Hong Kong Films at the 67th Venice Film Fest: Pang Bros., Clara Law and Wai-keung Lau

Three Hong Kong films were selected for this year’s Venice Film Festival. Teh 67th edition will welcome The Child’s Eye, Red Earth and the most buzzed film which is also bound for TIFF in Legend of the Fist: the Return of Chen Zhen.

Red Earth, a short film directed by Clara Law (an Australian co-production), was previously selected for this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival as one of four films for “Quattro Hong Kong,” a section of films produced by the festival society as a sort of tribute to the city of Hong Kong. Red Earth is about a management consultant played by Daniel Wu who goes to Hong Kong to meet a girl briefly encountered before, he checks in a hotel to wait for her to show him an unforgettable view of sunset that she promised him. But he can no longer remember her face and strange things happen that change him and billions people’s lives. Almost the entire film is shot in the hotel. The initial critical response at he festival wasn’t too favorable towards the short. We’ll see if it is received differently on the Lido. 

The Pang brothers are back in Venice with their latest horror film – the first Asian Horror film to be shot in 3D. After producing the big budgeted The Storm Warriors, The Pangs are coming back to their roots. The name may suggest that it has something to do with their “The Eye” series, while the stories are not necessarily linked, the film which consists of a bunch of young cast seems to fall in much similar style and story of The Eye 10. The plot may even suggest that. The story takes place in Thailand, a young group of friends come to have a vacation. But as protest and riot happen and escalate in Thailand, the group is forced to be struck in an old hotel, with three odd kids with a strange dog, and strange things start to happen. When some of the friends suddenly disappear, and the remaining ones are determined to find out about the truth and save them.

Out of all three selections, Legend of the Fist: the Return of Chen Zhen is probably the most anticipated title. Donnie Yen, having famously played the iconic martial Art master Ip Man, this time takes on the role of Chen Zhen. This role had been previously played by numerous famous martial stars including Bruce Lee. It looks like it’ll be an easy task for Donnie Yen to handle, since the story, again, is similar to Ip Man’s narrative. Chen Zhen comes back Shanghai as a disguised hero after seven years of his disappearance, to try and avenge his teacher’s loss and also rescue the people from the planned assassinations by the Japanese. The patriotic and heroic theme is a current trend with the reemerging local Kung Fu films. Hopefully with Andrew Lau directing it, it will add a refreshing tone to the genre.