love of the aegean sea alec su

20160308-阿修罗-HOLYYWOOD杂志封面.pdf 1 16-3-8 下午6:02
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Russo Brothers Set Up Shop in China
The sibling helmers behind Marvel’s Captain America franchise are teaming up with
Beijing-based partners to develop projects for the booming local market By Patrick Brzeski
Leung
I
Jet Tone Unveils
Europe Raiders
By Karen Chu
H
ong Kong’s Jet Tone
Films will be launching Europe Raiders,
a co-production with China’s
Inlook Media, at Filmart.
The third installment in
Jingle Ma’s Tokyo Raiders
(2000) and Seoul Raiders
n a hush-hush deal last week, Captain America
helmers Anthony and Joe Russo secured financing for Anthem & Song, a new startup studio
based in Los Angeles and Beijing, which will
develop and produce Chinese-language films for the
country’s booming theatrical market.
In 2015, China’s box office grew an astounding 49
percent. It is expected to surpass North America
next year as the largest theatrical market in the
world.
The Russos’ partners in Anthem & Song are
Beijing-based distributor United Entertainment
Partners, and HDQH, a Chinese private-equity
fund, also based in Beijing. Financial terms were not
disclosed, but a source with knowledge of the deal
tells THR that the brothers’ Chinese backers have
created a fund in the range of $200 million to $300
million for co-financing the studio’s initial output.
United Entertainment Partners also will handle
distribution of Anthem & Song’s releases in China.
The Russos tell THR that they have no plans to
direct Chinese-language films through the imprint,
but will instead develop and produce Chinese directors. The studio has set a target of having two films
in production by the end of 2017.
The project came about, according to the brothers, from a promotional trip they took to Beijing
in 2014 for Captain America: Winter Solider, which
grossed in China $115.6 million of its $714.4 million
worldwide total.
“We made a lot of friends on that trip and just
C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2
Beautiful 2016
market
title
The latest installment of the Hong Kong Film Fest’s signature anthology is a consistently
engaging omnibus that nonetheless lacks a standout segment by elizabeth kerr
C O N T I N U ED O N PA G E 2
Sono, Takata
Join Japanese
Porn Reboot
By Gavin J. Blair
F
ive leading Japanese
directors, including
Hideo Nakata (The Ring)
and festival favorite Sion Sono,
are to helm a film each for the
relaunch of Nikkatsu’s softcore series referred to in Japan
as Roman Porno.
More than 1,100 of the series
were released theatrically by
Nikkatsu in the 1970s and
1980s. Filmmakers were given
creative freedom once the sex
scene criteria was met and
helped launch the careers
of a number of top Japanese
directors, including Yojiro
Takita, who went on to make
Jia Zhangke’s The
Hedonists tells the story
of three unemployed
brothers who find work
at a surreal circus.
A
N T HOL OGY F I L MS BY T H EIR V ERY
nature run hot and cold, and the past
Beautiful films, the Hong Kong film
festival’s signature commission, suffered from
mixing the insipid (Tsai Ming-liang’s No No Sleep
last year) and the inspired (Lu Yue’s 1 Dimension
in 2013). Beautiful 2016, however, is the most
consistent of the entries yet, though consistent
merely signals a lack of real stinkers. Talent isn’t
the problem as 2016’s slate of contributing filmmakers demonstrates, but as the series wears on,
the theme — what is beautiful? — has become diffuse, bringing the film to within striking distance
of being an exercise in indulgence. Names above
the title like Jia Zhangke and Stanley Kwan will
C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 1 5
C O N T I N U ED O N PA G E 2
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
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theREPORT
RUSSO BROTHERS
C O N T I N U ED F R O M PA G E 1
Serkis
Andy Serkis’
Imaginarium
Expands to Asia
By Patrick Brzeski
T
he Imaginarium
Studios, the Londonbased production
company and performance
capture studio, is planting its
flag in the fast-growing AsiaPacific region.
With backing from
Rhizophora Ventures, a statebacked Malaysian holding
company set up to invest in the
country’s entertainment and
media sectors, Imaginarium
Studios is launching a specialist performance capture and
content creation hub in Johor,
Malaysia at the Pinewood
Iskandar Malaysia Studios.
The Imaginarium Studios
was co-founded in 2011 by film
producer Jonathan Cavendish
and actor Andy Serkis, famous
for his revolutionary performance capture portrayals of
Gollum in the Lord of the Rings
franchise and the recent Star
Wars: The Force Awakens.
“This is a huge step for
the studio and we are really
excited to see what opportunities this move to the
Asia-Pacific region will
bring,” Tony Orsten, CEO of
Imaginarium said.
MEANWHILE, IN THE REAL WORLD …
• Police used pepper spray on protesters outside a Donald Trump
rally in Kansas City.
• Zootopia set a single day
record in China for an animated
release by taking in $25 million.
• P residential candidate
Hillary Clinton issued an official
apology for praising the
Reagan’s work to fight AIDS.
fell in love with Chinese cinema,”
explains Joe Russo. “We made a
bunch of personal trips back to
Beijing to nurture and grew those
relationships in the film business
there.”
The brothers say they are open
to co-financing offers from the
Hollywood studios and other
international investors, but
Chinese partnerships are their
priority.
“This is really about fostering
Chinese cinema, so the more we
can collaborate with the Chinese,
whether it’s on the financing side
or creatively, that’s the priority
for us,” says Joe Russo.
On their creative attraction to
working in China, Anthony Russo
adds: “China has such a rich
cultural history and tradition of
storytelling, and also this huge
domestic market that is undergoing explosive growth. So they’re
at this really interesting moment
of exploring what their domestic
cinema is, and how it relates to
international cinema.”
The brothers say they are
approaching Anthem & Song
with an open mind and might get
behind projects of various genres
or budget sizes.
“It could be anything from $5
million to a $100 million movie,
Andy Russo, left, and his
brother Joe say they hope to
work with Gone With the
Bullets director Jiang Wen.
depending on what the content
can support,” says Joe.
The studio’s slate is still under
development, but the brothers
have been traveling to Beijing
on a monthly basis to meet with
several Chinese directors, whom
they hope to produce.
“We’re trying to engage Jiang
Wen,” says Joe, “We love what
he did with Gone with the Bullets.
We’ve also sat down with Ning
Hao and we’re talking with Wu
Jing about a couple of projects.”
(In 2014, Wen’s Gone With the
Bullets grossed $83 million at
the Chinese box office; Ning’s
Breakup Buddies took $187.9 million; and Wu’s The Breakup Guru
pulled in $111.4 million.)
Although best known for their
work on big budget superhero
pictures — their next directorial
release will be Captain America:
Civil War on April 28, followed
by two Avengers: Infinity War
movies — the Russos’ filmography is characterized by diversity.
JET TONE
JAPANESE PORN
C O N T I N U ED F R O M PA G E 1
C O N T I N U ED F R O M PA G E 1
(2005) series — which have taken in $4.6 million in
Hong Kong — the $26 million action comedy will
be helmed by Ma and stars previous installments’
leading man Tony Leung Chiu-wai.
Filming will begin in May, with plans to shoot in
Italy, Austria, Shanghai and Japan. The film is set
for a 2017 release.
Jet Tone was not involved in the previous
installments in the Raiders series, but producer
and Jet Tone CEO Jacky Pang tells THR it seemed
like a good fit for the Hong Kong-based company
thanks to the fact that it also manages talents
such as Leung.
“Since we have a longtime friendship with Jingle
Ma, and we find the idea of the film to be interesting, and the fact the film stars one of the artists in
our signed talents, we decided to become one of
the investors and the production company of the
film,” Pang tells THR.
Additional cast will be announced at a
later date. Pang adds that the cast would have
an emphasis on international talent.
Oscar-winner Departures, and Masayuki Suo
(Shall We Dance?).
Their appeal waned with the spread of
home video pornography and the final
Nakata
film was released in 1988.
‘’I entered Nikkatsu film studios in the mid
80s as I admired hundreds of Roman Porno movies,
which could be very romantic, energetic, and artistic,’’ Nakata tells THR.
‘’Now every kind of hardcore porn is available
on the Internet, I wanted to make a ‘New Wave
Roman Porno’ film which appeals visually, emotionally, and sensually to the modern audience,’’
he added.
Nakata’s film will be a lesbian story, while Sono’s
is to be themed ‘art.’ In addition, Isao Yukisada
(Crying Out Love in the Center of the World,) Akihiko
Shiota (Canary) and Kazuya Shiraishi (Devil’s Path)
will helm productions.
The series is being launched in conjunction with
satellite network SKY PerfecTV, which will show
the films on one of its Japanese channels.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D1_HK_news1+2+REVIEW.FINAL.indd 2
They got their start in the indie
filmmaking scene of the 1990s,
financing their debut feature
Pieces (1997) with personal credit
card debt. The film screened at
the Slam Dance Film Festival
in Park City, Utah, where it was
seen by Steven Soderberg, who was
so impressed by the picture that
he helped arrange their entrée
into Hollywood. The brothers
later won an Emmy for their work
on the cult comedy Fox comedy
Arrested Development, and produced and directed early episodes
of NBC sitcom Community.
They’ve also prolific commercial
directors.
“What Joe and I get excited by,
creatively, is exploring all of the
different forms of filmmaking,”
says Anthony. “So this is sort of
like a new venue for us to explore
Chinese cinema and see where it
takes us. It’s a very fun, creative
thing, and it’s made possible by
the fact the industry is growing so
fast there.”
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theREPORT
Bad Cat
Odin’s Eye Sells
Bad Cat to China,
Middle East
By Patrick Brzeski
O
n the eve of Filmart,
Beijing-based distributor Turbo Film and
Kuwait’s International Film
Distribution (IFD) pounced on
mainland China and Middle East
rights, respectively, for Odin’s
Eye Entertainment’s upcoming
animated feature Bad Cat.
A risqué, action-packed
comedy for adults, Bad Cat
is described as blending — in
animated form — “the outrageousness of Fritz The Cat, the
cuteness of Garfield and the
whip-smart action of [Quentin]
Tarantino.”
Odin’s Eye CEO Michael Favelle
closed the deal with IFD’s Ghalia
Hayat, while the company’s SVP of
international distribution in AsiaPacific, Martin Gallery, inked the
contract with Turbo Film founder
Jin Cai. Both distributors are planning wide theatrical releases.
“Turbo Film is the perfect
partner to introduce Bad Cat to
Chinese audiences, who I know
will embrace our loveable rogue,
Shero. I’m thrilled Jin and the
Turbo Film team share our
enthusiasm,” says Gallery.
Adds Favelle: “Bad Cat has
the potential to do for animation what Deadpool has done for
R-Rated superheros and it’s great
to be working with buyers who
have the same belief.”
Sun Entertainment On The Brink
By Karen Chu
H
Wong
Emperor
Embraces
Wong’s Curse
By Karen Chu
H
ong Kong’s Emperor
Motion Pictures is debuting the thriller The Sleep
Curse at Filmart.
In production now, Curse
reunites director Herman Yau (The
Mobfathers) with his The Untold
Story leading man Anthony Wong
in a horror setting. The film tells
the story of a murdered “comfort
woman” during the Japanese
occupation of Hong Kong in the
1940s and her curse on the family
of a local collaborator.
Emperor will also launch I Love
that Crazy Little Thing at Filmart.
The film is a love story about a
rekindled romance between two
former lovers on the quest to find
the composer of an unlicensed
song in a soon-to-be-released
movie, and is directed by Snow
Zou (But Always).
ong Kong’s Sun Entertainment Culture is backing the $15.4
million action thriller The Brink, produced by Monkey King
director and action frachise SPL producer Soi Cheang, and
local artist management legend Paco Wong. The cop thriller will be
directed by new helmer Jonathan Li and stars Zhang Lin (Ip Man 3),
Janice Man (Helios), and Gordon Lam (Trivisa).
The film, now in pre-production, is jointly produced by Sun
Entertainment Culture, China’s iQiYi, YL Pictures, and SilMetropole Organization, and distributed by Bravos Pictures.
Filmart Attendance Strong Despite
Hong Kong Film Fest Date Change
By Karen Chu
T
hanks to the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Filmart is not running concurrently with the Hong Kong International Film
Festival this year. “The Hong Kong Arts Festival is going
on right now, and we can’t have the venues they’re having,” HKIFF
executive director Roger Garcia told THR. “So in order to get the big
venues like the Cultural Centre for the big premieres, we have to
push back the dates of HKIFF to accommodate.”
Nevertheless, the changes in the dates are not expected to impact
the attendance at Filmart this year. Overall visitors this year are
roughly in line with last year: There were 7,180 in 2015 with over
7,200 expected this year. And there are 800 exhibitors this year,
compared with 784 in 2015.
But the shift in dates has created some challenges for dealmakers, especially those traveling from overseas.
“Now that Filmart and the HKIFF are held at different times,
the overseas buyers can’t watch the films in the market and festival
screenings at the same time,” said veteran Hong Kong distributor
Audrey Lee. “They are unlikely to stay for a weekend more or to
wait for the festival to open.”
The date changes have also created a tight schedule for exhibitors. “There wasn’t enough time to set up a booth this year,” said
Golden Scene’s managing director Winnie Tsag. “We just got
back from Berlin, and I don’t get to go to the Osaka Film Festival
because it overlaps with Filmart.”
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D1_HK_news3.FINAL2.indd 4
Lau Boards
Action Thriller
Shock Wave
By Karen Chu
H
ong Kong superstar
Andy Lau will produce
and star in Shock
Wave, the new project from
Universe Films, co-financed
with China’s Bona Film Group.
The $23 million film will be
directed by Herman Yau, with
a screenplay by Yau and Erica
Lee.
“I saw an early draft of
Shock Wave from Herman
three years ago, but then we
were busy with other things,”
Lau tells THR. “I have known
Herman for over twenty years,
he is a director that demands
my respect. I felt that it’s
not right that we have spent
three years not developing the
script of Shock Wave, so I got
in touch with him and hope to
get the project off the ground.
Also, the project is very much
a Hong Kong-style action
thriller, so I decided to produce and star in an important
role in the film.”
Lau is not one of the investors in the film, but his new
production company, Infinitus
Films, will be involved in the
production.
Filming will begin in April
in Hong Kong for a mid
2017 release, the climax of
the film will feature a bomb
threat in the Cross Harbour
Tunnel in the city. Lau will
play an undercover Explosive
Ordnance Disposal Bureau
officer who becomes the
protege of a criminal who specializes in bomb making.
Chiu-wai
Lau
4
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theREPORT
Arabian Nights Offers a Surreal Take on Modern Portugal
n
Hidde
GEM
Miguel Gomes’ ambitious three-part epic employs ancient tall tales for an
imaginative look at the current challenges facing his country By Scott Roxborough
By Karen Chu
H
kong Kong-based
Distribution
Workshop is launching The Great Escape at
Filmart, the new feature from
Hong Kong arthouse veteran
Ann Hui (A Simple Life, The
Golden Era). Produced by
China’s Bona Film Group. The
war drama, starring
Zhou Xun (Overheard
3) and Eddie Peng (To
the Fore) centers on
Fong Lan, a leading
Hui
real-life resistance
fighter in 1940s Hong Kong.
Director Hui is famous for
her delicate and perceptive
portrayal of women in film,
and the The Great Escape will
team her up for the first time
with Zhou Xun, one of the most
versatile actresses in Chinese
cinema today.
The film is produced by
Roger Lee, who was also the
producer Hui’s award-winning
Summer Snow (1995).
Production of The Great
Escape began at the end of
February in Guangdong,
China, and will continue in
Hong Kong.
THR IN HONG KONG
NEWS
Kevin Cassidy
[email protected]
+1 213 840 1896
Patrick Brzeski
[email protected]
+81 80 5900 0233
Karen Chu
[email protected]
+852 6171 3530
Gavin J. Blair
[email protected]
+81 90 6479 4745
REVIEWERS
Elizabeth Kerr
[email protected]
Clarence Tsui
[email protected]
Piera Chen
[email protected]
ART & PRODUCTION
Peter B. Cury
[email protected]
SALES
Ivy Lam
[email protected]
+852 6176 9272
Like its source material, Arabian
Nights features a female narrator
spinning tales within tales.
M
twist: structuring his stories in
iguel Gomes was in the
the form of allegorical tales, like
midst of shooting his
those in 1,001 Arabian Nights.
last film, the Berlin
“I had before the idea to do this
festival award winner Tabu, when
impossible project, to make an
the economic crisis hit his native
adaptation of Arabian Nights.
Portugal. He had been planning
But I think even if Cecil B.
a drama set in Mexico for his
DeMille was alive today, he
next project, but seeing the
couldn’t do it because it is
devastation sweeping over
a huge book, it would have
his country, he knew he had
Gomes
to be a megablockbuster.
to react.
Instead I thought I would
“I forgot the Mexican film
use the idea of Arabian Nights,
and I thought, ‘Let’s try and
the structure, to tell the stories
make something on what is
about Portugal.”
happening in Portugal today,’ ”
Like the original, Gomes’
Gomes says.
Arabian Nights, Volimes I, II and
He hired three journalists
III, which is receiving a special
to research real stories of the
screening at the Hong Kong
impact the crisis was having
International Film Festival, also
on the Portuguese, and a crew
features a Scheherazade — a
of screenwriters to turn those
woman who tells stories within
stories into fiction. But instead
stories. But her tales are set in
of taking the social-realistic
Lisbon, not the Middle East.
approach, Gomes added another
hong kong according to ...
THE GAMING MOGU L
ERIC TAN
Founder and CEO of Fifth Journey, a Hong Kong-based
gaming company that recently partnered with Universal,
Lionsgate and MGM to develop mobile games and virtual
reality experiences based on the studios’ film properties.
Strangest late-night
experience in Hong Kong?
Grabbing post-clubbing
grub at Hong Kong’s 24-hour
old school diners, such as
Tsui Wah. Things can get wild
in there....
Best place to get away
from Filmart and the Hong
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D1_HK_news4+HiddenGemFINAL.indd 6
“It is not an adaptation of the
book, it is using the character of
Scheherazade to tell stories that
are as absurd, sometimes comically, and as fantastic as the tales
in Arabian Nights.”
In Gomes’ Arabian Nights, a
prime minister can turn into
a chicken and animals and
even trees may talk. In some of
the tales, real-life people play
versions of themselves; others
feature actors in stories nearly
completely fictional.
The director shot the film over
a full year, gathering stories and
making tale after tale. When he
was finished, he had hours of
footage. And a major problem:
“I had signed a contract that the
film could not go over three hours
and 30 minutes, which is already
very long.”
In the end, Gomes convinced
his producers to let him make
three separate features, with
a total running time of nearly
six and-a-half hours (all three
volumes will be screened back to
back at Hong Kong City Hall on
March 27th).
“It’s a challenge, I know,
but I see it like a soap opera
— something you can watch
and come back to,” the director
says. “Also it matches the form
of the real Arabian Nights, where
Scheherazade interrupts her
story every night to create the
desire to hear it the following
night.”
Kong festival?
For nightlife, head to
Lan Kwai Fong to blow off
some steam. For a bit of
nature, check out Stanley
Market on the southern
side of the island. It’s a nice,
laid-back place to unwind.
What should
visitors do to blend in
with the locals?
Just walk fast with your
head down [Laughs].
A Hong Kong faux
pas best avoided?
Sneezing in public. People
are still not over the 2003
SARS epidemic here.
One thing every visitor
should try?
Take a ride on the Star Ferry!
The Victoria Harbour view is
still to die for.
ARABIAN: COURTESY OF HKIFF.
Distribution
Workshop Plans
Hui’s Escape
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Q&A DIRECTOR
When you first read the original
short story, what was it that grabbed
your attention?
I was intrigued by the idea of an
older man obsessed with a young
girl, who was 8 years old in the
story, and who took still photos
of her when she was sleeping.
There was no suggestion of
sexual involvement. His interest
was in her innocence and that
she should grow up into what
he thought was perfect, but he
was aware that she would be
corrupted by the world, and if
that happened, he would have
to kill her. That story really got
me going. In my imagination —
and Takeshi thought the same
when I spoke to him — he was
like a scientist, similar to the
way Nabokov (author of Lolita)
collected butterflies.
I imagine it would have been a
very different film, and much more
controversial, if you had stuck with
the girl being 8?
A very different film and maybe
I would have been arrested.
(Laughs.) We found a girl of 13
Working in a language that you can’t
understand, were you worried about
nuances in the story being lost?
That was very nerve-racking,
and I had to put some of my
confidence in my producer
Yukie Kito and the writer. The
writer was very picky that she
was not just going to translate,
but rewrite in Japanese. There
were so many layers of checks.
The assistant directors were also
completely bilingual. And then
when I gave the script to the
actors, especially Takeshi, they
flagged a few things, too.
Wayne Wang
The Hong Kong-born, U.S.-based helmer on
what his latest film owes to Lolita, working in a
foreign language and not getting arrested
By Gavin J. Blair
or 14 who looked a lot like the
actress [Kutsuna] as an adult,
who was in her 20a. Takeshi’s
character shows some of the
video documentation he has
made of her since that age to
the writer, played by Hidetoshi
Nishijima.
Why did you choose to switch from
the still photos of the original story
to video?
I thought video would be more
intriguing: it can capture subtle
things like slight movements
and breathing. And I’ve always
thought that sleeping is a lot
like dying and that very tiny
movements would give it away
that she was sleeping.
How did a story set in Spain come
to be a film in Japan with an
all-Japanese cast?
My producer Yukie Kito — who
I’ve worked with for a long
time — was trying to get the
project together at Busan one
year, where we won some kind
of award, but couldn’t get all the
financing. Then I get an email
from Yukie saying that Takeshi
BY THE NUMBERS
17
The age when Wang moved to California to
study medicine (he switched to art and film)
154.9M
Global box office for 2002’s
Maid in Manhattan, more than all Wang’s
other films combined
11
international film awards
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D1_HK_Wang.FINAL.indd 8
What was it like directing Takeshi,
who’s known as quite a character?
He’s so powerful and so strong
that I didn’t have to do much.
The only thing that was kind of
intimidating was that he told me
he only does one take, even in
his own films. But I got him to
do a few. He joked with me that
after we’d done one take, I always
said, “That was perfect, let’s do
another one.” He’d be like, “Why
do we need another one if it was
perfect?”
Source: Box Office Mojo
8
You’ve had a multicultural life —
did that help prepare you to make
this film?
My wife always tells me I’m a
bird without landing gear. I love
traveling; I love trying to get
beneath cultures and understand
them. When I go back to China,
I don’t feel I’m really Chinese.
I’m more American, but I’m not
really American. What the hell I
am, I don’t know.
How did you try and get a feel for
Japanese sensibilities for the film?
I’ve always been fascinated
with Japanese films, manga and
culture. I was introduced
to a film scholar who pointed
me toward some Roman
porno [theatrically-released
Japanese softcore pornography]
to get an understanding of
Japanese sensuality. Then
Takeshi recommended some
Japanese films and novels.
I learned so much; that’s why
I make films.
DOMINIQUE CHARRIAU/WIREIMAGE
W
had read a synopsis and wants
to do it as a Japanese film with a
Japanese cast.
AY N E WA NG (SMOK E,
The Joy Luck Club) returns
to Hong Kong, the city of
his birth, with While the
Women Are Sleeping, based on the
eponymous short story by Spanish
writer Javier Marias. The tale of
a novelist with writer’s block and
a mysterious older man-young
woman couple, the setting for the
story has been relocated from
Barcelona to Japan. U.S.-based
Wang directs a Japanese cast,
starring actor-director Takeshi
Kitano, aka Beat Takeshi, as the
older man, in a film about ageing,
obsession and murder. Hidetoshi
Nishijima plays the writer who
becomes drawn into the bizarre
world of Kitano’s relationship
with his young companion, played
by Shioli Kutsuna, who he videotapes while she sleeps.
Wang spoke to THR about
switching the still photography
documentation of the sleeping
woman in the original story to
video, transporting the story
from Spain to Japan and how
his own melting pot of cultural
experiences helped him make
the film.
3/12/16 12:59 AM
IN POSTPRODUCTION
MISCHA
BARTON
CURRENTLY IN POSTPRODUCTION (2016)
CAST: Mischa Barton
US DISTRIBUTOR: Alchemy
GENRE: Paranormal horror. "Sometimes Evil Has A Pretty Face"
IN PRODUCTION
PAZ DE LA
HUERTA
CURRENTLY IN PRODUCTION (2016)
CAST: Paz de la Huerta
US DISTRIBUTOR: Alchemy
GENRE: Thriller. "She’s Not Alone"
PREPRODUCTION
TARA REID
ANA COTO
CURRENTLY IN PRE-PRODUCTION (2016)
CAST: Tara Reid
DIRECTOR: Robert reed Altman
US DISTRIBUTOR: Alchemy
GENRE: Horror (Ghosts) "Hunger Is Not Solely For The Living"
CURRENTLY IN PRE-PRODUCTION (2016)
CAST: Ana Coto
US DISTRIBUTOR: Alchemy
GENRE: Thriller. "Down There, No One Can Hear You Scream"
CURRENTLY IN PREPRODUCTION (2017)
CAST: Mischa Barton
GENRE: Paranormal horror. "Sometimes Evil Has A Pretty Face"
MISCHA
BARTON
NATASHA
HENSTRIDGE
CURRENTLY IN PRE-PRODUCTION (2017)
CAST: Rachel Leigh Cook , Natasha Henstridge
GENRE: Sci-Fi Erotic Drama
There Are No Limits To What We Can Experience
RACHEL LEIGH
COOK
REBEL MOVIES FIlmart 1E-F31 Hall 1, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
Telephone: 310.458.6700 xt 323 [email protected] - www.rebelmovies.eu
Rebel Movies D1 031416.indd 1
3/11/16 3:04 PM
A short trip to Hong Kong for Filmart is the ideal opportunity to pad out your wardrobe with custom-designed shirts and suits
By Abid Rahman
A Feast For Foodies
Kevin Spacey
arrives at an event
in London wearing
a suit created by
Roshan Melwani
from Sam’s Tailor
in Kowloon.
Chic, contemporary and memorable,
these five restaurants offer ideal settings to
celebrate closing that Filmart deal
Hong Kong has many charms, but the “Fragrant Harbor”
punches well above its weight when it comes to world class
dining. Of Asia’s 50 best restaurants, Hong Kong boasts 9 entries
and the city’s eateries have Michelin stars aplenty. The locals
will tell you the best and most authentic food is found in less
heralded and older neighbourhoods, but if you’re pressed for
time or need somewhere buzzy, here are five hot places to eat.
suits’ where you pick the
fabrics and style and get
measured in the morning,
have a fitting later that
same day and pick up the
finished suit the following
morning. The better
tailors would prefer 2-3
days or more to work with
you on fitting the suit to
your measurements and
this can involve up to
three or four visits.
G
ENTLEMEN (A ND L A DIES) A LWAYS LOOK BETTER
in custom-made clothes but unless you’re willing to
spend big and more importantly have the time to
go to multiple fittings its something that is either
too dear or too impractical for most people. In Hong
Kong, however, quality tailoring at breakneck speed has
become an art form. If you have a few days in the city
and are keen on experiencing the ultimate in personalized clothes shopping, here’s a guide on where to go,
what to look for and how much you should budget.
WHERE?
There are dozens of
places in Hong Kong that
serve customers looking
for shirts or suits made
at speed but of course
they all vary in quality
and price. Kowloon is
famed for rapid tailors
but beware the tourist
traps. Sam’s Tailor (Ground
Floor K&L Burlington
Arcade, 90-94C Nathan
Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui,
Kowloon) is one of the best
known, having clothed
everyone from Jeb Bush
to Bruno Mars. For suits
in a hurry Raja Fashions
(2/F, Cammer Commercial
Building, 30-32 Cameron
Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui) and
Rashmi (Block A, 12th
Floor, Suite A3, Burlington
House, 90-94 Nathan
Road, Tsim Sha Tsui) is
also worth checking out.
On Hong Kong island,
there’s Pacific Custom
Tailor (Shop 111, One Pacific
Place, 88 Queensway,
Admiralty) who can knock
up a suit in a few days
and at the top end of
quality and price there’s
A-Man Hing Cheong (M/F,
Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 5
Connaught Road, Central)
which takes about five
days.
HOW LONG?
There are a number of
places that do ’24 Hour
Mak Mak
Hong Kong restauranteur Yenn Wong has been prolific of late
opening a number of new establishments including Fish School
and Meen & Rice to go along with her numerous collaborations
with famed British chef Jason Atherton. Be warned the menu is
impressively long, but if you love Thai (especially the curries) and
love choice then you’ve found the right place.
217A 2/F Landmark Atrium, 15 Queen’s Road, Central
WHAT STYLE?
If you’re a novice, Hong
Kong tailors will walk
you through the basics,
but be mindful that
they also want to push
more expensive fabrics
on to you. Despite that,
choosing the right style
and fabric from the
outset is crucial. Slim and
athletic? Double-breasted
works well. Tall? A threebutton is a safe option.
Short? two-button or
even one-button suit and
vertical stripes can also
help.
▼ AMMO
Not too far from the Convention Center, indeed a mere 10 minute
cab ride away, is AMMO an Italian restaurant that was seemingly
made to be frequented by the film crowd. The interiors by Joyce
Wang are inspired by the 1965 film noir classic Alphaville and
there’s certainly an old-world filmic sense to the ambience. AMMO
does comfort food like few other places in Hong Kong, all the pasta
is made on site in the authentic way. The gnocchi is to die for and
crab ravioli gets rave reviews too. 9 Justice Drive, Admiralty
Mott 32
The best dim sum in town? That’s the buzz around
Mott 32, consistently voted one of the best restaurants in
Hong Kong since it opened in 2014. Named after 32 Mott Street
in New York, supposedly the site of the Empire city’s first
Chinese convenience store, Mott 32 fuses cutting edge
Western design (think Meatpacking chic) with the very best
pan-Chinese food. Aside from the dim sum of course check
out the braised egg plant and stir fried prawns.
Standard Chartered Bank Building,
4-4A Des Voeux Rd Central, Central — A.R.
HOW MUCH?
Unsurprisingly, prices
vary greatly depending
on where the tailor is
located and their relative
fame even before things
like quality of fabric and
style you choose. At well
known tailors like Sam’s
Tailor prices start from
$500, but at places like
Raja and Rashmi suits
can cost as low as $300.
At the high end, prices at
A-Man Hing Cheong start at
$1,200.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D1_HK_Tailor.FINAL.indd 1
Zuma
Deciding on where to eat in a strange city is a difficult task
at the best of times, but trying to find somewhere for a group of
strangers is doubly tough. In a situation like this head to Zuma, a
well-established and well-loved Japanese restaurant that is
great for big groups. There’s so much to love at Zuma, why not try
the daikoku tasting menu and sample the best.
501-503, 5/F Landmark Atrium, 15 Queen’s Road, Central
AMMO
10
3/12/16 10:11 PM
HKIFF D1 031416.indd 1
3/7/16 11:56 AM
“Our philosophy is
to make films we
like,” says Pang of
her collaboration
with Wong, seen
here the set of
The Grandmaster.
IN THE MOOD FOR SUCCESS
N 1991, A F T ER DIR ECT I NG T H E CR I T ICA L LY ACCL A I M ED BU T
commercially disappointing Days of Being Wild, Wong Kar Wai was
finding it difficult to secure financing for his films. He decided to
take matters into his own hands, and set up Jet Tone Films with
screenwriter and director Jeffrey Lau to produce his own projects.
Over the ensuing 25 years, the company would release such box office
successes as The Eagle Shooting Heroes (1993) and Chinese Odyssey 2002
(2002), and international award-winners like In the Mood For Love
(2000), and The Grandmaster (2013).
Jet Tone Films CEO Jacky Pang was there all along. She began her
career as an assistant director and production assistant, later becoming a successful director (Rose Rose I Love You, Lover of the Swindler).
Her collaboration with Jet Tone began in 1990 when she was a production assistant on Days of Being
Jacky Pang
Wild. Since then, she has been an
indispensable part of the Jet Tone
organization, eventually rising to
become the company’s CEO. As Jet
Tone prepares to shop the $26 million action comedy Europe Raiders,
at Filmart, Pang, who divides her
time between Hong Kong and
Shanghai, talked to The Hollywood
Reporter about her passion for filmmaking, why she loves working with
Wong and the company’s future.
What made you decide to give up
directing to become a producer?
I became a director because I love
film. But eventually I realized
that the most important thing
in filmmaking is having a good
team, to have a good producer,
a good cinematographer, and so
on. So I changed my direction to
become part of a team. I felt I
was effective there.
You were at Jet Tone when Wong
Kar Wai and Jeffrey Lau set up the
company 25 years ago. What was the
founding philosophy?
I was a production assistant at
Jet Tone when it was founded.
Wong Kar Wai felt he needed to
be fully responsible for his productions and his investors, so he
established the company to mark
his commitment.
The films Jet Tone produces are
often critically acclaimed and film
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D1_HK_JetTone.FINAL.indd 12
festival favorites. How do you choose
projects?
Our philosophy is to make films
that we like, films that we find
interesting. That’s it.
Jet Tone also manages talent, such
as Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Carina Lau,
Chang Chen, Alice Ko and Sandrine
Pinna. Is there a vision behind deciding whom you sign?
We look for artists with potential,
someone we can work with. Fate
plays a big part in finding the
artists you sign. We also hope to
expand the international reputation of an artist, to give him or
her a platform to explore their
talent on a larger stage.
How do you balance your roles as
producer of Wong Kar Wai’s films and
CEO of Jet Tone?
To me, it’s the same thing. It all
comes down to having a passion
for film. I find making films is a
KAR-WAI: COURTESY OF THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY. ASHES: HKFM/PHOTOFEST. HAPPY: KINO/PHOTOFEST. LOVE: BLOCK 2 PICTURES/PHOTOFEST.
I
Jacky Pang, the CEO of Wong Kar Wai’s Jet Tone film shingle, discusses the company’s 25th anniversary, why she gave up
directing and how she became a trusted collaborator with one of the world’s most celebrated auteurs By Karen Chu
12
3/12/16 9:09 PM
very joyful thing. There is something precious in having to work
with so many people, but there
are of course challenges along the
way. Sometimes it’s difficult, but
I enjoy all of us working together
like a family.
Wong Kar Wai is famous for taking
his time while making a film. What is
the biggest challenge you’ve faced in
all these years of working with him?
Every day is a new challenge. He
has new ideas coming out every
day, but I’m happy to accommodate them. That is the reason why
to settle down in Argentina, to
get married and have kids, but
at the end of the shoot she said
to us, “Because of you I have
changed my mind.” We are
still in touch. She went back to
Taiwan to be with her family, and
now works as translator. We met
her again at the premiere of the
film and she was living with her
grandmother in Taiwan. Those
human experiences are the most
unforgettable.
Wong Kar Wai went to the U.S. in
2007 to make Blueberry Nights. Did
as passionate for film as we are.
The Chinese market is able to
accommodate many different
films, and we are as focused on
the Chinese market as everyone is
these days, but that doesn’t mean
we’re giving up on other foreign
markets. We hope to travel the
globe with our films.
Jet Tone’s first collaboration with
Alibaba Pictures, The Ferryman, is
produced by Wong Kar Wai. There
are rumors that the film is going
through reshoots. True?
No, the rumors are not true. We
“It all comes down to having a passion for film.
I find making films is a very joyful thing.”
Jacky Pang
I gave up directing to become a
producer — to create more space
for Wong to be the creative visionary that he is.
In the late 1990s you went with
Wong to Argentina to make Happy
Together. Many obstacles slowed
down the production, which became
the stuff of legend. What was the
most unforgettable incident for you?
In Argentina we met a lot of
people, and there were many
stories onscreen and off. We used
a lot of people who had no acting
experience for that film — like
someone who was employed as a
travel agent. The experience of
making that film changed many
of their lives. I remember there
was a young Taiwanese woman
we met there who had intended
you have any difficulties adjusting to
the U.S. system?
The American filmmaking
system is very organized. It was
a good learning experience and
good training. Everything was
on schedule. So we had to work
harder at pre-production. The
film was about getting from the
East Coast to the West Coast, and
we drove four or five times across
the continent to scout locations.
It was an adventure for all of us.
The previous Wong Kar Wai films
were financed internationally, but
The Grandmaster was financed only
by Chinese investors, and there were
many of them. Did this pose any
challenge for you?
We were lucky that we found
many Chinese investors who are
hadn’t shot the special effects
sequences before Chinese New
Year in February, and we’re shooting them now. We hope to release
the film this year, but the exact
date is to be determined.
What’s next for Jet Tone?
We would like to continue to
work on projects that we are
passionate about, and to work
with new talent. New filmmakers need a platform to shine. We
have a multi-picture deal with
the director of Touch of the Light,
Chang Jung-chi, and we’ve signed
a new Taiwanese director named
Lai Man-chieh. Wong Kar Wai is
now working on producing The
Ferryman, but for his next project
as a director… he is, of course,
entertaining a few ideas.
Happy
Together
Hong Kong
Cinema’s
Grandmaster
Wong Kar Wai’s five
most essential films
by Boyd van Hoeij
Chunking Express | 1994
Made as a contemporary quickie
while taking a break from editing
Ashes of Time, this bipartite
drama about lovesick cops started
to draw the contours of both a
recurring Wong theme — rudderless love in the big city — and the
director’s teeming-yet-desolate
urban aesthetic, also courtesy
of Christopher Doyle’s stylishly
kinetic camerawork.
Ashes of Time | 1994
Though the story keeps getting
lost in gold-colored dust-ups, this
is enthralling visual filmmaking,
with Wong more often resembling
a live-action painter. This is also
the wuxia epic that most clearly
anticipated Hou Hsiou-hsien’s
equally slow-moving, landscape-obsessed and unnervingly
gorgeous The Assassin.
Happy Together | 1997
Two male lovers can’t live with
or without each other in Wong’s
most intensely focused and
heartrending film, which explored
the agonizing pangs of love for
gay characters almost a decade
before Brokeback Mountain.
Though shot in Argentina, Happy
also functions as a sly comment on
Hong Kong’s love/hate relationship with China right when it took
over the reins of Hong Kong from
the British.
In the Mood for Love | 2000
Two cheated-on neighbors fall
in love but don’t want to commit
their spouses’ foul acts, which
creates a simultaneously glowing
and glowering sense of romantic
tension in Wong’s undisputed
masterpiece. This is, quite simply,
the most gorgeously aching neon
fever dream in cinema history.
The Grandmaster | 2013
Wong’s second wuxia epic — the
dark and rain-soaked yin to Ashes
of Time’s dry and sunburnt yang
— again showcases the director’s
visual and technical skills while
relying on the mesmerizing features of Tony Leung to infuse his
version of the story of Ip Man with
a sense of gravitas and spirit.
Ashes of Time
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D1_HK_JetTone.FINAL.indd 13
In the Mood
for Love
13
3/12/16 9:10 PM
PROM OTI ON
PREVIEW
Industry professionals from cinema exhibition and distribution converge at CineAsia,
Hong Kong’s annual convention for theater owners, film buyers and distributors. Each
year, in addition to the trade show, the convention showcases film screenings of world
class cinema and events and informative seminars that highlight the latest in
film exhibition, in-theater marketing and more. These film screenings give international
theater owners a chance to preview programming in advance of film releases.
The Hollywood Repor ter will preview the events and conferences of the
multi-day convention and recognizes the 2016 CineAsia honorees.
TAKE THIS OPPORTUNIT Y TO CONGRATULATE
THE 2016 CINEASIA HONOREES AND SHOWCASE YOUR
BRAND BEFORE THE LEADERS IN WORLD CINEMA .
Issue Date: 11 /30
Issue Close: 11 /23
Materials Due: 11 /25
Untitled-157 1
Contact:
London: +4 4.7788.591.781
New York: 212.493.4049
Los Angeles: 323.525.2245
Bonus Distribution:
CineAsia (12/6–12/8)
3/11/16 3:22 PM
R E V I E WS
The film includes an
appearance by porn star-turnedpolitician Ilona Staller.
market
title
Porno e Liberta
The Italian porn industry is given an anti-establishment
spin in Carmine Amoroso’s simplistic documentary
T
by clarence tsui
H E L AT E ST A N D PER H A PS MOST EXT R EM E T I T L E I N A
recent line of films about the social impact of schlock, Porn
e Liberta offers a mélange of crazily racy imagery, belligerent
anti-establishment talk and, unfortunately perhaps, an unsound
argument about adult entertainment as a persecuted, progressive
social force.
The documentary begins with a voiceover stating how pornography
has fought “a good fight” against social norms — a remark followed by
BEAUTIFUL
C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 1
generate strong festival interest for Beautiful
in whole or in part.
Less concerned with the nature, power or
definition of beauty, Beautiful 2016’s vignettes
are more meandering snapshots from various lives than conventional storytelling. This
edition begins with the most linear of the set.
Hideo Nakata’s Somewhere in Kamakura follows the elderly Mitsuko to the small town of
her youth after she receives a letter from her
first love, Yuzo. Accompanied by her attendant Saori (Suzuka Ohgo), she heads to the
town south of Tokyo, along the way sharing
her ideas about love, regret and seizing the
day with Saori. She gets her closure and the
two women forge a new relationship.
The real coup here is the casting of the
preternaturally youthful Kyoko Kagawa
as Mitsuko. Kagawa, who shot to fame in
Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story, brings an instant,
sunny nostalgia to Kamakura, and that’s a
good thing because not much else goes on.
Best known for his horror films— Ring, Dark
Water — Nakata steps out of his comfort zone
here and it shows. Somewhere in Kamakura is
a slight, aimless diversion that’s skin deep and
wastes a solid performance by Kagawa.
From there, things pick up, beginning
with former pop star Alec Su’s (The Left Ear)
footage of old ballroom dancers and other pensioners frowning on the
excess of the young. Against this backdrop of stifling conservatism,
the birth of Italian porn unfolds: the smuggling of Dutch and Danish
magazines into the country in the 1960s, the development of X-rated
filmmaking through producer Lasse Braun and svengali Riccardo
Schicchi, and the industry’s break into the mainstream in the 1980s
and onwards via the cinematic and then political exploits of Ilona
Staller, the porn-star-turned-parliamentarian known much more
widely as Cicciolina.
Seemingly still stuck in a time capsule of their raucous heyday
— posters of their productions still adorn their homes and offices —
Braun and Schicchi (both now deceased) are given a lot of screen
time reflecting on their achievements as emancipators for women and
artists, their views echoed by an erratic litany of seemingly similar acts
of social activism. They suggest that their fight against “puritanism
from both the left and right” allowed Bernardo Bertolluci’s Last Tango
in Paris and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s films to come to pass.
The historical dots are certainly there, but Amoroso might have
erred in the way he connects them. For a documentary about freedom
and empowerment, the obviously limp argument about the all-empowering idealism of porn is never really properly addressed. Feminist
views on the chauvinistic representation of women in porn are just
briefly mentioned, and the detractors’ views of the reductive nature of
porn is ironically exemplified by the limited time and scope Staller is
allowed to talk about herself.
Sales Widehouse // Director Carmine Amoroso // 78 minutes
documentary-ish Dama Wang Who Lives on
and heightened emotions smack of Kwan, but
Happiness Avenue. The shortest of the quartet, the extremes of show-don’t-tell structure fall
Dama Wang slowly morphs into an oddly com- short in the face of such bland players.
pelling chronicle of a middle-aged widow’s
Not surprisingly Jia Zhangke’s (A Touch of
average day. As the “da ma” of the title, Wang
Sin) entry is the high point of Beautiful 2016.
Suping simultaneously demonstrates all that
Depending on taste, Jia’s brand of static,
the label means — the big, frizzy hair, heavy
observational filmmaking is either pretenlipstick, gloriously drawn eyebrows, an utter
tious or luminescent but it works for the
lack of interest in her surroundings — and
vaguely absurdist The Hedonists. Revisiting
pokes holes in the image. With little in the
the subject matter that’s defined Jia’s oeuvre
way of words, we learn about what
so far, chiefly the rapid developreally defines Suping, with Su and
ment of China and the impact
cinematographer Zou Gongbao
that’s had on the average working
creating some subtle and evocstiff, the story focuses on three
ative images that range from
unemployed Shanxi laborers.
baffling to heartbreaking.
Their last hope is as performers
Perhaps most disappointing
at a surreal cultural amusement
is the welcome return of Stanley
park, from which the chain-smokStanley Kwan’s
One Day in Our Lives
Kwan, who hasn’t made a film
ing Sanming (Han Sanming) gets
Of... centers on a
pop star in crisis.
of any length in five years. One
canned for pointing out inacDay in Our Lives Of… puts a
curate dynastic costumes. The
young director, Dong (Luo Dong) and his
Hedonists is the kind of ironic, gently angry
(possibly) love struck assistant (Gao Ting
commentary on modern China Jia does so
Ting) in a recording studio with Liza (Cecilia
well, unfussy in its aesthetic and revealing in
Yip, Kwan’s Centre Stage) as the press gathits machinations.
ers outside when Liza’s marriage (and Liza
herself) publicly implodes. Channeling the
Sales HKIFF Society
spirit of Anita Mui (who starred in Kwan’s
Cast Kyoko Kagawa, Wang Suping,
breakout Rouge) the quasi-meta One Day
Cecilia Yip, Han Sanming, Yuan Wenqian
feels more like a draft of a full feature, what
Directors Hideo Nakata, Alec Su,
with half-drawn characters and situations
Stanley Kwan, Jia Zhangke
that demand guesswork. The lingering looks
96 minutes
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D1_HK_news1+2+REVIEWE.indd 15
15
3/13/16 12:42 AM
REVIEWS
Chow, far
right, is a
gambler
on a losing
streak.
From Vegas to Macau III
Wong Jing taps robots, stormtroopers and Psy for his latest
globetrotting gambling action-comedy by elizabeth kerr
C
OM BI N E A GODFATHER style opening wedding, a
baffling robot romance,
bomb threats, Michael Bay levels
of product placement, fat jokes,
stormtroopers (maybe?) and
cheap stunt casting (“Gangnam
Style” singer and worldwide fad
Psy) — as a start — and the result
is the overstuffed, nonsensical
and long-dead horse From Vegas
to Macau III, the latest in
exploitation master Wong Jing’s
self-referential (or self-parodying) gambling romp. Coming
nowhere near Las Vegas and free
of original co-star Nicholas Tse
(who was smart enough to get
out after the first film), the retro
charm of the original is gone, and
left in its wake is a bloated mess
of loosely connected “comic”
vignettes rigged to exploit
depressed audience expectations.
Hopefully, this will be the franchise’s death knell.
Where to begin? FVTMIII
picks up shortly after the events
of part two in Thailand — something about embezzlement, an
accountant’s testimony and
rekindled romance — and like
theFast & Furious franchise, it
almost has completely lost sight
of its original DNA: it’s a gambling movie. This time around,
the childlike and possibly
hypnotized (and most definitely
grating) Ken Shek (Chow Yun-fat
in a degrading role) is whining about losing his daughter
on her wedding day when his
arch-nemesis JC (pop superstar
Jacky Cheung, also demeaned)
sends a bomb disguised as Andy
Lau’s God of Gamblers character
Michael Chan to the ceremony
(mentioning what hotel the
wedding is at would only play
into Wong’s product-placement hands). Cue the arrival
of Interpol (the world’s most
misunderstood police force)
muttering something about a
gun-smuggling ring and it’s off to
Singapore with the real Michael
(strike three for pop-pantheon
dignity) to … do something.
Meanwhile, JC has the love of
Ken’s life, Molly (Carina Lau),
suspended in a giant bubble in
his mad scientist’s lair following
her plunge from a plane in part
two and the accountant Mark
(Nick Cheung) is hanging around
to irritate Michael’s ass-kicking
sister Aunt-aunt (Li Yuchun).
The level of inanity and utter
lack of narrative glue in FVTMIII
is astounding, and writer-director Wong has stooped to new
levels of desperation in building
a coherent tale. The production
crew keeps the surface gloss
professional and the lion’s share
of the technical specs are strong.
But Wong and company go even
heavier on the slapsticky antics in
sequences that consistently drag
on for too long. No longer the
fun romp the first film began life
as, From Vegas to Macau III has
turned into a chore.
Sales Mega-Vision Project
Workshop Limited
Cast Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau,
Nick Cheung, Li Yuchun
Directors Wong Jing
113 minutes
Cemetery of Splendor
sleeping sons. Past lives and ancient ancestors
are evoked through conversations that are
both cryptic and oddly matter-of-fact, in a
A dreamy and leisurely narrative experiment that will play best with
work that has the realistic vibe of a documenApichatpong Weerasethakul’s dedicated following by jordan mintzer
tary but the unearthly qualities of a sustained
reverie.
H E F I L MS OF A PICH AT PONG
Jenjira Pongpas Widner) as she tends to a
This is nothing new for Weerasethakul, who
bed-ridden narcoleptic, Itt (Banlop Lomnoi),
Weerasethakul always have toed the
in previous films has transformed men into
stricken with the same (tropical?) malady as
line between dreams and waking life,
tigers and ignored narrative conventions as
his permanently snoozing unit.
so the story of his latest enigmatic feature,
much as possible, though there are moments
We never learn why Itt and the others
Cemetery of Splendor (Rak Ti Khon Kaen), may
here that seem more drawn out than before.
are fast asleep throughout most of the film,
give admirers of his work a strange sense of
though Jen manages to communicate with the A few surprises are nonetheless in store, espedéjà vu.
cially when Itt wakes up and begins a sort-of
convalescent through the help of a psychic
Set in and around a makeshift country
mother-son relationship with Jen, even if his
medium, Keng (Jarinpattra Rueangram),
hospital accommodating soldiers plagued by
moments of consciousness are short lived.
who helps family members speak with their
a mysterious sleeping sickness, this leisurely
As the movie progresses, the
paced, semi-experimental narrative features
A mysterious sleeping sickness drives
barriers between the real world and
some of the Thai auteur’s trademark surreal
much of Splendor’s leisurely narrative.
the dream world begin to dissipate,
beauty, though doesn’t necessarily pack the
particularly during a beautifully
same punch as movies like Syndromes and a
shot sequence where the changing
Century or Cannes Palme d’Or winner Uncle
neon lights that sit by the soldiers’
Boonmee Who May Recall Past Lives.
bedsides start popping up throughClocking in at two hours, and marked by
out the neighboring city — like an in
a breezy pace that may prove frustrating for
situ installation spreading outwards
viewers hoping to latch on to a plot (although
from the clinic. Working for the first
nobody goes to a Weerasethakul movie for the
time with talented DP Diego Garcia
nonstop action, even if Danny Glover is listed
(Without), the director builds a
here as a co-producer), the scenario follows
naturalistic environment haunted
the travails of voluntary nurse Jen (regular
T
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REVIEWS
by signs of the netherworld, with a color palette that oscillates between the greens of the
jungle and the blue-red glow that guides the
sleepers’ days and nights.
Subdued and carefree in its storytelling,
Cemetery eventually does provide some clues
about Jen and her dedication to soldiers, as
well as an underlying mystery involving the
hospital grounds, which apparently house
the remains of a fallen kingdom. But such
details — and a handful of frank sexual
moments, including a playfully erect penis
hidden beneath the sheets — feel mostly like
communicating vessels for Weerasethakul’s
extremely Zen approach to cinema, where the
real and the intangible are regarded as one
and the same. It’s a vision that can make his
movies, and especially this one, seem both
inscrutable and strangely gratifying, and the
experience of watching it is like dreaming
with your eyes wide open.
Masters and Auteurs
Cast Jenjira Pongpas Widner,
Banlop Lomnoi, Jarinpattra Rueangram,
Petcharat Chaiburi
Director, screenwriter
Apichatpong Weerasethakul // 121 minutes
3 questions with
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
In the official summary for
Cemetery of Splendor, you
write that “it is also a very
personal portrait of the
places that have latched onto
me like parasites.” What do
you mean by that?
I don’t know, it’s something
about the logic of living [in
Thailand]. Sometimes I feel
really sick of this country —
that I’d like to go away. But
time and again, I keep coming
back, and it inspires me to
make movies. There’s this
push and pull of the place.
What pushes you away?
The political situation and the
inequality. You feel a strong
powerlessness. It’s almost
Jordan Chan learns the hard
way that crime doesn’t pay.
Trivisa
A topical and engaging crime thriller from producer
Johnnie To and a trio of young Hong Kong directors
W
by clarence tsui
I T H ROOK IE S L IK E T H E SE , W H Y WA I T FOR T H E
oldtimers? While still trying to finish his long-mooted omnibus featuring his fellow Hong Kong veteran auteurs, Johnnie
To has ushered in a powerful debut from three first-time directors
from the city instead. A fictional reinvention of the final hurrah of
three of Hong Kong’s most notorious felons in the 1990s, Hong Kong
International Film Fest opener Trivisa is an engaging, reflective and
topical criminal thriller.
Hailing from the aptly titled Fresh Wave new talent showcase, which
To initiated a decade ago, the young collective of Frank Hui, Jevons
Au and Vicky Wong have delivered a pitch-black, noir-infused debut
resembling their mentors’ fatalistic classics of yore. Taking its international title from the Buddhist notion of the “three poisons” leading to
suffering — delusion, desire and fury — the directorial trio could claim
to have produced a trilinear allegory about the source of their hometown’s fall from grace after its return to Chinese sovereignty.
like you cannot lead your own
destiny — especially for those
of us who work in the arts and
the media. It’s impossible
to communicate your true
You’ve said before that you
don’t like to be away from
Thailand for too long because
you have dogs and hate
leaving them behind.
Yeah, I actually shot one of
them for the new film, but
he didn’t make the final cut.
Poor guy. I love dogs. After the
film wrapped, I got another
one. It’s become a rule: When
I wrap a movie, I get a new
dog. I’ve done it every time.
Thankfully, it takes me four or
five years to finish a film.
While some nuances may go over the heads of uninitiated international audiences, viewers may still get something out of this very
different thriller in which criminal kingpins wallow in hilarious existential crises as they try to strike out for something new.
Sharply reflecting on how Hong Kong began to succumb to mainland China’s willful rise from poor cousin to bullying big brother,
Trivisa focuses on three character types who have appeared in plenty
of Hong Kong films before, mostly in trashy cops-and-robbers flicks
with gunplay galore and massive body counts.
Not here, though, as the directors and their writers have fashioned
some kind of a fictional existential career-crossroads of sorts for all
three of the felons. Delusion is embodied in serial kidnapper Cheuk
Tsz-keung (Jordan Chan), who grows bored of extracting billions from
tycoons and dreams of sculpting a legacy with a more violent crime.
Desire, meanwhile, is the flaw in Kwai Ching-hung (Lam Ka-tung),
who exploits anyone, anytime as he tries to hatch a new heist while
laying low. Making up the triumvirate is the notorious Kalashnikovwielding Yip Kwok-foon (Richie Jen), whose seething fury grows as he
puts downs arms and tries to reinvent himself as a trader of smuggled
electric goods in China.
Filmed separately by the three directors, the narrative of the three
leading characters are convincingly welded together by Allen Leung
and David Richardson, two regular collaborators of To’s. While quite
a few of To’s hallmarks are present — tense standoffs in the night and
the consequences of coincidences, for example — the three young
directors all have offered variations in mise-en-scene, framing and
acting. While Jen and Lam deliver, Chan’s comedic schtick softens
the absurd comedy Wong might have wanted his strand to be. Such
unevenness aside, however, Trivisa remains an impressive calling card
signaling brighter cinematic futures than the one set out for Hong
Kong onscreen here.
Opening Gala
Cast Lam Ka-tung, Richie Jen, Jordan Chan
Directors Frank Hui, Jevons Au, Vicky Wong // 97 minutes
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
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feelings here in Thailand.
There are so many taboos. I
feel frustrated sometimes.
For the things you see and feel
every day, you cannot say.
18
3/12/16 1:37 AM
Photo © Joe Scarnici, WireImage for TIFF.
Business
Connections
Discoveries
September 8 – 18
™Toronto International Film Festival Inc.
Industry early-bird registration opens May 5
tiff.net/industry
Toronto Film Fest D1 031416.indd 1
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REVIEWS
Collective Invention
An oddball fable from South Korea about a man who
becomes a cause celebre after genetic splicing gone wrong
renders him half-man, half-fish by harry windsor
S
OU T H KOR E A N DIR ECTOR
Kwon Oh-kwang’s Collective
Invention features the kind
of bizarro premise that gets a
screenwriter on the Black List
but more often than not results
in a film beset by the knotty
tonal problems that waylaid
something like The Beaver, Jodie
Foster’s abortive dramedy from
2011. The story of a man who
develops the upper half of a fish
after a misguided bid to come up
with an artificial food substance
that will solve world hunger,
this debut feature unspools as
a kind of science fiction cousin
to Lenny Abrahamson’s 2014
release Frank.
This time the head never
comes off, but for all its commitment to its quirky premise, the
film’s overtly satirical broadness
seems too literal-minded to be
trenchant, and it flits between
farce, social allegory, detective
story and polemic without ever
really alighting on any of them.
International traction looks
limited by the dearth of laughs in
a curio that seems desperate to
elicit them.
A rapid-fire montage introduces us to the sorry story
of Park Gu (Lee Kwang-soo,
hidden underneath a fish head
throughout), whose participation
in testing for big pharmaceutical company Ganmi Medical
goes disastrously awry when he
sprouts scales, webbed hands and
a fish’s head. A voiceover from
milquetoast reporter-in-training Sang-won (Lee Cheon-hee)
describes the fish-man’s journey
to fame and peak merchandising
potential, while the film crosscuts
between newsreel footage and
home video of Gu shot by the
hapless Sang-won. Everything
else is shot by DP Kim Tae-soo in
drably autumnal tones befitting
the pall under which all the
characters labor: Gu isn’t the only
one who appears to be walking
underwater.
Having laid out this overview by
way of prologue, the filmmaker
The film takes its
title from a Magritte
painting of a fish
with human legs.
then goes back to the beginning
to fill in the detail; the shuffling
of chronology remains somewhat
disorienting throughout. Sangwon, keen to prove his bonafides
to his editor (Jung In-gi), discovers Gu through the Internet,
in a story posted in an online
forum by a woman who claims
her boyfriend has turned into a
fish. That woman, Ju-jin (Park
Bo-young), reveals she turned Gu
in for a reward — “Why can’t I?
It’s a capitalistic society!”
Dr. Byun (Lee Byung-jun),
the scientist spearheading the
pharmaceutical company’s testing program, believes that what
he’s doing is for the greater good,
even at the expense of one man’s
humanity. He’s dismayed when
his product, Vector 9, goes on the
market at an extravagant price
— a “luxury item for the top 1 percent.” Gu escapes his clutches,
but only briefly: public opinion
begins to turn against him after
footage emerges purporting to
show Gu masturbating under the
A War
Complexity emerges through a
combination of careful writing and a
little work on the viewers’ part
T
by boyd van hoeij
H E OSCA R-NOM I NAT ED A WA R , THE
third film from Danish writer-director
Tobias Lindholm, after co-directing
R and helming A Hijacking, again has a title
that’s conceptual and intentionally broad.
Lindholm’s regular lead (and future Game
of Thrones and Ben Hur star) Pilou Asbaek
here stars as a Danish army commander in
Afghanistan whose life and family are turned
upside down by the fallout of a single decision
made while his company was under attack
and one of his men was in desperate need of
medical attention.
Like R, the film unexpectedly falls into
two halves, here about an hour each, and
like A Hijacking, A War’s first part constantly toggles between a faraway location,
here Afghanistan, and the home front in
Denmark. In the first hour, Lindholm follows
Claus Pedersen (Asbaek), the commander
of a unit of Danish soldiers who struggle to
Asbaek, center, is a Danish army
commander serving in Afganistan.
keep it together after one of their men dies
after stepping on a mine. Almost as much
time is spent with Pedersen’s wife back
home, Maria (Tuva Novotny). She has her
hands full looking after their cute daughter
(Elise Sondergaard), her kid brother, Elliot
(Andreas Buch Borgwardt), and Elliot’s somewhat older sibling, Julius (Adam Chessa), who
struggles the most with his father’s absence.
By presenting the home front on (almost)
equal footing, the film doesn’t necessarily
want to give equal attention to the hard work
of an army wife and mother. Indeed, Maria
is convincingly limned by Novotny but not
developed as a character as much as Claus.
Instead, what seems to interest Lindholm
is what it means for a family when a vital
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
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covers while leering lasciviously
at a nurse. At a press conference,
the nurse tearfully reveals she has
nightmares about being raped by
a fish.
Magritte’s 1934 painting of a
fish with human legs, from which
this film takes its title and central
gimmick, is striking for its lack
of context. Collective Invention the
movie provides too much, using
that hauntingly affectless motif
as a launching pad to skewer
the media, the government, Big
Pharma, religion and even capitalism itself but never gaining
much of a purchase on any of
them. This is chiefly because the
film’s kooky characters, pitched a
few clicks north of normal, never
really register.
Section See It My Way
Cast Lee Kwang-soo,
Lee Cheon-hee, Park Bo-young,
Lee Byung-jun
Director-screenwriter
Kwon Oh-kwang
92 minutes
component of it is absent for months on end;
by contrasting Afghanistan and Denmark, a
clearer picture emerges of what Claus does
but also what he’s missing and isn’t able to do,
which is just as telling.
An understanding of this particular point
is an absolute necessity before the film can
move on to part two (some spoilers ahead),
when Claus finds himself back in Denmark
and in a courtroom, accused of having
killed 11 civilians when he ordered a house
to be bombed during an unexpected siege.
Questions of morality, superiority, the cost
and value of local and faraway lives, and the
need for punishment to atone for one’s sins
often are not quite stated but hover over the
material, with Lindholm’s screenplay and
direction sticking to his stripped-down style
throughout. Helping audiences find a way into
the complex material is Asbaek’s emotionally
honest and raw performance, which never
even remotely becomes histrionic
Section Global Vision
Cast Pilou Asbaek, Tuva Novotny,
Soren Malling, Charlotte Munck, Dar Salim
Director-screenwriter Tobias Lindholm
115 minutes
20
3/12/16 1:32 AM
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REVIEWS
Oyster Factory
New York-based Kazuhiro Soda’s documentary offers an
engaging look at how globalization impacts small-town life
O
Kheiron tells
the story of his
parents, who
fled Iran after
the revolution.
All Three of Us
French comic Kheiron stars in a clever autobiographical
dramedy that transforms trauma into humor
F
by jordan mintzer
R ENCH STA N D -U P STA R K H EIRON T U R NS T H E CA M ER A
on his own inspiring origins in All Three of Us (Nous trois
ou rien), a cleverly handled family dramedy that traces
the actor-director’s roots from the dog days of the Iranian dictatorship to the dicey suburbs of Paris. Stronger in its harrowing,
and sometimes hilarious, first part than in its rather undramatic
conclusion, this impressive first feature nonetheless highlights the
talents of a comedian who’s not afraid to look danger in the face
and laugh about it.
Born in Iran and raised in France, Kheiron (last name: Tabib)
— known locally through a series of one-man shows and TV
appearances — tells the story of his father, Hibat (played by the
director), and mother, Fereshteh (Leila Bekhti from A Prophet),
two lovebirds forced to flee their homeland after the tumultuous
events of the Iranian Revolution, eventually settling in the rough
Paris banlieue of Pierrefitte-sur-Seine.
The film kicks off by revealing how the humbly raised Hibat
grew into a fervent opposer of the Shah (French comic Alexandre
Astier), joining a Communist resistance that would land him in
prison for more than seven years. After lengthy periods of torture
and solitary confinement, Hibat finally is released around the
time of the 1979 uprising. He soon falls in love with the headstrong
nurse Fereshteh, but their honeymoon is cut short by the rise of an
Islamist dictatorship under the Ayatollah Khomeini.
Despite the traumatic events unfolding, Kheiron manages to
infuse these early sequences with plenty of humor, depicting
Hibat and his merry dissenters as a quick-witted gang willing to
risk their lives in the name of freedom. There are arrests, deaths
and, eventually, a clandestine crossing through the mountains
into Turkey, yet the film never grows overtly heavy, finding ways to
land jokes during some fairly tough moments. And unlike many
French farces, where the emphasis often is on nonstop banter or
slapstick gags, All Three of Us plays out like a situational comedy
a l’americaine, with Kheiron mining his parents’ story for laughs
without betraying their rebellious spirit.
The conclusion feels more like a love letter to Mommy and
Daddy than a suitable finale, while archive photos in the closing
credits underline how this was all a true story.
Section Global Vision
Cast Kheiron, Leila Bekhti, Gerard Darmon, Zabou Breitman,
Alexandre Astier
Director-screenwriter Kheiron // 102 minutes
by clarence tsui
N L I N E A N D I N PR I N T,
Kazuhiro Soda never
is hesitant to make his
political views known. The New
York-based Japanese filmmaker
writes damning posts about the
rise of warmongers in his home
country and abroad in his blog
and among his published books
are Fascism Without Enthusiasm
and Do Japanese People Want to
Throw Away Democracy?. His
films, however, have taken a
very different approach, with
problems in Japan’s national
narrative gently revealed through
exposition-free representations of
ordinary lives on the margins.
Oyster Factory, Soda’s latest,
bears testament to the filmmaker’s skills in wringing out big
issues from the “little people.”
Edited from 90 hours of footage
shot over three weeks in one seaside community in southwestern
Japan, the film slowly and successfully teases out the country’s
clammed-up anxiety about a new,
globalized economy through the
struggle of workers in mom-andpop shellfish process businesses.
Engaging as always with his
settings and subjects, Soda
demonstrates an instinct in
capturing fears and doubts when
they come to the fore, while also
carefully putting these emotional
implosions in context. Always
entrusting his protagonists to
provide unintentional punchlines,
he lingers for too long in certain
scenes. Generally speaking, however, Oyster Factory offers pearls
Section Reality Bites
Director-screenwriter
Kazuhiro Soda // 145 minutes
Japanese
laborers prepare
for an influx of
Chinese workers.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D1_HK_REV.invention/war/three/oysterFINAL.indd 21
of wisdom about small-town
ennui in the 21st century.
Set in Ushimado, the hometown of the mother of Soda’s
producer (and wife) Kiyoko
Kashiwagi, Oyster Factory
mostly revolves around a cluster
of seaside workshops in which
mountains of the freshly fishfarmed shellfish are shucked,
cleaned and loaded onto delivery
trucks for the market. From the
very start, Soda is able to convey
the nature of a line of work that
one laborer describes, half in jest,
as tough and dirty. Muddy water
splatters over his camera as he
films the clattering unloading
of oysters, and the shop floor in
which all the processing takes
place — a bare room in which
workers sit on the floor for hours
tackling all those sharp-edged
shells with even sharper blades —
is tidy but gloomy.
Changes are afoot, however,
as a note attached on the wall
of a factory marks the date on
which “China is coming.” Not the
country, mind you, but workers
from there. Combining a pervasive sense of grit and offering odd
moments of grace — the town is
part of what is dubbed “Japan’s
Aegean Sea” after all — Oyster
Factory slowly cracks its settings
of provincial serenity open and
leaves the viewer to reflect on a
very uncertain future.
22
3/12/16 1:33 AM
PRO MOT IO N
SEE & BE SEEN
Daily, breaking news and reviews from the front lines
at all major international film festivals & markets
CANNES
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
May 1 1-2 2, 2016
TORONTO
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
September 8-18, 2016
AFM
AMERICAN FILM MARKET
November 2-9, 2015
BERLIN
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Februar y 9 -19, 2017
THR covers film festivals around the globe.
From previews in the print weekly issue to festival and
market dailies*, plus digital content on THR.com and events,
THR covers the festival circuit from start to finish.
CONTACT: UNITED STATES | Debra Fink | [email protected]
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8 Decades of The Hollywood Reporter
The most glamorous and memorable moments from a storied history
In 1971 Bruce Lee Left Hollywood to Become The Big Boss
Big Boss turned Lee into
a superstar, but he would
die two years later.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D1_HK_endpgFINAL.indd 1
F
OR DECA DE S, HONG KONG MOV IE
buffs buffs have been perplexed
by their city’s neglect of its most
famous native son: Bruce Lee. Hong
Kong has no Bruce Lee museum, no Bruce
Lee Boulevard, not even a proper Bruce Lee
memorial. The city’s Avenue of Stars, Hong
Kong’s version of the Hollywood Walk of
Fame, features a lone statue of the star, but
its erection was the result of a global fan initiative, not the local government’s largesse.
In 2011, the owner of Lee’s former mansion
in Kowloon Tong offered to donate the home
to the city so that it could be made into a
commemorative museum, but the project
fizzled within the city bureaucracy.
Exactly why Hong Kong has declined to
tap Lee’s enduring star power to serve as
one of the city’s icons is still the subject
of some debate —most suggest that the
local elders never viewed Lee as a true
native, given that he was born to Chinese
immigrants in San Francisco, USA (even
though he returned to Hong Kong when he
was three months old and grew up there
until he returned to California at age 18).
But this year, for its part, HKIFF is taking
steps to right the oversight. The 40th
edition of the fest is honoring Lee with
screenings of restored, digital versions
of four classic Bruce Lee kung fu flicks,
beginning with The Big Boss, the film
that brought him back to Hong Kong and
launched him into superstardom.
In 1971, having grown frustrated with the
side parts and choreography work he was
getting in Los Angeles, Lee returned to his
ancestral Hong Kong on the advice of producer Fred Weintraub to make a feature film
that would showcase his skills for executives
in Hollywood. After signing a two-picture
deal with Golden Harvest, Lee played his
first leading role in director Lo Wei’s The Big
Boss opposite James Tien, already a big star
in Hong Kong. Lee’s charisma and fighting
stye made the film a phenomenon, and it
soon became the highest-grossing picture in
Hong Kong history, not to be surpassed until
the release of Lee’s second Golden Harvest
vehicle, Fist of Fury (1972). The global
success of these movies had the intended
effect: in 1972, Warner Brothers offered
Lee the lead role in Enter the Dragon, the
first Chinese film to be produced by a major
Hollywood studio. Tragically, this artistic
and entertainment industry milestone
would be Lee’s last onscreen appearance
before his mysterious and untimely death on
20 July 1973, at the age of 32. — PATRICK BRZESKI
24
3/12/16 1:09 AM
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