AT FILMART

DAY 3 

www.ScreenDaily.com Editorial (852) 2582 8959 Advertising (852) 5439 4741 

Filmart is 

rocked by 4D 

Sexecution 

BY LIZ SHACKLETON 

Hong Kong producer Stephen Shiu 

Jr has one of the most popular 

booths at Filmart thanks to his 

slate of hot 3D movies and a teaser 

demonstration of a 4D Sex And Zen 

sequel. 

Shiu produced 3D Sex And Zen: 

Extreme Ecstasy which was the topgrossing 

local fi lm in Hong Kong 

last year, taking more than $5m. He 

is now prepping the sequel, Sex And 

Zen II: 4D Sexecution, which is 

being made for D-Box cinemas 

with motion simulators in the seats. 

“Golden Harvest has already 

installed D-Box in its Mongkok 

cinema and is planning to roll out 

the technology across its circuit of 

150 theatres,” Shiu explains. “We 

just have to prepare a special 

soundtrack that sends digital signals 

to the seats.” 

Before he unleashes 4D sex on 

the world, Shiu’s China 3D Digital 

Entertainment is producing 

another erotic film, Dong Guan 

Wood, based on the hit internet 

novel, which is being lined up for 

release over the National Day holidays 

in October. 

“This year the holiday lasts eight 

days so we hope mainland tourists 

will have time to come and see the 

fi lm,” Shiu said. 

Shiu is also developing several 

3D fi lms outside the erotic genre, 

including $20m action romance 

Iceman Cometh, to be co-directed 

by Donnie Yen and Sex And Zen 

director Christopher Sun. Yen will 

also star in the film, which is 

scheduled to start shooting in July. 

Beijing-based Wanda Media is on 

board as a co-producer. 

Singapore’s Media Development 

Authority (MDA) has announced the 

second edition of ScreenSingapore 

will move to December to take place 

at the same time as the Asia 

Television Forum (ATF). 

The co-organiser of the event is 

changing from Experia Events to 

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21 2012 

NCM proposes remake 

of Japanese TV classic 

BY SEN-LUN YU 

Beijing-based New Classic Media 

(NCM) has partnered with Japan’s 

Fuji TV Network to co-fi nance and 

co-produce the Chinese film 

remake of 1991 hit Japanese TV 

drama 101st Marriage Proposal. 

The film will be called Say Yes, 

the title of the TV drama’s theme 

song. Taiwanese fi lm-maker Leste 

Chen (Love On Credit, Eternal Summer) 

will direct the $5.6m romantic 

drama with mainland actor Huang 

Bo (Crazy Racer) and Chiling Lin 

(Love On Credit, Red Cliff) starring. 


Kadokawa Pictures has acquired 

all Japanese rights to Kevin Macdonald’s 

Bob Marley documentary 

Marley from Fortissimo Films. 

The fi lm is scheduled for theatrical 

release in North America and 

Say Yes is a Beauty And The 

Beast-style story about a down-onhis-luck 

man who has gone 

through 99 arranged dates to fi nd 

a future wife but all failed. He 

meets a beautiful cellist on the 

100th arranged date and immediately 

falls for her. But her heart is 

set on her ex-boyfriend. Without 

good looks or deep pockets, the 

man can only pursue his love with 

a sincere heart and perseverance. 

Former Beijing Galloping Horse 

executive Tina Shi and New Classic 

Media’s vice-president Zhang 

Kadokawa picks up Marley 

ScreenSingapore moves to December 

the UK on April 20, then will release 

worldwide throughout the summer 

to coincide with the 50th anniversary 

of Jamaican independence. 

The deal was brokered by Fortissimo’s 

executive vice-president 

Winnie Lau and Kadokawa’s Takeo 

Hong Kong director Ronny Yu at yesterday’s Saving General Yang press 

conference at Filmart. The $26m epic is produced by Pegasus Motion Pictures. 

Reed Exhibitions. Reed also 

organises the ATF which this year 

takes place December 4-7, while 

ScreenSingapore will be held 

December 5-7. 

Both events will take place at the 

Marina Bay Sands convention 

centre. 

ScreenSingapore was held for 

the first time in June 2011 and 

incorporated a trade show, 

conference and red carpet 

premieres of US and Asian films. 

This year’s edition will have a similar 

format and also tie up with 

UniFrance to host the premiere of a 

French film. 

Liz Shackleton 

AT FILMART 

Wenbo will serve as producers of 

the fi lm. Shooting will start in May 

in Shanghai, Tokyo and Okinawa. 

The two Japanese actors from the 

original TV version, Atsuko Asano 

and Tetsuya Takeda, have indicated 

they will make cameo 

appearances. The release date is 

planned for February 2013. 

New Classic Media is a Beijingbased 

entertainment company 

which has made investments in 

films such as Mr And Mrs Single 

and Zhang Yimou’s Under The 

Hawthorn Tree. 

Kodera, general manager acquisitions, 

co-productions & sales international 

operations. 

The film was produced by 

Shangri-La Entertainment and 

Tuff Gong Pictures in association 

with Cowboy Films, which produced 

Macdonald’s The Last King 

Of Scotland. 

Panel shines 

light on script 

BY JEAN NOH 

Two writers and a producer from 

Hollywood stressed the importance 

of script development and 

structure in Asian cinema at a 

panel titled ‘Screenwriting for the 

global market’ here yesterday. 

To succeed in the global market, 

Kung Fu Panda screenwriter 

Glenn Berger advised scriptwriters 

and producers to keep their 

fi lms “as universal as possible on 

an emotional level and as specifi c 

as possible on a cultural level”. 

The panel also discussed the 

Hollywood and Asian screenwriting 

and development processes, 

with Hollywood having a more collaborative 

process than Asia where 

directors are often the scriptwriters 

and projects are greenlit more 

quickly with fl uid fi nancing. 

“You have to be able to take constant 

feedback, rewrite and find 

people who can help you with 

notes,” said screenwriter Rita Hsiao 

(Mulan, Toy Story 2). 

TODAY 

Review: Beautiful 2012 

NEWS 

French connection 

How fruitful has the 2010 China- 

France co-production treaty been 

for each side? 

» Page 4 

REVIEW 

Beautiful 2012 

Four singular and absorbing madefor-internet 

movies from four top 

Asian directors 

» Page 12 

Screen’s digital dailies 

View the Filmart daily on 

www.ScreenDaily.com 

This is Screen’s final Filmart print 

edition for 2012. Please follow our 

continuing Filmart news and 

reviews at ScreenDaily.com. 

Clover sets 

six-film slate 


Singapore’s Clover Films is gearing 

up to release a slate of six productions 

before the end of the year, as it 

responds to growing demand in 

Singapore and Malaysia for locally 

produced fi lms. 

Scheduled to start shooting in 

the next few months, Jack Neo’s Ah 

Boys To Men is a two-part comedy 

about Singapore’s National Service. 

The fi rst part will be released 

towards the end of this year and 

the second part during Chinese 

New Year 2013. 

Currently in production, Give Me 

Four Numbers is a comedy drama 

about a dog who can predict lottery 

numbers. Clover is co-producing 

with MM2 Entertainment and 

Daniel Yun’s Homerun Pictures. 

Clover, which is also a buyer for 

Singapore, has three fi lms in postproduction: 

comedy horror Greedy 

Ghost, youth drama Imperfect and 

romantic comedy The Golden Couple. 

All three are co-productions 

with MM2 and other partners in 

Malaysia and Singapore. 

Clover is also co-producing previously 

announced horror film 

Inside The Urn, directed by Gilbert 

Chan, which starts shooting in June. 

Singapore films have recently 

found a new market in neighbouring 

Malaysia, where Clover co-production 

The Wedding Diary grossed 

$1.3m earlier this year. 

“Between Singapore and Malaysia 

we can now recoup a $1m 

budget, so other territories are extra 

revenue,” said Clover’s Lim Teck.

NEWS 

Golden Scene 

picks up Vulgaria 

Hong Kong’s Golden Scene is 

handling international sales on 

Pang Ho Cheung’s Vulgaria, which 

is screening in this year’s HKIFF. 

Starring Chapman To, Ronald 

Cheng and Fiona Sit, the film is a 

black comedy about the Hong 

Kong film industry and the efforts 

of a struggling producer to make 

his new film. It was produced by 

Sun Entertainment and Pang’s 

Making Film Production. 

Golden Scene, a Hong Kong 

distributor that has moved into 

production and sales in recent 

years, is ramping up its sales 

slate with three other projects 

from Hong Kong directors. 

The company is also selling 

Calvin Poon’s Shadows Of Love, 

produced by Stanley Kwan and 

starring Cecilia Cheung and Kwon 

Sang Woo. Cheung plays a woman 

who is asked to impersonate the 

daughter of a CEO involved in an 

inheritance battle. 

Cheung also makes a special 

appearance in Jingle Ma’s Speed 

Angels, another recent addition 

to Golden Scene’s slate. Tang Wei 

and Rene Liu head the cast of the 

action drama about female car 

racers. The film was produced by 

a consortium of mainland 

Chinese companies including 

Star Sky and Enlight Pictures. 

Golden Scene is also selling 

Carol Lai’s The Second Woman, 

starring Shawn Yue and Shu Qi, 

which opens theatrically in Hong 

Kong this week. 


Johnnie to 

heads for udine 

By JEaN Noh 

Hong Kong director Johnnie To is 

returning to the Udine Far East 

Film Festival (FEFF, April 20-28) to 

present Romancing In Thin Air in its 

first screening at an international 

festival. He will also present four 

short/medium-length films from 

the Fresh Wave Short Film Festival 

which he directs on behalf of Hong 

Kong Arts Development Council. 

To has been a friend of the festival 

since its inception and his film A 

Hero Never Dies won the Audience 

Award there in 1999. 

In their international premieres, 

the Fresh Wave Short Film Festival 

films selected by FEFF’s organisers 

are: 1+1 by Mo Lai, The Decisive 

Moment by Wong Wai-kit; July 1st, 

An Unhappy Birthday by Li Miao 

and Sew by Li Yin-fung. 

n 4 Screen International at Filmart March 21, 2012 

France yet to benefit 

from treaty with China 

By SCrEEN StaFF 

Despite the supposedly increasing 

co-operation between France and 

China, it seems more Chinese 

films were made through the partnership 

while French films have 

not benefited from the growing 

film market in China, said speakers 

at a Filmart panel on China- 

France creative partnerships on 

Monday. 

China and France signed a coproduction 

treaty in 2010, however 

there have been only two 

China-France co-productions 

made since: one is Wang Xiaoshuai’s 

11 Flowers and the other is a 

Chinese film currently being 

reviewed by Chinese censors. 

“There are more Chinese films 

Zodiac Mystery 

having part of the shooting in 

France, because more and more 

Chinese audiences like to see their 

characters travelling in Europe 

and foreign cities. These may add 

commercial appeal for the Chinese 

audience,” suggested Isabelle 

Glachant, producer of Wang’s 11 

Flowers. 

Films such as Xu Jinglei-starrer 

Eternal Moments and the latest 

Jackie Chan film Chinese Zodiac 

have shot partly in France. 

“But what may hold commercial 

appeal for China may not be 

the case for the French audience,” 

said Glachant. 

China has recently opened up 

the foreign film market adding 14 

foreign films (in Imax or 3D) for 

Le Vision sets Zodiac 

Mystery release 

By SEN-luN yu 

Beijing-based film studio Le 

Vision Pictures, the film production 

arm of internet video company 

Le TV.com, has announced 

that Sheng Zhimin’s suspense 

thriller Zodiac Mystery has cleared 

Chinese censors and is scheduled 

for release in China in summer 

2012. 

Produced by Hong Kong director 

Fruit Chan and starring Tong 

Dawei (The Flowers Of War), Qin 

Hao (Spring Fever) and Gan Wei 

(Welcome To Shama Town), Zodiac 

Mystery is the first genre film from 

Gao Yuan 

Sheng, whose credits include Bliss 

(2006), and tells the story of a 

group of friends who start to die in 

mysterious circumstances each 

related to their zodiac signs. 

Le Vision invested in the $2m 

film and is handling international 

sales. The company has also 

signed a first-look deal with Sheng 

for his next projects. 

Le Vision is also an investor in 

action film The Bullet Vanishes, 

directed by Law Chi-leung and 

produced by Derek Yee, which 

Emperor Motion Pictures is selling 

here. 

import into China. This should 

encourage more foreign companies 

to engage in co-production or 

sales with China. 

“But this may mean good news 

for American companies, not necessarily 

French companies. 

Because what the Chinese market 

see as good or commercial films 

are quite different from the French 

producers’ views,” said Glachant. 

Barbie Tung, producer of Chinese 

Zodiac, echoed these views. 

“There might be more Chinese 

investors willing to invest. But you 

have to make sure they understand 

what they are investing in. It’s 

unlikely they will invest in a good 

drama that will sell in France only 

but not in China,” she said. 

Eye on Films 

acquires Clip, 

closes deals 

By aNdrEaS WiSEMaN 

Wide Management’s niche distribution 

label Eye On Films (EoF) 

has acquired its 12th title, Maja 

Milos’ 2012 Rotterdam Tiger 

award winner Clip, and closed a 

raft of deals across its slate. 

The Serbian acquisition has 

already sold in France (KMBO), 

Japan (Fine Films) and Czech 

Republic and Slovakia (ARTCAM). 

Other EoF deals include Nuit #1 

to Japan (At Entertainment), South 

Korea (Line Tree), Benelux (Cooperative 

Nouveau Cinema) and Russia, 

CIS, Ukraine and Georgia 

(Russian Report); Beast Paradise to 

Canada (Axia Films); The Mole to 

Canada (AZ Films); The First Rasta 

to Australia and New Zealand 

(Curious Films); and HKIFF Global 

Vision selection Policeman to 

Australia and New Zealand (Curious 

Films), Portugal, Angola, 

Mozambique and Cap Vert (Clap). 

Policeman and fellow EoF title 

Mourning, winner of two awards at 

the 14th Asian Film Festival In 

Deauville, are in competition at this 

year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards. 

EoF has grown to 70 partners 

since launching at the Berlin International 

Film Festival in 2011, and 

now includes 40 festivals and 30 

distributors in more than 30 countries. 

The collective, which supports 

the distribution of films by 

first-time directors, has secured 

renewed MEDIA Mundus backing 

for 2012. 

Sergey Pak 

Vladivostok 

festival makes 

Filmart debut 

By MikE GoodridGE 

The International Film Festival of 

Asian Pacific Countries in Vladivostok 

is at Filmart for the first 

time, tubthumping its 10th annual 

festival (September 22-28). 

The only festival in Russia to 

spotlight Asia Pacific films, the festival 

has competitive sections for 

features and shorts and this year 

will introduce a NETPAC jury for 

the best Asian film from a firsttime 

or young director. It is also 

expecting to welcome Busan 

International Film Festival honorary 

director Kim Dong-ho; Busan 

is one of three festivals which has a 

co-operation with Vladivostok to 

share programmes. The others are 

Expresiyn en Corto in Mexico and 

Capalbio Cinema International 

Short Film Festival in France. 

General director Sergey Pak 

notes that the festival has grown 

dramatically since its first event in 

2003. “In our first year, we played 

55 films but in 2011, we had 200 

films. In 2003, we had submissions 

from 16 countries and last 

year [it was] 55 countries.” 

The festival has also welcomed a 

host of international stars including 

Liza Minnelli, Catherine Deneuve 

and Gérard Depardieu, as well as 

Russian stars who meet with local 

audiences and present local films in 

the Russian programme. 

Last year’s prize winners were 

Ivan Sen’s Toomelah from Australia 

in the feature section and Halima 

Ouardiri’s Mokhtar from Canada; 

critic Tony Rayns headed the jury. 

Japanese 

say arigato 

Tokyo International Film Festival 

(TIFF) chairman Tom Yoda and 

UniJapan president Hideyuki Takai 

presented a Letter of Appreciation 

to China Film Foundation, the 

HKIFF Society and Hong Kong 

Film Development Council at 

Monday’s Asian Film Awards. 

TIFF’s Arigato Project received a 

$79,000 donation from Hong 

Kong and Chinese film-makers 

after Japan’s earthquake and 

tsunami last year. Jean Noh

REVIEWS 

Reviews edited by Mark Adams mark.adams@screendaily.com 

FILMART IN bRIEF 

Love Is Not Blind 

Market. Dir: Teng Huatao. Chi. 2011. 109mins 

One of the box-office hits of 2011, this charming 

and entertaining rom-com has echoes of 

Bridget Jones’s Diary (and many other chick 

flicks) as wedding organiser Huang Xiaoxian 

(Bai Baihe) tries to come to terms with 

the break-up of her relationship. A smart and 

quirky script from Bao Jingjing (based on 

her blog), the story offers up plenty of fun for 

Bai and co-star Wen Zhang as her camp 

office buddy to plan revenge and mull over 

the problems with men and relationships 

(the pair also starred together in one of the 

segments of anthology The Law Of Attraction). 

Director Teng Huatao slots in some 

stylish contemporary quirks, but keeps the 

focus on his talented stars. 

Mark Adams 

CONTACT EDKO FILMS wujune@edkofilm. 

com.hk 

Rent-a-Cat 

Market. Dir/scr: Naoko Ogigami. Jap. 110mins 

A gentle charmer of a film, Rent-a-Cat (Rentaneko) 

wallows in its quirky feline fun as it 

dwells on loneliness and cute kittens. While 

never as laugh-out-loud as it might appear 

on the surface, it is engaging entertainment, 

with the large variety of moggies well trained 

and lead actress Mikako Ichikawa a strong 

presence. Animal movies have a way of striking 

a chord with audiences, and combined 

with writer/director Naoko Ogigami’s trademark 

idiosyncratic sense of humour, the film 

could prove to be popular in Japan and of 

interest to niche buyers. 

Mark Adams 

CONTACT NIKKATSU www.nikkatsu.co.jp 

No Liar, No Cry 

Market. Dir: Xu Chuanhai. Chi. 2011. 88mins 

An engagingly oddball comedy drama, Xu 

Chuanhai’s directorial debut is a delightfully 

surreal affair, starring Wi Gang as Old Pi, a 

gruff man who for the past 10 years has been 

protecting an undeveloped gold mine deep 

in the Gobi desert. Word eventually gets out 

and he finds himself surrounded by a gang of 

thugs, three wealthy women, a geologist and 

a film crew, and a battle of schemes and wits 

ensue. The desert settings make for an unusual 

backdrop and the clever twists keep 

things intriguing. 

Mark Adams 

CONTACT INDEX ENTERTAINMENT 

yyg@gmail.com 


beautiful 2012 

Reviewed by Mark Adams 

Four ‘micro-movies’ produced by Youku, China’s 

leading internet television site, make up Beautiful 

2012, a coming together for four short films from 

award-winning Asian directors that have at their 

core the concept of ‘What is beautiful?’ while also 

mulling over life, death and unhappiness. 

The styles of the four film-makers are all very 

different in tone and content — two are fictionstyle 

and two documentary-style — but all are singular 

and absorbing pieces. As a film Beautiful 

2012, which in China will be seen on Youku’s 

online platform, would be an easy fit for any film 

festival, while Tsai Ming-liang’s delightfully shot 

Walker could also work as a gallery installation. 

Beautiful 2012 opens with South Korean director 

Kim Tae-yong’s You Are More Than Beautiful (pictured), 

about a man hiring a young woman named 

Young-hee to pretend to be his fiancée and show 

his ill father he is getting married. When his father 

slips into a coma he pays the woman at the hospital, 

but she slips into the hospital room and in a 

charmingly beautiful scene stands and sings a 

Korean opera song to the father (in a room with 

five other seriously ill elderly men). 

Second up is Tsai Ming-liang’s Walker, which 

takes an unusual look at the bustling streets of 

Hong Kong as it features a series of stunningly 

shot scenes with at the centre a red-robed monk 

who walks at a snail’s pace. With traffic and pedes- 

Robo-G 

Reviewed by Mark Adams 

As fun and frantic piece of mainstream entertainment, 

writer/director Shinobu Yaguchi’s high-concept 

family film Robo-G really hits the spot, and 

has strong remake possibilities should Hollywood 

come calling. Given it lacks any arthouse credentials 

it is unlikely to feature much beyond the family 

film festival circuit, which is a shame given its 

all-round commercial value. 

Screening in the I See It My Way section of the 

Hong Kong International Film Festival, Robo-G also 

features a standout performance by Shinjiro Igarashi 

(aka former Japanese rock star Mickey Curtis) 

as the grumpy old grandfather whose boredom and 

lack of stimulation in retirement are transformed 

when he applies for the unlikeliest of part-time jobs. 

Director Yaguchi has a strong track record in 

terms of comedy hits — such as Water Boys (2001), 

Swing Girls (2004) and Happy Flight (2008) — and 

after a gap of four years has returned with a film 

that might lack the simplistic mainstream fun sensibilities 

of those titles, but is a more rounded film 

in terms of its concept. 

The straightforward structure is pretty familiar 

— after a disaster the protagonists gradually have 

success, learning a few life lessons along the way 

— but handled with a good deal of polish and lack 

of mawkish sentimentality. 

When three workers at Kimura Electrical 

WoRlD pReMIeRe 

Chi. 2012. 90mins 

Directors Kim tae-yong, 

tsai Ming-liang, Gu 

Changwei, Ann Hui 

Production company 

Youku original 

Sales contact Hong Kong 

International Film Society, 

savita_lam@hkiff.org.uk 

Main cast Yan lianke, lee 

Kang-sheng, Gong Hyo-jin, 

Francis ng, Jade leung 

InteRnAtIonAl 

pReMIeRe 

Jap. 2011. 95mins 

Director/screenplay 

Shinobu Yaguchi 

Production companies 

Altamira pictures, Dentsu, 

Fuji television network, 

toho Company 

International sales pony 

Canyon, www.ponycanyon. 

co.jp 

Cinematography 

Katsumi Yanagijima 

Editor Ryuji Miyajima 

Main cast Shinjiro 

Igarashi, Yuriko Yoshitaka, 

Gaku Hamada, Junya 

Kawashima, Shogo Kawai, 

emi Wakui, tomoko tabata 

SCreeNINgS, page 18 

trians speeding around him, the man — head 

intensely bowed, bare-foot and holding a bread roll 

in one hand and a plastic bag in the other — walks 

only a step every minute. 

Gu Changwei’s Long Tou — also shot documentary 

style — features characters who dwell on the 

realities of expectation, punctuated by a series of 

memorable shots ( a cat jumping onto an air conditioner 

unit; an elderly man dragging a series of 

plastic bottles; a weight-lifter practising his moves 

and a child blowing bubbles) and nice use of 

music. 

The film wraps with Ann Hui’s My Way — starring 

Francis Ng and Jade Leung — about a pre-op 

transsexual man nervously waiting for his operation. 

It is a stylishly melancholic film, and defined 

by the moment when he goes to the hospital for the 

operation, goes to sleep in the male ward and 

wakes as a woman in the female ward… and finally 

indulges in a smile of relief and happiness. 

(played by small Gaku Hamada, tall Junya 

Kawashima and chunky Shogo Kawai) fail in their 

bid to build a robot for the company, they decide to 

advertise for someone to ‘act’ in a supposed Mascot 

Suit Show —but instead fit them into their New 

Shiokaze robot suit. 

They find 73-year-old Mr Suzuki (Igarashi) is 

the only one who fits the suit, but to their bemusement 

he proves such a hit at the Robo Exposition 

that they have to keep him on for presentations 

around Japan. But they had not reckoned on the 

determination of robot-loving science student Sasaki 

Yoko (Yuriko Yoshitaka, playing her role for 

shrill schoolgirl laughs) who gradually learns the 

truth about the deception. 

Robo-G is constantly entertaining without ever 

being radical or defiantly original, with Igarashi 

perfect as the curmudgeonly old man who finds a 

new lease of life.

HAF ProFiles 

Ali’s Wedding 

Dir Tony Ayres 

Country of origin Australia 

China-born, Australia-based director Tony Ayres is 

clearly drawn to true stories. His award winning 2007 

film Home Song Stories — which premiered at that year’s 

Berlin International Film Festival — was based loosely 

on his own life story, while his latest project, Ali’s Wedding, 

is a romantic comedy based on the real-life tale of 

Iranian actor Osamah Sami who moved to Australia 

aged 12, where his father became a respected leader of 

Melbourne’s Muslim community. 

Ayres directed Sami in his 2008 television movie 

Saved, and after hearing his life story, encouraged the 

actor to pull it together in a script, bringing on television 

writer Andrew Knight as a co-writer. 

Sami also plays the lead in Ali’s Wedding, as a man 

who tries to live up to his father’s image but becomes 

tangled in a web of lies after he falls in love with a Lebanese 

girl, despite being pledged to an arranged marriage. 

“This is a story about Muslims that does not involve 

terrorism or suicide bombers,” says Ayres, whose first 

feature, Walking On Water, won a Teddy award at Berlin 

in 2002. “It is about ordinary people, has a lot of humour 

and humanity and is set in a world we don’t know about 

and don’t get to see. There are not many accessible Muslim 

stories predominantly in English,” adds the filmmaker, 

who thinks the film has the potential to reach 

wider audiences despite its cultural specifity. 

Ali’s Wedding is being produced by Michael McMahon 

and Helen Panckhurst of Matchbox Pictures, the company 

behind controversial Australian television series 

The Slap, on which Ayres was also a showrunner and 

director. With a view to shooting up to 20% of the project 

in the Middle East, the film-making team will be looking 

for co-producers at HAF. 

Sandy George 

Ali’s Wedding 

Budget $5.6m 

raised to date $2m via the Australian government’s 

producer offset tax rebate 

Contact Helen Panckhurst helen.panckhurst@ 

matchboxpictures.com 


Chocolate City GZ 

Dir Ruby Yang 

Country of origin China-Hong Kong 

After directing several award-winning documentaries, 

including the 2006 Oscar-winning short The Blood Of 

Yingzhou District, Chinese-American film-maker Ruby 

Yang is taking a different direction with her first fiction 

feature. The story will follow the lives of three young 

Africans living in the Sanyuanli district of Chinese city 

Guangzhou, named by taxi drivers as ‘Chocolate City’. 

“For me, the young Africans in the Chocolate City are 

just like the Chinese Americans in San Francisco 160 

years ago. They are marginalised but still try to make it 

in a foreign land, at their prime age,” explains Yang. 

“Being an immigrant in the US and having made films 

about the earliest Chinese Americans, I feel I understand 

the solitude of the African community,” adds the director, 

who will draw on her documentary work and experience 

as an editor to create a hard-hitting doc style with fastpaced 

editing and a vivid visual look. 

Yang is currently writing the script for Chocolate City 

GZ, and is planning to recruit name actors from Africa, 

as well as Nigerian scriptwriters to add touches of 

authenticity to the project. She is producing together 

with regular collaborator Lambert Yam, who worked on 

three of her documentaries: Citizen Hong Kong, China 21 

and A Moment In Time. 

Chocolate City GZ is being produced through Yang’s 

Chang Ai Media Project, which she set up in 2003 to 

make films that raise awareness of HIV and Aids in 

China. With $500,000 of investment promised by an 

undisclosed US-based investor, Yang will be looking for 

co-production partners at HAF. 

Sen-lun Yu 

Chocolate City GZ 

Budget $1.6m 

Finance raised to date $500,000 

Contact Ruby Yang, Chang Ai Media Project 

yangrubyzy@gmail.com 

Here Comes The sun 

Dir Eitan Anner 

Country of origin Israel 

Here Comes The Sun is being pitched as Israel’s answer to 

revisionist US westerns such as Little Big Man and Unforgiven. 

“It wasn’t born as an Israeli western, but during the 

writing process we understood that the story is a classic 

story,” says writer Guy Meirson of the film to be directed 

by Israeli film-maker Eitan Anner, whose last feature Love 

And Dance was distributed in more than 20 countries. 

The film centres around an engineer in his early 40s 

who returns to Israel with his American wife, after 20 

years living in the US, to build a solar field on Bedouin 

land, encountering suspicion from the locals. 

“The subject is the relationship between west and 

east… Israel lies right in the middle. It sees itself as a 

western society but at the same time, it has more than a 

little bit in common with the Third World,” explains 

Meirson, who wrote from personal experience as he himself 

returned to Israel after several years in the US. 

Having already collaborated on television series Room 

Service, Meirson and Eitan Anner were keen to make a 

feature. After winning a pitching prize for the project at 

the Haifa International Film Festival last October, they 

were bombarded with offers from producers wanting to 

work on the project. They opted for young, ambitious 

outfit Green Productions, founded by Gal Greenspan 

and Roi Kurland in 2009 and a first draft of the screenplay, 

which will be in English and Hebrew, has been submitted 

to the Israeli Film Fund. 

The project is looking to attract a co-producer from an 

English-speaking territory. Greenspan is also open to 

producing with Asian partners. He has fond memories of 

a visit to HAF in 2010 with Israeli director Tom Shoval’s 

thriller Youth, which is now fully financed and set to 

shoot shortly. 

Geoffrey Macnab 

Here Comes The sun 

Budget $1.8m 

raised to date none 

Contact Green Productions 

noa@greenproductions.co.il

The Fourth Direction 

Dir Gurvinder Singh 

Country of origin India 

Gurvinder Singh had a meteoric rise to international recognition 

last year when his debut feature, Alms For A 

Blind Horse, premiered in Venice’s Orizzonti section and 

went on to win the special jury prize at the Abu Dhabi 

film festival. The Punjabi-language drama, about powerless 

villagers attempting to protect their homes, screened 

in several other festivals, including Busan and Rotterdam, 

and picked up best director at India’s prestigious 

National Film Awards. 

His next project, The Fourth Direction, deals with one of 

the most turbulent periods in Punjab’s history, the height 

of the movement for a Sikh separatist state in 1984. Based 

on two stories by Punjabi writer Waryam Singh Sandhu, 

it begins with two Hindu friends who jump a ride on a 

military train after bribing a guard. During the journey, 

one of the friends recollects a terrifying night when his 

family and a Sikh friend were harassed by terrorists. 

“The story within a story will be the main chunk of the 

film,” explains Singh. “I had to find a way to integrate the 

two stories at script level, though more possibilities may 

open up when we shoot and edit.” 

Singh wants to recreate the tension of the period that 

culminated in the Indian military storming the Sikh 

Golden Temple and the assassination of prime minister 

Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguard. 

“Basically this film is about common people caught 

between the political nexus of the state security forces 

and the terrorism of the militants,” Singh says. 

The film will be produced by Kartikeya Narayan Singh 

who line produced Alms For A Blind Horse. Singh is 

applying for European funds and says he is also open to 

working again with India’s National Film Development 

Corporation (NFDC), which produced and financed his 

award-winning first film. 


The Fourth Direction 

Budget $1m 

Finance raised to date $50,000 from The Film Cafe 

Contact Kartikeya Narayan Singh, The Film Cafe 

kartikeyanarayansingh@gmail.com 

Be With You 

Dir Pang Ho Cheung 

» Ali’s Wedding p8 

» Chocolate City GZ p8 

» Here Comes The Sun p8 

» The Fourth Direction p9 

» Be With You p9 

Country of origin Hong Kong-Italy 

After his successful stab at the slasher genre with Dream 

Home, Hong Kong film-maker Pang Ho Cheung is next 

turning his hand to supernatural horror. 

Be With You, which Pang is scripting with his Love In 

The Buff co-writer Luk Yee Sum, revolves around a group 

of high-school students who accidentally summon a 

malevolent spirit while using a divination board. Later 

one of the group goes missing in mysterious circumstances, 

and the following year, during a trip to Italy, the 

remaining members are plagued by chilling coincidences 

and an unexplained death. 

Pang’s producing partner Subi Liang says they hope 

to shoot part of the film in the Italian cities of Udine and 

Venice if they raise enough funds. “We attend the Udine 

film festival nearly every year and Pang has always said it 

would be the perfect place to shoot a horror movie,” 

explains Liang. 

In addition to its horror elements, the film will feature 

a young cast and include traces of teen romantic drama, 

while exploring deeper issues such as human nature and 

fate. 

Pang has already proved his range with dramas such 

as Isabella, which premiered in competition at Berlin in 

2006, black comedies including AV and Men Suddenly In 

Black; slasher film Dream Home and Eric Rohmerinspired 

romantic comedy Love In A Puff. His follow-up 

to the latter film, Love In The Buff, opens this year’s 

HKIFF, which will also screen another of his recent 

films, Vulgaria, a self-confessed low-brow parody of the 

Hong Kong film industry. 

Dream Home, starring Josie Ho, won best actress and 

best special make-up at the 43rd Sitges Film Festival. 

But Pang says Be With You will rely less on splatter and 

more on tension and creating an atmosphere of dread. 


Another Country 

Budget $1.42m 

Finance raised to date Development funds 

Contact Subi Liang, Making Film Productions 

subi@making-film.com 

» Ready For War p9 

» Afternoon Delight! p10 

» You’re A Big Girl Now p10 

» Balloon p10 

» Elephant Soldiers p11 

Ready For War 

Dir Gu Changwei 

Country of origin China 

» Imperial Exam p11 

» The Enemy — 1949 p11 

» Elephant Soldiers p11 

» Lost In Poetry p11 

Chinese director Gu Changwei’s fourth feature looks set 

to be a departure from his last three projects, which 

focused on the family (the Silver Bear-winning 2005 film 

Peacock), a teacher dreaming of an operatic career (And 

The Spring Comes) and Til Death Do Us Part, a love story 

involving Aids sufferers. 

His latest project centres around a lone soldier guarding 

one of dozens of secret missile bases which were 

built by hand, deep in the mountains in China, to store 

the country’s nuclear arsenal — some missiles pointing 

East, some pointing West. 

The film will also have a dual narrative in which a 

military author and a film-maker try to change the fate of 

the missile-base soldier. 

“I was fascinated by the story about how one man’s 

fate is changed by the environment he lives in and a firm 

belief in his mind. After the end of the Cold War, a lot of 

people’s fates have been changed because of the existence 

of nuclear weapons,” says the cinematographer 

turned director who has co-written the script with Yang 

Weiwei, with who he collaborated with on Til Death Do 

Us Part. 

Gu and Weiwei are also producing together for Gu’s 

production company LAB 852. The $3m project is at the 

script stage with no funding in place yet, but Gu says 

financing is not a priority objective at HAF. 

“We hope to find talents or professionals who can collaborate 

with us creatively in the production process, for 

we believe this is a very contemporary and international 

project.” 

Sen-lun Yu 

Ready For War 

Budget $3m 

Finance raised to date None 

Contact Gu Changwei, LAB 852 lab8610@gmail.com 

March 21, 2012 Screen International at Filmart 9 n

Afternoon Delight! 

Dir Arvin Chen 

Country of origin Taiwan 

One of Taiwan’s most promising young film-makers, 

Arvin Chen’s debut feature Au Revoir Taipei was executive 

produced by Wim Wenders and won the NETPAC 

Asian Film Award at the 2010 Berlin International Film 

Festival. Chen was also one of 10 Taiwanese directors to 

contribute shorts to last year’s portmanteau feature 

10+10. 

Like his first film, Afternoon Delight! is a Taipei-set 

romantic comedy, but this time the emphasis will be on 

drama and character interaction — as opposed to the 

slick and stylish visuals of Au Revoir Taipei. 

Chen was inspired to write Afternoon Delight! after 

hearing about a recent Taiwanese trend for gay men and 

women who came out of the closet as young adults to 

revert to straight lives in order to get married and have 

children. 

The story’s central character is a middle-class 39-yearold 

married father, whose decision to turn his back on 

his gay past is called into question when he encounters a 

handsome young flight attendant. 

Chen believes the film is less about being gay than 

about how a man makes life choices and deals with conflicts, 

the pursuit of love, age and responsibility. He plans 

to cast a well-known Taiwanese singer in the lead role. 

One Production Film Company’s Lee Lieh describes 

the project as “distinct” from Au Revoir Taipei. “It is a 

warmer and more mature story and a new challenge for 

Arvin, and it’s the main reason I wanted to work with 

him,” says Lieh, who is also showcasing City Of The Lost 

Things at HAF. 

Currently in pre-production, shooting on Afternoon 

Delight! is scheduled for this summer. Lee is confident 

she will be able to secure funding for the film in Taiwan, 

but is hoping to meet potential buyers and distributors 

here at HAF. 

Sen-lun Yu 

Afternoon Delight! 

Budget $850,000 

Finance raised to date None 

Contact Lee Lieh, One Production Film Company 

leelieh329@yahoo.com.tw 


You’re A Big Girl Now 

Dir Tze Chun 

Country of origin US-Malaysia 

Chinese-American film-maker Tze Chun made a big 

impression with his debut feature Children Of Invention, 

which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009, 

going on to win awards at 17 film festivals and gaining 

rave reviews in the US following its theatrical release. 

His follow up, You’re A Big Girl Now, is based on the 

life of his mother, who grew up in a Singaporean brothel 

in the 1950s, escaping to Hong Kong with the help of an 

older prostitute, finally saving enough money to attend 

university in the US before returning to Singapore to 

find her biological parents. 

“It was a very emotional experience researching and 

writing the story. I hope the audience can also feel deeply 

the emotional journey in the story,” says Chun, who has 

spent two years working on the project, accumulating 

more than 30 hours of audio/video interviews. 

Visually, Chun plans to combine the cinema vérité 

style with beautiful cinematography. “I hope it will look 

like the film Babel, which feels real yet also contains a 

strong story,” says the director, who compares the 

project to the 1970s US television series Roots in which 

characters struggle to escape slavery in a bid to pursue 

freedom. 

Chun is reuniting on the project with New York-based 

Mynette Louie of Syncopated Films, who produced Children 

Of Invention. Louie also co-produced Andrew Bujalski’s 

Mutual Appreciation and operated as a consulting 

producer on Olivia Silver’s Arcadia. 

The $2m You’re A Big Girl Now has already received 

$5,000 from Sundance Creative Producing Lab. Tze is 

revising the script and hopes to secure funding as well as 

co-production partners at HAF. 

Sen-lun Yu 

You’re A Big Girl Now 

Budget $2m 

Finance raised to date $5,000 from Sundance 

Creative Producing Lab 

Contact Mynette Louie, Syncopated Films 

mynette@syncopatedfilms.com 

Balloon 

Dir Pema Tseden 


Tibetan film-maker Pema Tseden’s first three features — 

The Silent Holy Stones, The Search and Old Dog — focused 

on the conflict between tradition and foreign cultures in 

modern Tibet. With his latest project, Balloon, Pema 

intends to dig deeper into the Tibetan family, exploring 

one particular family’s clash between their religious faith 

and the Chinese government’s family-planning policy, 

which restricts the number of children permitted. 

“The conflicts between religious faith and contemporary 

lives are sharper and sharper in today’s Tibetan 

society. This is deeply affecting children or teenagers in 

Tibet. They are losing the guidelines in life and can 

become very confused,” explains Pema, whose The Silent 

Holy Stones picked up the prize for best directorial debut 

at the 2005 Golden Rooster Awards. He went on to win 

the special jury prize for The Search at the Bangkok 

International Film Festival in 2009 and the Golden Digital 

Award for Old Dog at the Hong Kong International 

Film Festival last year. 

Pema plans to shoot Balloon in a documentary style, 

using non-professional actors recruited from Tibet and 

Tibetan regions of China. He wants to use locations 

including his home town of Amdo, in the Qinghai province, 

in order to convey a sense of the true spirit of contemporary 

Tibet. 

He is currently revising the script, which was selected 

for the 14th Screenplay Development Fund at the Amiens 

International Film Festival in 2009. 

Sangye Gyamtso, who produced Pema’s The Silent 

Holy Stones and Old Dog, is on board as producer of the 

$400,000 Balloon, which has already received $150,000 

from Beijing Himalaya Audio & Visual Culture Communication. 

Shooting is scheduled to start in spring 2013. 

Sen-lun Yu 

Balloon 

Budget $400,000 

Finance raised to date $150,000 from Beijing 

Himalaya Audio & Visual Culture Communication 

Contact Sangye Gyamtso, Beijing Himalaya Audio & 

Visual Culture Communication tibetmovie@126.com

elephant soldiers 

Dirs Vardan Hovhannisyan, Inna 

Sahakyan 

Country of origin Armenia 

Armenian co-directors Vardan Hovhannisyan 

and Inna Sahakyan have worked 

together at Bars Media Documentary Film 

Studio in Armenia for more than eight 

years, where their credits include A Story Of 

People In War And Peace and The Last Tightrope 

Dancer In Armenia, both of which were 

picked up by international broadcasters. 

Their latest feature-doc explores the 

near-genocidal rise in elephant poaching 

fuelled by demand for ivory in Asia, focusing 

on the work of Space For Giants, a conservation 

project set up in Kenya by Max 

Graham. “He is extraordinary,” says 

Sahakyan about Graham, who uses GPS 

technology to track the poachers. “He is 

huge… he looks like a big, strong elephant.” 

When it comes to their films, the duo 

tend to switch roles, with one producing 

while the other directs. “But this time we 

are very much involved in the story,” 

Sahakyan says of their HAF project, for 

which they already have around $19,000 of 

their $390,000 budget in place. 

Swedish broadcaster SVT has boarded 

the project and the film-makers have some 

Armenian backing. Their previous work 

has been seen largely on TV but they feel 

this project has potential for a theatrical 

release. As a result, there are likely to be two 

versions of Elephant Soldiers: a 52-minute 

edit for TV and a feature-length cut. 

With a few days shooting completed, the 

aim is to attract support from broadcasters, 

funds, distributors and co-producers. “We 

are searching for all kinds of co-financing,” 

Sahakyan says of their goals in Hong Kong. 


elephant soldiers 

Budget $390,000 

Finance raised to date $19,000 through 

Bars Media and SVT 

Contact Vardan Hovhannisyan, 

Bars Media Documentary Film Studio 

vardan@barsmedia.am 

imperial exam 

Dir Tan Chui Mui 


Malaysia-born Tan Chui Mui burst onto 

the scene in 2006 when her first feature, 

Love Conquers All, won the Tiger Award at 

the Rotterdam Film Festival and the New 

Currents Award at Busan. 

Having moved to Beijing two years ago, 

she returns with her first mainland Chinese 

project, a period comedy about China’s 

imperial exam system which theoretically 

allowed anyone in China to take an exam to 

become an aristocrat. The idea for the film 

began with an argument in which Tan was 

trying to explain to a European friend why 

there is such cultural uniformity in China. 

“There is a very interesting and unique 

background to the story — the exam system, 

the rules, the venues and the people who 

spent their whole life taking the exams. I 

don’t think there has been a film made about 

it,” says Tan who has co-written the script 

with Taiwanese author Chang Ta-chuen. 

Based loosely on Chinese novel The 

Scholars, the film takes place in the 17th 

century and centres around a young scholar 

who, while travelling to attend the imperial 

exam in Beijing, encounters a blind knight, 

an orphan girl and a teahouse owner, making 

him realise he would rather be a peasant. 

Tan plans to shoot in Nanjing City, to 

take advantage of a well-preserved ancient 

imperial-exam venue. The project is at the 

script stage, with film-maker Jia Zhangke 

producing for his company Xstream Pictures, 

which has put up half the budget. Jia 

and Tan are looking for co-producers on the 

film, which is likely to include A-list Chinese 

actors to boost its commercial appeal. 

Sen-lun Yu 

imperial exam 

Budget $6.35m 

Finance raised to date $3.175m from 

Xstream Pictures 

Contact Eva Lam, Xstream Pictures 

evalam267@163.com 

The enemy — 1949 

Dir Chang Tso-chi 

Country of origin Taiwan 

Renowned for his humanist stories about 

people from the lower end of the social ladder, 

such as the 2010 Golden Horse winner 

When Love Comes and 2001’s The Best Of 

Times, Taiwanese director Chang Tso-chi 

makes an about-turn with his latest project, 

a humorous film about the absurdity of war. 

Unsure whether to make the film as a 

30-minute short or a feature, Chang shot a 

10-minute test version last year. When the 

project was chosen as one of 10 chapters 

for Taiwanese portmanteau feature 10+10, 

he decided to turn it into a feature. 

Chang has recruited veteran scriptwriter 

Hsiao Yeh to co-write the script, which is 

set in 1949 during the Chinese Civil War. It 

focuses on a local conflict involving a fisherman 

and his son from Kinmen Island 

who are stuck in the rival neighbouring city 

of Xiamen after it is taken over by the People’s 

Liberation Army. 

“The absurdity between Kinmen and 

Xiamen is that they were so close to each 

other, and people’s lives were so related, but 

they were enemies for almost half a century. 

During the war, a lot of local people did not 

know who to fight for,” says Chang, who 

will focus on the way ordinary people coped 

with the situation while delivering “a real 

war film with brutal and vivid battle scenes”. 

Chang is producing through his outfit 

Chang Tso Chi Film Studio, which has 

already put up $500,000 of the film’s 

$3.3m budget. Currently in pre-production, 

Chang hopes to attract international 

and mainland China partners, especially 

support from the Xiamen city government. 

Sen-lun Yu 

The enemy — 1949 

Budget $3.3m 

Finance raised to date $500,000 

through Chang Tso Chi Film Studio 

Contact Chang Tso Chi Film Studio 

changtsochi@gmail.com 

lost in Poetry 

Dir Fridrik Thor Fridriksson 

Country of origin Iceland 

HAF ProFiles 

East meets west in the new project by Iceland’s 

maverick writer-producer-director 

Fridrik Thor Fridriksson. 

Set in China, Italy and Iceland, Lost In 

Poetry is inspired by a real-life incident in 

which Chairman Mao asked Italian director 

Michelangelo Antonioni to make a documentary 

about China. Fridriksson’s fictional 

film is about a group of children who 

appeared in the documentary and decide 

some years later to make their own film 

about Antonioni, taking them to the Italian 

island of Stromboli. The main character is a 

film-maker whose wife is in Iceland during 

the Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruption of 

2010 and who disappears, just as a woman 

does in Antonioni’s L’Avventura (1960). 

Fridriksson, who has made more than 

30 features including Children Of Nature in 

1992 for which he was nominated for an 

Academy Award, compares his latest 

project to Cold Fever, another of his films, 

which takes place in Japan and Italy. 

If Iceland’s most prolific film-maker has 

been less prominent than usual on the international 

market and festival scene in recent 

years, it is because he was working on documentary 

A Mother’s Courage (2010) about 

autistic children, narrated by Kate Winslet. 

But Fridriksson is back and hopes to shoot 

Lost In Poetry in 2013. He will produce for 

his company Icelandic Film Corporation, 

together with Anna Maria Karlsdottir, with 

plans to finance the project through Scandinavian 

film funds and possibly Eurimages. 

Fridriksson will be looking to attach co-producers 

including Chinese partners at HAF. 


lost in Poetry 

Budget $1.6m 

Finance raised to date $807,755 from 

Icelandic national funds 

Contact Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, 

Icelandic Film Corporation 

f.thor@icecorp.is 


FEATURE FOCUS 

The big surprise at the Hong Kong box offi ce 

over the past year has been the success of 

Taiwanese romantic comedy You Are The 

Apple Of My Eye, which grossed nearly $8m to 

become the biggest ever Chinese-language release 

in Hong Kong. A huge hit in Taiwan, where it was 

also released by Fox, the fi lm fl ourished on wordof-mouth 

and repeat viewings. Based on the director’s 

own experiences, it features a young man on 

his way to a wedding, reminiscing about his days at 

high school. 

“It had a unique way of capturing young moviegoers 

as well as older ones,” says Fox’s senior vicepresident, 

Asia Pacific, Sunder Kimatrai, when 

asked to explain the fi lm’s success. “Those experiences 

of fi rst love, fi rst heartbreak, are so universal 

they translate to any culture, but they hadn’t been 

told in this way in this part of the world before.” 

With its combination of romance and gross-out 

humour, the fi lm also appealed to both sexes. But 

on the whole Hollywood fi lms, particularly effectsladen 

3D spectaculars, continue to rule the roost in 

Hong Kong — Apple ranked third in the 2011 top 10 

behind the latest instalments in the Transformers 

and Harry Potter series. 

You Are The 

Apple Of My Eye 

JACOB WONG, PAGE 16 

Imports get to the 

core of local tastes 

Taiwanese, US and even Indian titles overshadowed Hong Kong fare in 2011. 

Liz Shackleton reports on a territory which is looking abroad for its latest blockbuster 

‘You Are The 

Apple Of My 

Eye had a 

unique way of 

capturing 

young moviegoers 

as well 

as older ones’ 

Sunder Kimatrai, 

Fox 

Likewise, last Christmas, Hong Kong audiences 

favoured Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol and 

Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows over the big 

Chinese end-of-year release, Tsui Hark’s The Flying 

Swords Of Dragon Gate, despite that fi lm’s highquality 

3D. And during the recent Chinese New 

Year holiday (January 23-25), Journey 2: The Mysterious 

Island streaked ahead of the local Chinese 

New Year comedies and Dante Lam’s globe-trotting 

adventure The Viral Factor. 

As elsewhere around the world, this trend 

towards premium fare is resulting in an overall 

upwards trend in ticket sales. According to the 

Hong Kong Motion Picture Industry Association 

(MPIA), box offi ce grew by almost 4% to $177.8m 

(HK$1.38bn) in 2011, despite a decrease in the 

number of releases from 286 in 2010 to 276 last 

year. 

Hong Kong movies had only a 20.2% market 

share compared to 22.6% in 2010. Local producers 

are making fewer films specifically for the local 

market and Hong Kong audiences tend to reject 

the bigger budget Hong Kong-China co-productions, 

which anyway make most of their returns on 

the mainland. Tellingly, the two Hong Kong fi lms 

to rank in the top 10 — 3D erotic drama Sex And 

Zen: Extreme Ecstasy and I Love Hong Kong (2011) 

— were not co-productions with China. 

Hong Kong audiences also seem to have turned 

their backs on Korean and Japanese films — no 

Korean releases and only two Japanese fi lms (The 

Borrower Arrietty and Umizaru 3) ranked in the top 

100. However, another surprise was the success of 

Bollywood title 3 Idiots, which grossed $3m to rank 

number 14 in Rentrak’s year-end chart. Edko Films 

released it nearly two years after its Indian release, 

as it was waiting for the fi lm to pass censorship in 

mainland China. 

Edko’s Audrey Lee says its was the fi lm’s humour 

and subject matter, especially the storyline about 

the pressures of the education system, that struck a 

chord with local audiences, and that it remains difficult 

to release most Bollywood films in Hong 

Kong. 

“We polished the subtitles to help Hong Kong 

people understand the references,” explains Lee. 

“It catered to a wide audience — professionals, parents 

and retirees — and it’s been a long time since 

we’ve seen people in the cinema laugh so frequently.” 

»

NEW EOF TITLES 

SELECTED 2012 

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“GLOBAL VISION SELECTION” 

POLICEMAN 

Director: Nadav LAPID 

Country: France 

Cast: Yiftach Klein, 

Yaara Pelzig 

Locarno, Special Jury Prize 

3 Continents Nantes, 

Audience Award 

BFI London Film Festival 

New York Film Festival 

OFFICIAL SCREENINGS: 

23/03 3:40 PM @ HONG KONG SPACE MUSEUM LECTURE HALL 

25/03 7:45 PM @ UA LANGHAM PLACE 

29/03 3:00 PM @ UA CITYPLAZA 

MARKET SCREENING: 

19/03 2:00 PM @ HKCEC MEETING ROOM N204-N205 

HKIFF OFFICIAL SELECTION 

MARKET SCREENINGS @ FILMART 

NIGHT #1 

Director: Anne EMOND 

Country: Canada 

Cast: Catherine De Léan, 

Dimitri Storoge 

Toronto IFF 

Busan IFF, Offi cial Selection 

Rotterdam IFF 2012, 

Bright Future Section 

Göteborg IFF 2012 

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OFFICIAL SCREENINGS: 

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30/03 7:15 PM UA ISQUARE 

“POLAND 

IN CLOSE-UP” 

FEAR OF 

FALLING 

Director: Bartosz KONOPKA 

Country: Poland 

Cast: Marcin Dorocinski, 

Krzysztof Stroinski, 

Magdalena Poplawska 

Gdynia Film Festival, 

Offi cial Selection 

Montreal World Cinema FF, 

First Films World 

Competition 

CLIP 

Director: Maja MILOS 

Country: Serbia 

Cast: Isidora Simijonović 

Vukašin Jasnić, 

Sanja Mikitišin 

Jovo Makisć 

Monja Savić 

Rotterdam IFF 2012, 

Tiger Award 

MARKET SCREENING: 

19/03 4:00 PM @ HKCEC MEETING ROOM N204-N205 

BEAST PARADISE NOOR 

CLIP

FEATURE 

Bollywood film 3 Idiots took an impressive $3m in Hong Kong 

Less of a laughing matter is the impact of Hong 

Kong’s sky-high rents on the exhibition sector. 

Several cinemas have closed recently, including 

the UA Cinemas site in the Times Square shopping 

mall, which shut its doors at the end of January 

when it could not match the rent paid by a 

luxury brand retailer. 

The Hong Kong Theatres Association (HKTA) 

has referred this matter to the Hong Kong Film 

Development Council (HKFDC), observing that 

Hong Kong has around only 45 cinemas totalling 

some 199 screens, compared to more than 120 cinemas 

in the 1980s. A task force has been formed to 

look into the problem and to find possible solutions. 

ns 


‘3 Idiots catered 

to a wide 

audience. It’s 

been a long 

time since 

we’ve seen 

people in the 

cinema laugh 

so frequently’ 

audrey Lee, Edko 

Hong Kong: Top 10 2011 (Jan 6, 2011-Jan 4, 2012) 

Rank Title Distributor Country Release date Date-range 

of origin (2011) gross 

1 Transformers: Dark Of The Moon Para/Intercon US June 29 $10.94m 

2 Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part II WB US July 14 $9.88m 

3 You Are The Apple Of My Eye Fox Taiwan Oct 20 $7.91m 

4 Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Disney US May 19 $5.87m 

5 Sex And Zen: Extreme Ecstasy Newport HK April 17 $5.31m 

6 Kung Fu Panda 2 Par/Intercon US July 21 $5.06m 

7 Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol Par/Intercon US Dec 15 $4.97m 

8 I Love Hong Kong (2011) Intercon HK Feb 3 $3.41m 

9 X-Men: First Class Fox US June 2 $3.33m 

10 Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows WB US Dec 14 $3.29m 

Source: Rentrak 

Hong Kong: Top 10 LocaL FiLms 2011 (Jan 6, 2011-Jan 4, 2012) 

Rank Title Distributor Release date (2011) Date-range gross 

1 Sex And Zen: Extreme Ecstasy Newport April 14 $5.31m 

2 I Love Hong Kong Intercon Feb 3 $3.41m 

3 Overheard 2 Newport Aug 18 $3.08m 

4 All’s Well, Ends Well (2011) Newport Feb 2 $2.59m 

5 Shaolin UA/Emperor Jan 27 $2.04m 

6 Don’t Go Breaking My Heart UA/Media Asia March 31 $1.59m 

7 Let The Bullets Fly UA/Emperor Jan 13 $1.57m 

8 Life Without Principle UA/Media Asia Oct 20 $1.09m 

9 Mr & Mrs Incredible UA/We Feb 3 $1.05m 

10 Wu Xia UA/We July 28 $1.03m 

Source: Rentrak

The place to fi nd an 

international partner 

HAF director Jacob Wong talks to Liz Shackleton about the finance 

market and how the event has evolved over the past 10 years 

Projects markets are now plentiful in Asia, 

but at the time of its inception, the Hong 

Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) 

was only the second of its kind in the region, and 

the fi rst to be located in and have a focus on Hong 

Kong. 

The event had a diffi cult birth. After a successful 

fi rst edition in 2000, initiated by industry fi gures 

including the late Wouter Barendrecht, the market 

did not return the following year, due partly to diffi 

culties in securing government funding. It was 

held in a modifi ed form in 2002 and almost made a 

comeback in 2003, but was cancelled at the eleventh 

hour thanks to the SARS virus outbreak. 

HAF hit its stride in 2005 when it moved to 

March and became part of Hong Kong’s Entertainment 

Expo, under the same roof as Filmart and the 

Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF). 

Now organised by the Hong Kong International 

Film Festival Society, it has become a major industry 

event with a proven track record — more than 

50 HAF projects have been produced and released, 

racking up more than 200 festival appearances, 

nominations and awards. 

It has also become part of an international network 

of project markets, including CineMart, 

HAF PROJECTS: RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS 

2011 

TRESPASSERS (Phil) 

Dir Jeffrey Jeturian 

Track record Vancouver 

International Film Festival 2011; 

Winds of Asia-Middle East Best 

Asian-Middle Eastern Film Award, 

Tokyo International 

Film Festival 

2011; best 

fi lm, lm, best best 

performance of 

an actress, actress, best 

performance performance of 

a supporting 

actress, actress, 

best 

Urumi 

■ 16 Screen International at Filmart March 21, 2012 

Busan’s Asian Project Market (APM), Paris 

Project, Copenhagen’s DOX:LAB and New York’s 

Independent Filmmaker Project. Though HAF 

retains its Asian focus, this year’s selection of 32 

projects is the widest yet, including six documentaries 

and features from Europe, Australia and the 

Middle East. 

■Q How would you summarise the achievements 

of HAF since its launch? 

Jacob Wong We’ve put some fi lms into the market 

and helped some fi lm-makers go to major fi lm festivals, 

and launched their careers in a way, and I 

think that’s what these co-production markets are 

all about. HAF is lucky that Filmart moved from 

June to March in 2005 because a co-production 

market is always better tied to a large market event. 

In the early days, people such as Wouter and [US- 

Korean producer] Paul Yi had the foresight to bring 

an initiative like this to Hong Kong, but there were 

ups and downs with funding problems and SARS. 

Eventually, things started to take off. 

■Q Which fi lms or fi lm-makers in particular have 

been helped by HAF? 

Brillante Mendoza’s Kinatay is the most notable. 

cinematography and best 

production design, directors 

showcase, Cinemalaya Philippine 

Independent Film Festival 2011 

URUMI (Ind) 

Dir Santosh Sivan 

Track record Busan International 

Film Festival 2011; commercial 

release in 2011 

2010 

FLOATING LIVES (Viet) 

Dir Nguyen Phan Quang Binh 

Track record Opening fi lm, Vietnam 

International Film Festival 2010; in 

competition, Busan International 

Film Festival 2010 

2009 

ADRIFT (Viet) 

Dir Bui Thac Chuyen 

Track record Three nominations, 

Asian Film Awards 2010; 

International Film Festival 

Rotterdam 2010; Fipresci Prize, 

Orizzonti, Venice Film Festival Festival 2009; 

Floating Lives 

Toronto International Film Festival 

2009; Busan International Film 

Festival 2009 

WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW: 

SEEDIQ BALE (Tai) 

Dir Wei Te-Sheng 

Track record Best feature fi lm, 

best supporting actor, best original 

fi lm score, best sound effects and 

audience choice award, Golden 

Horse Awards 2011; Hong Kong 

Jacob Wong Crazy Racer 

Asian Film Festival 2011; Taiwan’s 

entry for best foreign-language 

fi lm, Academy Awards 2011; in 

competition, Venice Film Festival 


Festival 2011; Toronto International 

Film Festival 2011; commercial 

release in September 2011 

KINATAY (Phil) 

Dir Brillante Mendoza 

Track record Best director, Cannes 

The day before HAF fi nished, I saw him and his 

producer Ferdie [Lapuz] and they said, “Thanks 

for having us — we’ve got our money and we’re 

going back to shoot.” Two months later, the fi lm 

was in Cannes. That must be some kind of record. 

Another person who springs to mind is Ning 

Hao. He was a young fi lm-maker when he brought 

Crazy Racer to us, which became another Cinderella 

story in the Chinese fi lm industry. 

■Q Since HAF was established, mainland China 

has risen to become a major source of film 

fi nance. Do you feel it is still as important to have 

a fi nancing platform focused on Asian fi lms? 

It’s still just as important, especially for most of the 

fi lms that are brought to HAF, as they are the kind 

of fi lms that don’t get fi nance easily. Of course there 

Film Festival 2009; best director 

and best original soundtrack, 

Sitges-Catalonia International Film 

Festival 2009; Busan International 

Film Festival 2009; Taipei Golden 

Horse Film Festival 2009 

WINTER VACATION (Chi) 

Dir Li Hongqi 

Track record International Film 

Festival Rotterdam 2011; Red 

Chameleon Award, Cinema Digital 

Seoul Film Festival 2010; Golden 

Leopard Award, Locarno Film 

Festival 2010; Open Doors, Locarno 

Film Festival 

2009; in 

Winter Vacation

is money in Asia, especially north of Hong Kong. 

But the question is, how do you get that fi nance into 

your pockets to do what you want to do? There’s 

still not much of an infrastructure in China for 

fi nancing these kinds of budgets, so we don’t see a 

lot of that money coming to HAF. 

HAF sometimes has bigger productions, and 

those can attract fi nance easily, but the smaller producers 

still rely on fi lm funds in Western Europe. 

It’s easier for a Hong Kong person to fi nd Chinese 

money, but those who are not making Chineselanguage 

fi lms will fi nd it diffi cult. 

■Q Is it also diffi cult to fi nd fi nance for Chinese 

arthouse fi lms? 

Yes, a large proportion of these projects don’t get 

made because of the subject matter, even if it 

competition, Vancouver 

International Film Festival 2010 

GENPIN (Jap) 

Dir Naomi Kawase 

Track record Toronto International 

Film Festival 2010; Paris Project 

2009 

THE YELLOW SEA (S Kor) 

Dir Na Hong-jin 

Track record Un Certain Regard, 

Cannes Film Festival 2011; best 

actor, Asian Film Awards 2011; no. 1 

holiday weekend box box offi ce 

in South Korea, 2010 

THE DANCER (Indon) 

Dir Ifa Isfansyah 

Track record 

Commercial 

release in 

2011 

doesn’t cost a lot of money. Sometimes it’s tricky 

because a fi nancier, especially those from Western 

countries, will look at a film that costs so little 

money and hesitate because it’s too small. 

Distribution is also diffi cult — Asian arthouse 

fi lms go on the international fi lm festival circuit 

and may fi nd with some luck that they get picked 

up by European sales agents. And sometimes with 

even more luck, they get sold back to this part of 

the world. In most Asian countries, we don’t look at 

the works of our neighbours apart from some 

major Chinese, Japanese and Korean products. 

■Q Why did you decide to include documentaries 

for the fi rst time this year? 

We decided to do so this year because it’s our 10th 

anniversary. We thought we’d have a little more 

money and we have a tie-up with Copenhagen. 

There There are not many events focusing on Asian documentaries, 

but there are funding bodies such as as 

Busan’s Asian Asian Network of Documentaries (AND). 

And And [Japanese broadcaster] NHK is a major fi nancier 

of documentaries in this region, but everyone 

approaches them so it’s diffi cult to get fi nancing. 

■Q What proportion of the projects that are 

submitted to you come with finance already 

attached? 

We have a tendency to give priority to projects that 

already have some money attached because it’s 

easier for for them to to get more financing. When an 

investor sees there is is already somebody in a 

project, they feel it it is is easier easier to take a share rather 

than go go into a brand brand new project, project, especially if the 

fi lm-maker or producer is new. Also, in matters matters of 

quality, usually the better better projects are those those that 

already have a little bit bit of fi nancing nancing secured. 

■Q Looking at the region, which countries do 

you think are the most cinematically 

exciting at present? 

Probably Indonesia. We have four Indone- 

SAMPAGUITA, NATIONAL 

FLOWER (Phil) 

Dir Francis Xavier Pasion 

Track record Berlin International 

Film Festival 2011; in competition, 

Vancouver International Film 

Festival 2010; in competition, Busan 


special jury prize, The Cinemalaya 

Philippine Independent Film Festival 

2010 

2008 

THIRST (S Kor) 

Dir Park Chan-wook 

Track record Best visual effects, 

Asian Film Awards 2010; jury prize, 

Cannes Film Festival 2009; NETPAC 

Award, Busan International Film 

Festival 2009; best supporting 

actress and best music, Blue 

Dragon Awards 2009; Taipei Golden 


KARAOKE (Mal) 

Dir Chris Chong Chan Fui 

Track record Best editor, Asian Film 

Awards 2010; Directors’ Fortnight, 

Cannes Film Festival 2009; Toronto 


Busan International Film Festival 

2009; Taipei Golden Horse Film 

Festival 2009 

SERVICE (Phil) 

Dir Brillante Mendoza 

Track record Three nominations 

and winner of best supporting 

actress, Asian Film Awards 

2009; Taipei Golden Horse Film 

Karaoke 

‘We’ve helped 

film-makers go 

to major film 

festivals and 

launched their 

careers’ 

Jacob Wong, HAF 

Kinatay 

Festival 2009; in competition, 

Cannes Film Festival 2008; Toronto 


Busan International Film Festival 

2008 

MOTHER (S Kor) 

Dir Bong Joon-ho 

Track record South Korea’s entry 

for best foreign-language fi lm, 

Academy Awards 2010; best fi lm, 

best actress and best screenwriter, 

Asian Film Awards 2010; Un Certain 

FEATURE 

sian fi lms in HKIFF and three and a co-production 

in HAF. I think a certain sector of their 

population is becoming affluent, so there are 

young film-makers who are well-educated and 

interested in world cinema and want to become a 

part of it. They also have an indigenous industry, 

though most of what they make is only for domestic 

consumption. The optimism is comparable to 

what I experience in Taiwan — these were the two 

happiest places in 2011. 

■Q How do you see the future of independent 

Hong Kong cinema? 

I think it’s very diffi cult for Hong Kong people to 

overcome the illusion that what happened in the 

‘golden years’ of Hong Kong cinema was not a 

miracle. A miracle by defi nition is something that 

happened but should not have happened, and it is 

unrealistic to expect a miracle to to go on forever. 

We have new film-makers emerging but they 

tend tend to follow the tradition and and move into the 

industry. There’s nothing nothing wrong with that, but 

they’re they’re not consciously going to make a Hong 

Kong film. Conditions have changed and China 

is so big. 

Also, the Cantonese language is still spoken, but 

it is spoken less — especially in Chinese communities 

outside of Hong Kong. 

■Q ■Q■ Where do you see HAF heading in the 

next 10 years? 

We’ll keep on doing what we’ve been doing. 

We’re also considering a tie-up with TIBE TIBE 

[Taipei [Taipei International Book Book Exhibition ]. They They 

have have a stand at Filmart this year and a happy happy 

hour inside HAF to tell people what they are 

doing. In the future, we could bring in publishers 

and instead of fi lm projects there will be 

books and works-in-progress. Chinese filmmakers 

often read books and think about adapting 

them, but it’s not easy because there’s no 

formalised system. 

Regard, Cannes Film Festival 2009; 

best performance by an actress, 

Asia Pacifi c Screen Awards 2009; 

best fi lm, best supporting actor and 

best lighting, Blue Dragon Awards 

2009; Toronto International Film 


Film Festival 2009; Taipei Golden 


HI-SO (Thai) 

Dir Aditya Assarat 

Track record Hong Kong 


Tokyo International Film Festival 


Festival 2010; Paris Project 2008 

JULIETS (Tai) 

Dirs Hou Chi-Jan, Shen Ko-Shang, 

Chen Yu-Hsun 

Track record Nomination at Golden 

Horse Awards 2010; opening fi lm, 

Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival 

2010; Tokyo International Film 


Film Festival 2010 

March 21, 2012 Screen International at Filmart 17 ■

scReenings 

edited by paul lindsell paullindsell@gmail.com 

Market 

screenings 

Wednesday 21 

09:30 

Detachment 

(US) Drama, Organised 

Crime, 100mins. Celluloid 

Dreams. Dir: Tony Kaye. 

Key cast: Adrien Brody, 

Christina Hendricks, 

Marcia Gay Harden 

A chronicle of three weeks 

in the lives of several 

high school teachers, 

administrators and students 

as seen through the eyes of a 

substitute teacher. 

meeting Room n101B, hKcec 

Diaz — Don’t clean Up 

this BlooD 

(Italy, France, Romania) 

Drama, 119mins. 

Fandango Portobello. 

Dir: Daniele Vicari. Key 

cast: Claudio Santamaria, 

Elio Germano, Jennifer 

Ulrich 

A harrowing account of 

the brutal attack by 300 

police on 90 activists 

spending the night in 

a school during the G8 

Summit in Genoa 2001. 

meeting Room n104-n105, 

hKcec 

loan shaRK 

(Malaysia) Action/ 

Adventure, Drama 

95mins. Technicolor 

(Thailand). Dir: CL Ho. 

Key cast: Sam Lee, Jojo 

Goh, Eddie Cheong 

A pair of siblings have to 

choose between justice and 

love. 

theatre 2, hKcec 

sUpeRcapitalist 

(Hong Kong) Action/ 

Adventure, Drama, 

Romance, 96mins. All 

Rights Entertainment. 

Dir: Simon Yin. Key cast: 

Linus Roache, Kenneth 

Tsang, Richard Ng 

A maverick New York 

hedge-fund trader called 

Connor with uncanny 

analytic abilities moves 

to Hong Kong and 

orchestrates a mega-deal 

that swiftly escalates 

beyond his control. 


hKcec 

Market 

10:00 


caesaR mUst Die 

(Italy) Drama, 

Documentary, 76mins. 

Rai Trade. Dir: Paolo 

Taviani, Vittorio 

Taviana. Key cast: 

Cosimo Rega, Salvatore 

Striano, Giovanni Arcuri 

V/h/s 

(US) Horror/Suspense, 

116mins. Epic Pictures 

Group. Dir: Adam 

Wingard, Ti West, 

Glenn McQuaid, David 

Bruckner, Radio Silence, 

Joe Swanberg. Key cast: 

Calvin Reeder, Lane 

Hughes, Adam Wingard 

When a group of misfits is 

hired by an unknown third 

party to rob a desolate 

house and acquire a rare 

VHS tape, they discover 

more found footage than 

they bargained for. 

meeting Room n101a, hKcec 

10:00 

caesaR mUst Die 

see box, above 

himizU 

(Japan) Drama, 129mins. 

Gaga Corporation. Dir: 

Sion Sono. Key cast: 

Shota Sometani, Fumi 

Nikaidou 

Two teenagers living 

a dystopian existence 

in post-tsunami Japan 

Inmates at a highsecurity 

prison in 

Rome prepare for a 

public performance of 

Shakespeare’s ‘Julius 

Caesar’. 


hKcec 

embark on a campaign 

of violence against evil 

wrongdoers. 


hKcec 

legenD of a RaBBit 

(China) Animation, 

85mins. HKIFF Industry 

Screenings @ Filmart. 

Dir: Sun Li Jun. Key cast: 

Michael Clarke Duncan, 

Rebecca Black, Claire 

Geare 

To keep a promise to a 

dying Kung Fu master 

on the run, a humble 

farmhouse rabbit must 

step out of the kitchen and 

take on ancient Beijing’s 

baddest bear to save the 

fate of China’s Kung Fu 

Academy. 


oRiUme 


Prism Co. Dir: Hisako 

Matsui. Key cast: 

Mieko Harada, Kazuko 

Yoshiyuki 

About a family 

shouldering an unexpected 

responsibility when 

Alzheimer’s disease strikes 

their grandmother. 


hKcec 

paRis UnDeR Watch 

(France) Horror/ 

Suspense, 85mins. 

Films Distribution. Dir: 

Cedric Jimenez. Key cast: 

Melanie Doutey, Olivier 

Barthelemy, Francis 

Renaud 

A bomb attack in 

Gare d’Austerlitz: the 

government accuses Islamic 

groups, but a computer 

hacker, an anonymous 

upholder of the law, finds 

images of the bombing 

and tracks down the young 

couple responsible for it. 

With the help of the videosurveillance 

cameras in 

the city, he starts spying on 

them and manipulating 

them, meanwhile realising 

that truth can have many 

faces. 


hKcec 

pRiVate scReening 

meeting Room n204-205, 

hKcec 

WU Yi: the smallest 

BaBY panDa in the 

WoRlD 

(Japan) Documentary, 

80mins. Asmik Ace 

Entertainment. Dir: 

Masayuki Shiohama 

In Chengu, China, there 

is a huge research base 

for giant panda breeding, 

and many panda babies 

are born and raised there 

every year. But it was a 

little different in 2006. One 

of the baby pandas born 

that season weighed only 

51 grams, about a third of 

the average panda baby 

weight. He was named Wu 

Yi (51 in Chinese). Can he 

survive like other panda 

babies? Can his mother 

take care of him properly? 

This documentary 

chronicles the first six years 

of Wu Yi’s life with his 

family and friends. 


hKcec 

11:00 

WaR of the WoRlDs: 

goliath 

(US/Malaysia) Action/ 

Adventure, Animation, 

Sci-fi, Fantasy, 82mins. 

Epic Pictures Group. Dir: 

Joe Pearson. Key cast: 

Peter Wingfield, Elizabeth 

Gracen, Jim Byrnes 

Set in an alternative 1914, 

Martian invaders wage 

total war against the 

human race. Earth’s hope 

rests with ARES, a ragtag 

human army of steampowered 

battle walkers 

and heat-ray biplane 

squadrons. 

meeting Room n101a, hKcec 

11:15 

4:44 last DaY on eaRth 

(US) Drama 85mins. 

Wild Bunch. Dir: Abel 

Ferrara. Key cast: Willem 

Dafoe, Shanyn Leigh, 

Natasha Lyonne 

A couple live in a large 

apartment high above 

the city. They are in love. 

She is a painter, he is a 

successful actor. Just a 

normal afternoon except 

that this is not a normal 

afternoon, for them or 

anyone else. Tomorrow, 

at 4:44am, give or take a 

few seconds, the world will 

come to an end. 


hKcec 

11:30 

BReaD of happiness 

(Japan) Drama, Romance, 

114mins. Asmik Ace 


Yukiko Mishima. Key 

cast: Tomoyo Harada, Yo 

Oizumi 

Story about the life and 

love of a married couple 

who run a small inn/cafe/ 

bakery in Hokkaido, and 

their breads that heal the 

wounded. 


hKcec 

Vengeance 

(US) Action/Adventure, 

Organised Crime, 

95mins. Fabrication 

Films. Dir: Alfonso 

Rodriguez. Key cast: Ving 

Rhames, Steven Bauer 

Daniel, a cop with the 

NYPD, is investigating 

a cold case involving the 

murder 15 years ago of a 

high-end prostitute called 

lsabel. While looking into 

her death he begins to 

identify five suspects who 

he believes are the key to 

unlocking the mystery of 

her murder. 


12:00 

almost peRfect 

(US) Comedy, Drama, 

Romance, 106mins. 

Eleven Arts, Dir: Bertha 

Bay-Sa Pan. Key cast: 

Kelly Hu, Ivan Shaw, 

Christina Chang 

Busy with a nonprofit 

arts job and her 

dysfunctional family,

34-year-old Vanessa barely 

has time for a life of her 

own. Things may finally 

change when an old friend 

re-emerges — a man who 

just might be perfect for 

her. As sparks fly, her 

family suddenly starts to 

go up in flames. 

Meeting Room N104-N105, 

HKCEC 

THE LEgENd of KaspaR 

HausER 

see box below 

LovE 

(Taiwan) Comedy, 


HKIFF Industry 


Dir: Dize Niu Chen-Zer 

What is love? What does 

it stand for? We’ve all 

been touched by love, 

yet no-one ever did 

understand it. This is a 

story about eight lonely 

souls searching for happy 

endings. Everything that 

happened and every 

sacrifice that was made 

was all for love. 

Theatre 1, HKCEC 

LovE ToMaTo 


Prism Co. Dir: Hideo 

Nannbu. Key cast: Yasuo 

Daichi, Alice Dixon, 

Yasuko Tomita 

Story of a middle-aged 

farmer who is facing the 

harsh reality of bride 

shortage and the drop in 

the agricultural population. 

Meeting Room N201B, HKCEC 

THE sECoNd WoMaN 

(Hong Kong, China) 

Drama, Romance, 



Dir: Carol Lai. Key cast: 

Shu Qi, Shawn Yue 

Hui Bao and Nan are 

both actors. They are 

rehearsing intensely for 

a new play but Hui Bao 

falls ill. Her twin sister, 

Hui Xiang, secretly takes 

Hui Bao’s place — and 

takes all the credit. 

Finding that Hui Xiang is 

a threat to her career and 

relationship with Nan, 

Hui Bao meets her sister 

by the seashore one stormy 

night. Only one of them 

returns. 


sadNEss, augusT 

(Korea) Romance, 

104mins. P.A.M Korea 

Media. Dir: Kim 

Jee-yong. Key cast: 

Son Sung-yoon, Kim 

Do-yong, Jung Yi-an 

A heartbreaking love 

story with a painful 

reminiscence which would 

be easily forgotten like 

passing by a way station. 


HKCEC 

12:15 

gERM 

(US) 90mins. TomCat 

Films. Dir: John 

Craddock. Key cast: 

Marguerite Sundberg, 

Michael Flores, Mark 

Chiappone, Beth Pratt 

The military’s attempt to 

shoot down an orbiting 

satellite unleashes a 

space-borne epidemic on 

a remote, small town. 

Deputy Max Brody and 

his girlfriend Brooke must 

battle their way through 

an army of infected 

townsfolk and soldiers 

as they struggle to save 

themselves and their loved 

ones from a horrible early 

death. When cannibalism 

is contagious, will love 

endure? Will even the 

strongest love survive? 

market 

12:00 


HKCEC 

12:30 

HaLsER aCRE 

(Japan) Action/ 

Adventure, 60mins. 

Acre Film. Dir: Tsukasa 

Kishimoto. Key cast: 

Moeko Fukuda, Tomoji 

Yamashiro, Shingo 

Chinen 


HKCEC 

uNIJapaN sHoRT fILMs 

By youNg CREaToRs 

(Japan) Drama 60mins. 

UNIJAPAN. Dir: 

Katsumata Yu, Morioka 

Ryu, Tazaki Megumi, 

Yoshino Kohei, Izuki 

Hajime. Key cast: Nitta 

Eri, Katsuo Mayuna, Iida 

Kaoru 


HKCEC 

12:45 

THE LEgENd of KaspaR HausER 

(Italy) Sci-fi, Fantasy, 95mins. 

Intramovies. Dir: Davide Manuli. Key 

cast: Vincent Gallo, Claudia Gerini, 

Elisa Sednaoui 

Kaspar Hauser must measure himself 

against the evil of a Grand Duchess 

who feels her power over the community 

v/H/s 

(US) Horror/Suspense, 

116mins. Epic Pictures 

Group. Dir: Adam 

Wingard, Ti West, 

Glenn McQuaid, David 

Bruckner, Radio Silence, 

Joe Swanberg. Key cast: 

Calvin Reeder, Lane 

Hughes, Adam Wingard 

Meeting Room N101a, HKCEC 

13:00 

gaNTZ 

(Japan) 131min. Asian 

Film Awards. Dir: 

Shinsuke Sato 

agnes b. CINEMa! Hong Kong 

arts Centre 

LovE fREE oR dIE 

(US) Documentary, 

90mins. Cinephil. 

Dir: Macky Alston 

Portrait of Gene Robinson, 

the first openly gay 

bishop, elected in 2003 

by the Episcopal Church 

in New Hampshire. The 

film follows Robinson 

from his 2008 civil union, 

to his rejection from 

the once-in-a-decade 

meeting of bishops at the 

Lambeth Conference, to 

president Barack Obama’s 

inauguration. Robinson’s 

presence at the Episcopal 

General Convention 

challenges the church’s 

stance on issues such as 

gay marriage. 


HKCEC 

13:30 

CoLoR ME LovE 

(China) Romance, 

97mins. Tianjin North 

Film Group. Dir: Alex 

Tan. Key cast: Liu Ye, Yao 

is threatened. To break free of the 

blond intruder, she seeks help from the 

Pusher, a criminal with whom she has 

a relationship, and who knows how to 

free her of the ‘enemy’. Too bad he has 

not taken into account the Sheriff, 

a DJ who considers Kaspar to be the 

New Messiah. 

Meeting Room N109-N110, HKCEC 

Chen, Joan Chen 

Fei is living every girl’s 

dream — an intern job at 

the best fashion magazine 

in the country working 

for a top editor who takes 

her under her wing. Her 

life gets complicated when 

she falls in love with 

a famous young artist 

struggling to find his next 

inspiration. 


HKCEC 

13:45 

EdoNoBoRI — THE spIRIT 

of Ryu Kyu 

(Japan) Documentary, 

69mins. Cinema 

Okinawa. Dir: Yoshiaki 

Hongo. Key cast: Shiue 

Matayoshi, Etsuko Higa 


14:00 

EvEntS, pagE 22 

a WaRM Ray of LIgHT 


Omgact Entertainment. 

Dir: Masato Ozawa. 

Key cast: Miwako 

Wagatsuma, Hironari 

Nemoto, Chikako Hara 


HKCEC 

BELLEvILLE ToKyo 

(France) Drama, 75mins. 

Insomnia World Sales. 

Dir: Elise Girard. Key 

cast: Valerie Donzelli, 

Jeremie Elkaim 

Just about to have a 

baby, Marie is suddenly 

abandoned by her 

boyfriend, who leaves her 

for another woman. Marie 

refuses to be a victim and 

finds comfort at work, 

in an arthouse theatre 

specialising in American 

classic movies. 


HKCEC 

THE CasEs 

(Hong Kong) 

Documentary; Horror/ 

Suspense, 90mins. Film 

Asia Entertainment Group 

Co. Dir: Alan de Law. Key 

cast: Edmond Poon, Wylie 

Chiu, Brandy Akiko 


HKCEC 

CHoCoLaTE KIssEs 

(Italy) Comedy, Romance, 


Intramovies. Dir: Alessio 

Maria Federici. Key cast: 

Lusa Argentero, Hassani 

Shapi, Nabiha Akkari 


HKCEC 

LEE’s advENTuRE 

(China) Romance, Sci-fi, 

Fantasy, 90mins. Desen 

International Media. 

Dir: Frant Gwo, Yang Li. 

Key cast: Jaycee Chan, 

Fiona Wang 

A intriguing journey 

about love, time travel and 

ultimate redemption. 


HKCEC 

papER MooN 

(Malaysia) Romance, 

112mins. mm2 

Entertainment Pte. Dir: 

Stanley Law Tak Ming. 

Key cast: Gordon Lam, 

Chrissie Chau, Tedd Chan 

Centred around the ‘Iron 

Lady’ who has showcased 

her iron fist in winning 

the race in business. 


HKCEC 

sHadoW daNCER 

(UK, Ireland, France) 

Drama, 100mins. Wild 

Bunch. Dir: James 

Marsh. Key cast: Andrea 

Riseborough, Clive 

Owen, Aidan Gillen 

Colette McVeigh: widow, 

mother, terrorist. A 

woman who has lived 

the Republican cause all 

her 29 years. A woman 

whose brothers are both 

heavily involved at the 

senior levels in the IRA, 

whose husband was 

killed by the British 

security forces. A woman 

who is now an informer 

for MI5. 


HKCEC 

14:30 

MaoRI Boy gENIus 

(New Zealand) 


Cinephil. Dir: Pietra 

Brettkelly 

Aged four, Maori boy 

Ngaa Rauuira learnt 

English; at 12 he began 

his first university degree; 

at at 16 he was a student 

at Yale University. Within 

a year he is leading 

a major protest and 

being asked to stand for 

Parliament. » 



HKCEC 

PEtaliNg StREEt 

WaRRioRS 

(Malaysia) Action/ 

Adventure, Comedy, 


108mins. All Rights 

Entertainment 

theatre 2, HKCEC 

REd tEaRS 

(Japan) Action/Adventure, 

Horror/Suspense, 87mins. 

All Rights Entertainment. 

Dir: Takanori Tsujimoto. 

Key cast: Natsuki Kato, 

Yuma Ishigaki, Yasuaki 

Kurata 


15:30 

NigHtfall 

(Hong Kong) Horror/ 

Suspense, 106mins. 



Dir: Chow Hin Yeung. 

Key cast: Nick Cheung, 

Simon Yam, Janice Man 

When a Hong Kong 

celebrity is found brutally 

murdered, hardheaded 

detective Lam is called 

in. As Lam zeroes in on a 

killer from the past, the 

murder appears to be a 

straightforward case of 

revenge. But the more Lam 

pursues his suspect, the 

deeper he falls into a web 

of lies. Just as Lam believes 

he has everything figured 

out, he will discover there 

is a fine line between love 

and hate. 


WHERE WaS tHE lifE 

CoMES fRoM? 



Beijing Yuancheng 

Zhongshi Media 

Advertising Commercial 

Co. Dir: Liang Han Sen 


HKCEC 

16:00 

fiRE iN HEll 

(Korea) Drama, 104mins. 



Dir: Lee SangWoo. Key 

cast: Won TaeHee, Cha 

Seoung Min, Kim Hun 

Buddhist monk Jiwul is 

kicked out of the temple 

as his inappropriate 

relationship with a believer 

is uncovered. While Jiwul 

goes from house to house 

begging for alms, he meets 


Yeon-su, who is drinking 

alone in a restaurant. 


HKCEC 

tHE HoWliNg REBoRN 

(US) Action/ 

Adventure, Romance, 

92mins. Moonstone 


Joe Nimziki. Key cast: 

Lindsey Shaw, Landon 

Liboiron, Ivana Milicevic 

On the eve of his highschool 

graduation, 

unremarkable Will 

Kidman finally bonds 

with the girl he has long 

yearned for, reclusive 

Eliana Wynter. But he 

also discovers a dark secret 

from his past — that 

he is about to become a 

werewolf. Now, in an effort 

to fight destiny and save 

their love as well as their 

lives, they must battle 

not only Will’s growing 

blood lust but an army of 

fearsome beasts bent on 

killing. 


HKCEC 

KRyPtoNitE! 

(Italy) Comedy, 98mins. 

Rai Trade. Dir: Ivan 

Cotroneo. Key cast: 

Valeria Golino, Luca 

Zingaretti, Cristinana 

Capotondi 

Naples 1973. Peppino 

Sansone, nine, comes from 

a large, chaotic family 

and has an older cousin, 

Gennaro, who thinks 

he is Superman. When 

Gennaro dies, Peppino’s 

imagination rewrites 

reality and brings him 

back to life, as though 

his cousin really were the 

superhero he said he was. 


HKCEC 

lovE iS alWayS aRouNd 

(China) Drama, 96mins. 

Beijing Genius Movie & 

Culture Co. Dir: Lu Hong 

Jun. Key cast: Kan Jin 

Ming, Yang Ning 


HKCEC 

tHE outRagE 

(Thailand) 107mins. 

Asian Film Awards. 

Dir: ML Pantewanop 

Devakula 

agnes b. CiNEMa! Hong Kong 

arts Centre 

SHE 

(Thailand) Drama 

90mins. Studio Ari Co. 

Dir: Sarunya Noithai. 

Key cast: Penpakn 

Sirikul, Ann Siriwan 

Baker, Apassaporn 

Saengthong 

Bua, a successful 

businesswoman recently 

diagnosed with cancer, 

leaves her family behind 

to reside by the sea, 

where she befriends June, 

an independent female 

photographer. Meanwhile, 

the lives of Da and Bee, two 

mismatched youngsters, 

clash upon meeting each 

other, as they all embark on 

a journey of emotional and 

sexual discovery. 


HKCEC 

tHE SPiu Kid 

(Taiwan) Drama, Horror/ 

Suspense, Romance 

95mins. Double Edge 

Entertainment. Dir: Joe C 

Lee. Key cast: Blue Lan, 

Nikki Hsieh 


HKCEC 

16:15 

Blood fRoM a StoNE 

(France) Documentary, 

98mins. Wild Bunch. 

Dir: Jacques Maillot. Key 

cast: Daniel Auteuil 

Widower Georges Pierret 

runs his shipyard like it’s 

his lifeline. When he learns 

that his credit is going to 

be cut off, everything hangs 

in the balance. He’s forced 

to lay off a number of 

workers who immediately 

go on strike and occupy the 

factory. A last ditch attempt 

to secure an investor in 

Russia leads to a meeting 

with a young interpreter 

— a meeting that gives 

Georges the courage to risk 

a new beginning. 


HKCEC 

tHE ENEMy 

(Serbia) War, 109mins. 

Insomnia World Sales. 

Dir: Dejan Zecevic. 

Key cast: Aleksandar 

Stokkovic, Vuk Kostic, 

Tihomir Stanic 

Bosnia, 1995, the 

seventh day of peace: 

an engineering unit is 

removing mines from the 

border between the two 

sides who until recently, 

were at war. Each of 

the soldiers is burdened 

by experiences from the 

frontline; each is facing 

his fears in his own way. 


HKCEC 

KaMiHatE StoRE 


Open Sesame Co. Dir: 

Tatsuya Yamamoto. Key 

cast: Keiko Takahashi, 

Susumu Terajima 

Chiyo is an elderly 

woman who runs the 

rundown general store in 

a remote town. Sometimes, 

apparent strangers stop 

by to buy a bread roll and 

a bottle of milk. But they 

never show up to take the 

bus back to town. Near the 

store, there is a cliff where 

people jump off. Chiyo 

says nothing to these 

customers. This is the story 

of Chiyo, who has seen 

people off and is about to 

step forward after the long 

winter. 


HKCEC 

uSHijiMa tHE loaN 

SHaRK 

(Japan) Action/ 

Adventure 130mins. 

SDP. Dir: Masatoshi 

Yamaguchi. Key cast: 

Takayuki Yamada, Kento 

Hayashi, Yuko Oshima 


17:30 

joyful REuNioN 

(Taiwan, China) Drama, 



Dir: Tsao Jui Yuan. Key 

cast: Ahleh Chang, Huo 

Siyan, Lan Zheng Long 


17:45 

oNE tREE tHREE livES 

(Hong Kong) 




Dir: Angie Chen 

An intimate film about 

novelist Hualing Nieh 

Engle, who has been 

a major influence on 

generations of writers in 

the Chinese Diaspora, and 

beyond. 


HKCEC 

18:45 

WaR of tHE WoRldS: 

goliatH 

(US/Malaysia) Action/ 

Adventure, Animation, 


Epic Pictures Group. Dir: 

Joe Pearson. Key cast: 

Peter Wingfield, Elizabeth 

Gracen, Jim Byrnes 


19:45 

aBout tHE PiNK SKy 




Dir: Keiichi Kobayashi. 

Key cast: Ai Ikeda, Ena 

Koshino, Reiko Fujiwara 

High-school student 

Izumi Kawashima, whose 

daily routine is rating 

newspaper articles, finds a 

wallet containing a large 

sum of cash. Instead of 

returning the wallet to its 

owner, Izumi decides to 

lend a substantial portion 

of the money to a middleaged 

male acquaintance. 

She eventually returns 

the wallet to its owner, 

a wealthy high-school 

boy named Koki, who 

notices the missing money. 

As recompense, he asks 

Izumi to do something 

for his friend — to create 

a newspaper that brings 

happiness to its readers. 


HKCEC 

20:00 

10+10 

(Taiwan) Drama, 



Dir: Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 

Wang Shau-Di, Wang 

Tung, Chu Yen-Ping, Ho 

Wi-Ding 

A project initiated by the 

Taipei Golden Horse Film 

Festival to demonstrate 

the solidarity between 

Taiwanese film-makers. 

Twenty directors are 

invited to make a fiveminute 

short film each 

on the theme of the 

uniqueness of Taiwan, but 

allowed total freedom in 

all other aspects. 


Market 

screenings 

thursday 22 

09:30 

RoBo-g 

(Japan) Comedy 


Screenings @ Filmart 

Dir:. Key cast: 

Three flunky employees 

of Kimura Electric — 

Kobayashi, Ota and 

Nagai — are ordered by 

the company president to 

develop a bipedal robot 

to promote the firm in an 

upcoming Robot Expo. 

But just one week before 

the big event, the robot 

in production, “New 

Shiokaze”, is smashed to 

pieces. 


SoNg of SilENCE 

(China) Drama, 




Dir: Chen Zhuo. Key 

cast: Li Qiang, Yin 

Yaning, Wu Bingbin 


09:45 

lEgENd of a RaBBit 




Dir: Sun Li Jun. Key cast: 

Michael Clarke Duncan, 

Rebecca Black, Claire 

Geare 

theatre 1, HKCEC 

10:00 

go! BoyS’ SCHool dRaMa 

CluB 

(Japan) Comedy, Drama, 



Dir: Tsutomu Hanabusa. 

Key cast: Aoi Nakamura, 

Sosuke Ikematsu, 

Keisuke Tomita 


HKCEC 

fRoM SEoul to vaRaNaSi 




Dir: Jeon Kyu-hwan. Key 

cast: Yoon Dong-hwan 

Human drama about a 

married couple in times of 

love, betrayal and terror. 


HKCEC 

HERE, tHEN 




Dir: Mao Mao. Key cast: 

Huang Tang Yijia, Li 

Ziqian, Wang Yizheng 


HKCEC 

11:30 

vulgaRia 

(Hong Kong) Comedy, 



Dir: Pang Ho Cheung. Key 

cast: Chapman To, Ronald

market 

14:00 

RENT-A-CAT 

(Japan) Drama, 

110mins. HKIFF 

Industry Screenings 

@ Filmart. Dir: Naoko 

Ogigami. Key cast: 

Mikako Ichikawa, 

Reiko Kusamura, Ken 

Mitsuishi 

Sayoko lives alone, but 

she’s not really alone. 

For some reason cats 

find her irresistible, so 

she decides to share her 

house with them. She 

Cheng, Dada Chan 

The bitterness and the joy 

of the Hong Kong film 

industry are captured 

in the story of To Waicheung’s 

outrageous 

experiences in making his 

new film. 


11:45 

A LETTER To MoMo 

(Japan) Animation, 

Children; Drama, 


Industry Screenings @ 

Filmart. Dir: Hiroyuki 

Okiura. Key cast: Momo 

Miyaura: Karen Miyama, 

Ikuko Miyaura 

Clinging to an unfinished 

letter written by her 

recently deceased father, 

young Momo moves 

with her mother from 

bustling Tokyo to the 

remote Japanese island 

of Shio. 


operates a rent-a-cat 

business through which 

she lends her cats to 

lonely people. “Rent-a- 

Cat. Rent-a-Cat, cat, cat. 

Feeling lonely? I’ll lend 

you a cat.” Every day, 

Sayoko walks along the 

riverside pulling a twowheeled 

cart full of cats, 

repeating these words 

through her megaphone, 

hoping to rescue some 

lonely hearts. 

Meeting Room N101B, 

HKCEC 

HERE, THERE 

(China) Drama 94mins. 



Dir: Lu Sheng. Key cast: 

Lv Yulai, Huang Lu, Yao 

Anlian 

“Here”, “there” are two 

nouns often appearing 

in our lives, usually to 

indicate the distance 

between people. Shanghai, 

Paris, the primeval forest 

— different locations, 

different stories, but they 

are all connected in a 

certain way. 

Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC 

12:00 

FIRE IN HELL 




Dir: Lee SangWoo. Key 

cast: Won TaeHee, Cha 

Seoung Min, Kim Hun 


HKCEC 

N+N 

(Hong Kong) Drama, 



Filmart. Dir: Mo Lai 

Yan Chi. Key cast: Ricky 

Yeung, Mok Chiu Yu, 

Joyceln Kan 


HKCEC 

UFo IN HER EyES 




Dir: Xiaolu Guo. Key 

cast: Shi Ke, Udo Kier 

One very hot afternoon, 

the life of an anonymous 

Chinese village woman 

changes abruptly when 

she believes she has just 

witnessed a UFO flying 

through the sky. The village 

chief takes advantage of 

this unexpected event to 

boost the poverty-stricken 

local economy. 


HKCEC 

13:30 

THE SECoNd WoMAN 




Screenings @ Filmart 


14:00 

LovE 

(Taiwan) Comedy, 




Dir: Dize Niu Chen-Zer. 

What is love? 


PoSTCARdS FRoM THE Zoo 

(Indonesia) Drama 



Dir: Edwin. Key cast: 

Ladya Cheryl, Nicholas 

Saputra, Adjie Nur 

Ahman 

Little Lana was three 

years old when she was 

abandoned in the zoo. 

Raised by a giraffe 

trainer, the zoo is the only 

world she knows. When 

a charming magician 

arrives at the zoo, Lana 

falls in love and embarks 

on a journey until the day 

she decides she must go 

back to the place where she 

was abandoned. 


HKCEC 

RENT-A-CAT 

See box, above 

SHE IS NoT CRyING, 

SHE IS SINGING 

(Belgium, France, 

Luxembourg) Drama 

78mins. Insomnia World 

Sales. Dir: Philippe De 

Pierpont. Key cast: Erika 

Sainte, Marijka Pinoy, 

Jean-Francois Wolff 

Laura, 27 years old, lives 

alone in the suburbs of a 

big city. She learns that 

her father is in a coma 

after a serious car accident. 

She decides to visit him 

regularly at the hospital as 

a last opportunity to settle 

old scores and perhaps to 

get revenge 


HKCEC 

15:30 

oN THE EdGE oF A 

FLoATING CITy, WE SING 

(Hong Kong) 

Documentary, Musical, 



Filmart. Dir: Anson Hoi 

Shan Mak. Key cast: 

Dejay of The Pancakes, 

Ah P of My Little Airport, 

Billy of Mini-Noise 

An essay film, a reflective 

documentary about the 

notion of freedom via 

spatial stories and local 

indie music. 

Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC 

15:45 

ToKyo NEWCoMER 

(China/Japan) Drama, 



Filmart 


16:15 

NUCLEAR NATIoN 

(Japan) Documentary 



Dir: Atsushi Funahashi 

A documentary about the 

exile of Futaba’s residents, 

the region of housing 

around the crippled 

Fukushima Daiichi 

nuclear power plant. 


16:30 

ModEST RECEPTIoN 


Drama, 100mins. HKIFF 

Industry Screenings 

@ Filmart. Dir: Mani 

Haghighi. Key cast: 

Taraneh Alidousti, Mani 

Haghighi, Esmail Khalaj 

A man and a woman 

drive through a war-torn 

mountain road in their 

SUV. The vehicle is filled 

with plastic bags full of 

cash. The man and the 

woman are giving the 

money away to the poor 

souls they encounter on 

the road. Is this a goodwill 

mission? A game of 

honour and temptation? 

A psychotic gamble? As 

the car ploughs through 

the icy terrain, answers 

become increasingly elusive 

and tension is built up to 

an unbearable pitch. 


SCREENINGS 

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second floor, Hong Kong 

Convention and Exhibition 

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Hong Kong 

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Mike Goodridge, mike. 

goodridge@screendaily.com 

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Liz Shackleton, 

lizshackleton@gmail.com 

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Mark Adams, mark.adams@ 

screendaily.com 

Reporter 

Jean Noh, hjnoh2007@gmail. 

com 

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Sen-lun Yu 

Group head of production 

and art 

Mark Mowbray, mark. 

mowbray@screendaily.com 

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Medina Lau, Paul Lindsell 

Translator 

Arthur Chin 

Screenings 

Kelly Gibbens 

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Why the film world is embracing the small screen 


Issue 1736 April 2011 

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Issue 1736 April 2011 

■ Tarak Ben Ammar ■ Italy territory focus ■ Summer movie preview 

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■ Tarak Ben Ammar ■ Italy territory focus 

Italy territory focus ■ Summer movie preview 

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Italy 

the film world is embracing the small screen 






Why 

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