Hong Kong Film Scene: Local
The 34th edition of the Hong Kong International Festival will be bookended by homegrown films this year — Crossing Hennessy, the sophomore feature from Ivy Ho (Claustrophobia) will open the fest alongside Like A Dream starring Daniel Wu. The festival which includes several international titles from last year’s Cannes, Toronto and Venice film fests, contains some newer, attention-getting titles such as Love in a Puff — Pang Ho-Cheung’s first time collaboration with Haiward Mak, who first caught Hong Kong film critics’ attention with her debut feature High Noon. This time, she co-wrote the script with Mak, a romantic drama about how a smoking ban leads to an ambiguous romance between two lonely smokers.
Another film, EX, is directed by Haiward Mak herself. Unlike her debut, which had a then largely unknown cast, this time, it has pop stars Gillian Chung and William Chan both hoping to breakthrough with this film. Like its title, it is said to be about exes — here an ex-girlfriend moves in her ex-boyfriend’s home, it makes her re-think her past relationship with all her former boyfriends.
Receiving their world premieres, we have Gallants, by Derek Kwok, which is being described as a reminiscence of the glorious days of Hong Kong action comedies. Girl$, by director Kenneth Bi who made The Drummer, is a shift in genres for the filmmaker – as it focuses on the story of teenage escort girls in Hong Kong.
For the closing films, besides EX, one we have Amphetamine which comes to the festival fresh from its Berlin debut. It’s director Scud’s latest ambitious work after City Without Baseball and Permanent Residence. The story itself is a tale mixing love with drugs. We’ll have plenty of more updates on the festival later in the month.
Hong Kong Film Scene: Abroad
Berlin: Alex Law’s Echoes Of the Rainbow (a film that was financed by Hong Kong Film Development Fund) was the winner of the Crystal Bear (for Best Feature Film in the Generation category) at the Berlin Film Festival this year. Starring Simon Yam and Sandra Ng, the film is a family drama set in the 60s of Hong Kong, revolves around the lives of a working class family at that time. Based on Law’s childhood experience, the story intends to bring out the nostalgia of the Hong Kongers through the portrayal of those good old days. It has yet to premiere in Hong Kong, but is set for a March 11th release and it’ll also will be able to be seen during the Hong Kong International Festival. Here’s the short “making of” video, shot and edited by actor Simon Yam himself — and you can watch the trailer here.
In Production: Peter Chan Ho-Sun’s latest film started shooting in the early February. Titled as xiá nǚ in Chinese, this happens to be the same title as the Chinese name of 1971 film A Touch of Zen, a film that won Technical Grand Prize award at Cannes Film Festival. But Peter Chan said the official title has yet to be decided. Starring Chan’s wife Sandra Ng and Louis Koo, this is another comedy after On His Majesty’s Secret Service and All’s Well Ends Well.
Milky Li Hoi Ching lives in Hong Kong and is completing her associate degree in Film and Television at HKBU.
