AT FILMART

DAY 1 

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John Woo 

Woo pushes 

1949 to 2013 

BY SEN-LUN YU 

John Woo’s epic about lovers torn 

apart during the Chinese Civil War 

has been postponed until early 

2013 due to actor-scheduling confl 

icts, and sources say Woo is planning 

to take advantage of the delay 

by shooting his long-cherished 

remake of Jean-Pierre Melville’s 

1967 classic Le Samourai this year. 

Woo’s producer and Lion Rock 

Production partner Terence Chang 

would not reveal much about the 

English-language film, which he 

hopes to announce in the next few 

weeks. 

Meanwhile, Zhang Ziyi and 

Song Hye-kyo are still lined up to 

star in the love story, tentatively 

titled 1949, which already has most 

of its budget in place, with backers 

including Beijing Galloping Horse, 

Zhejiang Huace Film and TV Corporation, 

and China Film Group. 

Lotte sells 

Ghastly horror 

BY JEAN NOH 

South Korean sales company Lotte 

Entertainment is launching sales 

here on horror film Ghastly starring 

Hyo-min, of popular girl 

group T-ara, in her acting debut. 

Directed by Ko Suk-min, the fi lm 

also stars Han Eun-jung and Lee 

Hyung-suk. Ghastly follows a family 

that goes through a twisted kidnapping, 

birth and death. 

Lotte has also started sales on 

romantic drama Architecture 101, 

starring Suji from girl group Miss 

A and Lee Je-hoon. Produced by 

Myung Films (Cyrano Agency), the 

film follows a man and a woman 

who fi nd each other again 15 years 

after they fell in love at fi rst sight. 

“The response to the fi lm’s previews 

has been hot,” said Lotte’s 

head of international investment & 

distribution Juyoung Park. 

MONDAY, MARCH 19 2012 

DW lands with Tycoon, Rose 

BY LIZ SHACKLETON 

Distribution Workshop, the Hong 

Kong-based sales arm of Chinese 

studio Bona Film Group, is at Filmart 

with a slate of hot projects 

including gangster thriller The 

Last Tycoon starring Chow Yun Fat. 

To be directed by Wong Jing, the 

fi lm tells the story of real-life gangster 

Du Yuesheng who built his 

crime empire in Shanghai in the 

1920s and 1930s. Infernal Affairs 

director Andrew Lau will produce 

Wanda Media has acquired 

mainland China distribution rights 

to war epic Warriors Of The 

Rainbow: Seediq Bale, directed by 

Taiwan’s Wei Te-sheng. The release 

is scheduled for early April. Wanda 

Media is the film production and 

distribution arm of Chinese realestate 

conglomerate Wanda Group 

and the sister company of cinema 

circuit Wanda Cinema Line, 

and Peter Pau is on board as DoP. 

The cast will also include martialarts 

maestro Sammo Hung. The 

project, previously known as Grand 

Shanghai, is in pre-production. 

Also new on Distribution Workshop’s 

slate is Christmas Rose, the 

directorial debut of Hong Kong star 

Charlie Yeung, which was selected 

as a HAF project in 2009. Aaron 

Kwok, Xia Yu and Kwai Lun-mei 

will star in the fi lm which has Wing 

Shya on board as production 

Wanda to unleash Warrior in China 

The film has yet to receive a 

screening permit from China’s State 

Administration of Radio, Film and 

Television (SARFT) but has been 

cleared on the reviewing process by 

Chinese censors, according to 

sources near Wanda and producer 

Jimmy Huang, who handles rights in 

Chinese-speaking regions on behalf 

of Wei’s ARS Film Productions. 

Wei has edited a 150-minute 

AT FILMART 

designer and Henry Chung as DoP. 

At the time of its HAF selection, 

Oxide Pang was on board as producer, 

but Tsui Hark and Jacob 

Cheung will now produce the 

$3.5m project. Pre-production is 

scheduled to start in April. 

In addition, Distribution Workshop 

will introduce David Hsunwei 

Chang’s action comedy Double 

Trouble at a press conference here 

tomorrow. In post, the film stars 

Jaycee Chan, Xia Yu and Jessica C. 

Khoo fills Urn, engages Apprentice 


Gorylah Pictures, one of two production 

labels run by Singapore 

fi lm-maker and Asian Film Awards 

jury president Eric Khoo, is joining 

forces with Clover Films and MM2 

Entertainment to co-produce 

supernatural thriller Inside The 

Urn (working title), to be directed 

by Gilbert Chan. 

The three companies previously 

collaborated on Chan’s hit horror 

film 23:59. His new project, 

scripted by Tan Fong Cheng, tells 

the story of a family haunted by a 

child spirit, known in South-East 

Asia as a Toyol, which has been 

invoked by a witch doctor from a 

dead human foetus. Production is 

scheduled to start in June for a 

year-end theatrical release in Singapore 

and Malaysia. 

Meanwhile, Khoo’s other Singapore-based 

production label, Zhao 

Wei Films, is developing Boo Junfeng’s 

Apprentice with Singapore’s 

Peanut Pictures and Akanga Film 

Asia. The film, tentatively scheduled 

to start shooting from the end 

of the year, tells the story of a 

Malaysian prison officer who 

strikes up a friendship with the 

prison’s chief executioner. 

Khoo will executive produce 

with Raymond Phathanavirangoon, 

Fran Borgia and Zhao Wei’s 

Gary Goh producing. Boo’s debut 

feature Sandcastle premiered in 

Critics’ Week at Cannes in 2010. 

Donnie Yen and Keanu Reeves were 

among the special guests at the 

inaugural Power Of Film Gala. The 

event took place last night at the 

Grand Hyatt to raise funds for FilmAid 

Asia, which uses the power of film to 

bring information and relief to 

refugees and other strife-torn 

communities around the globe. 

Reeves was an honouree at the gala 

alongside activist Duncan Jepson, 

while Yen is a member of the FilmAid 

Global Artist Council. 

version of the film for the mainland 

release, different from the version 

that premiered at Venice last year; a 

few of the brutal battle scenes have 

been taken out. The film took $29m 

in Taiwan in late 2011. Several 

mainland distributors showed 

interest in the film but Wanda 

Group’s strength in the exhibition 

sector is believed to have clinched 

the deal. Fortissimo Films handles 

sales for the film outside China. 

Sen-lun Yu 

TODAY 

Nicholas Tse 

NEWS 

Fighting fires 

Emperor Motion Pictures backs firefighting 

drama with Nicholas Tse 

» Page 6 

Universe launches big titles 

Chan to direct untitled police 

actioner, Pang shooting Conspirators 

» Page 7 

REVIEWS 

Love In The Buff 

Pang’s sequel to Love In A Puff is a 

relentlessly entertaining romance 

» Page 10 

SCREENINGS 

What’s screening today 

» Page 18 

Fortissimo goes 

Full Circle 


Fortissimo Films has picked up 

international rights outside China 

to Zhang Yang’s upcoming feature 

Full Circle. 

In post-production, the film 

revolves around a group of lively 

senior citizens in a nursing home 

who compete in a television variety 

show. Veteran Chinese actors Wu 

Tianming, Xu Huanshan, Li Bin 

and Yan Bingyan head the cast. 

Produced by Ann An, Li Li and 

Zhang Qiang with the involvement 

of China Film Group and Desen 

International Media, the fi lm is set 

for a wide commercial release in 

China later this year. Founded in 

2006 by Ann An, Desen is a Beijing-based 

production and distribution 

outfit with production 

credits including 14 Blades, Ip Man 

2 and Lee’s Adventure. 

Meanwhile, Fortissimo has also 

sealed sales deals on other titles on 

its slate with new distributors in 

Korea and India. 

Korea’s JoyNContents Group 

has acquired Wei Te-sheng’s Warriors 

Of The Rainbow: Seediq Bale 

and Yonfan’s Bugis Street Redux, 

which recently screened in the 

Panorama section at Berlin. Both 

titles are being lined up for a 

Korean theatrical release. 

Start-up Indian distributor DAR 

Media Group acquired two horrorsuspense 

titles handled by Fortissimo, 

The Shock Labyrinth and 

Tormented, both directed by 

Takashi Shimizu. DAR plans to 

release the fi lms theatrically in 3D 

and 2D formats throughout India 

this summer.

Smuggler 

CAR takes 

US rights to 

Smuggler 

By Liz ShacKLEToN 

US-based Cinema Asia Releasing 

(CAR) has acquired North American 

rights to Japanese cult hit 

Smuggler, which premiered in the 

Midnight Madness section of last 

year’s Toronto film festival. 

The film, directed by Katsuhito 

Ishii (The Taste Of Tea), is based on 

a manga franchise of the same 

name created by Shohei Manabe. 

CAR’s recent acquisitions also 

include Korean titles Bedevilled, 

which played in Cannes’ Critics 

Week in 2010; Iris, starring Lee 

Byung-hung, and Rotterdam 2009 

Tiger Award winner Breathless. The 

distribution outfit has also acquired 

Thai mystery thriller Mindfulness 

And Murder, directed by UK-Thai 

film-maker Tom Waller. 

CAR was launched at Filmart 

last year by Los Angeles-based distribution 

veteran Ko Mori of Eleven 

Arts and producer Tim Kwok of 

Convergence Entertainment. The 

company plans to release eight to 

10 films a year theatrically in the 

North American market, while its 

other acquisitions will be positioned 

as VoD and DVD releases. 

all about M-Line’s Wife 

South Korean sales company M-Line 

Distribution is launching sales here at 

Filmart on romantic comedy All About 

My Wife. Directed by Min Kyu-dong 

(Antique, Memento Mori), the film 

stars Lee Sun-kyun from Oki’s Movie 

and Paju, and Lim Soo-jung from 

Come Rain, Come Shine. 

Tired of his wife’s nagging, Lee’s 

character schemes with a womanising 

neighbour to encourage her to have 

an affair so he can begin divorce 

proceedings. 

M-Line has also picked up Asian 

sales right for Yoo Ha’s wolf-hound 

thriller Howling starring Song Kang-ho 

(The Host) and Lee Na-young 

(Maundy Thursday). The company is 

also selling historical mystery 

melodrama Gabi and doing pre-sales 

on the Kim Jee-woon and Yim Pil-sung 

co-directed Doomsday Book. 

n 6 Screen International at Filmart March 19, 2012 

Emperor fights fires with 

Derek Kwok, Nicholas Tse 


Hong Kong-based Emperor 

Motion Pictures (EMP) is launching 

a big-budget fire-fighting 

drama at Filmart, to be directed by 

up-and-coming film-maker Derek 

Kwok with Nicholas Tse heading 

the cast. 

The as-yet-untitled project is 

scheduled to start shooting in the 

third quarter of this year for 

release in 2013. Tse, who is famous 

for performing his own stunts, will 

play a firefighter in a series of dramatic 

set pieces. Kwok, who has 

spent half a year researching the 

story, previously co-directed mar- 

tial-arts parody Gallants, which 

won best film at the Hong Kong 

Film Awards. 

Hong Kong’s Universe Films is 

also planning a disaster film about 

fire-fighting, a subject that has not 

been tackled in Hong Kong cinema 

since Johnnie To’s Lifeline in 1997. 

EMP is also launching sales on 

The Bullet Vanishes, a suspense 

thriller directed by Law Chi-leung 

and produced by Derek Yee, which 

also stars Tse along with Lau 

Ching Wan. Produced by China’s 

Le Vision Pictures, the film 

revolves around a series of mysterious 

murders in China’s largest 

armoury during the Republic era. 

The film is in post-production. 

EMP, whose parent company 

Emperor Group is celebrating its 

70th anniversary this year, is also 

selling new projects from Huang 

Lei, son of veteran Chinese filmmaker 

Huang Jianxin, and fastrising 

film-maker Daniel Chan. 

Huang Lei is making his directing 

debut with Angry Kid, on 

which his father serves as producer. 

EMP is also selling Heiward 

Mak’s Diva, starring Joey Yung 

and produced by Chapman To, 

which is tentatively scheduled for 

a summer release. 

Showbox sends Choi’s Thieves around Asia 

By JEaN Noh 

South Korean sales company 

Showbox has pre-sold Macau diamond 

heist film The Thieves to 

Dream Movie Entertainment for 

Singapore and Malaysia, Queen 

International Pictures for Indonesia 

and Catchplay for Taiwan. 

Directed by hit-maker Choi 

Dong-hoon (Tazza: The High Rollers 

and Woochi), The Thieves is 

expected to be released wide in 

each territory following its Korean 

release this summer. The film’s 

A-list ensemble cast includes Kim 

Yun-seok (The Yellow Sea), Kim 

Hye-soo (Tazza), Lee Jung-jae 

(The Housemaid), Gianna Jun 

“Howling has had good box office 

and this is its first Asian market so 

there’s a lot of interest, especially from 

Japan and China, and we expect to 

close deals on other territories as well,” 

said Nahie J Kim, manager at M-Line. 

“Gabi just opened in Korea and 

there’s a lot of interest from Asia and 

Europe. Since it stars Joo Jin-mo, it’s 

almost needless to say,” she said 

about the heart throb who stars as a 

Joseon Dynasty king in peril with a 

new-found taste for coffee. 

Doomsday Book is due for an April 

12 local release. The film stars Kim 

Kang-woo (Marine Boy), Ryoo Seungbum 

(The Unjust) and Song Sae-byuk 

(Meet The In-laws) in a sci-fi film 

made up of three short stories about 

a robot, a zombie invasion and a 

meteor crash. 

Jean Noh 

The Thieves 

(Snow Flower And The Secret Fan), 

Simon Yam (Ip Man) and Derek 

Tsang (Dream Home). 

The company is also launching 

sales on Take Off and 200 Pounds 

Beauty director Kim Yong-hwa’s 

all about My Wife 

Mr Go 3D. Budgeted at more than 

$20m, the film is about a gorilla 

that is trained to play pro-baseball. 

In production, the film is being 

shot in stereoscopic 3D, aiming for 

a summer 2013 release locally. 

Showbox is also having the 

market premiere of music 

romance Love On Air and has 

From Seoul To Varanasi screening 

at both Filmart and the Hong 

Kong International Film Festival. 

Its slate also includes local boxoffice 

hit Nameless Gangster: Rules 

Of The Time and upcoming action 

thrillers Confession Of Murder and 

A Company Man, as well as erotic 

thriller The Scent. 

Blind Detective, 

Switch make 

Media Asia bow 


Hong Kong’s Media Asia is introducing 

two high-profile projects at 

Filmart: Johnnie To’s crime drama 

Blind Detective and Jay Sun’s action 

drama Switch. 

Starring Andy Lau and Sammi 

Cheng, Blind Detective tells the 

story of a detective, forced to leave 

the service after turning blind, who 

tries to make a living by solving 

cold cases. It marks the first pairing 

of Lau and Cheng since Yesterday 

Once More in 2004. Media Asia has 

worldwide rights to Blind Detective, 

which is scheduled to start shooting 

in the next few weeks. 

Switch, formerly known as 

Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains, 

is a $20m action adventure 

which is in post-production after 

shooting in several international 

locations including Dubai. Andy 

Lau, Zhang Jingchu and Lin Chiling 

head the cast. 

The story revolves around the 

famous Chinese landscape painting 

Dwelling In The Fuchun 

Mountains by Huang Gongwang, 

which was split in two 300 years 

ago. The film imagines the painting 

is to be put back together, and 

follows gangs of thieves as they 

scramble to steal it. 

Media Asia has South-East Asia 

rights to the film, with China Film 

Group holding rights in the rest of 

the world. Media Asia is also selling 

Pang Ho Cheung’s HKIFF 

opener Love In The Buff, To’s 

Romancing In Thin Air and Derek 

Tsang and Jimmy Wan’s Lacuna. 

Golden Sun hot 

for library deal 

By SEN-LuN yu 

Golden Sun Films had closed a 

package deal with Chinese stateowned 

TV giant CCTV-6 for IPTV- 

VoD rights to 500 titles worth an 

estimated $4.4m (rmb30m). 

Golden Sun Films has a library 

of more than 300 Chinese-language 

films featuring stars such as 

Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen 

and Andy Lau. China Central TV 

Corporation’s CCTV 6 is a specialist 

movie channel co-owned and 

managed by China’s state-owned 

studio China Film Group. 

Golden Sun is also looking to 

remaster its library titles into the 

HD format. “This is to ensure the 

quality of our films and also to 

take advantage of new distribution 

opportunities,” said Kathy Lan, 

chairwoman of Golden Sun Films.

New Pangs, Chan films 

headline Universe slate 

By Liz ShaCkLEtoN 

Hong Kong’s Universe Films Distribution 

is unveiling a slate of 

action films at Filmart, headed by 

new projects from the Pang brothers 

and Benny Chan. 

Chan’s as-yet-untitled project is a 

$16m police action film, revolving 

around the Narcotics Division of 

the Hong Kong Security Bureau. 

Pre-production is scheduled to start 

in August for delivery in the third 

quarter of 2013. Negotiations are 

underway for the cast, which will 

be revealed in the next few months. 

Oxide Pang, one half of the 

Pang brothers duo, is directing 

suspense action title Conspirators, 

starring Aaron Kwok and Nick 

Cheung. The story, which is a spinoff 

from Pang’s 2007 The Detective 

C+, follows Kwok’s character, a 

private detective based in Thailand, 

as he travels to Malaysia to 

unravel the truth behind his parents’ 

death. Cheung plays a Malay- 

Conspirators 

sian detective. The $5m picture is 

currently shooting in Thailand, 

Malaysia and mainland China, 

with delivery expected towards the 

end of the year. 

The Pang brothers are also 

gearing up to direct a big-budget 

fire-fighting disaster movie, 

Inferno, starring Louis Koo, Lau 

Ching-wan and Angelica Lee. 

Universe’s slate also includes 

James Yuen’s romantic comedy My 

Sassy Husband, starring Ekin 

Cheng and Charlene Choi, which 

is in pre-production for release 

towards the end of the year. 

Meanwhile Danny Pang’s police 

thriller Fairy Tale Killer, starring 

Lau Ching Wan, is scheduled for 

local release on May 10. 

By SEN-LUN yU 

China’s leading internet TV site 

Youku Inc has launched Beautiful 

2012, its third annual original content 

campaign since 2010. 

The first titles in the campaign 

will be four ‘micro movies’ from 

award-winning Asian directors Gu 

Changwei, Tsai Ming-liang, Ann 

Hui and Kim Tae-yong, which 

have their world premieres at the 

Hong Kong International Film 

Festival (HKIFF) on March 22. 

NEWS 

Youku launches Beautiful programme 

By Liz ShaCkLEtoN 

Turkish cinema will have a presence 

for the first time at Filmart 

this year, through a booth organised 

by Turkey’s Izmir Cinema 

Association (ICA). 

ICA will be promoting new Turkish 

cinema which has been released 

or screened at film festivals over the 

past year, as well as films that are 

currently in production. Turkey’s 

regional cinema organisations have 

been increasing efforts to market 

Turkish films overseas following 

their recent success at the world’s 

The micro movies — a term 

coined in China for short films 

made for online viewing — will be 

released exclusively on Youku’s 

online platform over the next year. 

This is the first time HKIFF has 

showcased micro movies. The success 

of online-only movies, such 

as Xiao Yang’s Old Boys which was 

viewed 20 million times in two 

months on Youku, has seen 

increasing interest in the format 

from high-profile directors. 

turkey gets first Filmart push 

top film festivals. Notable titles 

being promoted on the Turkish Filmart 

stand include Nuri Bilge Ceylon’s 

Cannes favourite Once Upon A 

Time In Anatolia, Rasit Celikezer’s 

Sundance prize-winner Can and 

Reis Celik’s Night Of Silence, a Crystal 

Bear winner in Berlin. 

“Turkish cinema is promoted 

every year at Cannes and Berlin, but 

the large Far East market has not 

been included in this effort. Therefore 

it has become indispensable to 

represent Turkish cinema in Filmart,” 

said ICA’s Nesim Bencoya. 

March 19, 2012 Screen International at Filmart 7 n

HKTDC RAYMOND YIP 

■ 8 Screen International at Filmart March March19, 19, 2012 

Welcome 

On behalf of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), welcome to 

the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market 2012 (FILMART). The 16th edition 

of FILMART features some 640 exhibitors from 31 countries and regions, a new 

exhibitor record. 

More than 5,200 buyers from over 50 countries and regions are expected to take part 

in the four-day event, from March 19-22. 

I am pleased to welcome more than 30 group pavilions this year, including fi rst-time pavilions from Hungary, 

Mexico and Turkey, and the return of the Independent Film and TV Alliance from the US. Given that the Chinese 

mainland has just expanded its annual quota of foreign movies from 20 to 34, more US fi lm companies are likely 

to turn to the China market, using Hong Kong as their gateway. Indeed, this year’s US pavilion is 25% larger than 

last year’s, thanks to sponsorship under the Pacifi c Bridge Initiative. 

Highlights this year include the return of the ACE Co-production Lab Hong Kong. About 20 Asian and European 

producers will participate in the four-day, project-based workshop organised by ACE-European Producer Network 

(Ateliers du Cinéma Européen). The European Union’s Media International, together with the Hong Kong – Asian 

Film Financing Forum, and the HKTDC, are lending support to the lab, which will offer panel discussions, market 

presentations, individual pitching and consulting sessions. 

A series of FILMART thematic conferences will also take place, spotlighting four topical themes: digital 

entertainment, new media, Asian TV programming, and screenwriting and the growth of Asian themes. 

FILMART is part of Entertainment Expo Hong Kong, the region’s annual leading entertainment industry gathering. 

This year’s expo presents nine multimedia events covering fi lm, television, digital entertainment and music. 

I wish you all the best of business at FILMART 2012 and a rewarding stay in Hong Kong. 

Raymond Yip 

Assistant Executive Director 

Hong Kong Trade Development Council

REVIEWS 

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

HKIFF IN bRIEF 

Woman In A Septic Tank 

Young Cinema Competition. Dir: Marlon 

Rivera. Phil. 2011. 90mins 

Filipino director Marlon Rivera’s freewheeling 

mockumentary about film-making in his 

country is a engagingly oddball jaunt 

through the slums of Manila and the homes 

of mega-rich performers. While at times it is 

scattershot in terms of the targets, there is a 

lot of fun to be had along the way — especially 

the wonderful performance by comedienne 

Eugene Domingo. The film blends 

outlandish comedy with musical numbers 

and has a little drama on the side. Initially a 

touch confusing, it finds its feet as the story 

draws on and ends on a real high. 

Mark Adams 

CONTACT QUANTUm FILmS jvalonso@ 

yahoo.com 

About The Pink Sky 

Young Cinema Competition. Dir/scr: Keiichi 

Kobayashi. Jap. 2011. 113mins 

That old favourite the ‘coming-of-age’ story 

is dusted off to impressive effect in the entertainingly 

raw About The Pink Sky (Momoiro 

Sora O), charting the efforts of quirky high 

schooler Izumi (Ai Ikeda) to reunite a wallet 

she finds containing ¥300,000 (in the region 

of $4,000) to its rightful owner. Presented in 

black and white — but with a smart burst of 

colour at the closing credits — it is a thoroughly 

watchable and engaging indie Japanese 

film, driven by a confident and 

charismatic lead performance. 

Mark Adams 

CONTACT mICHAELGION PROdUCTIONS 

harada@michaelgion.jp 

The Look 

Gala Premiere. Dir: Angelina Maccarone. Fr. 

2011. 94mins 

Part biographical documentary and part a 

series of musings on life and art, this watchable 

film about actress Charlotte Rampling is 

a fascinating set of discussions between her 

and a series of photographers, writers and 

film-makers. It will intrigue those who are 

fans of her work and should appeal to festivals 

and niche arts broadcasters. For those, 

however, out for a look at her life and career, 

The Look might be rather unsatisfying given 

it features a series of head-to-head chats (or 

musings) rather than a plethora of film clips 

and gushing praise. 

Mark Adams 

CONTACT mK2 www.mk2-catalogue.film 


Love In The buff 

Reviewed by edmund Lee 

With 2010’s Love In A Puff, writer-director Pang 

Ho-cheung scored an unlikely triumph with a 

chain-smoking and chatty rom-com, almost 

through audience word-of-mouth alone. Latching 

on to its rapport with the audience, Love In The 

Buff is a Hong Kong-China co-production that 

partly forgoes its prequel’s quintessentially Hong 

Kong setting but makes up for this with its callous 

yet laugh-out-loud humour. The profanities also 

remain. 

The film opens the Hong Kong International 

Film Festival with its world premiere on March 21, 

before going on general release concurrently in 

late-March in Hong Kong, mainland China and 

various cities worldwide. 

Starting off with an absurdly funny short story 

included presumably just to parallel the original’s 

narrative structure, Love In The Buff quickly delves 

back into the relationship between cosmetic salesgirl 

Cherie (Miriam Yeung) and advertising executive 

Jimmy (Shawn Yue), which began at the end of 

Puff with a mutual vow to quit smoking. 

Jimmy turns out to be an immature workaholic 

who has an eye for beauties — all beauties — and 

Cherie a fed-up girlfriend who decides to move 

back to her mother. He jumps at his first job offer 

from China and the two’s affair fizzles out. 

The action then shifts to Beijing, where Jimmy 

hits it off with a gorgeous air hostess (Mimi Yang) 

Ace Attorney 

Reviewed by Mark Adams 

Manga meets video-gaming in the colourful, funny 

and thoroughly entertaining Ace Attorney 

(Gyakuten Saiban), a fantasy courtroom romp 

that sees always-busy Japanese director Takashi 

Miike show-off his appreciation for broad movie 

entertainment, and makes a nice contrast to 

his more recent heavyweight festival outings 

such as 13 Assassins and Hara-Kiri: Death Of A 

Samurai. 

Miike has never been one to rest on his laurels 

— his speedy follow-up to Hara-Kiri was Ninja 

Kids!!! — and his career has been based on variety 

rather sticking to one genre. A filmography that 

includes films as varied as Audition, Ichi The Killer, 

Zebraman and Sukiyaki Western Django speaks 

volumes about his interest in keeping things fresh 

and flexible. 

Ace Attorney is based on the popular Nintendo 

game (known as Gyakuten Saiban in Japan) set in 

2016, in which players take on the role of defence 

attorney in a futuristic courtroom setting. 

Clumsy young lawyer Phoenix Wright (Hiroki 

Narimiya) finds himself caught up in a complex 

series of court cases which all seem to be linked to 

a 15-year-old mystery known as the DL-6 case. 

When his boss Mia Fey (Rei Dan) is killed, Phoenix 

is called up to defend Mia’s young sister Maya 

(Mirei Kiritani), and finds himself up against 

WORLD pReMIeRe 

OpeNINg NIgHt FILM 

HK-Chi. 2012. 112mins 

director pang Ho-cheung 

Production company 

Making Film 

International sales Media 

Asia Distribution, www. 

mediaasia.com 

Producers pang 

Ho-cheung, Subi Liang 

Executive producer John 

Chong, Shi Dongming 

Screenplay pang 

Ho-cheung, Luk Yee Sum, 

based on characters 

created by pang 

Cinematography Jason 

kwan 

Editor Wenders Li 

Production designer 

Lok-Lam Ho 

music Alan Wong, Janet 

Yung 

main cast Miriam Yeung, 

Shawn Yue, Mimi Yang, Xu 

Zheng 

MARket 

Jap. 2012. 135mins 

director takashi Miike 

Production company/ 

sales company Nippon 

television Network 

Corporation, www.ntv.co.jp 

Producer Okuda Seiji 

Screenplay takeshi Iida, 

Sachiko Oguchi, based on 

the Nintendo game 

Cinematography 

Masakazu Oka 

Editor kenji Yamashita 

music koji endo 

main cast Hiroki Narimiya, 

takumi Saitoh, Mirei 

kiritani, Akiyoshi Nakao, 

Shunsuke Daito, kimiko Yo, 

Ryo Ishibashi, Rei Dan, 

Fumiyo kohinata 

SCReenInGS, PAGe 18 

and moves in with her. Cherie will also move north 

— and finds a new admirer (Xu Zheng) — when her 

employer closes its Hong Kong business six months 

later. Their story settles into a pattern in which they 

repeatedly exchange text messages and meet up for 

romantic rendezvous behind the back of each other’s 

partner — a cycle the film dares its protagonists 

to break out from to find their happy ending. 

Though there are, as in the first film, naughty 

usages of Chinese slang that prove impossible to 

translate for English subtitles, and the movie’s three 

memorable cameos — of pop culture mainstays 

Ekin Cheng, Linda Wong and Huang Xiaoming — 

may not come across as funny for a foreign audience, 

Love In The Buff is still a relentlessly 

entertaining romance that should please more than 

a few viewers from any culture. The video that runs 

alongside this worthy sequel’s end credits, which 

documents Jimmy’s efforts to win back Cherie, has 

to be seen to be believed. 

super-cool prosecutor Miles Edgeworth (Takumi 

Saitoh), who had been a friend at school. 

Amazingly Phoenix wins the case, but things 

become even more complicated when Miles is 

accused of murder, and Phoenix is the only one who 

will defend him. He is assisted by Maya, along with 

schoolfriend Larry Butz (Akiyoshi Nakao) and plodding 

detective Dick Gumshoe (Shunsuke Daito). 

Together they tackle a complex case that also 

involves a white parrot called Polly and a giant 

inflatable Silver Samurai superhero character. Phoenix 

also has to face legendary prosecutor von Karma 

(Ryo Ishibashi), undefeated in court in 40 years. 

The actual courtroom battles are punctuated 

with the counsel’s ability to drag-down vast computer-generated 

screens to make their legal — or 

otherwise — points, and Takashi Miike has a lot of 

fun with his larger-than-life characters as they battle 

for truth and justice.

BETA CINEMA 

AT FILM ART 2012 

A FILM BY YASEMIN SAMDERELI – ASIAN PREMIERE 

Friday | March 30th | 7:30 p.m. | Macau Cultural Centre 

Tuesday | April 3rd | 9:30 p.m. | HK City Hall Theatre 

Sunday | April 8th | 5:00 p.m. | HK Arts Centre 

Hessen 

A NEW LOVE STORY 

FROM ACCLAIMED FILMMAKER DORIS DÖRRIE 

BASED ON THE BESTSELLING NOVEL „CRIME“ BY 

FERDINAND VON SCHIRACH 

A FILM BY MATTHIAS GLASNER 

BETA CINEMA PRESENTS A SCHWARZWEISS FILMPRODUKTION KNUDSEN & STREUBER MEDIENMANUFAKTUR OPHIR FILM AND NEOFILM PRODUCTION IN CO-OPERATION WITH ZDF AND ARTE 

BIRGIT MINICHMAYR JÜRGEN VOGEL HENRY STANGE ANE DAHL TORP MARIA BOCK STIG HENRIK HOFF IREN REPPEN 

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY JAKUB BEJNAROWICZ PRODUCTION DESIGN CLAUS RUDOLF AMLER COSTUME DESIGN SABINE KELLER FILM EDITOR HEIKE GNIDA SOUND DESIGN STEFAN SOLTAU & BJÖRN WIESE SOUND MIX DOMINIK RÄTZ MUSIC HOMESWEETHOME 

CO-PRODUCERS AAGE AABERGE DANIEL BLUM (ZDF) ANNE EVEN (ARTE) PRODUCED BY KRISTINE KNUDSEN MATTHIAS GLASNER ANDREAS BORN WRITTEN BY KIM FUPZ AAKESON DIRECTED BY MATTHIAS GLASNER 

JEROEN 

SPITZENBERGER 

NYNCKE 

BEEKHUYZEN 

KARL 

MARKOVICS 

A FILM BY RUDOLF VAN DEN BERG 

KATJA 

HERBERS 

THE NEVER-TOLD STORY OF COURAGE, BETRAYAL AND SURVIVAL 

NASRDIN 

DCHAR 

BETA CINEMA PRESENTS A FU WORKS & CADENZA FILMS PRODUCTION BY SÜSKIND FILM FONDS IN CO-PRODUCTION WITH VARA UFILM TERRAS C.V.B.A. A FILM BY RUDOLF VAN DEN BERG “SÜSKIND” 

JEROEN SPITZENBERGER KARL MARKOVICS NYNCKE BEEKHUYZEN KATJA HERBERS CASTING NETHERLANDS KEMNA CASTING CASTING ROMANIA CASTEL FILM COSTUME DESIGN LINDA BOGERS MAKE-UP IOANA MARIA SOUND DESIGN HERMAN PIEËTE CAS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER ROMANIA BOGDAN MONCEA MUSIC BOB ZIMMERMAN NANDO EWEG EDITING JOB TER BURG NCE PRODUCTION DESIGN HUBERT POUILLE DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY GUIDO VAN GEMNEP NSC 

LINE PRODUCER MARDOU JACOBS CREATIVE PRODUCER ELS RIENTJES CO-PRODUCER ROBERT KIEVIT EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS ADRIAN POLITOWSKI GILLES WATERKEYN PIERRE SPENGLER PRODUCED BY SAN FU MALTHA JEROEN KOOLBERGEN REINIER SELEN WRITTEN BY CHRIS W. MITCHELL RUDOLF VAN DEN BERG DIRECTED BY RUDOLF VAN DEN BERG 

LOUIS 

HOFMANN 

LEON 

SEIDEL 

HEIKE 

MAKATSCH 

BENNO 

FÜRMANN 

JOACHIM 

KRÓL 

PETER 

LOHMEYER 

DIRECTED BY HERMINE HUNTGEBURTH BASED ON THE BESTSELLING NOVEL BY MARK TWAIN 

BETA CINEMA PRESENTS A BORIS SCHÖNFELDER PRODUCTION BY NEUEN SCHÖNHAUSER FILMPRODUKTION IN CO-PRODUCTION WIT MAJESTIC FILMPRODUKTION FILMAUFBAU LEIPZIG ARD DEGETO NORDDEUTSCHER RUNDFUNK ARTE BAYERISCHER RUNDFUNK A FILM BY HERMINE HUNTGEBURTH 

“TOM SAWYER” LOUIS HOFMANN LEON SEIDEL HEIKE MAKATSCH BENNO FÜRMANN JOACHIM KRÓL PETER LOHMEYER HINNERK SCHÖNEMANN THOMAS SCHMAUSER SYLVESTER GROTH ADNAN MARAL CASTING SIMONE BÄR CHILDREN’S CASTING JACQUELINE RIETZ MAKE UP BARBARA KREUZER JEANETTE KELLERMANN 

COSTUME DESIGN SABINE BÖBBIS SET DESIGN COLIN TAPLIN VFX SUPERVISORS MARKUS HAUF STEFAN KESSNER MAX STOLZENBERG MUSIC BIBER GULLATZ ANDREAS SCHÄFER MORITZ FREISE SOUND MAX MEINDL SOUND DESIGN KAI TEBBEL MIX MARTIN STEYER MONTAGE EVA SCHNARE COMPOSITION NGO THE CHAU 

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER SUSA KUSCHE CO-PRODUCERS JÖRN KLAMROTH JEANETTE WÜRL ANDREAS SCHREITMÜLLER CORNELIUS CONRAD MICHAEL KÖLMEL WRITTEN BY SASCHA ARANGO BASED ON THE NOVEL BY MARK TWAIN CO-PRODUCER BENJAMIN HERRMANN PRODUCED BY BORIS SCHÖNFELDER DIRECTED BY HERMINE HUNTGEBURTH 

HONG KONG CONTACT 1C-D16 – EFP Umbrella Booth 

HEAD OFFICE Gruenwalder Weg 28d / D-82041 Oberhaching / Phone +49 89 673469 - 828 / beta@betacinema.com / www.betacinema.com

at FILMART 2012 

COLD WAR 

Directed by: Longman LEUNG and Sunny LUK 

Casting: (in alphabetical order) 

Aaron KWOK, Andy LAU, Tony LEUNG Ka-Fai, 

Eddie PENG, Aarif RAHMAN, Charlie YEUNG 

Asia’s safest city is about to be tested 

An edge-of-your-seat, grand scale police action film featuring the 

biggest names in Asian cinema 

Genre: Police Action 

Production Year: 2012 

Language: Cantonese/Mandarin 

Delivery: Summer 2012 

FIRST TIME 

Directed by: HAN Yan 

Casting: Angelababy, Mark CHAO, WEN Zhang, 

BAI Baihe, TIAN Yuan 

Though time can make a memory fade 

The feeling of the first love lasts forever 

A touching tale of first love between two of Asia’s most popular 

young stars 

Genre: Romantic Drama 


Language: Mandarin 

Delivery: Summer 2012 

1212, Tower 2, Admiralty Centre. 18 Harcourt Road, Hong Kong

BOOTH: 1D-B09, 1D-C10 

Contact: 

NIGHTFALL 

Directed by: CHOW Hin Yeung 

Casting: Nick CHEUNG, Simon YAM, 

Janice MAN, Kay TSE 

World Market 

Premiere 

In revenge, there’s a fine line between 

love and hate. 

A crime thriller pitting two screen giants against each other in a 

tense murder investigation 

Market Screening: 

March 20 (Tues), 18:00, HKCEC Meeting Room N202-N203 

March 21 (Wed), 15:30, HKCEC Meeting Room N201B 

Genre: Crime, Suspense, Thriller 


Language: Cantonese/Mandarin 

Delivery: Ready 

June WU 

Head of International Sales and Distribution 

Mobile: +852-9225-7233 

Direct: +852-2528-8046 

wujune@edkofilm.com.hk 

LOVE IS NOT BLIND 

Directed by: HENG Tengtao 

Casting: WEN Zhang, BAI Baihe 

Sometimes, breaking up means 

giving love a chance 

The box office hit of 2011, breaking $100 million RMB ($16M USD) 

in its first four days of release 

Market Screening: 

March 19 (Mon), 16:00, HKCEC Meeting Room N102-N103 

March 20 (Tues), 10:00, HKCEC Meeting Room N202-N203 

Genre: Romantic Comedy 


Language: Mandarin 

Delivery: Ready 

Tel: (852) 2529 3898 Fax: (852) 2529 5339 Email: info@edkofilm.com.hk

HAF ProFiLes 

The Vicious Criminal 

Dir Kazuya Shiraishi 

Country of origin Japan 

Japanese director Kazuya Shiraishi’s sophomore film — 

about a journalist who becomes obsessed with helping a 

death-row murderer to track down his even more psychotically 

violent mentor — may sound far fetched, but 

The Vicious Criminal is based on a true-life Japanese case. 

Based on the story of two men who killed seniors for 

money — which spawned a bestselling book — the crime 

film marks new territory for Shiraishi, whose idiosyncratic 

2009 debut Lost Paradise In Tokyo saw positive festival 

reviews in Japan, Busan, Dubai, Sao Paulo and Rotterdam. 

“It is a challenge but I’ll view the human characters 

with the same eye I did on Lost Paradise. I’m very excited,” 

says Shiraishi, who started out as an assistant director. He 

has enlisted the backing of veteran Nikkatsu producer 

Yoshinori Chiba, who masterminded the studio’s genre 

label Sushi Typhoon and whose producing credits 

include Takashi Miike’s Fudoh: The New Generation. 

“I was sure of his talent after seeing Lost Paradise In 

Tokyo,” says Chiba who has teamed up with Flamingo’s 

Satoshi Akagi to produce The Vicious Criminal. “I also 

think it takes too long for experienced assistant directors 

in Japan to make their directing debuts. I hope ADs like 

Shiraishi come up through the industry.” 

Shiraishi been influenced by directors he has worked 

with, including Koji Wakamatsu on Cycling Chronicles: 

Landscapes The Boy Saw, which played the Hong Kong 

International Film Festival in 2006. “Wakamatsu’s creative 

process in reflecting his views and criticisms of society 

through cinema was a great influence,” says Shiraishi, 

who is directing from a script by Takahashi Izumi. 

The producers hope to fill out the budget with financial 

partners looking to walk on the wild side of Japanese 

cinema. “We believe The Vicious Criminal is strong 

enough to sell to the global market,” says Chiba. 

Jason Gray 

The Vicious Criminal 

Budget $1.5m 

Finance raised to date $700,000 

Contact Naoko Komuro, Nikkatsu Corporation 

nkomuro@nikkatsu.co.jp 


A Night of Their own 

Dir Zhao Ye 

Country of origin China 

Zhao Ye has proved himself to be one of the more versatile 

independent film-makers in China, with credits 

including animation short Cai Wei, social drama Ma Wu 

Jia, the 2008 Pusan Fipresci prize-winner Jalainur and 

2010 family drama Last Chestnuts (produced by the 

renowned Japanese film-maker Naomi Kawase) under 

his belt. 

His fourth feature will be a low-budget drama about 

coincidence and irony, based on an original story by his 

long-term film-making partner and cinematographer 

Zhang Yi, which centres around two police detectives 

who cross paths with a man in love on a chilly night in a 

northern Chinese city. Their lives are changed forever 

when a gun is fired accidentally. 

“The shooting is intended to be on a cold winter night. 

Ideally I want it to be in the China/Russia border city 

Harbin. The cold and lonely atmosphere will create a 

nice contrast to the life sparkles that happen on that particular 

night,” says Zhao, who has written the script 

which he describes as a “simple but powerful story in 

which the three male actors will play important roles in 

the main drama of the story”. 

Currently in pre-production, the budget is set at a 

modest $315,000, with $80,000 already secured via 

Beijing-based Beijing Creative Art Talent Corporation, 

which is the production company behind the film. 

Charles Law and Li Shanshan are producing, with the 

team hoping to secure the rest of the budget over the 

next few months before the scheduled shooting date in 

November. 

Sen-lun Yu 

A Night of Their own 

Budget $315,000 

Finance raised to date $80,000 from the Beijing 

Creative Art Talent Corporation 

Contact Li Shanshan, Beijing Creative Art Talent 

Corporation hejshan@hotmail.com 

» The Vicious Criminal p14 

» A Night of Their own 

p14 

» Love: 1984 p14 

Love: 1984 

Dirs Peter Kerekes, Kazuhiro Soda 

Countries of origin Japan-Czech Republic-Slovokia 

New York-based Japanese director Kazuhiro Soda and 

Slovak director Peter Kerekes met at the 2011 edition of 

the DOX:LAB workshop in Copenhagen, Denmark, 

which pairs European Union and non European Union 

film-makers together to co-direct documentaries. 

“We are from very different histories and cultures but 

we wanted to work on something we could both relate 

to. One of Peter’s graduate students was half Japanese 

and half Slovak. That sparked the idea for Love: 1984,” 

says Soda of the documentary, exploring Japanese-Slovak 

love during the Communist era — a time that saw 

some Japanese students and their Slovak lovers risk 

crossing borders to escape oppression, while others were 

not reunited until after the Velvet Revolution. 

“During our long discussions we came up with other 

topics we had in common, but this one was something 

only a Japanese and a Slovak director could make,” adds 

Kerekes, whose 2009 documentary Cooking History won 

prizes at Toronto’s HotDocs, Chicago and Vienna. 

Meanwhile, Soda is no stranger to Hong Kong, having 

won the outstanding documentary prize for Mental at 

HKIFF in 2009 and best documentary for Peace two 

years later. 

Project initiator Patricia Drati of DOX:LAB believes 

HAF is the perfect home for the feature. “We have partnerships 

with various co-production markets. As Kazuhiro 

Soda is an Asian director, HAF was a natural choice.” 

Shooting is scheduled to begin in Japan in March and 

the Slovak portion in April and May. With a modest 

budget of $50,000, Soda and Kerekes agree the project 

feels like “going back to our film school days”. The pair 

are hoping the project will appeal to co-producers and 

buyers keen to bring to the screen a unique aspect of 

Asian-European history. 

Jason Gray 

Love: 1984 

» red Umbrella p16 

» Monsters p16 

» The MacLennan Affair 

p16 

Budget $50,000 

Finance raised to date $17,000 from Copenhagen’s 

DOX:LAB 

Contact Patricia Drati DOX:LAB patricia@cphdox.dk

HAF ProFiles 

red Umbrella 

Dirs Andri Cung, Edward Gunawan 

Country of origin Indonesia 

Disillusioned by what they saw as the trend in Indonesia 

for cheapened horror films with low production values, 

local film-makers Andri Cung and Edward Gunawan 

decided to make a short film that offered a different kind 

of horror. “Andri and I started working together when 

we co-wrote a feature-film screenplay at a year-long 

workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia. Midway through the 

workshop, we directed a short film together — the short 

film of Red Umbrella,” says Gunawan. 

It was selected for several international festivals and 

won the Best Asian Short Film prize at Screen Singapore 

which helped the pair develop the film into a feature. 

Centring around a taxi driver who picks up a beautiful 

woman who turns out to be a ghost, the feature is a murder 

mystery that eventually endangers the driver’s wife. 

Inspired by Indonesia’s heritage of realistic supernatural 

cinema, the co-directors plan to shoot mostly at 

night and entirely on location, with minimal light in 

order to capture the authentic Indonesian atmosphere. 

Gunawan, whose first short film was the award-winning 

Laundromat, made as part of Film Independent’s 

project fellowship programme in Los Angeles, is also 

producing for his company Add Word Productions 

(AWP), which he set up in 2006 to produce concerts, 

theatre productions and short films by young directors 

including fellow HAF entrant Lucky Kuswandi. 

AWP has also started producing feature films including 

Nia Dinata’s Arisan! 2 and Germany-Indonesia coproduction 

Children Of Srikandi, which premiered at the 

Berlinale Panorama in February. 

Originally a fashion and commercial photographer, 

Cung worked as an assistant director for television before 

directing commercials and music videos. Red Umbrella 

was his first short, and popular Indonesian actors Atiqah 

Hasiholan and Rio Dewanto will reprise their roles in the 

feature project. In pre-production, Red Umbrella will be at 

HAF looking for funds, co-producers and pre-sales. 

Jean Noh 

red Umbrella 

Budget $500,000 

Finance $150,000 

Contact Edward Gunawan edward@ 

addwordproductions.com 


Monsters 

Dir Kim Baek-jun 

Country of origin South Korea 

Director Kim Baek-jun was inspired to write Monsters 

after hearing about ‘Bbang Shuttles’ — a slang term for 

victims of habitual bullying in contemporary Korean 

schools. 

The film will centre around an 18-year-old highschool 

student who enlists a mentally ill girl to help him 

escape his life being bullied by another student. 

“I think it will be important to follow the emotional 

changes of the main character. But not just as a personal 

story — bullying isn’t just an issue of a high-school riteof-passage. 

It is part of a bigger problem of structural 

violence in society,” says Kim, who thinks the film will be 

in the same vein as his previous feature Farewell, which 

also dealt with problems in Korean society, and was 

selected for the Butterfly competition at the Cinema Digital 

Seoul Film Festival last year. 

A graduate of Kyungsung University’s Department of 

Theater and Film, Kim’s debut feature My Dear Diary 

played in competition at the 2008 Jeonju International 

Film Festival. 

Monsters is being produced by Korean outfit JK Film, 

best known for commercial hits such as the 2009 tsunami 

blockbuster Haeundae, which sold more than 10 

million tickets at the Korean box office, and Harmony, 

starring Yunjin Kim. But CEO Kil Yeong-min is also 

keen to work on smaller budget films and decided to 

produce Monsters after reading the script, which Kim 

finished last year. 

While the project may not be a typically commercial 

one, Kim hopes to keep mainstream audiences in mind. 

With plans to set the film in Busan, the team will be at 

HAF looking for funds, sales agents and pre-sales. Casting 

is due to take place after HAF. 

Jean Noh 

Monsters 

Budget $750,000 

Finance $100,000 from private funds 

Contact Kil Yeong-min merroo@hanmail.net 

jungle1212@empal.com 

The Maclennan Affair 

Dirs Derek Tsang, Jimmy Wan 

Country of origin Hong Kong 

Based on a true story that occurred in Hong Kong in 

1980, The MacLennan Affair revolves around the death 

of Scottish police inspector, John MacLennan, who was 

found dead in his room as officers arrived to arrest him 

for soliciting male prostitutes. 

However, a local councillor received a tip informing 

her that his death was part of a cover-up to hide the identity 

of homosexuals among high-ranking civil servants. 

The ensuing scandal and media storm led to the most 

expensive commission of inquiry in Hong Kong history, 

and eventually resulted in the decriminalisation of 

homosexuality in Hong Kong. 

“What drew me most to this story is how few people in 

Hong Kong are aware that it ever happened. I’ve asked 

lots of people older than me and none of them can 

remember,” says Derek Tsang, who is co-directing with 

Jimmy Wan. “This was a big case and it’s a story that 

should be told.” 

Tsang and Wan are in the process of pulling together 

research and hope to find a co-writer for the mostly English-language 

script. They also hope to cast Western 

actors with international appeal. 

Tsang continues: “It is difficult to shoot Hong Kong in 

the 1980s, so we might have to shoot somewhere like 

Malaysia. We also need to build a lot of sets.” 

The film will be produced by Hong Kong-based producer 

Lorna Tee, one of the producers on the duo’s debut 

feature, portmanteau drama Lover’s Discourse, which was 

released early last year. Tee also recently produced Indonesian 

film-maker Edwin’s Berlin competition entry 

Postcards From The Zoo. 

Tsang and Wan also have a second feature in postproduction, 

romantic comedy Lacuna, set in Beijing and 

produced by Pang Ho Cheung, about a couple who wake 

up in bed together oblivious to what happened the night 

before. 

Liz Shackleton 

The Maclennan Affair 

Budget $5m 

Finance $20,000 private funds for development 

Contact Lorna Tee, Afterimage Production lorna.tee@ 

gmail.com

SCreeningS 

edited by paul lindsell paul.lindsell@gmail.com 

Market 

screenings 

10:00 

The AdopTed 

See box, below 

ChinA new MediA 

CoMpAny online TV 

ShowreelS 

(China) 

Meeting room n202-n203, 

hKCeC 

ModeST reCepTion 

(Hong Kong, China) 

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 stuffed 

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. 

Theatre 1, hKCeC 

n+n 

(Hong Kong) Drama, 

109mins. HKIFF Industry 

Screenings @ Filmart. 

Dir: Mo Lai Yan Chi. Key 

cast: Ricky Yeung, Mok 

Chiu Yu, Joyceln Kan 


hKCeC 

priVATe SCreening 

Meeting room n206-207, 

hKCeC 

repliCAS 

(Canada) Horror/ 

Suspense, 100mins. 

Celluloid Dreams. Dir: 

Jeremy Power Regimbal. 

Key cast: Selma Blair, 

Joshua Close, James 

D’Arcy 

The Hughes’ cottage 

vacation is violently 

interrupted by a family on 

a murderous and identity- 

Market 

10:00 


The AdopTed 

(France) Drama, 

Romance, 100mins. 

Studiocanal. 

Dir: Melanie Laurent. 

Key cast: Melanie 

Laurent, Bruno 

Menochet, Marie 

Denarnaud 

Lisa and her adoptive 

sister Marine have been 

inseparable since they 

were 10 years old. With 

Lisa’s mother Millie, they 

stealing journey, in search 

of the ‘perfect’ life. 

Meeting room n101B, hKCeC 

SexuAl ChroniCleS of A 

frenCh fAMily 

(France) Drama, 82mins. 

Wide Management. Dir: 

Pascal Arnold, Jean-Marc 

Barr. Key cast: Philippe 

Duquesne, Adeline 

Rebeillard, Valerie Maes 

The daily life of a family is 

shaken suddenly when the 

youngest child, Romain, is 

caught masturbating and 

filming himself with his 

mobile phone, in biology 

class at school. 


hKCeC 

The TAll MAn 

(France) Horror/ 

Suspense 100mins. SND 

Groupe M6. Dir: Pascal 

have forged a deep bond 

that protects them from 

life’s hardships. Together, 

the three women offer 

Lisa’s young son, Leo, 

security and affection. 

When one of them falls 

in love, however, the 

quirky family’s balance 

is thrown off. Before they 

figure out how to start 

listening to each other, 

fate takes a tragic turn. 


hKCeC 

Laugier. Key cast: Jessica 

Biel, Jodelle Ferland, 

Stephen McHattie 

Julia, is a nurse living in 

Cold Rock who does not 

believe in legends. Until 

one night, waking up 

with an eerie feeling, she 

goes to her son’s bedroom 

and finds his bed empty. 

Rushing downstairs she 

stops dead in her tracks: 

a huge dark figure stands 

in the entrance holding 

her son, David. Driven by 

pure instinct Julia rushes 

after them, willing to do 

whatever it takes to get her 

son back. 


10:30 

god SAVe My ShoeS 

(US, France) 

Documentary, 73mins. 

All Rights Entertainment. 

Dir: Julie Benasra. Key 

cast: Kelly Rowland, 

Fergie, Dita Von Teese 

Explores the intimate 

relationship women have 

with their shoes. 


hKCeC 

Ken & MAry 

(Japan) Comedy, Drama, 



Dir: Kenta Fukasaku. Key 

cast: Naoto Takenaka, Fu 

Bing, Kie Kitano 

Ken Katakura, a typical 

Japanese businessman, 

is on his way to Kuala 

Lumpur to break off 

the engagement of his 

daughter Yukari, whose 

wedding ceremony is 

scheduled in two days. 

However, his plane makes 

an emergency landing at 

a tiny airport in a remote 

part of Malaysia. By some 

coincidence, he becomes 

acquainted with a Chinese 

truck driver who speaks a 

little Japanese and says he 

knows Yukari. They set out 

together towards Kuala 

Lumpur. Can this rough 

pair, whose nationality, 

culture and character are 

different, arrive before the 

wedding ceremony? 

Meeting room n101A, hKCeC 

nAKed huMAn nATure 

(Hong Kong) Drama; 

Horror/Suspense; 

Organised Crime, 

Romance, 73mins. All 

Rights Entertainment. 

Dir: Anastasia Tsang, 

Ches Yim, Lee Siu Lung, 

Nip Ling. Key cast: 

Louise Wong, Grace 

Kam, Derek Wong 

Composed of three stories 

based on true events. 

The theme is to examine 

human nature with 

alternative perspectives 

— how the tortured, 

rejected and distorted 

souls, exposed to miserable 

circumstances, struggle to 

find a way out. 


hKCeC 

11:00 

ToKyo newCoMer 

(China/ Japan) Drama, 



Dir: Jiang Qinmin. Key 

cast: Qin Hao, Chieko 

Baisho, Zhang Jun-Ning 

Meeting room 201B, hKCeC 

TrouBleShooTerS! 

(China) Animation 

12mins. Reach Glory 

Communication. Dir: 

Luke Allen, Robert Nie 

In a small town called 

Mododo on a tiny planet 

on the other side of 

the galaxy, people 

encounter all kinds 

of funny and strange 

problems every day. Six 

kids have started their 

own business in their 

very cool clubhouse to 

help the children in 

their school and all the 

people in their village. 

They call themselves The 

Troubleshooters!, because 

they can help fix any 

problem. From finding a 

naughty goldfish in the 

bathroom to reaching the 

end of the rainbow, no 

problem is too big or too 

small for them to solve. 


hKCeC 

12:00 

All in good TiMe 

(UK) Comedy, Romance, 

93mins. Studiocanal. 

Dir: Nigel Cole. Key cast: 

Reece Ritchie, Amara 

Karan, Meera Syal 

It is Atul and Vina’s 

wedding day but, as usual, 

Atul’s father Eeshwar 

upstages the happy couple. 

He is the life and soul 

of the party. Eeshwar’s 

boisterous presence and 

a booby-trapped bed 

sabotage Atul and Vina’s 

attempt to consummate 

their marriage. And when 

their honeymoon in Goa is 

cancelled, a slight problem 

is turning into a major 

issue. Soon, the news slips 

out that Atul has not 

honoured his beautiful 

bride. Their marriage is 

in meltdown… until help 

arrives from an unlikely 

source. 


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 — an almost 

perfect man who just 

might be perfect for her. 

As sparks fly, her family 

starts to go up in flames. 

Will Vanessa remain in 

her family saviour role — 

or give romance a chance? 


hKCeC

Cheers From heaven 

(Japan) Drama, 

114mins. Asmik Ace 

Entertainment. Dir: 

Makoto Kumazawa. 

Key cast: Hiroshi 

Abe, Mimura, Nanami 

Sakuraba 

An emotional drama, 

based on an incredible true 

story about a man who, 

knowing he doesn’t have 

much time left for himself, 

decides to build a music 

studio for local high-school 

kids so they can pursue 

their dreams. 

meeting room n211-n212, 

hKCeC 

GaTTU 

see box, above 

here, Then 

(China) Drama, 86mins. 

HKIFF Industry 


Dir: Mao Mao. Key cast: 

Huang Tang Yijia, Li 

Ziqian, Wang Yizheng 


hKCeC 

JoyFUl reUnion 

(Taiwan) Drama, 

110mins. Creative 

Century Entertainment 

Co. Dir: Jui-Yuan Tsao. 

Key cast: Ah Lei Gua, 

Lan Ching Lung, Siyan 

Huo 

People once said love is 

like flavour: once you 

have a taste of it, you 

will never forget. Wa’er’s 

father runs a well-known 

vegetarian restaurant in 

Hangzhou. Wa’er herself 

is a successful manager of 

a luxurious health resort. 

Her boyfriend, Zhang 

Quan, is a computer-game 

designer from Taipei, who 

loves Wa’er but spends too 

much time in the virtual 

world. 

meeting room n101B, hKCeC 

sleepless Fashion 

(Thailand, China) 

Action/Adventure, 

Comedy, Drama, 

Romance, 60mins. Artop 

International Co. Dir: Yin 

Lichuan. Key cast: Vic 

Chou, Vivian Hsu, Alan 

Tam 

Alex is the chief editor 

of renowned fashion 

magazine Ming Shang. 

Zhou Xiaohui is a rising 

market 

12:00 

GaTTU 

(India) Action/ 

Adventure, Children’s, 

Comedy, Drama, 

80mins. All Rights 


Rajan Khosa. Key cast: 

Mohammad Samad, 

Naresh Kumar 

In a small town in 

central India, kids and 

adults are obsessed 

with flying kites. The 

airspace is dominated 

by a black kite called 

star who won recognition 

from Alex and joined 

Ming Shang three years 

ago. However, Alex 

gradually feels exposed 

to threats from Zhou 

Xiaohui, so sets him up. 

Zhou Xiaohui is so angry 

that he leaves Ming Shang 

and starts his own fashion 

magazine called Modern, 

which is financed by his 

best friend Wuyang. 


hKCeC 

12:15 

lee’s advenTUre 

(China) Action/ 

Adventure, Drama, 

Romance, Sci-fi, 

Fantasy, 91mins. Desen 

International Media 

(Beijing) Co. Dir: Frant 

Gwo, Yang Li. Key cast: 

Kali with mysterious 

origins. Street kid Gattu 

dreams of defeating Kali 

but fails. He discovers 

that the local school has 

a roof which will give 

him a vantage point. 

Inpersonating a student, 

he sneaks into the school 

and must now pretend to 

study. The only problem 

is that he is illiterate. 


hKCeC 

Jaycee Chan, Fiona Wang 

Lee suffers from Time 

Perception Disorder 

(TPD), a rare illness that 

makes one unable to judge 

the length of time. He has 

a boring job and likes to 

play video games in his 

spare time. Everything 

changes when Wang Qian 

steps into his life. Wang 

also suffers from TPD so 

understands Lee well. They 

fall in love but tragedy 

soon strikes. Wang Qian is 

killed in a traffic accident 

and Lee blames himself. 

Lee soon begins a journey 

through time trying to 

save his love. 


hKCeC 

roadside FUGiTive 

(Japan) Drama, 110mins. 

Picture Department Co. 

ltd. Dir: Yu Irie. Key cast: 

Eita Okuno, Ryusuke 

Komakine, Toshiya 

Nagasawa 

Down and out in his 

hometown of Saitama, 

the wannabe rap artist 

Mighty can only wallow 

in his misery. One day, 

he bumps into his former 

best friends when least 

expected. Unlike him, who 

has turned into a veritable 

fugitive, Ikku and Tom 

are still trying to become 

musicians. What will 

happen to their dreams, 

and to their future? 

meeting room n101a, hKCeC 

We noT naUGhTy 

(Singapore) Comedy, 

Drama, 137mins. mm2 

Entertainment Pte. Dir: 

Jack Neo. Key cast: 

Daniel Chan, Xiang Yun, 

Shawn Lee 

A poignant movie that 

examines the problems 

faced by parents and 

teenagers in Singapore’s 

current society. 


12:30 

17Th iFva hiGhliGhTs — 

The asCension 


7mins. Hong Kong Arts 

Centre. Dir: Stanley 

Leung, Gershon Sng, 

Matthew Tung, William 

Hall-Jones 

When a beggar happens 

upon a box with the power 

to change his life for the 

better, he demonstrates this 

ability to other beggars. 

However, to his horror, 

upon witnessing the box’s 

power, the others plot 

against him to obtain it. 

Eventually, they realise that 

the box is more than what 

it seems. What follows 

leaves the group in pure 

and utter awe. 


hKCeC 


demon Kills 



Centre. Dir: Mak Yingping 

Troubled by hallucinations 

of demons around him, 

a boy decides to stand up 

and expose them. Bullied 

and isolated, the boy 

becomes more mentally 

unstable and goes into 

hiding. Upon discovering 

more demons lurk in 

the city, he decides to 

find out where they come 

from and embarks on a 

journey into the far north 

wilderness. 


hKCeC 

17Th iFva hiGhliGhTs 

— meeTinG oF The halF 

moons 


EvEntS, pagE 22 


Centre. Dir: Ng Ho-yin 


hKCeC 


The TrUe sTory oF ah 

poon 



Centre. Dir: Tsim Ho-tat, 

Suen Ching, Lam Honfung, 

Chak Hoi-ling 


hKCeC 

The Field oF 

enChanTmenT 

(France) 81mins. Wild 

Bunch. Dir: Claude 

Nuridsany, Marie 

Perennou. Key cast: 

Simon Delagnes, Lindsey 

Henocque, Jean-Claude 

Ayrinhac 

Two lonely children 

fall under the spell of 

a deserted pond that 

draws them closer to each 

other and gives them the 

strength to cope with life. 

Seen through their eyes 

and their imaginations, 

the pond becomes a secret 

kingdom, both marvellous 

and frightening, 

thronging with creatures 

born from dreams or 

nightmares. 


hKCeC 

12:45 


oh! Give me sTrenGTh 

(Hong Kong) Animation, 

Children’s, 3mins. Hong 

Kong Arts Centre. Dir: 

Pang Pui-yee 

Bill starts his journey to 

become stronger. How does 

he achieve his hope? 


hKCeC 

13:30 

parTy QUeen 

(Hong Kong) Animation, 

Drama, 10mins. Bubble 

Mon Licensing & Media 

Group/Bubble Mon 

Licensing (Int’l) Co. Dir: 

Wilson Lee, Andy 

Animation about some 

unexpected affairs faced by 

Party Queen and her loyal 

buddy Mr P, the adorable 

and friendly dog. 


hKCeC 

March 19, 2012 Screen International at Filmart 19 n 

»

market 

14:00 

love on-Air 

(Korea) Romance, 

120mins. Showbox/ 

Mediaplex. Dir: Kwon 

Chil-in. Key cast: Lee 

Min-jung, Lee Jung-jin 

Jin-ah, the former 

leader of once-popular 

14:00 

Best of the Best from 

hKAfs — triBute to 

John sinArwi 

(Hong Kong) Animation 

60mins. Hong Kong 

Animation Filmmaker 

Society 

Showcases the selected 

and award-winning 

works by the members 

of the Hong Kong 

Animation Filmmaker 

Society. 


hKCeC 

Bye Bye Blondie 

(France) Drama, 98mins. 

Wild Bunch. Dir: 

Virginie Despentes. Key 

cast: Emmanuelle Beart, 

Beatrice Dalle, Soko 

Gloria is 40. With no job 

and no fixed address, she 

spends her time boozing 

in her local bar. Frances 

is also 40. Back in the 

1980s, Gloria and Frances 

met in a psychiatric 

hospital and ran away 

together. Back then they 


girl band Purple, hosts 

a radio show called 

Wonderful Radio. When 

the producer of the 

programme is sacked 

over low ratings, a new 

guy fills his shoes. 


hKCeC 

loved each other the way 

you love at 16: intense, 

wild. Sex, drugs and punk 

rock. Then life pushed 

them apart. Frances left 

Gloria — her first true 

love, her first broken heart. 

Now, 20 years later, their 

paths are about to cross 

again. 


hKCeC 

first Kiss 

(Thailand) Romance, 

104mins. Five Star 

Production Co. Dir: 

Kirati Nakintanon. 

Key cast: Khanungnij 

Jaksamithanont, Thakrit 

Hamannopjit, Tin 

Chokkamolkij 

Sa, 25 and single, meets 

Best, a grade-12 student 

on a bus. Fate plays tricks 

on them when, minutes 

after they meet, they kiss 

for the first time on that 

bus when they both stick 

out their heads to watch 

a roadside accident. Best 

is now determined to win 

Sa’s heart, despite his 

inexperience and the age 

difference. 


hKCeC 

love in the Buff 

(Hong Kong) Romance, 



Dir: Pang Ho Cheung. 

Key cast: Miriam Yeung, 

Shawn Yu 

When two ex-lovers from 

Hong Kong cross paths 

in Beijing, they realise 

they still have feelings 

for each other and start 

orchestrating trysts and 

assignations behind their 

partners’ backs. 

theatre 1, hKCeC 

love on-Air 

see box, above 

night #1 

(Canada) Drama, 91mins. 

Wide Management. 

Dir: Anne Emond. Key 

cast: Catherine De Lean, 

Dimitri Storoge 

A bold and intimate study 

of a one-night stand. 

Clara and Nikolai meet 

at a sweat-soaked rave 

and end their night at his 

apartment. 


hKCeC 

nine-mile frAgrAnCe 

(China) Romance, 

98mins. Film Nine-Mile 

Fragrance. Dir: Wang 

Xing Jun. Key cast: Yu 

Na, Shi Xiao Hong 

A romantic but 

sentimental love story 

in Qiang and Tibetan 

villages in western China 

after the ‘5.12’ Wenchuan 

Earthquake. 


hKCeC 

ourAn high sChool 

host CluB 

(Japan) Comedy, 

Drama, 104mins. Tokyo 

Broadcasting System 

Television (TBS). 

Dir: Hang Chul. Key 

cast: Haruna Kawaguchi, 

Yusuke Yamamoto, 

Shunsuke Daito 


ryuJin mABuyer the 

movie 

(Japan) Action/ 

Adventure, 96mins. 

Mabuyer Planning. 

Dir: Tomoki Sano. 

Key cast: Shintaro 

Yamada, Issa, Judy 

Sachiko Fukumoto 

A live-action superhero 

TV series that has aired in 

Okinawa Island prefecture 

since 2008, makes its bigscreen 

debut 


hKCeC 

tAd, the lost explorer 

(Spain) Animation, 

89mins. Studiocanal. 

Dir: Enrique Gato 

Tad is a celebrity 

archeologist and 

adventurer just like his 

hero Max Mordon — in 

his dreams! In reality, Tad 

is a Chicago construction 

worker. One day, however, 

he is mistaken for a real 

professor and takes his 

place on a flight to Peru 

in search of the Lost City 

of Paititi. 


hKCeC 

ufo in her eyes 

(China) Drama, 110mins. 



Dir: Xiaolu Guo. 

Key cast: Shi Ke, Udo 

Kier 

One very hot afternoon, 

the life of an anonymous 

Chinese village woman 

abruptly changes when 

she believes that 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 

14:30 

red teArs 

(Japan) Action/ 

Adventure, Horror/ 

Suspense, 87mins. All 

Rights Entertainment. 

Dir: Takanori Tsujimoto. 

Key cast: Natsuki Kato, 

Yuma Ishigaki, Yasuaki 

Kurata 

A serial killer leaves 

behind a trail of headless 

bodies. 

meeting room n101A, hKCeC 

15:00 

twisted 

(Singapore) Comedy, 

Horror/Suspense, 

94mins. mm2 

Entertainment Pte. 

Dir: Chai Yee Wei. 

Key cast: Mark Lee, Zhu 

Mi Mi, Linda Liao 

Is it karma, or just bad 

luck? The story revolves 

around a drug dealer 

who jailed a young girl, 

a pair of con men who 

want to turn over a new 

leaf, and four cabin-crew 

members whose lives were 

turned upside down over 

a fateful night of drugs 

and drink. This is a story 

of individuals with fates 

intertwined and how 

their paths clash. A series 

of twisted events that is 

both a study on cause 

and effect, and how our 

actions affect the people 

around us. 

theatre 2, hKCeC 

16:00 

Clip 

(Serbia) Drama, 102mins. 

Wide Management. Dir: 

Maja Milos. Key cast: 

Isidora Simijonovic, 

Katarina Pesic, Sonja 

Janicic 

Jasna is a beautiful girl in 

her mid-teens, leading the 

crude life of the post-war 

generation in Serbia. With 

a terminally ill father 

and dispirited mother, 

she is disillusioned and 

angry with everyone and 

everything, including 

herself. Having a huge 

crush on a boy from 

school, she goes on a spree 

of sex, drugs and partying, 

constantly filming on 

her mobile phone. In that 

very harsh environment, 

love and tenderness 

emerge. 


hKCeC 

girls for Keeps 


Tokyo Broadcasting 

System Television,. 

(TBS). Dir: Yoshihiro 

Fukagawa. Key cast: 

Karina, Kumiko Aso, 

Michiko Kichise 

Yukiko, Seiko, Yoko and 

Takako live in different 

worlds. 


go! Boys’ sChool drAmA 

CluB 

(Japan) Comedy, Drama, 



Dir: Tsutomu Hanabusa 


hKCeC 

love is not Blind 

(China) Comedy, 

Romance, 110mins. Edko 

Films Limited. Dir: Teng 

Huatao. Key cast: Wen 

Zhang, Bai Baihe 

Suddenly dumped by her 

boyfriend of seven years, 

Xiaoxian doesn’t think 

she can go on until her 

sassy, but jaded, co-worker 

forces her to realise how 

little she understands 

about love. 


hKCeC 

mAydAy 3dnA 

(Taiwan) Drama;

Documentary, 

96mins. Double Edge 


Kung Wen-Yen. Key cast: 

Mayday, Richie Ren, 

Rene Liu 

Combines live 

performances from the 

group’s DNA concert tour 

in Taiwan, Hong Kong, 

Singapore and China 

2010, integrating three 

fictional stories. 

Meeting Room N206-N207, 

HKCEC 

NATIoNAL bASE FoR 

INTERNATIoNAL CuLTuRAL 

TRADE PRoGRAMME 


HKCEC 

VIoLET AND DAISy 

(US) Organised Crime, 

88mins. Wild Bunch. 

Dir: Geoffrey Fletcher. 

Key cast: Saoirse Ronan, 

Alexis Bledel, James 

Gandolfini 

Screenwriter Geoffrey 

Fletcher’s visually 

adventurous directorial 

debut is a brutal fable 

about a pair of teenage 

assassins who believe 

they have landed a 

straightforward assignment 

but find themselves thrown 

off their game when their 

latest target is not who they 

expected. 


HKCEC 

WHAT THE…? 

(Korea) Drama, 120mins. 

Film Factory Nu:n. Dir: 

Kim Eu-Jin, Shim Sung- 

Bo. Key cast: Jung Yeon- 

Ju, Lee Yun-Soo 


HKCEC 

16:15 

THE FouRTH STATE 

(Germany) Action/ 

Adventure, Drama, 

110mins. Celluloid Dreams. 

Dir: Dennis Gansel 

Action thriller set in 

Moscow. A reporter falls 

in love with an activist. A 

chain of events will tear 

his life apart, confronting 

him to secrets of his past. 

Meeting Room N201b, HKCEC 

GAbI 

(Korea) Action/ 

Adventure 115mins. 

M-Line Distribution. 

Dir: Chang Youn-hyun. 

Key cast: Joo Jin-mo, Kim 

So-yeun, Park Hee-soon 

In 1896, when coffee was 

market 

16:30 

DANCING QuEEN 

(Korea) Comedy, 

Drama, 124mins. 

CJ Entertainment. 

Dir: Lee Seok-hoon. 

Key cast: Hwang Jungmin, 

Uhm Jung-hwa 

Jung-hwa is offered the 

first introduced to Korea, 

the Emperor of Chosun 

Dynasty falls in love with 

the bittersweet taste only 

to become involved in 

a conspiracy set up by 

Russia and Japan. 

Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC 

SNoWFLAKE 

(Japan) Drama, 

Romance, 74mins. Mode 

Films. Dir: Masaaki 

Taniguchi. Key cast: 

Mirei Kiritani 

A college girl, Mano, 

carries with her the 

memory and emotionally 

unresolved tragedy of 

losing her childhood friend, 

with whom she had made 

an unfulfilled promise. 


HKCEC 

16:30 

DANCING QuEEN 

See box, above 

18:00 

bLooD LETTER 

(Vietnam) Action/ 

Adventure, 100mins. 

opportunity of becoming 

a singer-dancer. But 

chasing her dream 

comes to a halt by her 

husband’s declaration: 

He’s running for mayor 

of Seoul. 

Theatre 1, HKCEC 

Vietnam Media 

Corporation. Dir: Victor 

Vu. Key cast: Huynh 

Dong, Van Trang, Midu, 

Khuong Ngoc, Minh 

Thuan 

Meeting Room N206-207, 

HKCEC 

FRoM SEouL To VARANASI 

(Korea) Drama, 98mins. 



Dir: Jeon Kyu-hwan. Key 

cast: Yoon Dong-hwan 


HKCEC 

uNIJAPAN SHoRT FILMS 

by youNG CREAToRS 


UNIJAPAN. Dir: 

Katsumata Yu, Morioka 

Ryu, Tazaki Megumi, 

Yoshino Kohei, Izuki 

Hajime. Key cast: Nitta 

Eri, Katsuo Mayuna, Iida 

Kaoru 


HKCEC 

youNG DuDES 

(Taiwan) Comedy, Sci-fi, 

Fantasy, 80mins. HKIFF 

Industry Screenings @ 

Filmart. Dir: DJ Chen 

Yin-jung. Key cast: 

Edison Wang Po-chieh, 

Abe Tsuyoshi, Larisa 

Angela Burokova 

As the prophecy of 

the 2012 Apocalyse 

approaches, 30-yearold 

loser Adam Wu 

accidentally starts a 

revolution on Facebook, 

calling for people to 

join the world as one. 

Soon, his mission 

spreads like wildfire, 

and becomes a global 

phenomenon as reported 

by the media. 


HKCEC 

18:15 

Robo-G 

(Japan) Comedy, 111mins. 

Pony Canyon. Dir: 

Shinobu Yaguchi. Key 

cast: Shinjiro Igarashi, 

Yuriko Yoshitaka, Gaku 

Hamada 

Three flunky employees 

of Kimura Electric — 

Kobayashi, Ota and 

Nagai — are ordered by 

the company president 

to develop a bipedal robot 

to promote the company 

in an upcoming Robot 

Expo. But just one 

week before the big 

event, the robot-inproduction 

is smashed to 

smithereens. 

Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC 

PRIVATE SCREENING 


19:00 

NEVER ENDING SToRy 

(Korea) Romance 

114mins. 9Ers 


Joung Yong-Ju. Key cast: 

Uhm Tae-Woong, Jung 

Ryeo-Won 

A man and a woman are 

diagnosed with a terminal 

illness and they begin to 

plan the last ceremony of 

their life. 


WALK AWAy RENEE 

(France) Documentary 

90mins. Wild Bunch. 

Dir: Jonathan Caouette. 

Film-maker Jonathan 

Caouette embarks on 

a road trip to move his 

mentally-ill mother across 

the country. 


20:45 

bEAuTIFuL 2012 

(Hong Kong, China) 

Drama, 84mins. HKIFF 

Industry Screenings 

@ Filmart. Dir: Gu 

Changwei, Tsai Ming 

Liang, Kim Tae yong 

What is beautiful? Three 

Chinese-speaking filmmakers, 

plus South Korea’s 

Kim Tae-yong, give their 

singular visions to this 

eternal question. 


SCREENINGS 

Editorial office: Room G202, 

second floor, Hong Kong 

Convention and Exhibition 

Centre, 1 Expo Drive, Wanchai, 

Hong Kong 

Filmart stand: Hall 1E, G26 

Editorial 

Tel (852) 2582 8959 

Editor 

Mike Goodridge, mike. 

goodridge@screendaily.com 

Asia editor 

Liz Shackleton, 

lizshackleton@gmail.com 

Reviews editor 

Mark Adams, mark.adams@ 

screendaily.com 

Reporter 

Jean Noh, hjnoh2007@gmail. 

com 

Researcher 

Sen-lun Yu 

Group head of production 

and art 

Mark Mowbray, mark. 

mowbray@screendaily.com 

Sub-editors 

Medina Lau, Paul Lindsell 

Translator 

Arthur Chin 

Screenings 

Kelly Gibbens 

Photographer 

Andrew Ross, andrewross.biz 

Group editor 

Conor Dignam 

Advertising 

Tel (852) 2582 8958 

Sales consultants 

Ingrid Hammond (852) 5439 

4741, ingridhammond@mac. 

com 

Gunter Zerbich 

(44) 7540 100 254, gunter. 

zerbich@screendaily.com 

Production manager 

David Cumming (44) 7739 

302 136, david.cumming@ 

emap.com 

Commercial director 

Alison Pitchford 

Printer 

Rising Sun Offset Printing Co 

Ltd, Flat A and B, 13/F, Wing 

Wah Industrial Building, 677 

King’s Road, North Point, 

Hong Kong 

Tel: (852) 2811 4632 

Fax: (852) 2561 7889 

Email: risingsunprinting@ 

gmail.com 

Screen International, 

London 

Greater London House, 

Hampstead Road, London 

NW1 7EJ, UK 

Subscription enquiries 

Tel: (44) 1858 438 847 

Fax: (44) 1858 461 739 

sci@subscription.co.uk 

March 19, 2012 Screen International at Filmart 21 n

EvEnts 

SeminarS 

and eventS 

monday 19 

10.00 

nEw MEdia: nEw 

ProsPEcts for 

onlinE distribution 

of EntErtainMEnt 

contEnts 

venue Stage, Hall 1, Hong 

Kong Convention & 

Exhibition Centre 

conference moderator Mike 

Goodridge, editor, Screen 

International 

introduction Xinyu Huang, 

senior vice-president of 

Greater China, comScore 

Panel speakers Geng Xiao 

Hua, operations vicepresident, 

QIYI; Zhu 

Huilong, vice-president 

of film operations and 

corporate development, 

Youku.com; Amit 


Malhotra, vicepresident 

of program 

distribution, Disney 

Media Distribution (Asia 

Pacific), The Walt Disney 

Company; Anthony 

Zameczkowski, head of 

music, YouTube APAC; 

Pierre Cheung, vicepresident 

and general 

manager, Greater China, 

BBC Worldwide. 

Content producers 

and distributors are 

making remarkable 

returns from distributing 

their TV and film 

programmes through 

online VoD channels. 

This panel will examine 

the opportunities and 

challenges for online 

content distribution. 

11.30 

‘wu dang’ PrEss 

confErEncE 

venue Event Room, 

Hall 1, Hong Kong 

Convention & Exhibition 

Centre 

12.30 

Haf wElcoME luncH 

venue Port Café, level 2, 

Hong Kong Convention 

& Exhibition Centre. By 

invitation only 

13.00 

crEativE MarkEting 

solution: learn how to 

promote your production 

through facebook with a 

$10m incentive 

risk ManagEMEnt in tHE 

MEdia industry 

venue Studio, Hall 1, 


& Exhibition Centre 

14.00 

EntErtainMEnt ExPo 

Hong kong (EE) 2012 

venue Stage, Hall 1, Hong 


Exhibition Centre 

Press conference and 

event launch 

14.30 

‘francE-cHina, towards 

a strongEr crEativE 

PartnErsHiP?’ sEMinar 




Centre 

conference moderator 

Patrick Frater, CEO, Film 

Business Asia 

Panel speakers Wang 

Fang-Hui, producer, 

Bayoo; Barbie Tung, 

producer; Juliette 

Grandmont, producer, 

Clandestine Films; 

Isabelle Glachant, 

producer; Philippe 

Muyl, director; Olivier- 

René Veillon, executive 

director, Ile de France 

Film Commission 

15.00 

taiwan Party 

venue Studio, Hall 1, 


& Exhibition Centre 

16.00 

2012 MEdia asia 

PrEsEntation 

venue Stage, Hall 1, 


& Exhibition Centre. For 

press and selected guests 

only 

17.00 

‘son of tHE stars’ PrEss 

confErEncE 




Centre 

18.00 

tHE 6tH afa rEd carPEt 

and cocktail rEcEPtion 

venue Expo Drive, Hong 


Exhibition Centre. By 

invitation and RSVP only 

20.00 

tHE 6tH asian filM 

awards PrEsEntation 

cErEMony 

venue Grand Hall, Hong 


Exhibition Centre. By 

invitation only 

22.00 

tHE 6tH aftEr awards 

Party 

venue Pool Podium, 

Grand Hyatt. By 

invitation and RSVP only

Meet the Brits 

and visit UK companies at the 

UK Film Centre 

Filmart stand 1D-E07 

Organised by Supported by 

Film Export UK: T +44 800 756 5616 E info@filmexportuk.com

AT FILMART

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