Yun`s Homerun corrals hot Asian talent in debut slate

DA
Y
1
MONDAY MARCH 22, 2010
AT FILMART/HAF/HKIFF
www.ScreenDaily.Com
The Housemaid
France’s Pretty
prebuys Housemaid
from Mirovision
Korean producer/distributor
Mirovision has presold Im Sangsoo’s remake of Kim Ki-young’s
erotic thriller The Housemaid to
Pretty Pictures for France.
“We successfully released Im
Sang-soo’s The Old Garden and
since he is considered in France
to be in the top 5 of well-known
Korean directors, and being a fan
of the original film, how could we
not jump at the opportunity to
pre-buy The Housemaid,” said
James Velaise, head of Pretty
Pictures.
Im’s The President’s Last Bang
was in Directors’ Fortnight at
Cannes in 2005, and his A Good
Lawyer’s Wife in Venice 2003.
His remake of The Housemaid
stars Jeon Do-yeon as a
housemaid who wreaks havoc on
an upper-class family. The film,
likely to be selected for Cannes,
also stars heart-throb Lee Jungjae (Typhoon) as the philandering
patriarch, with Seo Woo (Paju) as
his wife.
The film is in post with plans
for a local release in May.
Jean Noh
Editorial (852) 2582 8959
Advertising (44) 7595 646 541
Yun’s Homerun corrals hot
Asian talent in debut slate
BY LIZ SHACKLETON
Former Raintree Pictures head
Daniel Yun has unveiled the debut
slate of his new venture, Homerun
Asia, including collaborations with
leading film-makers Peter Chan,
Terence Chang and John Woo, and
Australia’s Tony Ayres.
The Singapore-based company
will focus on two key areas — development and production under the
Homerun Pictures banner, and
movie marketing under Homerun
Media. Adrian Ng, owner of Singapore’s Liquid Advertising, has come
on board as the company’s creative
group head, and banker Terence
Chia has joined as business development director.
Among projects under development at Homerun Pictures are
$5m political thriller 1965, which
is being developed with Peter
Chan’s We Pictures, and $20m
action title Stranglehold, in partnership with Chang and Woo’s
Lion Rock Productions.
Stranglehold, based on the video
game, will shoot in the US and Singapore and has Stephen Fung
attached to direct. To shoot in Singapore and Malaysia, 1965 is set
during Singapore’s struggle for
independence.
Taiwan to increase
subsidies for
foreign shoots
Tang Wei was back in the spotlight here yesterday for the first time since she
gained worldwide attention in Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution in 2007. Tang stars with
Jacky Cheung in Ivy Ho’s Crossing Hennessy, which was the first of two opening
films at the Hong Kong International Film Festival last night. She is pictured
here arriving at the Convention Centre for the gala premiere.
China Film go-ahead to Sex And The City 2, Green Zone
BY SCREEN STAFF
China Film Group, China’s only
film importer, has confirmed it will
import 12 US films as the initial
batch of the 20 revenue-sharing
films for 2010.
Among the films are Warner
Bros’ Sex And The City 2 which is
the first time the characters have
been officially introduced to the
country; neither the TV series nor
the first feature film were legally
available. Also on the list is Universal’s Green Zone, which argues the
US government lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Alice In Wonderland, which will
be released in mainland China on
Meanwhile, Ayres, who worked
with Yun on Home Song Stories, is
set to direct $3.5m romantic comedy Good Muslim Boy. A co-production with Australia’s Matchbox
Pictures, the film is about a boy
who agrees to an arranged marriage although he is in love with
somebody else.
Also on Homerun’s debut slate is
$5m disaster thriller Days Without
Water, scripted by Korea’s Shinho
Lee and developed with US-based
Convergence Entertainment, and
$3m thriller The Gang, from first
time director Kelvin Sng, a gangland thriller set in South-East Asia.
Green Zone
March 26, is one of three films to
be released in both traditional and
3D screens. The other two are
Clash Of The Titans on April 8 and
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part I later in the year.
Paramount’s Iron Man 2 will be
scheduled for day-and-date release
with the US on April 30.
China Film has also given the
green light to Christopher Nolan’s
sci-fi thriller Inception. Nolan’s The
Dark Knight was blocked off the
imported film list in 2008, which
was generally considered to be one
of the main reasons behind the
slump in China’s foreign-film boxoffice numbers in 2008.
The list is topped off by Shrek
Forever After, The Green Hornet,
Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time,
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,
and Toy Story 3.
All these films, except Alice In
Wonderland, are pending approval
from film censors at the State
Administration of Radio, Film and
Television (SARFT).
Taiwan’s Government
Information Office (GIO) has
announced it will increase the
subsidies to foreign films
shooting in Taiwan in an effort to
encourage more international
productions to the country.
Frank Chen, GIO’s director of
Motion Pictures Department,
said the GIO has just changed its
policy ‘Subsidy Guidelines on
Foreign Film Production
Companies Shooting Films in
Taiwan’. The subsidy for a foreign
production shooting in Taiwan
and hiring Taiwanese cast or crew
will rise from 15% to 25%.
The personnel expenses
subsidy will also be raised from
15% to 30%. Meanwhile the
subsidy for its transportation,
accommodation and insurance
costs will rise from 5% to 15%.
The policy change is among
those implemented by the GIO
minister Johnny Chiang, who took
the post at the end of February.
Apart from the GIO subsidy
scheme, Taiwan’s major cities
Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung
have their own subsidy schemes
for foreign productions shooting
there.
Screen staff
TODAY
NEWS
China’s Project Greenlight
Shineshow to produce TV reality
show to find new film-making
talent and then produce the
winner’s feature.
» NEWS PAGE 2
REVIEWS
Sex & drugs
Scud’s gay love story
Amphetamine is visually arresting
but dramatically hollow.
» PAGE 4
Lovers Reunited
Wang’s Berlinale opener Apart
Together is a modest and
bittersweet romance.
» PAGE 4
HAF PROFILES
New projects from Arvin Chen and
Jeon Yun-su are among the
selected HAF entrants profiled by
Screen every day at FILMART.
» PAGE 6
SCREENINGS
What to see today
» PAGE 14
Fortissimo Films
gets Wasted
BY LIZ SHACKLETON
Fortissimo Films has picked up
Australian high school drama
Wasted On The Young, the debut
feature from up-and-coming director Ben C Lucas.
Set in an elite high school, the
film revolves around two stepbrothers — one a geek and the
other a member of the cool clique
— who find their lives at the mercy
of their classmates following a
tragic chain of events.
The deal with Australian production outfit WBMC covers worldwide
rights outside Australia and New
Zealand. Following an introduction
by consultant producer Scott Meek,
the deal was negotiated by Fortissimo chairman Michael J Werner
and the film’s producers Janelle
Landers and Aidan O’Bryan.
“In his debut film, Ben has so
succinctly captured the innocence,
beauty and danger of youth. It’s a
film for a new generation but has
relevance for all generations,”
Werner said.
News
BREAKING NEWS
For the latest film business
news see ScreenDaily.com
Shineshow to
produce TV reality
show film contest
BY SCREEN STAFF
Shineshow, a joint venture
between Shanda Pictures and
Hunan Broadcasting and Television Group, is to produce reality
TV show I Want To Make Movies,
which looks to scout film-making
talent in the Chinese-speaking
region.
The winner of the film project
pitching and financing contest will
be given $1.5m (RMB10m) as the
first funding for the project, which
will be the opening film production from Shineshow in 2011.
Shineshow CEO Long Danni
said the programme will look for
first-time film-makers who have
the potential to make commercial
titles. Long is also the CEO of EE
Media, the organising company
and artist manager of reality TV
singing competition Super Girls,
which was aired on Hunan Broadcasting TV channel. I Want To
Make Movies will be aired on the
same channel in May.
Entries are being invited from
China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.
Shineshow was established in
November 2009 as a joint venture
between Shanda Pictures and
Hunan Broadcasting and Television Group.
UK’s Showbox goes Into
The Fire with Finecut
BY JEAN NOH
Korean sales company Finecut
has announced a slew of deals
including the big-budget war
drama 71: Into The Fire, directed
by John H Lee and starring Kwon
Sang-woo, which pre-sold to
Showbox for UK.
The UK company previously
released another Korean war film,
Taegukgi: The Brotherhood Of War.
71: Into The Fire will be released
in Korea in June, the 60th anniversary of the Korean War which
began on June 25, 1950.
Ounie Lecomte’s A Brand New
Life, after screening in Berlin’s
Generation section, sold to Joint
Entertainment for Taiwan.
Joint also bought the Argen-
Hyde Park Imagenation
hires two for Abu Dhabi
BY LIZ SHACKLETON
Hyde Park Imagenation, the joint
venture between Imagenation
Abu Dhabi and Los Angelesbased Hyde Park Entertainment,
has hired two Asia-based creative
executives, Jason Mirch and Yee
Yeo Chang.
Based in the joint venture’s Abu
Dhabi office, Mirch is heading
Hyde Park Imagenation’s content
division, while Chang will be
based in Singapore and responsible for managing the recently
formed Hyde Park Imagenation
Singapore, as well as finding and
developing projects in Asia.
Mirch was previously co-head
of feature and television development at Storyline Entertainment.
Chang worked at Christine
Vachon’s Killer Films as an associate producer on Katherine
Dieckmann’s Motherhood, and
more recently served as executive
producer on Benoit Philippon’s
Lullaby For Pi.
Imagenation Abu Dhabi and
Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park
Entertainment expanded their
existing partnership by establishing Hyde Park Imagenation Singapore in October 2009 and by
creating a strategic alliance with
Singapore’s Media Development
Authority (MDA).
Blades Of Blood
Kim Tae-hee
Lee Joon-ki
Stars line up
for Grand Prix
Sidus FNH has announced that
top Korean stars Kim Tae-hee
(Iris, The Restless) and Lee
Joon-ki (King And The Clown)
have been cast in Grand Prix,
directed by Yang Yun-ho (Iris,
Fighter In The Wind).
The film is a sports drama
with comedic undertones
highlighting the sportsmanship
of a female horse racer.
The $5m film is produced by
Lee Jung-hak (Lump Of Sugar)
and production company Never
Ending Story, with Sidus FNH
investing and handling
worldwide sales and local
distribution. Shooting starts on
April 2, with local release set for
September to coincide with the
Harvest Moon (Chusok) holidays.
Jean Noh
M-Line sells Blades to
Germany, Latin America
BY JEAN NOH
Korean sales company M-Line
Distribution has pre-sold Blades
Of Blood to Splendid for Germany
and Benelux, and to VIP888 for
Latin America.
Directed by Lee Joon-ik (King
And The Clown), the film is based
on the well-known Korean graphic
novel Like The Moon Escaping
From The Clouds. It depicts two
legendary swordsmen and former
friends who must confront each
2 Screen International at FILMART/HAF/HKIFF March 22, 2010
other. The film is scheduled to be
released on April 29 in Korea.
M-Line also sold comic action
film The Righteous Thief, starring
Lee Beom-soo and Kim Su-ro, to
Eagle for Taiwan.
M-Line also handles Le Grand
Chef 2: Kimchi Battle, starring Jin
Goo (Mother) and Kim Jung-eun
(Forever The Moment) as chefs
who battle in a national competition to find the authentic taste of
kimchi.
tinean title Anita, directed by Marcos Carnevale. The film, about a
girl with Down syndrome, was
also taken by Menemsha Films for
North America.
J-Bics picked up a number of
arthouse films for Thailand,
including Pablo Trapero’s Lion’s
Den and Hong Sang-soo’s Like You
Know It All.
Michael Jackson’s
This Is It
Hong Kong’s
Anyplex signs
Sony VoD deal
Hong Kong video-on-demand
(VoD) service Anyplex has
signed a content licensing deal
with Sony Pictures Television
(SPT), covering blockbuster films
such as 2012, Michael Jackson’s
This Is It and Angels & Demons.
The titles will be streamed
from the internet directly to
Anyplex-embedded digital TVs
or set-top boxes, without the
need to sign up to Hong Kong’s
existing IPTV or cable platforms.
Pricing is on-demand and payper-view, rather than through a
monthly subscription fee, which
has been the model most
commonly used in Hong Kong.
Also included in the deal are
An Education, Julie & Julia,
Kung-fu Hustle, Spider-Man 2
and Terminator 3: Rise Of The
Machines.
Liz Shackleton
Andy Lau
Distribution
Workshop lands
Women remake
BY LIZ SHACKLETON
Hong Kong-based Distribution
Workshop is handling international sales on Chen Daming’s
Chinese remake of Paramount’s
romantic comedy What Women
Want, which is set to star Andy
Lau and Fan Bingbing.
Backed by China’s Bona International Film Group, the film is to
start shooting in May for tentative
release around Valentine’s Day in
2011. Beijing-based Paramount
consultant Dede Nickerson is one
of the producers on the project,
although Paramount is not currently involved as financier or distributor on the film.
Distribution Workshop has also
picked up Derek Tsang and Jimmy
Wan’s romantic drama Lover’s Discourse, which is in post-production, and completed Singaporean
horror Blood Ties, directed by Chai
Yee-wei. Produced by Irresistible
Films, Lover’s Discourse stars
Eason Chan and Karena Lam.
Also on the company’s slate are
two period action comedies which
are scheduled to begin shooting in
May — Wong Jing’s Treasure Inn,
starring Nicholas Tse and Charlene Choi, and Taiwanese filmmaker Kevin Chu’s Tale Of Another
Kung-fu Master, set to star Chinese
comedian Zhao Benshan.
The company is also selling
both of the Hong Kong International Film Festival’s opening
films, Crossing Hennessey and Like
A Dream.
UP goes Superhuman
BY JEAN NOH
United Pictures (UP) has picked
up sales on fantasy action film
The Superhuman starring Gang
Dong-won, whose credits include
Secret Reunion and Woochi, and
Goh Soo who starred in White
Night.
Produced by Eugene Lee and
her company Zip Cinema (A Bittersweet Life, Woochi), the film is in
pre-production with plans for
local release this winter.
Award-winning short film
director Kim Min-suk is making
his feature debut with this film.
Kim Min-suk previously co-wrote
the screenplay for The Good, The
Bad, The Weird and was assistant
director to Kim Jee-woon on the
kimchi western.
In The Superhuman, Gang’s
character has the power to control
other people’s minds by looking
into their eyes.
UP is also handling Woochi,
Lovers Vanished and This Man
(working title) here.
Reviews
HONG KONG IN PREVIEW
Amphetamine
REVIEWED BY MIKE GOODRIDGE
Crossing Hennessy
Opening night gala
The 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival
kicked-off last night at the Hong Kong Convention
and Exhibition Centre with the red-carpet world
premiere of Ivy Ho’s romantic drama Crossing
Hennessy, swiftly followed by a gala premiere of
Clara Law’s latest film Like a Dream.
Crossing Hennessy is set against the
backdrop of the Wan Chai area of Hong Kong,
where Hennessy Road divides the district in two
halves, and details the unlikely relationship
between two thirtysomethings.
Oh-lin (played by Tang Wei, who made such
an impact in Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution in 2007) is
set up on a blind date with Loy (actor and singer
Jacky Cheung), and they find themselves
increasingly drawn to each other.
Veteran film-maker Law’s film Like A Dream, is
a cross-continent love story about a ChineseAmerican (played by Daniel Wu) from New York
who travels to Shanghai to look for his ideal love,
and ends up meeting her in the form of a country
girl played by young actress Yolanda Yuan. The
film marks Law’s return to narrative feature filmmaking since 2000’s The Goddess Of 1967.
Both Crossing Hennessy and Like A Dream are
being sold at Filmart by Distribution Workshop.
Bruce Lee tribute
The 70th anniversary of Bruce Lee’s birth is
celebrated during the Hong Kong International
Film Festival, with a special tribute entitled
Bruce Lee 7010 including a selection of his films,
an exhibition, seminars and a new publication
titled Bruce Lee Lives.
It marks the first time audiences in Asia have
had the chance to see nine of Lee’s films in a
single festival. Titles being screened include The
Kid (1950), featuring a 10 year-old Lee, through to
Cantonese films such as The Thunderstorm
(1957), which established his reputation in the
east, and Enter The Dragon (1973), which made
him into a global superstar.
The official Bruce Lee 7010 exhibition will be
officially opened at the Hong Kong Cultural
Centre on March 30, with Lee’s widow Linda Lee
Cadwell and daughter Shannon Lee Keasler in
attendance. Exhibits include the helmet he wore
for kung-fu practice; his own drawings and
sketches of his martial-arts techniques and
personal letters to friends and family.
HKIFF’s official hotel, W Hong Kong in
Kowloon, has its tribute running March 25-28,
when from 7pm-9pm at W’s Living Room there
will be screenings of Lee’s films, with
complimentary popcorn and premium cocktails
made to order.
The third film from experimental Hong Kong filmmaker Scud, Amphetamine is the story of a doomed
love affair between a gay man and an emotionally
damaged straight man which, while always visually
arresting, ultimately rings hollow. The film is certainly flashy — filled throughout with flashbacks,
dreamlike imagery and fantasy sequences — but its
self-conscious artiness dilutes the potential dramatic impact and it plays as more stylistic curio
than full-blooded character piece.
The film had its world premiere in Panorama at
the Berlinale this year and is one of the closing night
films at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.
But, peopled as it is with beautiful men in various
states of undress and embrace, Amphetamine has its
best shot of profile on the gay and lesbian film festival
circuit and its best sales chance is to niche distributors tapping into gay audiences on DVD and TV.
The lead character is Kafka (Pang), a fitness
instructor who works several jobs to support his ailing mother. Although he has a girlfriend, his sexuality is apparently fluid since he agrees to a hand job
from a dirty old man in a changing room. He and
his slacker brother are also amphetamine addicts.
Just as he is breaking up with his girlfriend, he
meets handsome finance executive Daniel (Price),
an out gay man from Australia visiting Hong Kong
on business. Daniel falls for Kafka and pursues him
confidently, even while Kafka tells him that he is
straight and they can never have sex.
But their love for each other grows, despite the
hurdles — the sexuality difference and Kafka’s
addiction — and the two men become convinced
that love will conquer all. Daniel tries to help him
Apart Together
REVIEWED BY DAN FAINARU
This modest family melodrama, which has its
Asian Premiere in Hong Kong, turns out to be
a thin — if kindly — bittersweet autumnal
romance. Whatever political intentions may have
been buried in Apart Together’s script, there is little
trace of them left on screen. The film was the opening night film for this year’s Berlinale on its 60th
anniversary.
Kuomintang soldier Liu Yangsheng (Ling),
retreated with the Nationalists to Taiwan — temporarily, they thought — as the Communists marched
4 Screen International at FILMART/HAF/HKIFF March 22, 2010
Reviews edited by Mark Adams [email protected]
CLOSING NIGHT FILM
HK-Chi. 2010. 97mins
Director/producer/
screenplay Scud
Production company
Artwalker Ltd
International sales Media
Luna, www.medialuna.biz
Executive producer
Lawrence Ah Mon
Cinematography Charlie
Lam
Editor Heiward Mak
Music Shan Ho, Yat-Yiu Yu
Website www.
amphetaminemovie.com
Main cast Byron Pang,
Thomas Price, Linda So,
Winnie Leung, Simon Tam
AWARDS GALA
Chi. 2010. 93mins
Director Wang Quan’an
Production company
Lightshades Film
Production
Producers Wang Quan’an,
Wang Le, Du Daning, Wang
Zhangliang, Ouwen, Ruan
Yusheng
International sales
Celluloid Dreams, www.
celluloid-dreams.com
Screenplay Wang
Quan’an, Na Jin
Cinematography Lutz
Reitemeier
Production designers
Yu Baiyang, He Xufeng
Editor Wu Yuxiang
Music Na Peng
Main cast Lisa Lu, Ling
Feng, Xu Caigen, Monica
Mok, Ma Xiaoqing, Jin Na,
Baiyang, Xue Guoping
off the amphetamine after a close call with the Chinese authorities, but he does not know the full story
and Kafka is harbouring dark secrets from his past.
Scud teamed up with veteran director Lawrence
Ah Mon on the direction of the movie and enlisted
DoP Charlie Lam (Isabella, Exodus) to shoot it. On
the one hand, the film’s attempts at visual expressiveness are impressive. The design is striking: the
persistent water or angel motifs, scenes of martialarts routines, the lingering shots of the men’s hard
bodies. And the narrative drifts in and out of dream
and memory lend a certain druglike quality.
On the other hand, Scud’s focus on the superficial is jarring and much of the film doubles as an
affluent lifestyle commercial. If they are not racing
each other in sports cars and motorbikes or bungee
jumping off motorway bridges, the men are splashing handsomely in the pool and gazing at each
other’s muscular bodies in the shower.
That’s not to mention Daniel’s limitless wealth,
which includes a stunning Hong Kong penthouse
and rooftop Jacuzzi. By showing us these glam
trappings at such length and with minimal irony, it
appears that Scud himself is seduced by them.
across China, leaving his pregnant lover, Yu-e,
behind in Shanghai. In contemporary times, he
returns to his native city to find her.
It turns out that after he left, Yu-e (Lu) married
another man, Lu Shenmin (Xu), who willingly
adopted her baby. Yu-e is now a grandmother, surrounded by an affectionate family. They all welcome the visitor, not realising he intends to ask
Yu-e to leave everything behind and join him in
Taiwan. But she turns out to be willing to make
the jump, saying the passion went out of her life
when Liu left.
Lu, when told about it, agrees to let her go in an
amazing act of kindness which in other films
would seem odd, but here is taken at face value.
Her children, however, are less accommodating,
whether because they fear losing face or because
they are dissatisfied with the financial arrangements proposed by Liu to placate them. But the
major obstacle is Chinese bureaucracy: it seems
that Lu and Yu-e never took out an official marriage licence, so how can they divorce if they have
never been legally married?
The plot moves easily from one classic cliché to
the next, at a leisurely pace which belies the
93-minute running time. Carefully avoiding the
political arena, Apart Together is awash with nostalgia from both the Taiwanese and mainland perspective, coupled with a sense of loss over warm
old Shanghai that has been replaced with a stark
new skyline.
HAF profiles
Exit To Exist
South Korea
Dir: Jeon Yun-su
K
orean director Jeon Yun-su won awards with his
short graduation film, Goodbye New-School Seoul,
and has since enjoyed local box-office success and
international sales with his debut Le Grand Chef, based on
a popular comic-book series, and his second film Portrait
Of A Beauty, a dramatisation of the life of legendary
painter Shin Yun-bok. He is working on the final draft of
his upcoming film, Exit To Exist, based on the awardwinning novel Shoot Me In The Heart by Jeong Yu Jeong.
“When I was reading the novel, I thought of how
[popular contemporary Korean] poet Bae Han-bong said,
‘The greatest strength in life comes when you hit bottom,’”
he says, explaining how he was seized by the story of two
desperate young men in a remote mental hospital, one
locked up because he is crazy, and the other going crazy
because he has been locked up.
The former, Soo-myung, is a schizophrenic who has
been in and out of hospitals for years while the latter,
Seung-min, is a paragliding pilot who has been locked
up in the course of a battle over his family’s inheritance.
The only thing they have in common is that they are both
aged 25. Each time they attempt to escape the mental
hospital, they receive electric-shock therapy. But when
they do manage to escape, they each have one last shot at
rejoining the world.
“This will probably be a film with much more dynamic
energy than my previous ones. I also want to make
audiences laugh and cry with diverse characters, while
giving them a sense of hope,” says Jeon.
The director says he is looking at various actors for the
roles. “The heroes of this film are young men with boiling
blood, pulsating and alive, who are entities that cannot be
locked up anywhere,” he says.
Jupiter Films (My Wife Got Married) and Sidus FNH
(A Dirty Carnival) are producing, with Sidus FNH
distributing.
Jean Noh
» Jeon Yun-su p6
» Chui Tien-you p6
» Arvin Chen p6
» Ekachai Uekrongtham p7
» Mazen Khaled p7
» Lee Yoon-ki p6
» Zhao Ye p8
» Tan Pin Pin p8
» Tom Shoval p8
Private Party Of The
Dead Hong Kong
Nanjing East Road
Dir: Chui Tien-you
Taiwan-US
Dir: Arvin Chen
C
A
hui Tien-you started his career as an actor in Fruit
Chan’s Little Cheung and has since featured in other
acclaimed films such as Patrick Tam’s After This Our
Exile, Pang Ho-cheung’s AV and Ho Yuhang’s At The End
Of Daybreak. He won the Asia Pacific Actors Network’s
rising star award at the 2008 Pusan International Film
Festival, and also won music awards as a member of
boyband Shine. He made his directing debut with the
short film Ten. “The satisfaction I gained from directing
was tremendous,” he says.
With Private Party Of The Dead, Chui wants to
investigate humanity by depicting how people handle
themselves during extreme hardship.
“The skeleton of this film is about handling a corpse,
which brings up many human issues. The most
interesting part is to see how one would react when one
faces something rather difficult,” he says.
In the story, drug dealer Yan hooks up with Ting, and
after a night of drinking and partying, wakes up next to
Ting’s boyfriend — who has been murdered. What ensues
is a series of high-stakes cons to dispose of the corpse and
cover up the crime.
“I have acted in two of Pang Ho-cheung’s movies,”
says Chui. “He is serious and professional, someone I
admire very much. When I mentioned this story to him
at the recent Locarno International Film Festival, he
immediately liked it and encouraged me to develop it
into a feature film.”
Pang, whose credits include the award-winning Isabella,
Exodus and the recent multiple Golden Horse-nominated
Trivial Matter, has recently started producing films by new
directors at his company Making Film Productions; Private
Party Of The Dead is one of these films.
Chui is polishing the script and preparing to raise funds
for the film at HAF. It will be shot in Hong Kong, in
Cantonese.
Jean Noh
romantic comedy set in 1980s Taiwan, Arvin Chen’s
Nanjing East Road follows two young sales
representatives, Weiming and Yuluen, as they
pursue their love and ambitions in the midst of the
economic boom. “It’s based in 1980s Taipei, but could
easily be Korea in the 1990s or China now,” says Chen of
the film, which is at treatment stage. He references Billy
Wilder’s The Apartment as the kind of film he wants to
make, contrasting ambition and love against a backdrop
of shifting economics and culture.
Chen is a Chinese-American film-maker who grew up in
California but moved to Taipei as an apprentice to Edward
Yang (Yi Yi, A Brighter Summer Day). His short Mei picked
up a Berlinale Silver Bear and his feature debut Au Revoir
Taipei, executive produced by Wim Wenders, premiered at
the recent Berlinale in the Forum and is also screening in
the Hong Kong International Film Festival.
“Nanjing East Road will be totally different from Au
Revoir Taipei, which is an urban fantasy,” says Chen.
“Nanjing East Road is comedic and light. It’s based on
darker 1980s history in Taipei and set in a very exclusive
and unique little world that will be portrayed with slight
absurdity.”
As for making a period film on a $1m budget, Chen
says: “It will be like [TV series] Mad Men, where you don’t
see a lot of the world but what you do see will be
design-specific and detailed so you can form an idea of
what the rest of the world looks like.”
The primarily Chinese-language film will also have
30%-40% English dialogue as the characters engage with
US businessmen. In-ah Lee (Don’t Come Knocking, Soul Of
A Man) and Oi-leng Lui (Au Revoir Taipei) are producing
Nanjing East Road at Greenskyfilms, a company which
produces TV, fiction film and documentary projects with
international writers and directors such as Wim Wenders
and Im Sang-soo.
Jean Noh
Exit to exist
Private Party Of The Dead
Nanjing East Road
Budget $5m Finance raised to date $4m Sales agent
Sidus FNH Territories pre-sold None Cast attached None
Budget $513,000 Finance raised to date None Sales
agent None Territories pre-sold None Cast attached none
Budget $1m Finance raised to date none Sales agent
none Territories pre-sold none Cast attached none
6 Screen International at Filmart/HAF/HKIFF March 22, 2010
HAF
Breaking News
For the latest film business
news see ScreenDaily.com
Chang & Eng
Housekeeping
Dear Comrade (working title)
A
M
S
Thailand-Singapore-US
Dir: Ekachai Uekrongtham
ward-winning Thai film and theatre director
Ekachai Uekrongtham is set to make a film based
on his successful theatre musical about the worldfamous Siamese twins Chang and Eng. Born in 19th
century Thailand, the twins went to the US as a “special
attraction”, married two sisters and travelled the world.
“Chang & Eng is not a sad freak story like The Elephant
Man,” explains Uekrongtham. “It’s the story of two
separate individuals born as one, with two contrasting
personalities, yet they co-exist. It’s also the story of two
Thai boys who go to America to make a better life and
find love.
“We’ll be doing things in the film that we couldn’t do on
stage, using almost all the songs from the stage musical
and adding others,” he continues. “We aim to create songs
that can stand on their own outside the musical. There will
be love songs, which tend to be universally appreciated.
Others are imbued with traditional Thai music.”
With the majority of the dialogue in English and the
rest in Thai, the director is aiming for global audiences. He
aims to cast Asian actors as the twins while the role of the
American impresario who takes Chang and Eng on the
road will be a prominent one, as will the roles of the
American sisters they marry.
Now polishing the script and seeking finance,
Uekrongtham aims to shoot next year. To fund this largescale project, he wants financiers who understand the film
business and can help bring the film to audiences in as
many countries as possible.
Uekrongtham’s award-winning feature debut Beautiful
Boxer, about a transsexual kickboxer, travelled to more
than 100 festivals including Berlin and sold to 30-plus
territories. His second feature, Pleasure Factory, screened
in Cannes and sold to the US and France among others,
while supernatural thriller The Coffin was a regional boxoffice hit.
Jean Noh
Lebanon
Dir: Mazen Khaled
azen Khaled’s Housekeeping tells the story of
Farida, a middle-aged cleaner in a posh Beirut
neighbourhood who has come to believe she
shares the same values, traditions and lifestyle as her
upper-class clients. While an American Idol-style
reality show obsesses everyone including herself,
Farida experiences drama of her own, facing crises
that end in this loving mother figure stabbing her only
son to death.
“The film is a drama with lots of song and dance
numbers,” says Khaled. “The music will be contained
within the TV programme so the film will not be a musical
per se. We will see it happening in the studios but we will
see the street moving to its rhythm, and we will see people
following it from their homes and work places. The music
will mostly be reworks of classic Arabic songs that reflect
the Arab world’s culture before extremism recently took
hold of it.”
Khaled is in the process of polishing the script and is
about to begin casting.
A graduate of the American University of Beirut and
Georgetown University in the US, Khaled is one of the
founders of the Beirut arts collective EXIST. His short
films include My Queer Samsara which premiered at the
recent International Film Festival Rotterdam, and
Housekeeping marks his feature debut. It will be produced
by ii Films in which Khaled is a partner.
“We’re a small, close group with a common dream of
creating a free and innovative film scene in Lebanon,” he
says. “We aim to create a chain of productions where one
film-maker makes his or her film and then helps another
film-maker create his or her film and so on,” explaining
how low-budget productions can be possible. “We also
have a few projects in mind that would encourage and
assist new film-makers in bringing their work to world
venues and vice versa.”
Jean Noh
South Korea-Japan-Vietnam
Dir: Lee Yoon-ki
outh Korean director Lee Yoon-ki’s Dear Comrade is
based on a true story about a love that triumphed
over more than three decades and two communist
regimes.
In the early 1970s, when Vietnam was at war, North
Korea and North Vietnam formed an alliance and had
Vietnamese students sent to North Korea to work and
study — but not fall in love, as marriages with foreigners
were forbidden by the governments of both countries.
However, after being returned to his country, one
Vietnamese man managed to stay in touch with his Korean
love through smuggled letters and a few limited visits in
the early years, and finally won permission to get married
in 2002.
Japanese producer Toyoyama Yuki established Esprit
Inc to produce the project.
“North Korea is such a closed society that when
Toyoyama Yuki first told me about this story, I didn’t think
it was true,” says Lee. “But after some research, I found the
couple did get married in Pyongyang and are now living
happily in Hanoi.
“At first, I had my doubts,” he continues, “but when I
read the heroine’s letters, I changed my mind. The
plaintive longing in those letters is something we couldn’t
imagine in these days of instant e-mail and mobiles. It’s a
classic love story that transcends war, time and political
systems.”
Lee’s previous films, including This Charming Girl,
Ad-Lib Night and My Dear Enemy, have travelled to
numerous festivals including Pusan, Berlin and Karlovy
Vary. Now he is working on the script for Dear Comrade.
“We’ll shoot in Vietnam, but most likely will have to
recreate North Korean life on a set with CGI. I want the
film to be realistic in its portrayal of situations, so we’ll be
preparing that step by step. It’s a classic story with modern
touches,” he says.
Jean Noh
Chang & Eng
Housekeeping
Dear Comrade
Budget $18m Finance raised to date $3m Sales agent
None Territories pre-sold None Cast attached None
Budget $495,000 Funds raised to date $100,000 Sales
agent None Territories pre-sold None Cast attached None
Budget $3m Finance raised to date None Sales agent
None Territories pre-sold None Cast attached None
March 22, 2010 Screen International at Filmart/HAF/HKIFF 7
HAF
Breaking News
For the latest film business
news see ScreenDaily.com
Lights Of Darkness
The Arrival
Youth
I
B
I
(working title) China
Dir: Zhao Ye
ndependent Chinese film-maker Zhao Ye is best known
for his award-winning 2008 title Jalainur. The poetic
and powerful visuals in a film about a remote
coal-mining area by the China-Russia border won Zhao
the best director award and the film the audience award at
the 2009 Shanghai International Film Festival’s Asian
New Talents competition, as well as the Fipresci prize at
the 2008 Pusan International Film Festival and the best
cinematography prize at the Singapore International Film
Festival in 2009.
After two independently financed films which did not
receive a Chinese release, Zhao intends his next film to be
a larger-scale contemporary drama with thriller elements
which he hopes will reach a wider audience.
Lights Of Darkness is inspired by a true story. When a
young woman goes missing, her mother enlists the help of
her daughter’s boyfriend without realising there is more
to him than she thinks. The story has been co-developed
by Zhao and producer Helen Cui.
Unlike Jalainur’s focus on images and atmosphere,
Lights Of Darkness will be character-driven, concentrating
largely on the mother’s persistence and her interaction
with the dangerous young man.
“I was especially drawn to the personality of the
mother,” says Zhao. “I’ve just finished a short film about a
mother and want to explore more ways to tell a mother’s
story.” The short is a 45-minute film co-directed by
Japanese film-maker Naomi Kawase and starring Japan’s
Kaori Momoi as a mother looking for her son in Tokyo. It
will be presented in the upcoming Nara International
Film Festival.
Currently at script stage, Lights Of Darkness will shoot
in Beijing, a rapidly evolving big city which the director
hopes to show on screen. Cui’s Tianlin Film Productions is
looking for co-producers and talent — including actors
and scriptwriters — at HAF.
Singapore
Dir: Tan Pin Pin
est known for documentaries such as Singapore
GaGa and Invisible City, Tan Pin Pin is fine-tuning
the script of her first dramatic feature, The Arrival.
A Malay-language film shot in Singapore about a Malay
family, the film will centre around a young mother who
finds she cannot take to her newly adopted baby.
“For me, the division of fiction and documentary genres
is not very meaningful. This fiction format was chosen for
The Arrival as the genre best communicates the young
woman’s journey,” she says, adding that the story had
stuck with her after she heard it from a friend who was in
contact with this family.
“What struck me was how it is so fraught with drama
on a very minute scale — between a woman and her child,
between a birth mother and her child, as well as the
extended family, in an unarticulated way,” says Tan.
“I want to talk about the notion of what it means to be
in a family — whether blood ties are the prerequisite or
whether perhaps grace and compassion is all it takes.”
Inspired by the films of Yasujiro Ozu in which “you see
and feel the unspoken tensions and restraint” and French
director Laurent Cantet’s “ability to tie the personal to
much larger societal and political issues”, Tan says the
film will be very accessible. “It will play in a natural and
realistic way but with crafted production values.”
In addition to Singapore GaGa, which screened at
Rotterdam, and Invisible City, which screened in Berlin
and Pusan and sold to South Korea, Tan’s work includes
Moving House, a Discovery Channel project which was
named best documentary at the 2002 Student Academy
Awards.
The Arrival is being produced by Tan’s BFG Media,
which was involved in the production and distribution of
her previous work including Singapore GaGa, which had
an unprecedented sold-out seven-week run locally.
Jean Noh
Israel
Dir: Tom Shoval
sraeli director Tom Shoval’s Youth focuses on two
teenage brothers whose family is faced with financial
ruin, and what happens when they decide to kidnap a
rich girl for ransom.
“The film is about family and relationships between the
four people in a house. When they face a problem, the
brothers feel it is up to them to protect the unit, and they
feel it’s everyone against them,” he says, explaining this is
a common phenomenon he has seen growing up in a
small town outside Tel Aviv.
“I think in some ways [boys of this generation] feel they
can’t be as optimistic as their fathers were, that they’ve
been screwed by the system. At the same time they’ve
been raised to love and respect their parents. And there’s a
certain amount of denial in the family because the parents
don’t want their children upset by financial problems. So
the children deal with their reality in their own way.”
In the film, elder brother Yaki starts army training while
younger brother Shaul becomes infatuated by a beautiful
rich girl, shadowing and filming her. He sends clips to his
older brother on base, and when Yaki comes home on
leave — fully armed — they hatch a plan to kidnap her.
The project has received a $15,000 development grant
from the Israeli Film Foundation. Shoval is finishing the
third draft of the script.
The 29-year-old has directed award-winning shorts
such as The Hungry Heart which won the most promising
film-maker and best student film at the Hamptons
International Film Festival in 2006. He has also directed
award-winning music videos. He teaches cinema at the
Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, his alma mater in
Israel, and Youth will be his feature debut.
Gal Greenspan, who produced Shoval’s short film
Shred Of Hope, is producing Youth at his company
GREENproductions.
Jean Noh
Lights Of Darkness
The Arrival
Youth
Budget $1m Finance raised to date None Sales agent
None Territories pre-sold None Cast attached None
Budget $360,000 Finance raised to date $36,000 Sales
agent None Territories pre-sold None Cast attached None
Budget $1.45m Finance raised to date $15,000 Sales
agent none Territories pre-sold none Cast attached none
8 Screen International at Filmart/HAF/HKIFF March 22, 2010
Welcome
On behalf of the Hong Kong Trade
Development Council, I am pleased
to
welcome you to the 2010 edition
of FILMART — the Hong Kong Inte
rna
tion
al
Film & TV Market.
I am pleased to note that this 14th
edition features a new participatio
n record —
more than 540 exhibitors from 29
countries and regions. That include
s a strong
Chinese mainland presence of mor
e than 120 exhibitors, here at FIL
MA
RT to realise
partnership opportunities with film
industry professionals from Asia
and beyond.
We expect more than 4,700 buyers
from over 50 countries and regions
to take part in the four-day event
held during 22-25 March.
to be
This year’s FILMART boasts mor
e than 260 film screenings and 60
seminars and networking session
highlights include the Asian Side
s. Other
of the Doc (ASD), sponsored by
the
European Union (Media Internation
More than 150 senior executives
al).
in the TV, film and new media fields
from Europe, North America and
take part in the inaugural ASD. Scr
Asia will
eenings, pitching sessions and netw
orking events are all included in ASD
programming.
’s
TV World this year counts more than
150 exhibitors from 20 countries
and regions. They are here to sell
source a wide range of content and
and
to grasp the latest developments
at
the TV World International Forum.
theme of this year’s Forum, “Challe
The
nges and Opportunities of the TV
Market in China, Japan and Korea”
on three of the world’s most dynami
, focuses
c TV markets.
FILMART also features two confere
nces: “Europe/Asia: A New Era for
TV and Film Co-operation”; and “Th
Wave of Computer-Generated (CG
e New
) Animated Films: Can Independen
ts
Compete?”. In addition, the Associa
of Motion Picture Post Production
tion
Professionals has organised a seri
es of seminars and workshops on
3D film.
More than 40 Hong Kong compan
ies are exhibiting at the Animation
and Digital Entertainment Pavilion
and Digital Entertainment Day, 24
. Animation
March, includes the “New Genera
tion
Digital Entertainment Summit” and
variety of other industry events and
a
workshops.
FILMART is one of nine events at
Entertainment Expo Hong Kong,
the region’s foremost entertainmen
gathering. The Expo, now in its sixt
t industry
h year, is a month-long, multimedia
celebration converging film, TV, digi
entertainment and music.
tal
I wish you all the best of busines
s at FILMART 2010 and a reward
Raymond Yip
Assistant Executive Director
Hong Kong Trade Development Cou
ncil
ing stay in Hong Kong.
Feature
BREAKING NEWS
For the latest film business
news see ScreenDaily.com
FILMART
Gateway to opportunity
Against the backdrop of an astounding boom in China’s box office, Hong Kong FILMART (March 22-25) is a key place to do
business in Asia. Liz Shackleton profiles this year’s event, and the financing forum and festival which run alongside it
A
s Hong Kong’s annual film and TV
market, FILMART, gets under way this
year, its organisers can draw comfort
from the fact it takes place on the doorstep of the world’s fastest-growing box-office territory, where there is still plenty of money
available to make films.
The astonishing growth in mainland China’s
box office — which doubled year on year during
the recent November-February three-month holiday period to $440m (RMB3bn) — combined with
the relatively high market share of local product
in neighbouring Japan and South Korea, is
strengthening FILMART’s role as a key platform
for these three dynamic territories to discuss business and co-financing opportunities together.
Strong Asian participation has helped boost
exhibitor numbers at this year’s edition of the
market to more than 500, while the event’s
organiser, the Hong Kong Trade Development
Council (HKTDC), expects the total number of
visitors to increase by 5% to around 4,500. In
addition to a strong showing from north-east
Asia, there are also larger delegations from several South-east Asian territories, including Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia.
Western slowdown
Less comforting, however, is the fact FILMART
has had to work much harder to attract visitors
from the US and Europe in recent years.
Although there was talk of green shoots of
recovery at the European Film Market (EFM) in
Berlin, Western companies are still affected by
the turbulence in the international sales business and are thinking long and hard about
which markets they really need to attend.
The strength of local product in Asia makes it
difficult to sell to this region, and while some
Western sellers believe this means it is more
important than ever to build up relationships
with local distributors, others are deciding it is
not worth making the trip.
“We can see a slowing down of responses
from America and some regions of Europe, but
we have taken every opportunity to promote
FILMART to overseas industry professionals,”
says HKTDC assistant executive director Raymond Yip. “We’re glad that we managed to
enlist exhibitors from emerging markets such
as Russia, Poland and a first-time exhibitor from
Latvia, whereas exhibitors from the growing
Asian markets are demanding more space and
support and will launch a series of promotions
at FILMART.”
While the Western sales business may still be
in recovery, government-backed film bodies
continue to regard FILMART as a key event to
interact with the Asia-Pacific region and this
year European organisations will be particu-
FILMART 2009: visitor
numbers are expected to
rise to 4,500 this year
‘We’re glad we
managed to
enlist exhibitors
from emerging
markets such
as Russia and
Poland, and a
first-time exhibitor
from Latvia’
Raymond Yip, HKTDC
10 Screen International at FILMART/HAF/HKIFF March 22, 2010
larly active. In addition to large delegations
organised by the UK Film Council and Unifrance, two new initiatives, spearheaded by
Sunny Side of the Doc (SSD) and the Ile de
France Film Commission, look set to give the
Hong Kong event an extra dimension.
SSD, the 20-year-old French documentary
market, is launching its first Asian edition,
Asian Side of the Doc (ASD), during FILMART
with backing from the European Union’s
MEDIA programme. More than 170 film,
TV and new-media executives are attending
the three-day event (March 22-24), including
broadcasters such as Franco- German
channel Arte, the UK’s BBC and Channel 4,
Germany’s ARD, Japan’s NHK and China’s
state-backed giants CCTV and Shanghai
Media Group.
In addition to public pitching sessions from
24 selected Asian and European documentary
projects — some of which are aiming for theatrical distribution — the event also features oneon-one meetings, workshops and networking
events.
“We thought it was the right time to do this
because documentary channels are emerging
all over Asia, along with independent documentary producers, just as in Europe and America,”
says Pierre-Yves Lochon of Hong Kong-based
consultancy Sinapses Conseils, which is coorganising the event.
“The European side is looking for stories, distribution and potential co-producers in Asia,
while the Asian participants are looking for
finance and know-how, as Asia’s documentary
industry is still very young.”
European opportunities
Meanwhile, Ile de France is working with its
partners in the Capital Regions for Cinema
(CRC) network to bring a large delegation of
EXPO EVENTS
FILMART
March 22-25
Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum
March 22-24
Hong Kong International Film Festival
March 21-April 6
Asian Film Awards
March 22
Hong Kong Film Awards
April 18
Hong Kong Independent Short Film and
Video Awards
March 12-21
Hong Kong Music Fair
March 20-22
IFPI Hong Kong Top Sales Music Award
April 7
Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum
March 23
Feature
BREAKING NEWS
For the latest film business
news see ScreenDaily.com
European production and post-production
companies to Hong Kong for FILMART.
Last year, Fuji TV’s Nodame Cantabile, a feature adaptation of the hit TV series, became the
first Asian production to access France’s new
tax rebate. Companies under the CRC’s European Pavilion will be looking to lure further
Asian productions to Europe, as well as seek
out co-production opportunities. Co-production between Europe and Asia is also the focus
of a conference on the opening morning of
FILMART — entitled ‘Europe/Asia: A New Era
For TV And Film Co-operation’ — which is coorganised by Ile de France and ASD.
As usual, FILMART runs concurrently with
Hong Kong’s successful feature film co-production and projects market, the Hong Kong
Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), which this
year introduces a new award dedicated to the
memory of HAF and Fortissimo Films cofounder Wouter Barendrecht who passed away
last year. The $6,400 (HK$50,000) Wouter
Barendrecht Award is open to HAF projects
led by directors who have made fewer than
three films.
Not surprisingly, given the global impact of
Avatar, this year’s FILMART also has a heavy
emphasis on 3D. Hong Kong’s Association of
Motion Picture Post Production Professionals
(AMP4) is organising a series of seminars and
workshops about 3D film-making and distribution, to be held on March 24.
Hong Kong International Film Festival and other expo events
For the sixth year running, FILMART and
HAF are part of Hong Kong Entertainment
Expo, a concurrent gathering of nine film
and entertainment industry-related
events, including the Asian Film Awards,
the Hong Kong Film Awards and the
Hong Kong International Film Festival
(HKIFF).
Crossing Hennessy
This year’s HKIFF (March 21-April 6) has
a strong emphasis on Hong Kong cinema,
reflecting the recent renaissance in local
film. Four films from local directors
bookend the festival — Ivy Ho’s Crossing
Hennessy and Clara Law’s Like A Dream
screen as the opening films, while gay
love story Amphetamine, from indie
film-maker Scud, and Heiward Mak’s
romantic comedy Ex closes the event.
HKIFF also features gala screenings of
mainland director Wang Quanan’s Apart
Together, which opened the Berlinale;
Doze Niu’s gangster drama Monga, a huge
hit in the director’s native Taiwan; JeanPierre Jeunet’s Micmacs; and a newly
restored version of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis,
with the original score performed live by
the Hong Kong Sinfonietta.
The festival also features a Bruce Lee
retrospective to mark the 70th anniversary
of the late star’s birth, screening nine of his
films. Tony Leung Ka-fai heads the jury for
the 4th Asian Film Awards (AFA), while
Zhang Yimou will be presented with an
award for outstanding contribution to
Asian cinema. The AFAs are also
introducing a new category, the best
costume designer award, to be presented
this year by Donatella Versace.
Over at Hong Kong’s digital hub
Cyberport, the Digital Entertainment
Leadership Forum features speakers such
as Weta Workshop CEO Richard Taylor and
Laurin Herr, co-founder of digital cinema
network CineGrid.
March 22, 2010 Screen International at FILMART/HAF/HKIFF 11
What’s On
SEMINARS
AND EVENTS
MONDAY 22
10:00AM
HAF FILMMAKERS PRESS
JUNKET
Venue Inside HAF
Area in Hall 1, Hong
Kong Convention and
Exhibition Centre
AFA NOMINEES PRESS
JUNKET
Venue Chief Executive
Suites I, II and III (5/F),
Grand Hyatt Hong Kong
SALON FILMS (HK) IN ASSOC.
WITH THE US CONSULATE
GENERAL OF HONG KONG
AND MACAU PRESENTS
ASIAN PREMIER: FROM
SUZIE WONG TO THE FUTURE
OF INTERNATIONAL FILM
Venue Theatre 1, Hong
Kong Convention and
Exhibition Centre
10:30AM
EUROPE/ASIA: A NEW
ERA FOR TV & FILM
CO-OPERATION
Venue Stage, Hall 1,
Hong Kong Convention
and Exhibition Centre
Speakers
■ Kenichi Imamura,
senior producer,
international acquisition
and co-production of
NHK
■ Nicholas Fraser,
commissioning editor,
BBC
■ Olivier-René Veillon,
executive director, Ile de
France Film Commission
Moderator
■ Serge Siritzky,
managing editor, Ecran
Total
Having developed a
profound co-operation
between European and
Asian companies and
institutions in TV and
the film industry, it has
been a fruitful time over
the past 10 years.
TV co-production
agreements and projects
have been signed
among broadcasters and
producers of the two
continents in the fields
of documentary, docudrama and animation.
European TV stations
have been launched all
over Asia, and Asian
broadcasters have
launched their brands
in Europe. In the film
industry, numerous
agreements have
been signed between
Asian and European
countries to facilitate
co-production. In the
meantime, more movies
from both continents are
being distributed in the
theatres.
A new era of
co-operation era has
begun. New media,
globalisation and
digitalisation are
expected to create
more opportunities
for co-operation in the
field of production,
distribution and
broadcasting.
This conference
summons a selection of
European executives who
have been developing
their presence in Asia
and Asian TV and film
managers ready to
expand their connection
with Europe.
12:00PM
WELCOME LUNCH FOR
HKIFF, AFA & HAF
Venue Tiffin Lounge,
Grand Hyatt Hong Kong
Open to By invitation and
RSVP only
1:00PM
FILM MALL
Venue Event Room B,
Hall 1, Hong Kong
Convention and
Exhibition Centre
2:00PM
IP MAN 2 PRESS
CONFERENCE
Venue Event Room A,
Hall 1, Hong Kong
Convention and
Exhibition Centre
2:30PM
TV WORLD 2010
OPENING CEREMONY AND
INTERNATIONAL FORUM
Venue Stage, Hall 1,
Hong Kong Convention
and Exhibition Centre
With China becoming a
rising mega market and
Japan and Korea having
a vibrant entertainment
industry, business
opportunities with these
markets are increasingly
important.
What kind of
marketing and
distribution strategies
can industry players
of other regions learn
from these three feisty
markets? As more cross-
Hong Kong International Film Festival events
6:30PM
SIXTH ENTERTAINMENT
EXPO HONG KONG
OPENING CEREMONY
Venue Grand
Foyer, Hong Kong
Convention and
Exhibition Centre
Open to By invitation
only
8:00PM
FOURTH ASIAN
FILM AWARDS
PRESENTATION
CEREMONY
Venue Grand
Hall, Hong Kong
Convention and
Exhibition Centre
Open to By invitation
and RSVP only
The fourth Asian
Film Awards will
honour the best of
Asian cinema. Awards
will be presented in
14 categories by a
jury headed by Tony
Leung Ka-fai. The
nominees for best
film are Bodyguards
And Assassins, City Of
Life And Death, Lola,
Mother, No Puedo Vivir
Sin Ti and Parade.
Bodyguards & Assassins
City Of Life And Death
Lola
Mother
Parade
No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti
12 Screen International at FILMART/HAF/HKIFF March 22, 2010
regional co-operations
are stimulated by
the development of
multimedia broadcasting
technologies, what
business opportunities
could be derived by
the distribution of TV
productions and related
advertising?
Also, contrasting to
the existing local TV
programmes, what
should TV industry
players from other
markets do to outshine
their TV productions?
4:30PM
2010 TAIWAN CINEMA
PARTY
Venue Event Room A,
Hall 1, Hong Kong
Convention and
Exhibition Centre
MEGA-VISION PICTURES
FILM PARADE 2010
Venue Event Room B, Hall
1, Hong Kong Convention
and Exhibition Centre
Screenings
10:00AM
Salon Films (HK)
Limited In Association
With The US Consulate
General Of Hong Kong
& Macau Presents Asian
Premier: From Suzie
Wong To The Future Of
International Film
180mins. Salon Films.
Theatre 1, HKCEC
After All These Years
(China) 100mins. Dir:
Lam Kah Wai. Key cast:
Massa Dazhong, Gouzi,
He Wenchao.
Meeting Room N102-N103,
HKCEC
Centurion
(UK) Action/adventure,
100mins. Pathé
International. Dir: Neil
Marshall. Key cast:
Michael Fassbender,
Dominic West, Olga
Kurylenko.
Theatre 2, HKCEC
Invisible Kill
(China) Drama, 106mins.
China Film Promotion
International. Dir: Wang
Jing. Key cast: Yin
Xiaotian, Feng Bo.
Meeting Room N109-N110,
HKCEC
Prequel Of The Monkey
King
(China) Animation,
71mins. China Film
Promotion International.
Dir: Hansen Liang.
Meeting Room N111-N112,
HKCEC
The Robbers
(Ger) Action/Adventure,
100mins. Action Concept.
Dir: Shupeng Yang.
Meeting Room N206-N207,
HKCEC
10:30AM
A Crowd Of Three
(Japan) Asmik Ace
Entertainment Inc. Dir:
Omori Tatsushi. Key cast:
Matsuda Shota, Kora
Kengo, Ando Sakura.
Jun and Kenta begin a lifealtering journey when Jun
meets Kayo. On a whim
the trio take gleeful revenge
on Yuya, a co-worker
who shares a tragic past
with Kenta, and then hit
the road to visit Kenta’s
incarcerated brother.
Meeting Room N101B,
HKCEC
Screenings compiled by Paul Lindsell, [email protected]
Lola
(Philippines) 110mins.
Meeting Room N101A,
HKCEC
Otouto (about Her
Brother)
(Japan) 126mins.
Shochiku Co. Dir:
Yamada Yoji. Key cast:
Yoshinaga Sayuri,
Shofukutei Tsurube,
Yu Aoi.
When a brother and sister
reunite after a serious
falling out, the sister
learns that her brother
is fighting a terminal
disease.
Agnes b. CINEMA! Hong
Kong Arts Centre
Umbrage
(UK) Horror, 90mins.
Left Film Sales. Dir:
Drew Cullingham. Key
cast: Doug Bradley, Rita
Ramnani, Jonnie Hurn.
When a dysfunctional
family moves into a
remote farm, they find
themselves at the centre
of a centuries-old feud
between an iconic cowboy
vampire and his former
lover — a sultry female
bloodsucker.
Meeting Room N202-N203,
HKCEC
11:30AM
Echoes Of The Rainbow
See box, above
11:30AM
Echoes Of The Rainbow
(Hong Kong) Drama,
117mins. Mei Ah
Entertainment Group.
Dir: Alex Law. Key
cast: Simon Yam,
Sandra Ng, Aarif Li.
Spring 1969. The world
is undergoing amazing
changes. Man has to
A year in the lives of four
babies. We see them grow
day after day, from birth
to first steps.
Theatre 2, HKCEC
Deadfall Trail
(China) War drama,
100mins. Beijing
Anteaeus Film Co Ltd.
Dir: Wang Ping.
(US) Action/adventure,
horror, 97mins. Moving
Pictures Film and
Television. Dir: Roze.
Key cast: Shane Dean,
Slade Hall, Cavin Gray
Schneider.
John, Julian and Paul
enter the Kaibab National
Forest for a three-week
survival trip. The only
items they take with them
are a knife, a bottle of
water and a garbage bag
each. A week into their
journey, a disastrous
turn of events changes
everything and the men
are forced to confront the
darkest corners of their
morality and mortality.
12:00PM
Ant City
(China) 83mins. Dir:
Gao Wendong. Key cast:
Wu Man, Ba Chu, Lin
Zhuang.
An-An seems to have a
good life: material goods,
a nice apartment and
a silent boyfriend. But
soon it is revealed she is
supported by an older
lover, a real-estate general
manager named Lin.
Meeting Room N102-N103,
HKCEC
Meeting Room N111-N112,
HKCEC
Baby(ies)
Park Benches
(France) Documentary,
78mins. StudioCanal.
Dir: Thomas Balmes.
(France) 115mins. Wild
Bunch.
14 Screen International at Filmart/HAF/hkiff March 22, 2010
Meeting Room N104N105, HKCEC
International. Dir:
Sylvain Chomet.
Meeting Room N202-N203,
HKCEC
Legendary Soccer Kid
(China) 15mins. Creative
Power Entertaining Co
Ltd.
Meeting Room N209-N210,
HKCEC
12:30PM
Six Sisters In The War
Meeting Room N209-N210,
HKCEC
wait only six months
before he sets foot on the
moon. And our young
protagonist is running
wild on the streets of
Hong Kong wearing a
fish bowl for a space
helmet.
Meeting Room N201A, HKCEC
Planet Of 7 Colors
(China) 15mins. Creative
Power Entertaining Co
Ltd.
Meeting Room N209-N210,
HKCEC
Weaving Girl
(China) Drama,
100mins. China Film
Promotion International.
Dir: Wang Quanan.
Key cast: Yu Nan.
Meeting Room N109-N110,
HKCEC
World Shaking
(China) Drama,
100mins. China
Film Promotion
International. Dir:
Wang Jia, Shen Dong.
Key cast: Hou Yong,
Li Youbin.
When a catastrophic
earthquake strikes, Tang
leads his brigade into the
stricken area.
Meeting Room N204-N205,
HKCEC
12:15PM
The Illusionist
(UK) Animation,
78mins. Pathé
Pleasant Goat And Big
Big Wolf
(China) 15mins. Creative
Power Entertaining Co
Ltd.
Meeting Room N209-N210,
HKCEC
12:45PM
leasant Goat Sports
Game
(China) 15mins. Creative
Power Entertaining Co
Ltd.
Meeting Room N209-N210,
HKCEC
1:00PM
Adrift
(Vietnam) Drama,
105mins. Vietnam Media
Corp/BHD Co. Dir: Bui
Thac Chuyen. Key Cast:
Do Thi Hai Yen, Pham
Linh Dan, Johnny Tri
Nguye.
A newlywed’s excitement
begins to fade as she
realises her young
husband is not only
sexually naive but
overly occupied by his
job and doting mother.
As her marriage goes
unconsummated and
her emotional isolation
grows, she reaches out
to her closest girlfriend,
who secretly desires her,
but pushes her into the
arms of a dangerous and
provocative suitor.
Meeting Room N101B,
HKCEC
Cookie Master
(China) 15mins. Creative
Power Entertaining Co
Ltd.
Meeting Room N209-N210,
HKCEC
Gallants
(Hong Kong) 139mins.
Black and White
Entertainment Services.
Dir: Derek Kwok,
Clement Cheng.
Key cast: Leung Siulung, Chan Kwun-tai,
Teddy Robin.
Two has-been masters
are holed up in a village
restaurant, tending
their master in a coma.
Trouble arrives in the
form of a gang of ruthless
developers who covet their
property. The master
wakes up with a start,
and encourages the old
boys into action.
Meeting Room N101A,
HKCEC
Slice
(Thailand) 101mins. Five
Star Production. Dir:
Kongkiat Khomsiri. Key
cast: Arak Amornsupasiri,
Chatchai Plengpanich,
Sontaya Chitmanee.
Bangkok’s dens of sexual
Screenings
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depravity become the
hunting ground for a
perverted serial killer who
dispatches his victims
then hacks off their
genitals.
Agnes b. CINEMA! Hong
Kong Arts Centre
1:15PM
Happy Family
(China) 15mins. Creative
Power Entertaining Co
Ltd.
Meeting Room N209-N210,
HKCEC
1:30PM
The Mini Avengers
(China) Animation,
30mins. Fantasia
Animation.
Meeting Room N111-N112,
HKCEC
1:45PM
forces, are recruited by
the secret agency NSS.
They both fall for
Seunghee, the beautiful
but lethal profiling
specialist. When they are
faced against each other
in a nuclear terrorist
attack, Seunghee’s
formidable secret is
revealed.
Meeting Room N109-N110,
HKCEC
Komaneko’s Christmas
(Japan) Children’s,
20mins. Asatsu-DK Inc.
Dir: Tsuneo Goda.
Key cast: Kyoka
Takizawa, Kaito Aida.
Meeting Room N204-N205,
HKCEC
No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti
(Taiwan) 92mins
Theatre 1, HKCEC
Sayonara Itsuka
(Japan) Romantic
drama, 133mins. CJ
Entertainment Inc.
Dir: John H Lee. Key
cast: Nakayama Miho,
Nishijima Hidetoshi,
Ishida Yuriko.
Theatre 2, HKCEC
2:00PM
Meeting Room N202-N203,
HKCEC
Ghost Catcher
(China) 100mins.
Zhejiang Huace Film &
TV Co.
Meeting Room N102-N103,
HKCEC
Giulia Doesn’t Date At
Night
(Italy) Drama, 105mins.
Intramovie/Roma Lazio
Film Commission. Dir:
Giuseppe Piccioni.
Meeting Room N104-N105,
HKCEC
Iris: The Movie
(South Korea) Action/
adventure, romance,
125mins. Finecut Co Ltd.
Dir: Kim Kyu-tae, Yang
Yun-ho. Key cast: Lewe
Byung-hun, Kim Taehee, TOP (Bigbang).
Hyunjun and Sawoo,
close friends and rivals
from the 707 special
Distant Thunder
(China) 93mins. WHY
Entertainment Co. Dir:
Zhang Jiarui. Key cast:
Huo Siyan, Guo Xiaoran,
Ge Siran.
Meeting Room N201B,
HKCEC
(China) Drama, Comedy,
30mins. Shanghai
HaiRun Media Group.
Meeting Room N111-N112,
HKCEC
3:00PM
Magoo Diandian
(China) 30mins.
Shanghai Tooncool
Digital Technology Co.
Ltd.
Meeting Room N111-N112,
HKCEC
3:15PM
Break Up Club
(Germany) 92mins.
Action Concept
(Hong Kong) 104mins.
Golden Scene Company.
Dir: Barbara Wong. Key
cast: Fiona Sit, Jaycee
Chan.
Meeting Room N209-N210,
HKCEC
Shanghai, Shanghai
(China) 30mins. Drama
Meeting Room N111-N112,
HKCEC
Meeting Room N101B,
HKCEC
3:30PM
Golden Slumber
Six Sisters In The War
(China) War drama,
92mins. Beijing
Anteaeus Film Co Ltd.
Dir: Wang Ping.
Meeting Room N211-N212,
HKCEC
Space Battleship
Yamato
(Japan) Action/
adventure, animation,
131mins. Sedic
International Inc. Dir:
Yoshinobu Nishizaki.
Key cast: Koichi
Yamadera, Ayumi
Fujimura, Masatoh Ibu.
The year is 2220. A black
hole, 300 times larger
than the sun, approaches
the solar system and the
Earth is expected to fall
into it. A transmigration
to the Sairam Star begins.
Meeting Room N211-N212,
HKCEC
Walking To School
(China) 92mins.
China Film Promotion
International. Dir: Peng
Jiahuang.
Meeting Room N102-N103,
HKCEC
Meeting Room N104-N105,
HKCEC
Immaculate
(France) 96mins. Wild
Bunch.
Meeting Room N201A,
HKCEC
Making Mao
Lieutenant Gelan
The Robbers
Bloody Shake
(South Korea) 120mins.
P.A.M Korea Media.
Dir: Kim Jeeyong. Key
cast: Han Hye Jin, Kim
Doyong, Jang Sungwon.
2:30PM
(Japan) 139mins. CJ
Entertainment Inc. Dir:
Nakamura Yoshihiro.
Key cast: Sakai Masato,
Takeuchi Yuko, Yoshioka
Hidetaka.
Agnes b. CINEMA! Hong
Kong Arts Centre
4:00PM
14 Blades
(China) Action/
adventure, 113mins.
Arclight Films. Dir:
Daniel Lee.
Trained in clandestine
combat from childhood,
the Jinyiwei were masters
of the 14 Blades: eight
being for torture, five for
killing and the last blade
reserved for suicide when
a mission failed. An elite
force of secret agents with
a licence to kill, the
Jinyiwei devoted their lives
and lethal prowess to the
service of the Emperor
alone.
Meeting Room N101A,
HKCEC
The Boxer
(Germany) 92mins.
Action Concept.
(Singapore)
Documentary, 53mins.
The Moving Visuals Co
Pte. Dir: Galen Yeo.
When the Communists
took over China in 1949
they engineered a massive
propaganda effort to win
over the people, an artistic
yet brutal onslaught of
images and slogans that
lasted more than 25 years.
Meeting Room N102-N103,
HKCEC
Manlia Skies
(Hong Kong) 110mins.
PelikulaRed — Raymond
Red. Dir: Raymond Red.
Meeting Room N206-N207,
HKCEC
Iris: The Movie
(South Korea) Action/
adventure, romance,
125mins. Dir: Kim Kyu-tae,
Yang Yun-ho. Key cast:
Lee Byung-hun, Kim Taehee, TOP(Bigbang).
Meeting Room N109-N110,
HKCEC
4:30PM
And Soon The Darkness
(France) Horror, 100mins.
StudioCanal. Dir: Marcos
Efron. Key cast: Amber
Heard, Odette Yustman,
Karl Urban.
Two beautiful Americans
embark on the trip
of a lifetime through
glorious landscapes in
Argentina. It’s all fun and
games until one of them
disappears.
Meeting Room N202-N203,
HKCEC
Creative Malaysia
Showcase 2010
(Malaysia) 20mins.
Meeting Room N211-N212,
HKCEC
Parade
(Japan) 118mins.
Showgate Inc. Dir:
Isao Yukisada. Key
cast: Tatsuya Fujiwara,
Karina, Shihori Kanjiya.
Meeting Room N209-N210,
HKCEC
Meeting Room N201B,
HKCEC
Harmony
(Australia) Horror,
105mins. Lightning
Entertainment/Mainline
Releasing. Dir: Dean
Francis. Key cast: Xavier
Samuel, Sophie Lowe,
Bob Morley.
Four young friends on a
camping adventure in the
Australian outback are
run off the highway by
a ‘road train’, a massive
diesel truck hauling two
large trailers. With their
own vehicle wrecked, and
the road train stopped,
the friends march off to
seek help from the drivers.
(South Korea) Comedy,
drama, 115mins. CJ
Entertainment Inc. Dir:
Kang Dae-gyu. Key cast:
Kim Yun-jin, Na Moonhee, Kang Ye-won.
Inmates at a women’s
prison forms a choir.
Mun-ok, previously
a music professor, is
assigned the role of
conductor.
4:15PM
Girlfriends
(South Korea) Comedy,
114mins. Mirovision Inc.
Dir: Kang Suk-bum.
Key cast: Kang Haejung, Han Chae-young,
Huh E-jae.
Meeting Room N111-N112,
HKCEC
Tel (852) 2582 8959
Editor
Mike Goodridge
Contributing editor (Asia)
Liz Shackleton
Reviews editor
Mark Adams
Reporter
Jean Noh
Researcher
Sen-lun Yu
Group head of production
and art
Mark Mowbray
Sub-editors
Medina Lau, Paul Lindsell
Translator
Arthur Chin
Screenings
Kelly Gibbens, Oliver Bone
Photographer
Andrew Ross, andrewross.biz
Group editor
Conor Dignam
Dooman River
(China) 89mins. Arizona
Films. Dir: Zhang Lu.
Key cast: Cui Jian, Yin
Lan, Li Jinglin.
Road Train
Meeting Room N204-N205,
HKCEC
Editorial office: Room G202,
second floor, Hong Kong
Convention and Exhibition
Centre, 1 Expo Drive, Wan Chai,
Hong Kong
Filmart stand: 1M27
Theatre 2, HKCEC
Monga
(Taiwan) 140mins.
Distribution Workshop.
Dir: Doze Niu.
In 1980s Taipei, Mosquito
and his friends learn at a
young age the lessons of
survival. Tired of being
pushed around, the teens
join the Princes Gang,
and soon they relish their
newfound command. The
film depicts veteran triad
members teaching the
youngsters the rules of
gangsterhood.
Tel (44) 7595 646 541
International advertising
manager
Andrew Dixon
(44) 7595 646 541
International sales
consultant
Ingrid Hammond
(852) 6024 2518,
(39) 348 5165 631
Production manager
David Cumming
Festival manager
Mai Le
Senior commercial director
Alison Pitchford
Events and project manager
Laura Woodland
Marketing
Vicky Priest, Claire Hyland
Printer
Farmer Printing Fty Ltd, Unit
401-2, 406-7 and 415, 4/F,
Block A1, Yau Tong Industrial
City, 17 Ko Fai Road, Yau
Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Screen International London
Greater London House,
Hampstead Road, London
NW1 7EJ, UK
Subscription enquiries
Tel (44) 1858 438 847
Fax (44) 1858 461 739
[email protected]
Theatre 1, HKCEC
March 22, 2010 Screen International at Filmart/HAF/HKIFF 15