how the protagonist rises up from the lowest point of his life.”
The project will be directed by Huang Chao-Liang,
who co-directed recent box office hit David Loman. The
gangster comedy has raked in $13.8m (nt$410m), surpassing You Are The Apple Of My Eye to become the third
highest-grossing local film ever in Taiwan.
This will be the first time Chen has worked with
Huang but he has been impressed by the director’s work,
including his features Summer Time and Love Is Sin, TV
dramas and documentaries. “Despite modest budgets,
his work always conveys the gentle touch of humanity
and the delicate emotions of ordinary people,” Chen says.
The duo developed the script with Lu Xin-Zhi whose
writing credits include Shen Ko-Shang’s segments in
Juliets and 10+10.
Chen previously worked in distribution for Disney and
Applause Pictures. His recent producing credits for DEE
include Mayday 3DNA and The Soul Of Bread.
Silvia Wong
The feature debut of Hong Kong commercials director
Ho Hong, Doomsday.Party is a drama about five ordinary
people held hostage during a bank heist.
“I want to make a movie based on neo-realism but in a
surreal way. The scenes are from everyday life, touching
on political, economic and social issues. But the story is
told in an unusual manner, which appears beyond belief.
Such absurdity is a reflection of today’s society,” says Ho.
The film’s ensemble cast includes Paul Wong, Kay Tse,
Kelvin Kwan, Wilfred Lau and Teddy Robin Kwan, who
is also producing with Roddy Wong. Kwan is a veteran
Hong Kong film-maker and musician, renowned for his
work with first-time directors.
The project is in post-production: Wenders Li is editing the footage shot over 23 days by Johnnie To’s regular
DoP, Cheng Siu Keung. A two-minute trailer will be
screened at HAF.
About 90% of the project’s funding has already been
secured from CL Group and the Hong Kong Film
Development Fund. The production company behind
the project, Film Plus Productions, is seeking the
remaining 10%.
Ho is one of the founders of Film Plus, an award-winning commercials production house established in 1999
with offices in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Doomsday.
Party is the company’s first feature production.
After graduating from the Art Center College of
Design in Los Angeles, Ho began his career in Hong
Kong and soon established himself as a leading commercials director. His recent work includes a commercial for
Nikon, starring Wang Leehom.
Silvia Wong
Multiple Cannes prize-winning director Naomi Kawase
is closely connected to her home city of Nara, which she
has explored on film since the 1990s. For her latest narrative feature, 2 Ways, Kawase reaches back to the land of
her ancestors on the semi-tropical island of Amami
Oshima, which lies half way between Kyushu and
Okinawa. “That’s where my family lived for generations,
so it was inevitable for me to return,” Kawase says.
2 Ways tells the story of an adolescent boy with difficult
family circumstances who goes on a journey to Tokyo to
look for his absent father, and returns to Amami to find his
mother is missing. The island’s waves carry surfers and
wash a corpse ashore, capturing the story’s cycle of life.
“The story gestated over the past few years of going
back and forth to Amami,” Kawase explains.
Kawase returns to HAF following her participation in
2009 with childbirth documentary Genpin (originally
titled And Protect, Protected), which subsequently
screened in Toronto, Dubai and Thessaloniki. Kawase’s
company Kumie Inc and Bridgehead Inc, the new production entity of former Asmik Ace producer Shinji
Ogawa (Norwegian Wood), will produce 2 Ways.
The plan is to raise half the $1.2m budget at HAF. The
above-average figure for Kawase will go primarily towards
post-production, according to Kumie’s Yuko Naito.
Kawase is highly visible in Hong Kong this March
with a retrospective and jury duty at the Incubator for
Film & Visual Media in Asia (IFVA). “As executive director of Nara International Film Festival, I have a strong
interest in young Asian creators,” says Kawase, who is
also serving as producer on Korean director Jang Kunjae’s HAF project, All About You.
Jason Gray
Heart: The Cleaning Company
Doomsday.Party
2 Ways
Producer Wolf Chen
Production company Double Edge Entertainment
Budget $1m
Finance raised to date 50% (from DEE)
Contact Eric Chou eric.chou@deegroup.com
Producers Teddy Robin Kwan, Ho Hong, Roddy Wong
Production company Film Plus Productions
Budget $1.085m
Finance raised to date 90% (from CL Group, Hong
Producer Shinji Ogawa
Production companies Kumie, Bridgehead
Budget $1.2m
Contact Shinji Ogawa ogawa@bridgehead-jp.com
Kong Development Film Fund)
Contact Ho Hong hohong@filmplus.net
Yuko Naito
n 8 Screen International at Filmart March 19, 2013
noirmam@sepia.ocn.ne.jp
UKF_Screenad_FP_HK_335x245_Art.indd 2
15/03/2013 12:26
HAF Profiles
Camoes And Dinamene
The Last Wedding On Earth
Pseudo-Secular
Countries of origin Sri Lanka-Portugal
Country of origin Indonesia
Country of origin Hong Kong
Directors Vimukthi Jayasundara, Gabriel Abrantes
Director Joko Anwar
Director Rita Hui
Sri Lanka’s Vimukthi Jayasundara and Portugal’s Gabriel
Abrantes are working together on Camoes And
Dinamene, commissioned by Denmark’s DOX:LAB programme, which pairs European and non-European filmmakers. The directors will make two short fiction films,
both dark comedies, about the romantic voyage taken by
16th century Portuguese poet, Luis Vaz de Camoes,
through Sri Lanka with his Chinese lover.
Abrantes’ short film, which has already been shot in
Sri Lanka, looks at Camoes’ travels and adventures in the
country. Vimukthi’s short, scheduled to shoot in April,
explores myths and legends about the Portuguese from a
Sri Lankan perspective. The films are in the Portuguese,
Sinhalese and Tamil languages.
“My short film views the Portuguese traveller as an
alien force who ate stone and blood. Portuguese colonisers introduced bread and red wine to Sri Lanka,” says
Vimukthi. “The film explores such myths and legends
about the Portuguese.”
Vimukthi’s first feature, The Forsaken Land, won the
Camera d’Or at Cannes in 2005 while his second, Between
Two Worlds, competed at the Venice Film Festival in 2009.
His latest feature, Mushrooms, premiered in Cannes’
Directors’ Fortnight in 2011. Camoes And Dinamene will
be co-produced by his Sri Lanka-based production companies Film Council Productions and 24 Frames.
Abrantes has directed 16 short films and one mediumlength feature. His short Palaces Of Pity, co-directed with
Daniel Schmidt, screened at Venice in 2011, while Zwazo
screened in Locarno in 2012. He is working on his first
feature, Tristes Monroes. He runs Lisbon-based A Mutual
Respect Productions, which has produced all his films.
Nandita Dutta
When a former aspiring film director starts working as a
wedding videographer, he ends up shooting everything
like a serious documentary — including all the colourful
details and behind-the-scenes drama.
This leads to some hilarious problems when he shoots
the wedding of a highly respected, well-to-do family and
submits the results to a film festival.
Anwar’s horror-thrillers such as The Forbidden Door,
which won best film at the 2009 Puchon International
Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan), have travelled well and
his most recent thriller, Modus Anomali, premiered at
last year’s SXSW film festival.
The director says the inspiration for comedy-infused
drama The Last Wedding On Earth came from his own
experiences. “I was a wedding videographer 12 years ago
and the initial idea actually appeared when I was shooting one particular wedding. From the outside, the family
was very rich and respectable. But once you got in, it was
like a circus. Very entertaining.”
Anwar says he plans to make the film accessible for
local and foreign audiences by combining the exotic
spectacle of an Indonesian wedding with the universal
theme of family and also some social commentary on the
generation gap.
“We are familiar with weddings portrayed by Hollywood where the bride and groom plan their perfect wedding. Here, weddings are arranged to please parents, not
the bride and groom,” Anwar adds.
The script is in development with plans to shoot this
September. Production company Lo-Fi Flicks was
founded by Anwar with this project’s producers, Tia
Hasibuan and Uwie Balfas, to produce widely accessible
low to medium-budget films with artistic value.
Jean Noh
“Every city in every different period of time has a story to
tell, like Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Michael
Haneke’s Code Unknown,” says Hong Kong video artistturned-director Rita Hui.
After finishing last year’s shoot of her second feature,
Keening Woman, Hui noticed that Hong Kong people
were becoming increasingly involved in socio-political
activities. “As if Hong Kong was in a time of turbulence
and change, people seemed to be awoken. But what followed was a sense of helplessness,” she says.
It is such helplessness that prompted Hui to write a
contemporary story of Hong Kong, a bleak story about
the city and its people.
A man of leisure, a divorced office lady, a Chinese girl
awaiting her Hong Kong ID card and a social activist all
become obsessed with a 19-year-old girl famous for taking nude pictures of herself and posting them on the
internet. Their sense of existence is heightened through
various adventures with the girl, but one day she vanishes, nowhere to be seen online.
Stepping into the producer’s role for the first time is
Heiward Mak, director of High Noon and co-writer of
Pang Ho Cheung’s Love In A Puff.
Mak was Hui’s student at the School of Creative Media
at the City University of Hong Kong where Hui teaches
video art. “It is refreshing to have the reversal of roles,
now that my former student is my producer. She certainly
knows more about the film industry than me,” says Hui.
Hui’s debut feature, Dead Slowly, competed in Busan’s
New Currents competition in 2009 while Keening
Woman, starring Michelle Wai, premiered at the Hong
Kong Independent Film Festival in January this year.
Pseudo-Secular will be the first feature produced by
Mak’s company, Dumb Youth Productions.
Silvia Wong
Camoes And Dinamene
The Last Wedding On Earth
Pseudo-Secular
Producers Gabriel Abrantes, Vimukthi Jayasundara
Production companies A Mutual Respect Productions,
Producers Tia Hasibuan, Uwie Balfas
Production company Lo-Fi Flicks
Budget $303,000
Finance raised to date $26,000 (private financing)
Contact Joko Anwar jokoanwar@gmail.com
Producers Heiward Mak
Production company Dumb Youth Productions
Budget $500,000
Contact Kiki Ho tzeki.ho@gmail.com
Film Council Productions, 24 Frames
Budget $50,000
Finance raised to date $13,000 (DOX:LAB 2013)
Contact Vimukthi Jayasundara
vimukthifr@hotmail.com
n 10 Screen International at Filmart March 19, 2013
570.000 admissions in Germany and still GoinG
Screening today:
14:00, agneS b.
cinema (Arts Centre)
Contact:
SOLA MEDIA GmbH
Tania Pinto Da Cunha
Mobile: +34 618 064 613
tania@sola-media.com
EurOPEAn PAvILLOn
(LOCATED In 1C-D16)
Hong Kong Convention
Center
CALIGARI FILM GMBH IN CO-PRODUCTION WITH UNIVERSUM FILM AND ZDF PRESENT „KNIGHT RUSTY – YESTERDAY‘S HERo RECYCLED“
FUNDED BY DFFF MFG FFA FFF AND FILM UND MEDIEN STIFTUNG NRW
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER GABRIELE M. WALTHER CO-PRODUCER BERNHARD ZU CASTELL DR. REGINA BICHLMAIER BARBARA BIERMANN DIRECTOR THoMAS BoDENSTEIN
CO-DIRECTOR HUBERT WEILAND NINA WELS SCRIPT MARK SLATER GABRIELE M. WALTHER SONGS FELIX JANoSA ANDREAS GRIMM MUSIC ANDREAS GRIMM
PRODUCER MARCUS HAMANN ALEXANDER ISADI MARIUS MoHNSSEN BASED ON THE ORIGINAL BOOKS “RITTER RoST” BY JÖRG HILBERT & FELIX JANoSA PUBLISHED BY TERZIo AT CARLSEN VERLAG
© 2012 CALIGARI FILM
HAF Profiles
Love And Hate
Nude Project
Of A Promise Kept
Countries of origin Hong Kong-China
Country of origin Thailand
Countries of origin Japan-China
Directors Wang Bing
Directors (clockwise from top left) Sivaroj
Director Isao Yukisada
Kongsakul, Pramote Sangsorn, Aditya Assarat
For the past 14 years, Chinese director Wang Bing has
been filming the lives of ordinary people in different corners of China.
His works, which have been screened at major festivals, include The Ditch, about Chinese labour camps, and
Fengming, A Chinese Memoir, about an elderly woman’s
harrowing experiences in Mao’s China.
Last year, his documentary Three Sisters, about a peasant family, grabbed multiple awards at Venice, Festival
Des 3 Continents, Doc Lisboa and Dubai. In his new
project, Love And Hate, he continues his research on
similar themes.
“Love And Hate will allow us to better understand
families, like in Three Sisters, who try to keep a balance
between their dreams and the reality of China today,”
says Wang, who is currently writing the script.
Unlike Three Sisters, it is a fictional work and will be
his second narrative feature after The Ditch. Wang will
concentrate on how young adults are facing the pressures of China’s economic development while coping
with the destruction of family values.
Set in an isolated mountain village in the Yunnan
province, the story follows the struggles a man faces
between his family and society, his village and the city,
his wife and his lover. Although the film is narrative,
Wang will shoot in real locations and follow real people
who are facing the issues explored by the film.
Isabelle Glachant is producing through her Hong
Kong-based company Chinese Shadows, which produced Wang’s last two documentaries, Alone and Three
Sisters. Glachant is an established producer who has
worked with film-makers such as Wang Xiaoshuai, Lou
Ye and Lu Chuan. She is also the Greater China representative for Unifrance.
Silvia Wong
An omnibus of short films about sex by Thai directors
Sivaroj Kongsakul, Pramote Sangsorn and Aditya Assarat,
Nude Project was initiated by producer Maenam Chagasik.
Previously an assistant director on Assarat’s Wonderful
Town, which won a Tiger Award at Rotterdam in 2008,
Chagasik also produced In April Of The Following Year,
There Was A Fire, which screened at Rotterdam in 2012.
“She was interested to make a film about sex as it exists
in our daily life. You never see that in Thai films because
sex is always scandalised. We want to do a heavy sex film,
but in a comical and everyday way,” says Assarat.
“We need to find partners who see the same film we
do,” he adds, noting that HAF will be the first time they
talk with people outside Thailand about the project. The
project is looking for co-producers and funds. In addition to Wonderful Town, Assarat’s credits include Hi-So,
which screened at the Busan, Berlin and Hong Kong
film festivals, before gaining a UK theatrical release.
Sivaroj Kongsakul previously worked with Assarat
and Apichatpong Weerasethakul in various capacities
and directed award-winning shorts before his 2010 feature debut Eternity, which also won a Tiger Award. He is
also developing a new project, Arunkarn, at the Cannes
Cinéfondation Résidence.
Former actor Pramote Sangsorn has directed music
videos, commercials and short films that have travelled to
international festivals. He was invited to the 2011 Cannes
Cinéfondation Résidence with his project Tam Rasisalai.
Pop Pictures is an exemplar of a recent trend in independent Thai film-making with collaborators taking on
different roles for one another’s projects. The production
company’s filmography includes Wonderful Town, Eternity, Hi-So and 36.
Jean Noh
Established Japanese director Isao Yukisada makes his
first foray into J-horror at HAF, with Of A Promise Kept.
Three old university friends of different Asian nationalities reunite after a decade. When one of them is late,
the other two amuse themselves with ghost stories.
When the third friend finally arrives, the trio find themselves in their own horrific predicament.
The project takes inspiration from the titular short story
by Lafcadio Hearn and its companion piece Of A Promise
Broken. Hearn is known internationally for his collections
of Japanese ghost stories and non-fiction works published
at the turn of the 20th century, most famously adapted by
Masaki Kobayashi for his 1965 Kwaidan.
Versatile director Yukisada, whose credits include
Parade; Crying Out Love, In The Centre Of The World; and
Sunflower explained his more realistic, character-based
take on the material. “The end of A Promise Broken,
where we move from the time frame of the ghostly tale to
the present where the friends are discussing the story
itself, sparked my imagination.”
Producer Tomoko Katahara of J&K Entertainment commented on the project’s appeal: “Rather than setting out to
make a gory horror film, we aim to produce a film that
appeals to Asia and beyond. Everyone loves ghost stories.”
Casting is unconfirmed but the storytelling scenes are
set to be in English, with the ghost story segments themselves in the mother-tongues of the protagonists.
Katahara is teaming up with producer and Grasshoppa! president Kazuto Takida, who backed Yukisada’s
2004 film A Day On The Planet. At HAF the team is looking for funding and pre-sales.
Jason Gray
Love And Hate
Nude Project
Of A Promise Kept
Producers Isabelle Glachant
Production company Chinese Shadows
Budget $850,000
Finance raised to date 10% (from Chinese Shadows)
Contact Liang Ying ying@chineseshadows.com
Producers Maenum Chagasik, Machima Ungsriwong
Production company Pop Pictures
Budget $300,000
Finance raised to date $30,000
Contact Maenum Chagasik tak_kae@yahoo.com
Producers Tomoko Katahara, Kazuto Takida
Production companies Second Sight, Grasshoppa!,
n 12 Screen International at Filmart March 19, 2013
J&K Entertainment
Budget $2.5m
Finance raised to date $1m
Contact Tomoko Katahara tomoko99@s9.dion.ne.jp
Feature Focus
Screenings, page 18
BGH released Ning Hao’s heist caper Guns N’ Roses in 2012
Galloping Horse picks up the pace
The purchase of the digital-effects studio behind the Transformers franchise put Beijing Galloping Horse on Western
radars. Now its latest hook up — with John Woo — is set to take the company to the next level. Liz Shackleton reports
O
ne of a crop of ambitious young Chinese
film investment companies, Beijing Galloping Horse Film Co (BGH) was virtually
unknown in the West until it hit the headlines in a
big way last September with its acquisition of leading visual-effects studio Digital Domain.
BGH partnered with India’s Reliance MediaWorks (RMW) to beat out bidders including
France’s Technicolor to buy the beleaguered company for $30.2m. Despite its work on films such as
the Transformers series and Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End, Digital Domain had fallen
victim to the combination of unpredictable cashflow, low profit margins and intense competition,
which has plagued many US VFX houses in the
last few years.
Both BGH and RMW were already involved with
Digital Domain. BGH had a joint production venture with the US company, through which they
were co-producing animated feature The Legend Of
Tembo. RMW was partnered with Digital Domain
in studios in London and Mumbai. Following the
acquisition, BGH has a 70% stake in Digital
Domain while RMW owns the remaining 30%.
As soon as the deal closed, BGH started over-
n 14 Screen International at Filmart March 19, 2013
‘Now our box
office is going
up, local
producers are
encouraged to
spend more
money on VFX’
Ivy Zhong, Beijing
Galloping Horse
hauling the company’s business model to make it
less dependent on feature films and increase its
involvement in gaming, advertising and other digital projects.
“A lot of good VFX companies have been facing
bankruptcy recently, but their problem is not their
artists or management. If they continue to focus on
film work, they face cash-flow problems due to the
inevitable delays,” says BGH vice-chairman and
managing director Ivy Zhong.
“Most of their costs are payroll and you can’t
have hundreds of artists just sitting around when a
movie has been delayed. Relying on the slow cashflow from movies is dangerous so we’re looking for
work that generates frequent inflows of cash.”
Zhong has already brought in new clients to
Digital Domain, such as Chinese internet giant
Tencent Holdings, and another big company to be
announced soon. There are also plans for Digital
Domain to start taking equity positions in some of
the films it works on. “The company was involved
in around 15 out of the top 20 movies last year, so
why not invest equity in those projects, as we hear
about them early and can choose,” says Zhong.
Digital Domain will also soon start working on
its first Chinese film production — John Woo’s asyet-untitled romantic epic, which starts shooting in
mid-May with a glittering ensemble cast including
Zhang Ziyi and Korean actress Song Hye-kyo.
BGH is majority financing the $30m film, which
follows the loves stories of three men and three
women against the backdrop of historical events in
1940s China. Digital Domain will be involved in
recreating battles from the Second World War and
the Chinese Civil War, along with a shipping disaster off the coast near Shanghai. Woo and Terence
Chang’s Lion Rock Productions are producing
with BGH and China Film Group.
The project heads an ambitious new slate from
BGH, which is ramping up production this year
with around eight Chinese-language features. Also
in the pipeline are movie adaptations of two toprating Chinese TV series — The Legend Of Zhen
Huan, about palace intrigue in the Qing Dynasty,
and Soldier Ge Erdan. BGH is also developing an
action comedy Get Rio, scripted by Shu Ping and
directed by Wei Xiao, who are both regular collaborators with leading Chinese film-maker Jiang Wen.
Established in 1998 as a TV and advertising
company, BGH has a long history by Chinese »
FEATURE BEIJING GALLOPING HORSE
Zhang Yibai’s romantic comedy Eternal Moment
media and entertainment industry standards. It
quickly became well-known for producing hit TV
dramas and in 2008 attracted $40m investment
from Baring Private Equity Partners Asia.
The company started investing in films in 2009,
at first collectively with other Chinese companies,
which is common practice for new investors, then
later started to take larger stakes or fully finance
films. One of its first big projects was Reign Of
Assassins (2010), co-directed by Woo and Su Chaopin, which starred Michelle Yeoh.
The company’s credits also include 2011 romantic drama Eternal Moment, directed by established
film-maker Zhang Yibai, who heads production for
the company. Last year BGH released Ning Hao’s
heist caper Guns N’ Roses and arty crime drama
Lethal Hostage, directed by newcomer Cheng Er.
With a gross of $24m, Guns N’ Roses was the only
bright spot for the local film industry after China’s
import quota was widened last spring. Lethal Hostage managed a respectable $5m in August.
In addition to production, BGH distributes in
mainland China and is ramping up its international sales division, headed by former MegaVision Pictures’ executive Ronan Wong. The
company also has a talent management arm and
operates five cinemas in mainland China, with
plans for another five to open this year.
The company has been outward-looking from
the very beginning, exploring opportunities to
invest in or co-produce international projects, and
was one of the investors in Sony’s 2010 The Karate
Kid. It is also developing an English-language
project that originated in the US, Two-Gun Cohen
(working title), about a UK adventurer who became
aide-de-camp to China’s first president Sun Yat-sen.
Doug Liman was attached to direct but had to leave
the project due to other commitments. Zhong says
■ 16 Screen International at Filmart March 19, 2013
‘The US films
that are
successful in
China have
huge budgets
of $100$200m and we
can’t do those
kinds of movies
in China’
Ivy Zhong, Beijing
Galloping Horse
(Right) Lethal Hostage
the script is now ready and she is looking for partners and a new director in the US.
Zhong say further investments in US projects
are in the pipeline, some of which will be US-China
co-productions while others are co-financing deals.
As co-productions are exempt from China’s import
quotas, they have recently attracted huge attention,
although the Chinese authorities started to clamp
down on what they described as “stick-on co-productions” last year. As Zhong explains, it is not just
regulatory hurdles that make US-China co-productions difficult to arrange.
“Firstly our cultures are very different,” says
Zhong. “Comedy doesn’t usually travel and even
with romantic dramas you can feel the differences
in values when you’re talking about love.
“Then if you look at the type of movies that are
popular in both markets, they are mostly action,
sci-fi and VFX films that don’t have a cultural backdrop. The US films that are successful in China
have huge budgets of $100-$200m and we can’t do
those kinds of movies in China. So it’s not easy to
find projects that are suitable for co-production,
although we’re still trying.”
Presumably, owning Digital Domain is a step in
the right direction towards making $100m movies
and taking on Hollywood at its own game. But
Zhong says this is not going to happen overnight.
For that reason BGH is not relocating Digital
Domain’s US and Canadian facilities to
China to take advantage of cost savings. “The VFX industry is all
about the artists and you can’t
train people to a very high standard in a short space of time,”
says Zhong. “You can
do some simple VFX
work in India and China to lower costs, but not the
high-end work.”
But she does acknowledge the acquisition
should enrich the local film industry by giving it
access to tools and skills it will increasingly need to
remain competitive with the growing number of
Hollywood imports. Zhong observes that two
kinds of local movies are currently performing well
in China — comedies and CGI-driven fantasies
based on local mythology, such as Painted Skin:
Resurrection. “Now our box office is going up, local
producers are encouraged to spend more money
on VFX,” she says. “We know this because a lot of
people have approached us since we bought Digital
Domain.”
Outside of the movie sphere, Zhong says Digital
Domain will also continue to develop new forms of
digital entertainment, such as the hologram of late
rapper Tupac Shakur that astonished audiences at
the Coachella music festival last year.
Although she will not be drawn on specifics, Zhong says the company is looking for Asian stars and singers to
bring back to life. The possibilities are mind-bogs
gling. ■
CMG_HKFA_SD_Day2_Mar19_FINAL:Layout 1 14/03/2013 16:45 Page 1
SCREENING TODAY!
Tues Mar. 19th - 3:45PM
Room N111-112
Three courageous young hunters journey to the top
of the world to discover a land that will save their clan...
a land called SARILA.
DENÉ ANDERBERG
VP SALES: +1.541.890.4701
AMERICAN PAVILION
BOOTH 1C-A19
Screenings
Edited by Paul Lindsell paullindsell@gmail.com
house. When their wishes
come true they must repay
the debt by performing a
traditional Thai dance. This
is easier said than done and
they must enlist the help of
Nut, a transvestite dancer
who lives in their block.
Market
screenings
09:30
Finding Mr. Right
(Hong Kong, China)
123mins. Edko Films.
Dir: Xue Xiaolu. Key
cast: Tang Wei, Wu
Xiubo, Elaine Jin.
Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC
10:30
SADO TEMPEST
Meeting Room N204-205,
HKCEC
09:45
BROKEN
(UK) 91mins. Wild
Bunch. Dir: Rufus
Norris. Key cast: Tim
Roth, Cillian Murphy,
Eloise Laurence, Rory
Kinnear, Robert Emms,
Zana Marjanovic, Clare
Burt, Denis Lawson.
Skunk is 11, diabetic,
and pretty cool. But
after witnessing a brutal
beating, the happy
certainties of childhood
give way to fear and
danger.
Meeting Room N111-112,
HKCEC
Hello, My Dolly
Girlfriend
(Japan) Action/
adventure, horror/
suspense, romance.
112mins. Kadokawa
Shoten. Dir: Takashi
Ishii. Key cast: Tasuku
Emoto, Kokone Sasaki.
A lonely loser meets a
pretty girl doll. This
hallucinatory and erotic
romance fulfills the man’s
final erotic desires.
Meeting Room N101B, HKCEC
Jiseul
(Korea) Drama. 109mins.
Indiestory. Dir: O Muel.
Key cast: Sung Min-chul,
Yang Jung-won, Moon
Suk-bum.
‘Jiseul’ depicts events
surrounding the Jeju
Island uprising that took
place in 1948. The story
follows a group of villagers
as they hide in a cave
after hearing they have
been labeled as communist
rebels following a local
uprising against the
government.
Meeting Room N202-203,
HKCEC
market
10:00
How To Describe A
Cloud
Drama, romance.
80mins. Media Luna
New Films. Dir: David
Verbeek. Key cast: Lu
Huang, Wu Pong Fong,
Lu Yi Ching.
The young musician
Liling is suddenly forced
to return to the small
island where she grew
up. Her mother became
Our Night is Not Long
(Japan) Drama. 94mins.
Sapporo-Hokkaido
Contents Strategy
Organization (SHOCS).
Dir: Shoji Toyama.
Key cast: Yoomi Tamai,
Shu Wada, Ryotaro
Yonemura, Yuika Shima,
Shohei Kato.
One day, a woman
discards the things she
has collected over the past
34 years: shoes, money,
invitations, lipsticks,
farewells and nights. She
steals a car and begins her
journey, together with the
message left in it. Do we
come from the sea?
Meeting Room N104-105,
HKCEC
10:00
15 YEARS + 1 DAY
(Spain) Drama.
96mins. European Film
Promotion (representing
n 18 Screen International at Filmart March 19, 2013
blind and Liling presents
the world to her through
words. Her mother’s
conviction that she has a
sixth sense and the sci-fi
drawings of the former
scientist with whom she
flirts increases Liling’s
attraction towards the
inexplicable, and little by
little she is drawn into a
mystery.
Meeting Room N211-212,
HKCEC
Latido Films). Dir:
Gracia Querejeta. Key
cast: Maribel Verdu, Tito
Valverde.
After Jon is expelled from
school, his mother sends
him away to live with his
grandfather in a small
village. Both the troubled
teenager and the retired
military man will have to
confront their fears and
limitations.
Meeting Room N201B, HKCEC
How To Describe A
Cloud
See box, above
MoBIUS
(France) Organised
Crime. 103mins.
Europacorp. Dir: Eric
Rochant. Key cast: Jean
Dujardin, Cecile De
France, Tim Roth.
Gregory Lioubov, alias
Moise, is a Russian
intelligence officer
stationed in Monaco to
observe the activities of
a powerful businessman.
Alice, a financial whiz,
is recruited to serve as
an undercover operative
on the same mission.
Suspicious that Alice may
betray them, Gregory
breaks the golden rule and
contacts her.
Theatre 2, HKCEC
MORNING STAR
(France) Drama.
100mins. Wide. Dir:
Sophie Blondy. Key cast:
Denis Lavant, Tcheky
Karyo, Beatrice Dalle,
Iggy Pop.
Meeting Room N109-110,
HKCEC
Six Acts
(Israel) Drama. 96mins.
Films Distribution. Dir:
Jonathan Gurfinkel. Key
cast: Sivan Levy, Eviatar
Mor, Roy Nik, Niv
Zilberberg.
Gili is a teenager who
decides to change schools.
She is determined to
improve her lame social
status. Over the course of
a few weeks she hooks up
with several different boys,
all from her new school.
When her original love
loses interest, she seeks new
sources for attention. Her
encounters become more
and more sexual.
Meeting Room N206-207,
HKCEC
TANG WONG
Ripples of Desire
(Taiwan) Drama.
120mins. HKIFF
Industry Screenings @
Filmart. Dir: Zero Chou
(Chou Mei-lin). Key cast:
Ivy Chen, Michelle Chen,
Jerry Yen.
The height of gaiety on
Piao Dao. Merchants
and pirates may have
their treasures but the
biggest prizes are the
sensational twin singing
courtesans, who are ripe
for deflowering. They
dazzle customers with
their flirtatious duets and
tantalising beauty.
Meeting Room N209-210,
HKCEC
(Thailand) Drama.
83mins. HKIFF
Industry Screenings
@ Filmart. Dir:
Kongdej Jaturanrasmee.
Key cast: Nutthasit
Kotimanuswanich,
Siripat Kuhavichanun,
Sompob Sittiajarn,
Anawat Patanawanichkul,
Natarat Lakha.
Centres around four highschool boys. Yong and Jay
are representing the school
in the science competition.
Best wants to be on the
school ping-pong team. And
Em is a champion K-pop
cover dancer. All four boys
have prayed before the
Luang Poo idol at the spirit
(Japan) Action/
adventure. 94mins.
Sapporo-Hokkaido
Contents Strategy
Organization (SHOCS).
Dir: John Williams. Key
cast: Yasunori Henmi,
Noriko Eguchi, Yoji
Tanaka, Hirotaro Honda.
It is the near future and
rebel rock star Jun Toku is
exiled to the bleak island of
Sado, where he is thrown
into a brutal prison. Jun
escapes and flees to the
interior, where he meets
Omuro, a genetic scientist
who has also fallen foul of
the government. Jun does
not know it but Omuro
has hatched a plot to
make Jun create music
from the “Demon Songs”
of the island and use the
mysterious power of the
songs to lure his enemies
and exact revenge.
Meeting Room N201A, HKCEC
11:45
MINUSCULE — VALLEY OF
THE LOST ANTS
(France/Belgium,
animation, comedy.
80mins. Futurikon.
Dir: Thomas Szab,
Helene Giraud.
In a peaceful little
clearing, the remains of a
picnic hastily abandoned
spark warfare between
two tribes of ants. A bold
young ladybug finds
himself caught up in the
battle.
Agnes b. CINEMA! HK Arts
Centre
12:00
Burned Wings
(Hong Kong, China)
Drama. 105mins. All
Rights Entertainment.
Dir: Zheng Kuo, Sun
Yang. Key cast: Yang
Baocong, Li Haoyu, Feng
Shuo.
Yang and his three sworn
brothers gang up to
EVENTS, PAGE 22
become a rising force in
a small town in north
China. They fight against
other gangsters and
local police. Loyalty and
brotherhood make them
fearless and unbeatable.
However, Yang cannot
stop his brothers risking
their lives to make money,
before they are killed. Yang
takes savage revenge.
Theatre 2, HKCEC
DRAGONWOLF
(Thailand, US) Action/
adventure, sci-fi, fantasy.
120mins. Epic Pictures
Group. Dir: Raimund
Huber. Key cast: Patrick
Kazu Tang, Johan
Kirsten, Macha Polivka.
A story of revenge shot in
a hyper-real style following
two best friends who are
cold-blooded assassins.
Loyalties are tested when
they fall in love with the
same woman.
Meeting Room N104-105,
HKCEC
HIGH KICKERS
(China) Action/
adventure. 86mins. Film
Asia Entertainment
Group Company. Dir:
Xie Yi. Key cast: Eva
Huang, Daniel Chan,
Mark Cheng, Gordon Liu,
Waise Lee.
Taekwondo club founder
Zhao Yumin is beaten
down by the death of his
favourite disciple, Han
Xufeng, who was killed in
an illegal boxing match.
His club gradually goes
into decline and loses
most of its disciples. One
day, a girl called Lingling
comes to his club and
asks him to train her for
the Taekwondo national
championship.
Meeting Room N204-205,
HKCEC
MONSTER & ME
(US) Children’s. 85mins.
Magic Elevator. Dir: Jeff
Solema. Key cast: Athena
Baumeister, David Neff,
Lucas Barker, Alyssa
Kennedy, Christine
Springett.
A mean and spoiled
13-year-old girl is turned
into a monster by Santa.
She must get a present
from a real friend by
Christmas or she will
remain a monster for good.
Meeting Room N206-207,
HKCEC
NO PLACE LIKE HOME
(Italy) Comedy.
97mins. European Film
Promotion (representing
Fandango). Dir: Rolando
Ravello.
It was a day to celebrate.
His son Lorenzo was
receiving his First
Communion. Who could
have known that following
the ceremony, this happy
family would get such
a shock? Augustine, his
wife Anna, the caustic
grandfather Rocco, the
two children Erica and
Lorenzo accompanied by
Augustine’s brother-in
law Sergio and his wife
Romana and children
Rossana and Luca arrive
at the apartment and find
the door locked, the lock
has been changed and
strangers are inside their
house.
Meeting Room N202-203,
HKCEC
PRINCESS SAKURA:
FORBIDDEN PLEASURES
(Japan) Romance.
96mins. SDP. Dir:
Hajime Hashimoto. Key
cast: Kyoko Hinami,
Munetaka Aoki.
Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC
SARANAIR OSEKAI
(Thailand) Comedy.
83mins. M Thirtynine Co.
Dir: Kiatisak Udomnak.
Key cast: Phupoom
Phongpanu, Boriboon
Chanreung, Padung
Songsaeng, Neko Jump.
Meeting Room N109-110,
HKCEC
SELKIRK, THE REAL
ROBINSON CRUSOE
(Uruguay, Argentina,
Chile) Animation.
80mins. European Film
Promotion (representing
Latido Films). Dir: Walter
Tournier. Key cast: Ariel
Cister, Mariano Chiesa,
Karin Zabala.
Selkirk, an unruly, selfish
pirate, is the sailing
master of an English
galley in the South Seas,
searching for treasure.
After Captain Bullock
abandons him on an
uninhabited island, he
changes his outlook on
the world and learns to
survive alone.
Meeting Room N111-112,
HKCEC
THE BRAIN MAN
(Japan) Action/
adventure, drama.
125mins. Nippon
Television Network
Corporation. Dir:
Tomoyuki Takimoto.
Key cast: Toma Ikuta,
Yasuko Matsuyuki,
Yosuke Eguchi.
When a terrorist bomb
attack takes place, the
suspect, Ichiro Suzuki,
is forced to undergo
psychiatric tests. The
psychiatrist, Mariko,
starts to take an interest
in the results. Suzuki has
a prodigious memory, IQ
and physical ability, but
is completely incapable of
feeling human emotion.
Meeting Room N101B, HKCEC
-UP
E A BREAK
LET’S WRIT ID FOR FIVE YEARS
T VAL
CONTRAC
THE BUNKER
(US) Action/adventure;
War. 95mins. TriCoast
Worldwide. Dir: Joe
Black. Key cast: Ken
Shamrock, Mike Brown.
A rogue US special forces
team goes undercover in a
North Vietnamese bunker
while trying to find a
young female Vietnamese
traitor. The US Army
discovers too late that this
team has gone rogue and
many US soldiers are killed
along the way. They plot to
extract the team without
any collateral damage.
Meeting Room N211-212,
HKCEC
12:30
STEAM HEAD/
TRAINSURFER/SHOWA
DYNAMITE
(Japan) Animation.
20mins. P.I.C.S. Co.
Dir: Hiroyuki Nakao.
Hiroyuki Nakao’s original
animation style, named
“Live-mation”, is a
combination of live action
and CGI.
Meeting Room N209-210,
HKCEC
SWEET EIGHTEEN
(China) Drama, romance.
90mins. HKIFF Industry »
March 19, 2013 Screen International at Filmart 19 ■
Screenings @ Filmart.
Dir: He Wenchao. Key
cast: Zhou Wenyi, Teng
Fei, Qi Qi, Zheng Shuang,
Liu Qiancheng, Yang Tao,
Jiang Zhonghua.
He Na and her mother
live in a small city by the
Xiangjiang river. She could
not understand why her
mother loved a guy who is
not a good man. Until she
falls in love and experiences
the same pain in her heart.
three men and their stories
of mind control, time travel,
alien contact and murder.
Meeting Room N201A, HKCEC
The Black Square
(China, Japan) Drama,
romance, sci-fi, fantasy,
war. 144mins. Golden
Network Asia. Dir:
Hiroshi Okuhara. Key
cast: Hideo Nakaizumi,
Dan Hong, Chen Xixu.
In an artists’ village on
the outskirts of Beijing,
struggling artist Zhaoping
sees a strange square
object hovering in the sky.
Intrigued, he follows the
shape, which leads him
to a man who has lost his
memory. Zhaoping has
the sense that he has met
the man before even if he
cannot quite place him.
Zhaoping’s sister, Lihua,
has the same feeling
about the stranger and is
strangely attracted to him.
Meeting Room N201A, HKCEC
Tokyo Family
(Japan) Drama. 146mins.
HKIFF Industry
Screenings @ Filmart.
Dir: Yoji Yamada. Key
cast: Isao Hashizume,
Kazuko Yoshiyuki,
Satoshi Tsumabuki, Yu
Aoi.
An old married couple,
Shukichi and Tomiko,
live on a small island in
Hiroshima. They go to
Tokyo to meet their three
children. The eldest son
Koichi runs a hospital.
The daughter Shigeko
runs a beauty salon. The
second son Shuji works
in stage art. The children
want their parents to have
a good time in Tokyo,
but at the same time the
children are busy doing
their own things, leaving
the old parents to feel
uncomfortable with their
stay in the city. One day,
the family is shocked
when Tomiko collapses at
Koichi’s house.
Meeting Room N201B,
HKCEC
14:00
Chaos
(France) Drama, horror/
suspense. 101mins. All
Rights Entertainment.
Dir: Etienne Faure.
Key cast: Isaach de
Bankole, Sonia Rolland,
Niels Schneider.
Vincent, Marie and their
son have just moved from
Paris to a farm near a
small town in the south
of France. He is a history
and geography teacher,
who looks forward to a
quieter life, some kind of
return to nature. His wife,
a renowned international
pianist who retired in
spite of her young age,
has decided to follow him
but almost unwillingly.
From the very beginning,
Thibault, one of Vincent’s
market
16:00
RoboKicks
(Stereoscopic 3D)
(Malaysia) Action/
adventure, animation.
95mins. Golden
Network Asia. Dir: Ah
Loong, Chua Chong
Tee.
Princess Amanda, from
the video game Kingdom
Hill, is magically
transported into the
real world to find a
hero who can save her
world from the evil Lord
Vilus. She arrives in
a small village where
IT BOY
she befriends footballobsessed Iwan, videogame champion Sabok
and young scientist
Kumar. Captured by
Vilus’ troops, they are
all dragged into the
virtual world where they
must work together to
complete levels so as to
save the kingdom and
return back home. When
they reach the final level,
they must win a football
match against a team of
giant robots.
Meeting Room N204-205,
HKCEC
(France) Comedy.
92mins. Europacorp.
Dir: David Moreau.
Key cast: Virginie Efira,
Pierre Niney.
Alice Lantins is 38. She
has everything it takes to
become the next editor-inchief of Rebelle Magazine,
except her uptight image.
But when attractive,
20-year-old Balthazar
crosses paths with Alice,
her colleagues’ view of
her inexplicably changes.
Realising this is crucial
to her promotion, Alice
pretends to embark on an
unlikely love affair.
Theatre 2, HKCEC
students, invades his family
and slowly the couple,
whose desires seem now
so far away, falls apart.
But Thibault’s intentions
are not motivated by love.
And he will do anything to
achieve his goal.
Edonobori — The Spirit
of Ryukyu
Meeting Room N211-212,
HKCEC
Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC
(Japan) Documentary.
69mins. Okinawa Film
Office. Dir: Yoshiaki
Hongo. Key cast:
Shizue Matayoshi,
Etsuko Higa.
HAND IN HAND
Drug War
(China) Action/adventure,
drama. 118mins. HKIFF
Industry Screenings @
Filmart. Dir: Johnnie To,
Wai Ka Fai. Key cast:
Louis Koo, Sun Honglei.
Arrested by the mainland
Chinese police, a Hong
Kong drug lord is forced to
help the latter infiltrate a
drug cartel in China and
destroy it from the inside.
Theatre 1, HKCEC
n 20 Screen International at Filmart March 19, 2013
(France) 80mins. Wild
Bunch. Dir: Valerie
Donzelli. Key cast:
Valerie Lemercier,
Jeremie Elkaim, Beatrice
De Stael, Valerie Donzelli.
From the moment they
meet — and against
their will — Helene and
Joachim begin a lovers’
dance they are powerless
to stop.
Meeting Room N206-207,
HKCEC
KNIGHT RUSTY
(Germany) Animation.
85mins. Sola Media.
Dir: Thomas Bodenstein.
Knight Rusty is in for the
adventure of his life: Just
as his dream of winning
the big tournament comes
true, he is falsely accused
of theft. Stripped of his
knightly honour and
his castle, he sets out to
redeem himself and to
win back the heart of his
damsel. Can he also defeat
the evil prince and save
the kingdom?
Agnes b. CINEMA! HK Arts
Centre
My Paparotti
(South Korea) Drama.
123mins. Showbox/
Mediaplex. Dir: Yoon
Jong-chan. Key cast: Han
Suk-kyu, Lee Je-hoon.
A teenager gangster is
destined to become a
world-class singer.
Meeting Room N202-203,
HKCEC
National Base for
International Cultural
Trade
Meeting Room N209-210,
HKCEC
PAINKILLER
(US) Action/adventure.
75mins. Magic Elevator.
Dir: Berenika Bailey.
Key cast: Mike Pfaff,
Elodie Hara, Ron Pucillo,
Carey Davis, Dillaran
Martin, Douglas Olsson.
When an experimental
lethal injection has
the unexpected result
of making an inmate
immortal, the most vicious
convicts steal it to take over
the prison and the world.
Meeting Room N109-110,
HKCEC
14:30
MONTAUK CHRONICLES
(US) Documentary,
horror/suspense, sci-fi,
fantasy. 85mins. White
Phosphorus Pictures (HK).
Dir: Christopher Garetano.
Key cast: Alfred Bielek,
Preston Nichols, Stewart
Swerdlow.
A study of the dark legends
that surround the Camp
Hero air-force base, a
chilling examination of
Meeting Room N104-105,
HKCEC
TRAVELERS
(Japan) Action/adventure,
sci-fi, fantasy. 83mins.
Eleven Arts. Dir:
Koichi Sakamoto. Key
cast: Nao Nagasawa,
Ayumi Kinoshita, Yuko
Takayama.
Ten years have passed
since the discovery of
inter-cosmic travel.
The existence of three
parallel worlds have
been confirmed. What
happens in one cosmos
can influence events in the
other worlds. In response
to these discoveries, the
Dimension Police and
Space Guardian Academy
are formed. The beautiful
female investigator Ai,
is the Space Guardian
Academy’s top agent.
Along with her trusted
android partner, Bridge,
she has been assigned to
eliminate the inter-cosmic
terrorist group Doubt.
Meeting Room N101B, HKCEC
15:30
A Wedding Invitation
(China, South
Korea) Drama,
romance. 104mins. CJ
Entertainment. Dir: Oh
Ki-hwan. Key cast: Bai
Bai-he, Eddie Peng.
When Li Shing finally
breaks down and proposes
marriage, Chaochao turns
him down, convinced
SCREENINGS
her treatment for cancer
will fail. Following years
of painful treatment,
Chaochao treks to
Beijing to win Li Shing
back — and away from
his new fiancée. Though
she initially planned to
sabotage the wedding,
Chaochao can’t bring
herself to carry out
the plan when she sees
how happy he is. When
Li Shing admits his
engagement is a sham,
she’s equally enraged by
his duplicity and thrilled
by his declaration of
love. But history repeats
itself when Chaochao
receives medical news that
confirms her worst fears.
Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC
15:45
“NEW ACTION EXPRESS”
short film highlights
Meeting Room N206-207,
HKCEC
The Legend Of Sarila
(Canada) Animation.
86mins. Cinema
Management Group. Dir:
Namcy Florence Savard.
Key cast: Christopher
Plummer, Dustin
Milligan, Genevieve
Bujold.
A voyage of initiation in
which three young lnuits
go in search of a promised
land, hoping to save their
clan from famine.
Meeting Room N111-112,
HKCEC
16:00
Eternal watch
(China) Drama. 96mins.
Hangzhou Shiqing
Huayi Media Co. Dir:
Xiao Feng. Key cast:
Qian Peiyi, Sheng Xiang,
Zhang Wen.
Meeting Room N201B, HKCEC
Pororo: The Racing
Adventure
(Korea) Action/
adventure, animation,
children’s. 77mins. CJ
Entertainment. Dir: Park
Young-kyun.
Pororo and his friends
follow the turtles to
Northpia to participate
in the ice-racing
championship. On
arriving at icily beautiful
Northpia’s race, Pororo
and his friends wind up
the unlikely front runners,
ahead of the polar bears,
and make it to the
finals. However, a more
complicated course awaits
Pororo and his friends
— as does their strongest
adversary yet.
Agnes b. CINEMA! HK Arts
Centre
RoboKicks
(Stereoscopic 3D)
See box, left
The Best Offer
(Italy) Drama. 125mins.
European Film
Promotion (representing
uConnect). Dir:
Giuseppe Tornatore.
Key cast: Geoffrey
Rush, Jim Sturgess,
Donald Sutherland,
Sylvia Hoeks.
Virgil Oldman is a world
renowned antiques expert
and auctioneer. An
eccentric genius, he
leads a solitary life,
going to extreme lengths
to keep his distance
from the messiness of
human relationships.
When appointed by the
beautiful but emotionally
damaged Claire to oversee
the valuation and sale
of her family’s priceless
art collection, Virgil
allows himself to form
an attachment to her —
and soon he is engulfed
by a passion that will
rock his bland existence
to the core.
Meeting Room N211-212,
HKCEC
YESTERDAY NEVER ENDS
(Spain) Drama. 108mins.
Gaumont. Dir: Isabel
Coixet. Key cast: Candela
Pena, Javier Camara.
Barcelona, 2017. A couple
reunites after a tragic
incident in their past
and five years after they
last spoke. Anger, hatred
and bitterness erupt.
A nightmarish drama
that goes far beyond this
couple’s private grief and
point towards the end
society.
Theatre 2, HKCEC
Young And Dangerous:
Reloaded
(Hong Kong) Action/
adventure. 106mins.
Mega-Vision Pictures.
Dir: Daniel Chan. Key
cast: Him Law, Oscar
Leung, Philip Ng, Paul
Wong.
Meeting Room N109-110,
HKCEC
16:15
Recipes of Diet Diaries
(Japan) Comedy, drama.
100mins. Kadokawa
Shoten. Dir: Toshio
Lee. Key cast: Yuka,
Kenta Hamano, Masao
Kusakari.
Based on a series of
cookbooks that has sold
more than 4.85 million
copies.
Meeting Room N101B, HKCEC
Will You Still Love Me
Tomorrow?
(Taiwan) Drama,
romance. 100mins.
HKIFF Industry
Screenings @ Filmart.
Dir: Arvin Chen. Key
cast: Richie Jen, Mavis
Fan, Stone.
A 40-year-old gay man who
is married with a son is
wavering whether to come
out again after he chances
on an attractive young man
Theatre 1, HKCEC
16:30
GRANDMA HANA
(Japan) Drama. 126mins.
Sapporo-Hokkaido
Contents Strategy
Organization (SHOCS).
Dir: Kazuhiko Sugimura.
Key cast: Noriko Iriyama,
Naoko Kyoda, Joji Sibue,
Sayuri Iwata.
This charming and
heartwarming story is set
in the small town of Odate,
situated in the virgin
landscape of Northern
Akita prefecture, Japan.
In an age of insecurity
and uncertainty for Japan
and the rest of the world,
it serves as reminder of
something precious that we
have almost forgotten.
Meeting Room N209-210,
HKCEC
How to Make Penguin
Family
(Japan) Drama, romance.
90mins. Okinawa Film
Office. Dir: Katsutoshi
Hirabayashi. Key cast:
Eiko Koike, Kingone
Wang, Motoki Fukami,
Tomoji Yamashiro.
Ayumi, a freelance writer
working in Tokyo, marries
a cameraman she met in
China. Soon after their
marriage, he loses his job
when his company goes
bankrupt. In order to cheer
up her husband, Ayumi
takes him to Ishigakijima.
Once there, charmed by
the stunning nature, the
warmth of the locals and
the delicious food, they
settle on the island.
Meeting Room N202-203,
HKCEC
Wimonchailerk,
Shahkrit Yamnarm, Ray
MacDonald.
Meeting Room N111-112,
HKCEC
WRESTLING QUEENS
UPSTREAM COLOR
Drama, romance.
96mins. HKIFF Industry
Screenings @ Filmart.
Dir: Shane Carruth.
Key cast: Amy Seimetz,
Shane Carruth, Andrew
Sensenig, Thiago
Martins, Kathy Carruth,
Meredith Burke.
A man and woman are
drawn together, entangled
in the lifecycle of an
ageless organism. Identity
becomes an illusion as
they struggle to assemble
the loose fragments of
wrecked lives.
Meeting Room N201A, HKCEC
17:30
Rockin’ on Heaven’s
Door
(South Korea) Drama.
105mins. 9ers
Entertainment. Dir: Nam
Taek-soo. Key cast: Lee
Hong-gi, Ma Dong-suk,
Im Won-hee, Baek Jinhee.
The world famous K-Pop
star Chung-ui is sentenced
to 300 hours of probation
after getting into a scuffle
with a drunk. He serves
the time in a hospice
where the patients drink
and smoke but nobody
cares. While Chung-ui lies
down on a job and tries
to escape from Anna, who
meddles in every single
thing he does, he happens
to look over the hospice
band Phoenix practising.
Although they all know
they could die tomorrow,
they put their hearts
and soul into the band.
Chung-ui rediscovers his
passion for music. Could
selfish Chung-ui manage
to finish the service
successfully?
Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC
17:45
3AM (3D)
(Thailand) Horror/
suspense. 96mins. Five
Star Production Co.
Dir: Patchanon Thumjira,
Kirati Nakintanon,
Issara Nadee. Key
cast: Focus Jeerakul,
Apinya Sakuljaroensuk,
Peter Knight, Kanklao
Duaysianklao, Iirah
(France) 90mins.
Wild Bunch. Dir: JeanMarc Rudnicki. Key
cast: Marilou Berry,
Nathalie Baye, Andre
Dussollier, Audrey
Fleurot, Corinne
Massiero, Isabelle Nanty.
More than anything,
30-year-old Rose longs to
be reunited with Mickael,
her estranged 11-year-old
son who has been placed
with a foster family and
blames his mother for
their long separation.
When she discovers that
Mickael is crazy about
wrestling, Rose thinks
she has found a way to
melt the ice: she will put
together a tag team with
three girlfriends from the
store where they work as
checkout girls.
Meeting Room N206-207,
HKCEC
18:00
Editorial office: Room G202,
second floor, Hong Kong
Convention and Exhibition
Centre, 1 Expo Drive, Wanchai,
Hong Kong
Filmart stand: 1E-D26
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Tel +852 2582 8958
Editor Wendy Mitchell
(wendy.mitchell@
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Contributing editor (Asia)
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Reviews editor
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Reporters
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and art
Mark Mowbray (mark.
mowbray@screendaily.com)
Sub-editors
Medina Lau, Paul Lindsell
Translator
Arthur Chin
Chief executive, MBI
Conor Dignam
Advertising
Tel +852 2582 8959
Exposed
(US) Documentary.
78mins. Wide. Dir: Beth B.
It’s satire. It’s parody. It’s
a populist blend of art and
entertainment that gives
new meaning to the word
‘transgression’.
Meeting Room N104-105,
HKCEC
Richard: The Lionheart
(US) Action/adventure.
105mins. Wonderphil
Entertainment. Dir:
Stefano Milla. Key cast:
Chandler Maness, Burton
Anthony Perez, Malcolm
McDowell.
King Henry II decides
to test his son Richard’s
loyalty, honour and skill.
Henry sends him to a
hellish prison in which the
prisoners must fight for
survival against diverse
adversaries.
Meeting Room N204-205,
HKCEC
18:15
PHILOMIRROPHOBIA
I & II (China) Sci-fi,
fantasy, drama, romance.
93mins. HKIFF Industry
Screenings @ Filmart.
Dir: Yuke. Key cast:
Yuke.
Commercial director
Andrew Dixon +44 7595
646 541 (andrew.dixon@
screendaily.com)
Sales consultant
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7492 (ingridhammond@mac.
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Production manager
David Cumming (david.
cumming@mb-insight.com)
Group commercial director
Alison Pitchford
Festival and events
manager Mai Le +44 7734
967 324 (mai.le@mb-insight.
com)
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Meeting Room N101B, HKCEC
March 19, 2013 Screen International at Filmart 21 n
Events
Seminars
and events
TUESDAY 19
and Exhibition Centre
New Wave Forum on
Chinese Film Genre 2013
Opportunities in
Asia: Book-to-Screen
Projects in Today’s
Box Office hits
Venue Studio, Hall 1,
Hong Kong Convention
and Exhibition Centre
Venue Stage, Hall 1, Hong
09:00
Kong Convention and
Exhibition Centre
Moderator Wendy
Mitchell, editor, Screen
International
Panel speakers Chetan
Bhagat, Indian novelist;
Marysia Juszczakiewicz,
founder, Peony Literary
Agency; Stu Levy,
producer/director and
founder, Tokyopop;
Michael Tolkin, US filmmaker and novelist
Digital Movie and
Cinema Symposium
Venue Theatre 1, Hong
Kong Convention and
Exhibition Centre
10:00
Hong Kong Film New
Action — Idea. Action.
Your NEXT Symposium
and Workshop
Venue Meeting Rooms
S226-S227, Hong
Kong Convention and
Exhibition Centre
10:30
Venue Event Room, Hall 1,
Hong Kong Convention
Kick-off Ceremony cum
Press Conference of
the First Feature Film
Initiative
Venue Meeting Room
S228, Hong Kong
Convention and
Exhibition Centre
12:30
Venue Event Room, Hall 1,
Hong Kong Convention
and Exhibition Centre.
For company’s selected
guests and press only
13:00
Press Conference of
‘The Midas Touch’
New releases
presented by MegaVision Pictures &
Mega-Vision Project
Workshop
Kong Convention and
Exhibition Centre
Venue Theatre 1, Hong
Kong Convention and
Exhibition Centre
of Future Strategy,
Munhwa Broadcasting
(MBC); Ho Lai Chuen,
executive vice-president
and general manager
(production), PCCW
Media Limited; Ben
Mendelson, president,
Interactive Television
Alliance (ITA)
Corporation
Promoting And
Protecting The Screen
Community In The Cloud
Era
Venue Studio, Hall 1,
Hong Kong Convention
and Exhibition Centre
17:30
Universe Entertainment
— ‘Inferno 3D’ Press
Conference
15:00
Venue Studio, Hall 1,
Hong Kong Convention
and Exhibition Centre
Venue Stage, Hall 1, Hong
Kong Convention and
Exhibition Centre
Youku Tudou, TVB
Strategic Partnership
Announcement
14:30
Venue Stage, Hall 1, Hong
The 6th Asia VFX and
Digital Cinema Summit
Salon Films Joint
Announcement Press
Conference
11:30
Media Asia Film
presents ‘Drug War’
Press Conference
TV World 2013
Opening Ceremony &
International Forum
Venue Stage, Hall 1, Hong
Kong Convention and
Exhibition Centre
Moderator Peter Lam, vicepresident, Hong Kong
Televisioners Association
Speakers Ahn Taeg Ho,
managing director
Venue Meeting Room
S221, Hong Kong
Convention and
Exhibition Centre.
By invitation only
15:30
Shooting in Italy: High
Quality, Low Budget
Venue Event Room, Hall 1,
Hong Kong Convention
and Exhibition Centre
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Issue 1751 November 2012
CHINA IN
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125
■ AFM ■ Rome’s hottest titles ■ Australia and New Zealand
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