World Film Report Hong Kong: Bodyguards and Assassins’s Great 2010 Run

Hong Kong Film Scene: Local

In mid April, the 29th Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony was held and Bodyguards and Assassins swept most of the major award categories: grabbing Best Film, including the Best director award, Best supporting actor award, Best Cinematography award, Best Art Director, Best Costume Make Up Design Award, Best Action Choreography and Best Original Film Score award, for a tally of eight. The number of award wins for this film shared the same number of Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2001 and Peter Chan’s The Warlord in 2007, topped only by Comrades: Almost a Love Story in 1997. Bodyguards and Assassins won several awards this year already at the Asian Film awards.

The Berlinale’s Crystal Bear winner Echoes of the Rainbow was the other big winner of the night – grabbing a foursome of awards, most notably the Best Screenplay and Best Actor awards. Kara Hui of At the End of Daybreak, who previously won Best Actress at the 1st Hong Kong Film award, got back the award 28 years later after winning the best supporting actress for the same role at Asian Film awards.

KJ: Music and Life by King-Wai Cheung, which is arguably the first documentary film in Hong Kong that grabbed the most attention from the critics, won King-Wai Cheung the Best new director honor. The film documents prodigious music genius Wong Ka Jeng (KJ)’s journey of his growth, spanning over 6 years, the film looked into his school life, the conflicted relationships with his classmates, friends and family. 

Director/writer Peng Ho-Cheung’s new blood splashing horror flick Dream House was included in the Sydney Film Festival. Dream House just opened for this year’s Udine Far East Film Festival, which ended on 1st of May. The film also was featured at Tribeca Film Festival last month. The film’s violent and gory content, like Scud’s Amphetamine, drew attention and it was asked to cut a few specific scenes before opening theatrically in Hong Kong. The story is about a young woman, played by Josie Ho, insanely going on a murder spree of her neighbors, after she fails to buy her dream house. The film was said to reflect the problem of the ever-increasing values of Hong Kong’s real estates – view the trailer. 

A biopic of young Bruce Lee titled Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is expected to start shooting around next month. It intends to mark the 70th anniversary of late legendary action star Bruce Lee’s birth on 27th of November this year. Various sources have been reporting that young Hong Kong pop star Aarif Lee, who just won best newcomer award for his performance in Echoes of The Rainbow at Hong Kong Film awards this year, is going to star in the film as the young Bruce Lee. Producer of the film Manfred Wong noticed the Aarif’s resemblance to Bruce Lee, Bruce Lee’s brother Lee Zhun Fai also noticed and gave it heads up. The story will be about the young Bruce Lee’s life before his rise to stardom.

Controversy-prone director Scud just started shooting his new film Love actually … sucks in mid-March. This time, The Untold Story’s director Herman Yau was set to work as the cinematographer for this film again after Scud’s Permanent Residence. So many people speculate that this film will be another Scud’s R-rated love story again.

Simon Yam will fly to Philippines for a new film titled Love Island (literally translated). This film will be directed by Kam Kwok-leung. It is reported to be a romantic film, and the script is still currently being revised. Other cast members are yet to be announced, but the shooting will start within these couple weeks.

Actress-turned-screenwriter Charlie Yeung, who is best known to international audience for her performance in Bangkok Dangerous, is set to make her directorial debut Christmas Rose (literally translated). The story of the film is yet to be revealed, but it is said that the film will be shot in Hong Kong, and Oxide Pang Chun will be the producer of the pre-production stage. Charlie Yeung made it clear that she has no plan to star in her own film. The shooting will start approximately near the year end.