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(Image: Laurel Films, Polybona Film Distribution Co., Ltd., Zhong Hong Real Estates Development Group Corp.) |
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Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (HKIFFS) and Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) just just announced 25 film projects they will endorse at this year's Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), from March 17 to 19, during the annual Asian Film Awards and Filmart.
Many recognizable names are among the directing talents behind these projects. Silver Berlin Bear winner Li Yan, who has been telling stories about the dark side of today's China with Blind Shaft and Blind Mountain, will bring us Mang Liu. Pang Ho-cheung (Exodus, Isabella, Men Suddenly in Black), who tells stories with stylish humors, will talk about The Bus. Ning Hao, who made "artistic" film Mongolian Ping Pong, surprised everyone with action-packed comedy Crazy Stone, and now making a bigger action packed comedy Silver Medalist (a HAF project back in 2005) will have 7 Dreams. Woman director Carol Lai Miu-suet (Naraka 19, Floating Landscape, Glass Tears) is making Shuffle. Cai Shangjun, screenwriter of Shower and Spicy Love Soup, who made his directorial debut with road movie The Red Awn, is having Adrift Time. Alexi Tan, made Blood Brothers with an all star cast, will do a Detour. Nakata Hideo, director of the original Ringu series and The Ring Two, a Hollywood remake of Ringu, is working on Gensenkan. Park Chan-wook, of Cannes winner Old Boy, has an untitled project in mind. Brillante Mendoza, whose Foster Child drew international attention at Cannes, will provide Service.
Among
projects the forum endorsed in previous years, many of them
have gained noticeable international
recognition.
Lost in Beijing, with a story
of a couples mirages from the countryside and a newly-rich
couple in Beijing, written and directed by Li Yu, was premiered
in competition at the 2007 Berlinale, collected an Honorable
Mention for its script at the Tribeca Film Festival and sadly
banned in China just last week. Zhang Yang’s
Getting Home, about a
virtually broke old age migrant worker taking a long journey to
send the body of his dead friend home, won the Ecumenical Jury
Prize in Berlin. Lee Kang-sheng’s Help me Eros,
about a marijuana grower falling in love with a voice over a
suicide helpline and starting an erotic and psychedelic
relationship with a girl working downstairs, opened in
competition at the 2007 Venice Film Festival.
The Most Distant Course
(aka Longest Distance),
featuring three individuals suffering from alienations and
heartbreaks, by compatriot Lin Chin-je, walked away with the
Critics’ Week Award at Venice. Kumakiri Kazuyoshi’s
Freesia, a
futuristic thriller with the story of a young man and a young
women who work as professional assassins, premiered in Rotterdam
in 2007. Kenneth Bi's The Drummer,
about an exiled young man learns the ancient kill of drum
playing which changes him spiritually, became the first Hong
Kong film selected for competition at the Sundance Film
Festival.
A number of HAF films are waiting for release. Kim Jee-woon
finished The Good, the Bad, and the Weird,
a western set in China in the 1930s, starring Song Kang-ho, Lee
Byung-hun, and Jung Woo-sung, is scheduled for a release in
South Korea in February 2008. Principal shooting of Kurosawa
Kiyoshi’s Tokyo Sonata
(tentative title) has ended in December 2007. The movie
starts with a father is hiding the fact that he has been laid
off and his son is secretly taking piano lessons with the
tuition money for him to learn karate.
Several projects are expected to wrap soon, including Lu Chuan’s Nanking! Nanking!, a new film about the Nanking/Nanjing Massacre carried out by the Japanese during the winter of 1937/38, Ning Hao’s Silver Medalist (originally titled Red Bicycle), Brain Tse's annimation Wee-Wee the Poop, about a tiny piece of poop who drams about becoming a sausage and Ekachai Uekrongtham's The Coffin, about a young man seeking the true about a mysterious woman and a boy by lying inside a nailed coffin.
Clara Law’s
The Messenger,
with two parallel stories, a detective uncovering the identity
of a clairvoyant woman and a woman and a deserting soldier
running during a war, starring Guy Pearce and Radha Mitchell,
will go into production in July 2008. Yu Lik Wai’s
Plastic City,
about the struggle of the adopted son of a retail tycoon who
runs a black market empire, will start shooting in San Paolo,
Brazil in February 2008, is co-produced by Xstream Pictures
(Mainland China / Hong Kong), Brazil’s Gullane Filmes, Hong
Kong’s Sundream Pictures and Japan’s Bitters End, with Japan’s
Odagiri Joe and Chinese mainland’s Huang Yu in the lead.
Listing of all 25 projects selected for HAF 2008
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1.
7 Dreams – Chinese
mainland What we know: none. |
2. Adrift Time
– Chinese mainland What we know: an ex-soldier, running from the authority after accidentally hurt someone five years ago, falls in love with the daughter of his landlord. Cast may includes Chang Chen (the ex-soldier) and Zhang Jingchu (the landlord's daughter). |
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3.
Best Draw, The
(tentative title) – Taiwan What we know: Hou, Shen and Wu are among five young directors selected for Project Pushing Hand by Ang Lee and his brother Lee Gang. |
4.
Bloodline – United
Kingdom / Hong Kong What we know: none.
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5.
Bus, The – Hong
Kong What we know: none. |
6.
Café Astoria –
Taiwan What we know: none. |
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7.
Dancing Mary –
Japan What we know: a “tearjerker horror”, which will be one of three project the direct to shoot outside of Japan. (According to Jason Gray.) |
8.
Detour – Hong Kong What we know: a modern day thriller centers around a hitman. Original Chinese title is "The Great Traffic Jam". Shooting might be done in Macao. |
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9.
Fugitive Club, The
– Chinese mainland / Hong Kong What we know: none. |
10.
Gensenkan – Japan What we know: none. |
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11.
High Society –
Thailand What we know: about the high society in Thailand. |
12.
Karaoke – Malaysia
What we know: none. |
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13.
Mang Liu – Chinese
mainland What we know: about the children, born to parents from the Chinese countryside and live in the cities without official residency. Out of school, some of them have become troubled. |
14.
Mother (tentative
title) – South Korea What we know: none.
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15.
Red Spider Lily –
Chinese mainland What we know: according to the Buddhist beliefs, it is the only flower grows on the bank of the river dividing the world of the living and the world of the dead. |
16.
Romance Rental –
Taiwan What we know: none. |
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17.
Secret of the Butterfly
(tentative title) – Thailand What we know: none. |
18.
Service – The
Philippines What we know: none. |
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19.
Sharaku (tentative
title) – South Korea What we know: A faction on the famous Japanese woodblock printing master Sharaku, on the theory that he was an emissary forced to devote his talent for a secret painting. (Click here for more detail.) |
20.
Shuffle – Hong
Kong What we know: Original Chinese title: "Can't Remember, You Love Me?" |
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21.
Taxi Passenger,
The – Iran What we know: none. |
22.
Tsutenkaku
(tentative title) – Japan What we know: Tsutenkaku Tower, modeled after the Eiffel Tower, is a landmark of Osaka. |
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23.
Untitled Park Chan-wook Project
– South Korea What we know: none. |
24.
White Nights –
Chinese mainland / Hong Kong What we know: none. |
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25.
Woman in Paris, A
– South Korea What we know: none. |
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