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Asian Shadows takes first trip to Cambodia BY LIZ SHACKLETON
Hong Kong-based sales company Asian Shadows has picked up its first two Cambodian titles: Sok Visal’s Poppy Goes To Hollywood and Gems On The Run, co-directed by Sok and Quentin Clausin. Cambodia’s first LGBT-themed film, Poppy Goes To Hollywood follows a loser on the streets of Phnom Penh, who is forced to go into hiding with his older brother, a transgender performer, when he witnesses a gangland murder. A director’s cut of the film, which was released in Cambodia last year, is in post-production. Gems On The Run, which was Sok’s 2013 debut feature, revolves around a cop who travels with a gangster to the funeral of a mutual friend.
LevelK lays down Law Of The Land BY JEAN NOH
LevelK has closed a first round of deals for debut feature director Jussi Hiltunen’s action drama Law Of The Land, starring Ville Virtanen. The Finland-Norway coproduction sold to China (Lemon Tree Media), Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg (Just Entertainment) and Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Moldova, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania and Bulgaria (HBO Central Europe). Set in the Arctic desert of the north on the Finland-Sweden border, Law Of The Land is a modern western that follows a retiring policeman who is caught up between his legitimate and illegitimate sons, who are trying to kill each other. The film is produced by Finland’s Making Movies in co-production with Norway’s Sweet Films and FilmCamp.
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iQiyi platform ramps up in-house productions BY LIZ SHACKLETON
Aggressively expanding online platform iQiyi has moved into fully financing its own productions, starting with Lu Yulai’s My Town, which was selected as a HAF project in 2015. Currently in production, the film stars Geng Le (Beijing Love Story) and Qi Xi (Mystery) in a story about a love triangle. Lu, who is making his feature directorial debut with the film, is best known as an actor with credits including Gu Changwei’s Peacock. His short Brother screened at Busan in 2013. iQiyi is also fully financing Jiang Kaiyang’s crime action film Even Stronger (working title) and Zhang Xiao’s comedy I Am Your Mom.
Kung Fu Traveler
Even Stronger is currently shooting, while I Am Your Mom, starring Yan Ni (The Wasted Times) as a single mother raising a rebellious child, is in post-production. Since launching production arm iQiyi Motion Pictures in 2014, the streaming giant has mostly invested in third-party productions, including Jonathan Li’s
The Brink and Feng Xiaogang’s Bloom Of Youth, but is now ramping up both in-house production and theatrical distribution. It will next release Golden Horse Awards winner The Summer Is Gone in China on March 24. iQiyi has also established a new division, headed by Chen Xiao, to oversee local distribution and international sales. The sales arm has clinched a North American deal on martial-arts action title Kung Fu Traveler, starring Tiger Chen, which has gone to Crimson Forest and Hannover House. It has also picked up Seong Siheup’s Unexpected Love and Song Haolin’s Mr Zhu’s Summer for international sales.
MandarinVision lands with Cock Robin BY SILVIA WONG
MandarinVision brings a new slate from Taiwan to Filmart, including crime thriller Who Killed Cock Robin, which reunites The Tag Along director Cheng Wei Hao with actress Hsu Wei Ning. The film follows a journalist’s investigation into a longforgotten hit-and-run accident. It will open on March 31 in Taiwan. Also on the slate are Huang Xi’s Missing Johnny, a relationship drama executive-produced by Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Huang A Yao’s The Great Buddha+, executiveproduced by Godspeed director Chung Mong Hong, a dark comedy about a security guard who
Who Killed Cock Robin
unleashes a chaotic chain of events after watching his boss’s private videos. Both debut features are in post-production. The Taiwan-based company is set
to ramp up its film and TV production this year. The film business is headed by veteran filmmaker Yeh Ju Feng while new company president Jessie Ho oversees TV production.
TODAY
V.I.P., Korea buzz, page 16
NEWS Quality control Industry panel addresses Chinese film market issues » Page 4
REVIEW Have A Nice Day Liu Jian’s adult animation has a chance at breakout success » Page 6
FEATURE Buzz titles This year’s hot market projects from Korea and Japan » Pages 16-19
SCREENINGS
» Page 20
One Cool picks up HAF pair BY SILVIA WONG
One Cool Pictures has picked up worldwide sales rights to two HAF 2017 projects from Hong Kong: No.1 Chung Ying Street and Man On The Dragon. Production is underway for Derek Chiu’s No.1 Chung Ying Street with about one third of the shoot completed. The Hong Kongset drama is split in two parts, revolving around a controversial anti-British riot in 1967 and imaginary political movements in 2019. The cast includes Yau Hawk Sau, known for his role in She Remembers, He Forgets, and Fish Liew, who has been nominated for the best supporting actress prize for her role in Sisterhood at the upcoming Hong Kong Film Awards. Produced by Joe Ma, Man On The Dragon is the directorial debut of established screenwriter and column writer Sunny Chan. The comedy drama is about five Hong Kong middle-aged underdogs who risk everything in a dragon boat race.
Truffle Pictures crowns The Gaelic King UK sales company Truffle Pictures has closed deals on fantasy action adventure The Gaelic King to North America and the UK (4Digital Media), the Middle East (Italia Film), Japan (Interfilm) and Italy (Draka Distribution). 4Digital Media is
planning to release the film in the UK this July. All deals were negotiated by Caroline CouretDelegue, managing director at Truffle Pictures. Directed by Philip Todd, the film is set in 800AD Scotland and follows
a warrior king and his brother forced into exile after their family is murdered by a rival king. The film is produced by Nathan Todd with Jezz Vernon and Couret-Delegue executive producing. Jean Noh
Derek Chiu
NEWS
Chinese industry panel calls for quality output Lam Swee Kim
SVoD dimsum hot at Filmart BY SILVIA WONG
Malaysia’s new SVoD service dimsum has unveiled five deals with top Asian broadcasters and distributors at Filmart, including Japan’s TV Asashi, Hong Kong’s MediaQuiz and Singapore’s MediaCorp as well as China’s CITVC and Shanghai Wings Media. The deals bring exclusive content to dimsum, including CITVC’s biggest TV series, fantasy drama Tribes And Empire: Storm Of Prophecy, TV Asahi’s medical drama series Doctor-X, which has already become the number-one show on dimsum, and MediaQuiz’s TV drama Chibi Maruko-Chan, which is available on the same day as its global release in China. The deals were announced by dimsum’s chief marketing officer Lam Swee Kim, a former director at Media Prima Digital. Launched in November 2016, dimsum is an OTT platform operated by SMG Entertainment (formerly known as Star Online, a member of Star Media Group). Its Asian-focused content is delivered via mobile applications and web browser.
Toei’s Tribe has star quality Japan’s Toei Company is launching sales on experimental docudrama Matsumoto Tribe, from sophomore director Ken Ninomiya (Slum-Polis). Playing with fiction and reality, the film follows amateur actor Fighter Matsumoto as he participates in auditions meant for actresses and challenges himself to become a “true” film star. Released locally in April, Matsumoto Tribe also features directors Daishi Matsunaga (Pieta In The Toilet) and Tatsuo Kobayashi (Gassoh). Jean Noh
BY LIZ SHACKLETON
Chinese film producers need to improve the quality of their output to entice a mobile-obsessed youth back into cinemas, said speakers at the ‘What’s Next For The Chinese Film Market?’ conference at Filmart yesterday. The panel addressed recent issues in the mainland film market including the steep decline in box-office growth, escalating talent costs and increased competition from madefor-internet content. Kung Fu Yoga director Stanley Tong observed that a large proportion of China’s audience was born after 1995 and prefers to consume internet movies rather than theatrical films. “They are addicted to mobile devices and don’t visit the
Wanda Media’s Jiang Defu
cinema regularly, so we need to figure out how to attract this audience,” said Tong, adding that 70% of the audience is now located in China’s third and fourth-tier cities, and skews towards women and couples, which explains the recent focus on romantic dramas. “If your subject matter is not attractive to women, you see a decline in box office,” Tong said. Qin Hong, chairman of JQ Pictures, which produced female-ori-
ented sleeper hit Soul Mate, said producers need to pay more attention to quality content and scripts. “We must follow our audience’s needs and tastes. Theatrical films have higher production values than internet films and demand different kinds of distribution and promotion. We can’t just aim to sell all our films to websites,” said Qin. Wanda Media general manager Jiang Defu suggested that theatrical and digital should be seen as complementary rather than competing forms of distribution. “Every month we see the release of 30 local films. It’s not possible for every title to secure a prime screening slot,” he said. “Smaller budget films can take advantage of the internet and still make a profit.”
Luk, Cheung, Kok head Sun slate BY SILVIA WONG
Sun Entertainment Culture (SUNEC) has unveiled a string of titles at Filmart, including crime suspense thriller Schemer from Sunny Luk, who won the best director prize at the 2012 Hong Kong Film Awards for Cold War. It also brings the big-screen adaptation of Louis Cha’s wuxia novel The Book And The Sword from veteran director Jacob Cheung and writer James Yuen, and Chinese
New Year action comedy Keep Calm And Be A Superstar by Vincent Kok. Also on Sun’s sales and production slate are The Neighbour, a remake of German horror film The Good Neighbour that will be directed by Stanley Liu and produced by Pang Ho Cheung. Pang is also the producer of TV series Women Who Flirt, based on his big-screen rom-com of the same name and helmed by TV director
Sammy Ko, and DoP Jason Kwan’s directorial debut A Nail Clipper Romance, starring Golden Horse best actress winner Zhou Dongyu and Joseph Chang. The latter opens locally on April 14. SUNEC has another two titles from producer Paco Wong for release this year: Wilson Yip’s Paradox, starring Louis Koo and Thai action star Tony Jaa, and Jonathan Li’s action pic The Brink with Zhang Jin and Shawn Yue.
mm2 brings back Ah Boys Singapore-based mm2 Entertainment has unveiled a slate that includes Jack Neo’s Ah Boys To Men 4 and eight other titles involving Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia, all scheduled for release in 2017. The fourth instalment of the Ah Boys To Men series is about Singapore army recruits who juggle work with reservist duties. The series is Singapore’s most successful franchise with a combined local box office of more than $15.5m (s$22m) from the first three films. mm2’s slate also includes two Taiwan-set titles, Hsieh Chun Yi’s romantic drama Take Me To The Moon, starring Vivian Sung, and youth comedy Turn Around by DoP-turned-director Chen Tapu, as well as two horror films, Jeffrey Chiang’s Buyer Beware and Ghost’s Net by Hong Kong directors Wong Kwok Keung, Wong Kwok Fai and Patrick Yau. It also brings family drama No Time No Mum. Wonder Boy, the biopic and directorial debut of Singaporean musician Dick Lee, is ready for release in the third quarter, while horror comedy Vampire Cleanup Department, a 2016 HAF project, opens from Thursday onwards in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia. Meanwhile, Chang Long Jong, former deputy CEO of MediaCorp, will start as mm2 CEO on April 3. Silvia Wong
TBS cheers on travelling Let’s Go, Jets! BY JEAN NOH
Japan’s TBS has sold coming-ofage cheerleading film Let’s Go, Jets! to Thailand (Sahamongkol Film International), Hong Kong and Macau (UA Films), South Korea (Earlybird Films) and Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Vietnam (Encore Films). Based on a true story of how a smalltown Japanese high school’s cheerleading club won the US’s NDA National Championship, Let’s Go, Jets! follows a group of girls as they go from absolute beginners in the countryside to
4 Screen International at Filmart March 14, 2017
Let’s Go, Jets!
champions in the US in the space of three years. Directed by Hayato Kawai, the film stars Suzu Hirose (Our Little Sister, Rage) as the
spirited lead character, Ayami Nakajo as a determined teammate and Yuki Amami as their no-nonsense coach.
Tamio Hayashi (Shield Of Straw, The Eternal Zero, Prophecy) wrote the screenplay. The film was released locally by Toho on March 11, to commemorate the earthquake and tsunami of 2011. TBS is also selling Takashi Miike’s manga adaptation Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, starring Kento Yamazaki (Your Lie In April), Nana Komatsu (The World Of Kanako) and Ryunosuke Kamiki (Bakuman). The film is set in a seaside town where the locals seem to be creating a series of weird incidents with their supernatural powers » See Japan Buzz, page 18
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MARKET SCREENING Tomorrow | Mar 15th | 12:10 PM | Theatre 2
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REVIEWS
EVENTS, PAGE 8
Reviews edited by Fionnuala Halligan finn.halligan@screendaily.com
Ciao Ciao Reviewed by Sarah Ward
Have A Nice Day Reviewed by Jonathan Romney Liu Jian’s animation Have A Nice Day is at once a bloodthirsty genre thriller; a political statement about China, globalisation and capitalism; and a vibrantly witty piece of postmodern pop art. In other words, it is like no Chinese film you have ever seen. Its elegance and bleak narrative wit, along with politically caustic cynicism, should also give it the potential to become the biggest success in adult-targeted art animation since Waltz With Bashir. The film revolves around the theft of one million yuan by a young driver, Xiao Zhang (voiced by Zhu Changlong). He plans to spend the money on a trip to Korea with his girlfriend, who needs corrective plastic surgery. But the money belongs to mobster Uncle Liu (Yang Siming), who dispatches cold-blooded, super-efficient assassin Skinny (Ma Xiaofeng) to retrieve it. Neither has reckoned with Yellow Eye (Cao Kou), an inventor of devices such as X-ray glasses, who gets his hands on the money, and a panoply of double-crosses, traffic pile-ups and strokes of dumb luck turn the pursuit into a wild narrative zig-zag. While Have A Nice Day works narratively as a supercynical thriller, the animation turns it into something else. It provides a detached perspective in which the drama becomes both a philosophical tragedy and a savage commentary on contemporary politics and culture, and China’s place in a money-centric universe. The film’s overall visual style is one of flattened-out realism, with minimally textured backgrounds often entirely static, colours deadened to a range of greys and olives, characters smoothly but sparely sketched in defined outlines, and the iconography dominated by images of the squalid and the run-down. But this basic approach allows for textural and chromatic variation: occasional bursts of neon light, the use of different media in glimpsed paintings and movie posters. The film’s major shortcoming is that the narrative eventually heads into a dead end, without providing the truly lethal final sting that Liu seems to promise. Otherwise, this is a stunning, provocative work that will get animation buffs buzzing, and will no doubt spark many an academic paper on Chinese postmodernism and its debt to Quentin Tarantino.
6 Screen International at Filmart March 14, 2017
CREDITS China. 2017. 75mins Director/screenplay/ animation Liu Jian Production companies Nezha Bros Pictures, Le-Joy Animation Studio International sales Memento Films International, sales@ memento-films.com Asian sales Edko Films, chiujulian@edkofilm.com. hk Producers Yang Cheng, Liu Jian Cinematography Lin Shan Editor Militia Xiao Liu Music The Shanghai Restoration Project Main cast Yang Siming, Cao Kou, Ma Xiaofeng, Zhu Changlong
Thanks to a poetic yet probing approach, Ciao Ciao’s contemplative take on the homecoming narrative strikes both an emotional and visual chord. Writer/director Song Chuan brings a painterly eye to the plight of his titular protagonist — a city-dwelling daughter reluctantly visiting her rural parents — while convincingly exploring cultural divisions of both gender and location. It is a familiar story, predicated on the discontent that can spring from a child’s return to the familial fold, but the film’s distinctive look and feel set it apart. Watching Ciao Ciao (Liang Xueqin) attempt to readjust to country life is like stepping into a lucid dream. Indeed, the feature is a strong contender for international festival play thanks to Chuan and cinematographer Li Xuejun’s success in conveying this sensation. The filmmakers largely favour two methods of communicating Ciao Ciao’s many clashes and the toll these take on the characters. As its central figure wanders around the village, the camera first prefers to observe from afar. While she remains barely cognisant of the pleas from her parents (Zhou Lin and Wang Laowu) about her future, and much more preoccupied with juggling new bonds with a hairdresser (Zhou Quan) and the loutish son of a corn whiskey distiller (Zhang Yu), the feature luxuriates in eye-catching images of Ciao Ciao dwarfed by her natural, scenic surroundings. As time passes and the drama swells, the film studies the faces involved, with most unable to hide their unhappiness and uncertainty. As Ciao Ciao pouts, texts and pines for the city, and flits between the two men paying her attention, the movie draws the audience into the spectacle. In his first professionally produced effort, and second overall after 2011’s Huan Huan, Song finds a delicate balance between keeping viewers at a distance and drawing them in. As he ventures ever closer to his central character, including in intimate encounters, the audience is privy to the thought processes of Ciao Ciao and those around her. Aided by performances that indicate internalised struggles, the end result is an immersive excursion through an ordinary but revelatory world; never packaged as extraordinary, but always involving.
CREDITS Fr-China. 2017. 83mins Director/screenplay Song Chuan Production company Zorba Production International sales Wide, infos@widemanagement. com Producer Guillaume de la Boulaye Co-producers He Xiaoyun, Thomas He Cinematography Li Xuejun Editor Jean-Marie Lengellé Music Jean-Christophe Onno Production designer Wang Laowu Costume designer Zhang Xiaojuan Main cast Liang Xueqin, Zhang Yu, Hong Chang, Zhou Lin, Wang Laowu, Zhou Quan
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EVENTS 9:00 – 12:30 THE 10TH ASIAN VFX AND DIGITAL CINEMA SUMMIT 2017 Venue Theatre 1, HKCEC Organiser Association
of Motion Picture Post Production Professionals (AMP4) Languages Cantonese, Mandarin, English 10:00 – 12:00 NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN THE EXPLOSIVE GROWTH OF ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT Venue Starlight Theatre,
Hall 1, HKCEC Organisers HKTDC, HAF Sponsor iQiyi Moderator Patrick Frater,
Variety Speakers Yang Xianghua,
Senior Vice President, iQiyi; Chen Xiao, Sales Vice President, iQiyi; Meg Lee, Assistant Vice President, Content Management — Digital Media, PCCW Media Limited; Dan Zonmani, Content Business Director, LINE Company Thailand; Keiko Nakase, Director (Animation Division and New Business Development), Mytheater DD Languages Cantonese, Mandarin, English The market for online video has been growing rapidly, enabling consumers to enjoy on-demand and personalised content with different digital
devices. While benefiting from the tremendous opportunities this market has brought, OTT platform operators are also challenged by a competitive industry environment and fastchanging consumer tastes. The panelists will discuss emerging trends in online video markets, and share their views on how to achieve a greater diversity of services and content monetisation. 10:00 – 12:00 ‘INTEGRATION & INNOVATION’ — THE NEW NORMAL OF MAINLANDHONG KONG FILM & TV COOPERATION IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF FILM INDUSTRY PROMOTION LAW Venue Meeting Rooms
S224-S225, HKCEC Organiser HKTDC, Hong Kong Televisioners Association, Beijing Film Academy, Hong Kong Movie Production Executives Association Speakers Wu Manfang, Dean of Management Department, Beijing Film Academy; Ng See Yuen, President, Seasonal Film Corporation, President, UME International Cineplex Group; Wong Jing, director, scriptwriter and producer; Tsui Siuming, director and producer, President, Hong Kong Televisioners Association; Tenky Tin, actor, Chairman, Hong
» Event times and venues are correct at the time of going to press but subject to alteration
Kong Movie Production Executives Association; Zhuang Fusheng, founder, PlusOne Motion Pictures; Congshan Shi, CEO, Beijing Anying Risk Management Consulting Company; Gao Donghua, Partner, Beijing Tiantai Law Firm; Zhang Jizhi, Partner, Beijing Tiantai Law Firm Language Cantonese 10:00 – 17:00 WORK-IN-PROGRESS LAB OPEN PITCH Venue Meeting Rooms
N206-N207, HKCEC Organisers HAF, HK
International Film Festival Society Languages Cantonese, Mandarin, English 10:45 – 11:45 FOX NETWORKS GROUP ASIA ‘STAINED’ ORIGINAL MINI-SERIES PRESS CONFERENCE
12:30 – 13:30 ‘ROAD & BELT INITIATIVE. NEW OPPORTUNITIES ON THE EURASIAN MEDIA & TV MARKET’ RECEPTION Venue Starlight Theatre,
Hall 1, HKCEC Organiser Russia-
Hong Kong Business Association Languages Cantonese, Russian 13:00 – 13:55 NEW STUDIOS PICTURES PRESS CONFERENCE Venue Moonlight Theatre,
Hall 1, HKCEC Organiser New Studios Pictures Language Mandarin 14:00 – 16:00 TV WORLD 2017 INTERNATIONAL FORUM: IS THE INTERNET A CHALLENGE OR OPPORTUNITY FOR THE SHOW BUSINESS? Venue Starlight Theatre,
Venue Moonlight Theatre,
Hall 1, HKCEC
Hall 1, HKCEC Organiser Fox Networks Group, Star TV Languages Cantonese, English
Organisers HKTDC, Hong
11:00 – 12:00 EMPEROR MOTION PICTURES PRESS CONFERENCE Venue Galaxy Theatre,
Hall 1, HKCEC Organiser Emperor Motion Pictures Languages Cantonese, Mandarin, English By invitation only
Kong Televisioners Association Moderator Peter Lam, Vice President, Hong Kong Televisioners Association Speakers Gu Guoqing, Chairman, China Film Promotion International; Akinori Kobayakawa, President, Kyushu Associations of Independent Entrepreneurs; Joe Suteestarpon, CEO, Mediaplex International (DOONEE); Wang
Xiaohui, Chief Content Officer, iQiyi; Szeto Kit, Director and CEO, dimsum Languages Cantonese, Mandarin, English, Japanese The production of web drama series and web movies has been thriving in mainland China in recent years, and generating astonishing revenues. Different stakeholders in the industry have varying opinions on whether the internet is a challenge or opportunity for the entertainment industry, especially TV. Experts and frontline practitioners in the global TV industry share their insights on future market trends and discuss the opportunities available. 14:00 – 17:30
Moderator Maurice Lee, Partner, Maurice WM Lee Solicitors Speaker Andrew Hevia, co-producer of Oscarwinning Best Picture Moonlight Languages Cantonese, Mandarin, English Discussing his journey from micro-budget community filmmaking to the Oscars, Andrew Hevia shares his insights into the movie business.
14:30 – 19:00 FUTURE CINEMA Venue Meeting Room
S224-S225, HKCEC Organiser Association
of Motion Picture Post Production Professionals (AMP4) Languages Cantonese, Mandarin, English 16:00 – 18:00 2017 A&B FILM FILMOGRAPHY AND STAR SIGNING CONFERENCE
‘BELT & TV ROAD — MOVIE & TV BUSINESS INFINITY’ FORUM
Venue Galaxy Theatre,
Venue Theatre 2, HKCEC Organisers Movie
Organiser A&B Film-TV-
Producers and Distributors Association of Hong Kong Limited, HKFDC, HKTDC Languages Cantonese, Mandarin, English 14:30 – 15:30 SHARING BY ANDREW HEVIA, CO-PRODUCER OF OSCAR-WINNING BEST PICTURE ‘MOONLIGHT’
Hall 1, HKCEC OTT International Languages Cantonese, Mandarin, English 17:00 – 17:50 FILM PROJECTS IN 2017 — PRESENTED BY CHINA 3D DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT LTD Venue Starlight Theatre,
Hall 1, HKCEC Organiser China 3D Digital
Venue Galaxy Theatre,
Entertainment Limited
Hall 1, HKCEC Organiser HKTDC
Languages Cantonese,
Mandarin, English
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HAF PROFILES
SCREENINGS, PAGE 20
Chantou
The Grassland Of Narangerel
The Rocks Of Hua Lamphong
Dir Grant Scicluna
Dir Ying Weiwei
Dir JD Chua
Project’s country of origin Australia
Project’s country of origin China
Project’s country of origin Singapore
Australian director Grant Scicluna is now working on the script of Chantou, the story of a gay couple who discover their adopted child is the victim of human trafficking. They travel to Cambodia to meet with the girl’s birth mother, who has been searching for her, while tensions and the moral dilemma of deciding the child’s fate mount. Scicluna made his feature directorial debut with Downriver, a queer thriller that screened at Melbourne in 2015 and went on to play Toronto in 2016. “I was looking for something that was heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time,” says Scicluna of Chantou, which will be shot in Siem Reap, Cambodia and Melbourne, Australia. He is working with co-writer Ben Pfeiffer, who brought Scicluna the first draft based on an idea he had after volunteering in Phnom Penh. “It’s such a heartbreaking situation that all involved find themselves in, but it’s also about resilience and the power of spirit,” says Scicluna. “It has got some wonderful characters and has a real chance to connect with actors and be performance-driven. That really attracts me.” The film is produced by Jannine Barnes of Happening Films. Her credits include Downriver and Berlinale short The Wilding (2012), and she was named one of Screen International’s Future Leaders in 2015. Film Victoria has provided $20,000 to develop the screenplay, and the production plans to access Screen Australia’s production rebate of 40% cash flowed by Fulcrum Media Finance. Jean Noh
Ying Weiwei’s new documentary focuses on a herdsman who leads a simple nomadic life with his wife by tending sheep on the beautiful Hulunbuir Grassland in Inner Mongolia. When his traditional life is threatened by a new chemical plant, he musters the courage to sue the factory for the degradation of the grassland ecosystem. “It’s not every day a herdsmen would file a lawsuit, given their low educational level,” suggests Ying. “This is the first that I’ve heard of. This documentary is not only about a particular herdsman’s case, but also about the future of the Mongolians in view of the deteriorating grassland, the disappearing yurts and the nomadic life as well as the conflicts brought by modernism against traditional culture.” The project marks Ying’s first documentary about her ancestors. She was born a Mongolian, but did not set foot on the Hulunbuir Grassland until 2014. She has since made many research trips to the region. Ying’s career as a documentary filmmaker began in 1999 and her credits include The Box, which screened at the Berlinale in 2002, and acclaimed TV documentaries including Lin Qiaozhi and Gai Jiaotian. Producer Zhou Hongbo is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose works include Lotus Ferry, A Journey Of Love and feature film Winter Cicadas. He has previously presented two projects at HAF, documentary Departure in 2013 and thriller Unexpected And Ambiguous in 2015. Yunqiang Pictures is a Shanghai-based production company set up in 2016. Silvia Wong
For his directorial debut, JD Chua plans to tackle a rare genre for Singapore cinema — a road movie combining action and film noir. The Rocks Of Hua Lamphong is about an ex-soldier who is ordered by his debtors to catch a pregnant girl. When they escape together, it sparks off a manhunt from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. “I miss the crime stories of the 1950s to the ’70s,” says Chua. “Films like Bonnie And Clyde, Rififi and Taxi Driver bring out the texture of vice, desperation and rough justice of those times.” Chua wants to return to the genre with a love letter to the films of Walter Hill, John Frankenheimer and his mentor Michael Mann. “I love that while the surroundings have changed, the underbelly of the urban city has not,” he suggests. The young filmmaker travelled to Los Angeles and convinced Mann to take him on as an intern. He worked his way up from production assistant to assistant director. Films he worked on included Blackhat, Ninja: Shadow Of A Tear, Dark Skies, Mechanic: Resurrection and Hitman: Agent 47. Chua’s Singapore works include TV series and viral comedy. His short films Black & White and Bad Throttle screened in several genre festivals. Juan Foo is a veteran producer whose credits include Return To Pontianak and Perth, both directed by Djinn Ong. At HAF, he is looking for a Thai coproducer as The Rocks Of Hua Lamphong will be shot partly in Thailand. Silvia Wong
Chantou
The Grassland Of Narangerel
The Rocks Of Hua Lamphong
Producer Jannine Barnes, Happening Films Budget $1.2m ($340,000 raised from Film Victoria and Fulcrum Media Finance) Contact Jannine Barnes
Producer Zhou Hongbo, Yunqiang Pictures Budget $500,000 Contact Ying Weiwei
Producer Juan Foo, Taipan Films Budget $750,000 ($75,000 raised) Contact Juan Foo
jbarnes@happeningfilms.com
10 Screen International at Filmart March 14, 2017
wwyingfls@qq.com
juanfoo@taipanfilms.com
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Brothers and sons. Betrayal and forgiveness. Meet us at FILMART | March 13-15, 2017 Hall 1, Stand # 1C E14 www.summerside-international.com
HAF PROFILES
I Am A Banana!
The New Wife
Untitled project
Dir Honey B Singh
Dir Shashwati Talukdar
Dir Ida Panahandeh
Project’s countries of origin Singapore, Canada
Project’s country of origin India
Project’s country of origin Japan
Singapore-based Indian-Canadian director Honey B Singh describes herself as a “third-culture kid who grew up in different cultures and adapted them to forge a new identity”. Featuring a “banana” like herself, Singh’s first feature is about a young woman from Canada who travels to Singapore to inherit a shophouse, intending to sell it for quick money. But she falls in love with the neighbourhood. “Her journey of transformation and acceptance of who she is, is a story I wanted to tell because I’ve not seen it anywhere,” Singh explains. “It’s that, with big servings of race politics, gender fluency and cultural identity issues in a witty romantic-comedy package.” The writer-director grew up in Toronto in the 1990s before moving to Singapore, where she has been living for the past 16 years. She studied at the University of Toronto, then NYU Tisch Asia graduate film school in Singapore. Her first short Heer, shot in Punjab, India, won multiple awards including best short film at the London Asian Film Festival. Singh says she has yet to see a great romantic comedy about a woman of colour who is not a damsel in distress. As such, she and her mother Mona Singh founded Honeylove Films as a production company for projects featuring strong female characters. Mona Singh is producing I Am A Banana! with veteran Irish producer Gabrielle Kelly, who was Honey Singh’s mentor at Tisch Asia. Kelly’s credits include All The Queen’s Men, Stag and D.A.R.Y.L. Northvale Capital Partners, a Singapore-based venture capital firm, is backing the project. Silvia Wong
For her first narrative feature project, Shashwati Talukdar is telling a gothic horror story set in the town of Dehradun in the Himalayas. It follows a recently married woman whose peace is shattered by strange occurrences that start to disrupt daily life in her husband’s family home. A clairvoyant then unravels the secrets haunting her respectable new family. A documentary and experimental filmmaker, Talukdar says she was drawn to the horror genre by two incidents: stumbling across a murdered female infant when she was a child in India, and the cathartic experience of watching Takashi Miike’s Audition following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York. “The New Wife is a gothic tale of a woman looking for family, which is a universal theme, but it also has fantastical elements that are rooted in the folkloric traditions of the region,” Talukdar says. The film will be produced by Anjali Panjabi’s Mumbai-based Marvi Films and Talukdar and P Kerim Friedman’s New York-based Four Nine And A Half Pictures. Panjabi has worked as a producer or line producer with directors including Sabiha Sumar, Prashant Bhargava and Sooni Taraporevala. Talukdar previously co-directed feature documentary Please Don’t Beat Me, Sir! with Friedman. The film, about a stigmatised Indian tribe seeking social change through theatre, had its world premiere at Busan in 2011. Based between Taiwan, India and the US, Talukdar has also directed narrative and documentary shorts and experimental films. Liz Shackleton
Iranian film-maker Ida Panahandeh’s adaptation of a William Shakespeare play is the latest feature to be greenlit by the NARAtive initiative of Nara International Film Festival (NIFF), the biennial, autumnal event in the ancient Japanese city. Under the initiative, the festival invites the winner of its Shika Award, the top prize of its international competition for first and second-time directors, to shoot a film in Nara and its surrounding countryside. Panahandeh picked up the honour at the fourth edition last September for her debut feature Nahid. The NARAtive initiative looks to generate films that capture Nara and its people, which can then be handed on to future generations. It also looks to nurture a sense of community, encourage cultural exchange and promote the region’s beauty around the world. Five films have come to fruition since the launch of NIFF and the NARAtive initiative in 2010. These include Cuban director Carlos M Quintela’s The Wolves Of The East, starring Tatsuya Fuji as a former sailor who heads into the forest to track down a lone wolf, and Korean filmmaker Jang Kun-jae’s A Midsummer’s Fantasia. The screenplay for Panahandeh’s project has yet to be completed and no cast has been set, but it is expected to shoot between October this year and early 2018. Little is known about the piece other than it takes its inspiration from a work by Shakespeare. Melanie Goodfellow
I Am A Banana!
The New Wife
Untitled project
Producers Gabrielle Kelly, Mona Singh, Honeylove Films Budget $500,000 ($125,000 raised from Northvale Capital Partners) Contact Michael Commiskey
Producers Anjali Panjabi Production companies
Producer Nara International Film Festival Budget $500,000 ($100,000 raised) Contact Ruth Linton
mike@northvalecapital.com
12 Screen International at Filmart March 14, 2017
Marvi Films (India), Four Nine And A Half Pictures (US) Budget $653,500 ($85,000 raised) Contact Anjali Panjabi films.marvi@gmail.com
kie.ruth@gmail.com
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HAF PROFILES
The Goddess
Man On the Dragon
Rainbow Mountain
Restore Point
Dir Sobel Chan
Dir Sunny Chan
Dir Degena Yun
Dir Robert Hloz
Hong Kong
Project’s country of origin
Hong Kong
Project’s country of origin
Project’s country of origin China
Hong Kong director Sobel Chan’s latest project is a modern remake of 1934 Chinese classic silent film The Goddess, which starred legendary actress Ruan Lingyu. The new version will be a thriller set in contemporary Hong Kong and touch on issues such as Hong Kong’s pressurecooker education system and social issues about mainland immigrants. It will echo the storyline of the original film, in which a woman works as a prostitute to support her child. The 21st-century version will depict how education has become the daughter’s ticket to a brighter future, only for problems to occur when both mother and daughter fall for the daughter’s tutor. “The subject matter is controversial given the student suicide rates in Hong Kong in recent years,” says Chan. “The remake is not a literary film but a thriller with a multi-layer narrative. I hope to present a cautionary tale that brings light into our dark society.” Chan is a film scholar who teaches at Hong Kong Baptist University’s Academy of Film. His comedy League Of HK Movie Heroes was selected for the HAF/Fox Chinese Film Development Award in 2013. He recently completed a 10-minute short film, also called The Goddess. Chan is producing the project through his Silver Screens production outfit. Silvia Wong
Having established himself as a leading screenwriter and newspaper columnist, Sunny Chan is readying his directorial debut. Man On The Dragon is a comedy drama about five middle-aged underdogs who risk all by entering a dragon boat contest. With the dragon boat as the backdrop — a rare theme for Hong Kong films — Chan wants to pay tribute to life’s real heroes, who do not necessarily appear onscreen or shed blood and tears for glory. “What does it take to be a true hero? To me, whoever has the courage to overcome challenges, take on lifelong responsibilities and never stop pushing limits,” Chan says. He has been developing the story for the past 12 years, with a screenplay first completed in 2005. The malecentric story, which focuses on the emotions of men, is a departure from his previous work as a screenwriter, which often had a strong female perspective. Chan’s previous screenplays include Diva: Ah Hey, Funeral March and Love Undercover and its sequels, all of which are directed by Joe Ma. Ma is producing Man On The Dragon with Jacqueline Liu, whose recent producing credits include Plastic City and Wild City. International sales are being handled by Hong Kong-based One Cool Film Production. Silvia Wong
This project from Beijing-based director Degena Yun follows a young Mongolian woman who falls pregnant after a onenight stand. When she decides to keep the child against her husband’s wishes, she returns to the grassland and gets to know an elderly Mongolian noblewoman, a descendant of Genghis Khan. The two women find they have much in common despite their very different lives. “We’ve seen films with interconnected stories, but it’s probably the first time with this subject matter, the interwoven stories of two Mongolian women from different generations,” says Yun, who was born in Inner Mongolia. After co-directing Latitude 52 with Leon Du, Yun made her solo directorial feature debut in 2015 with A Simple Goodbye. She also stars in that film as an estranged daughter who accompanies her dying father during his final days. The film was awarded the Spirit of Asia award at Tokyo, best screenplay at Torino and best film at the First International Film Festival in Xining. Headed by Mongolian director Mailisi, Beijing Mailisi Film & Culture is producing Rainbow Mountain. The company’s credits include A Simple Goodbye and Zhang Dalei’s Summer Is Gone, which was named best film at last year’s Golden Horse Awards. Zhang Yang, the director of Shower, Sunflower and Paths Of The Soul, is the producer on Rainbow Mountain. Silvia Wong
Restore Point is a sci-fi crime thriller set 30 years in the future, when victims of unnatural deaths can be resurrected if they have backed up their memories to the Restore Point, for which the film is named. Czech director Robert Hloz is now developing the script for what he hopes will be his feature directorial debut, with backing from the Czech State Cinematography Fund. An award-winning shorts director, Hloz was so taken by the films of South Korean director Park Chan-wook — particularly Old Boy, Sympathy For Lady Vengeance and JSA: Joint Security Area, that he decided to study film directing at Hanyang University in South Korea. “I really like those kinds of hybrid genre films because they are great in connecting poetry with real genre filmmaking, which for me was really missing in European cinema,” Hloz explains. For Restore Point, he envisions a film that takes place in a central European country, “In an old city that is a mixture of the future and old architecture and a society which is kind of boiling there [with fear of the unknown].” The film is being produced by Film Kolektiv, whose credits include multiple Czech Lion Award winner The Snake Brothers and NorwayCzech Republic co-production King Of Christmas. Jean Noh
The Goddess
Man On the Dragon
Rainbow Mountain
Restore Point
Producer Sobel Chan, Silver Screens Budget $506,250 ($255,000 raised) Contact Sobel Chan
Producers Joe Ma, Jacqueline Liu, One Cool Film Production Budget $2,000,000 ($300,000 raised) Contact Karina Chow tszkwan@ onecoolfilm.com
Producers Zhang Yang, Beijing Mailisi Film & Culture Budget $1.5m ($300,000 raised) Contact Degena Yun degena@qq.com
Producers Jan Kallista, Film Kolektiv Budget $1.2m ($123,000 raised from
sobelchan@hotmail.com
14 Screen International at Filmart March 14, 2017
Project’s country of origin Czech
Republic
the production company and Czech State Cinematography Fund) Contact Arkaitz Basterra arkaitzbasterra@gmail.com
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Asian Film Market October 14-17, 2017
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Early-bird Starts From JULY 1st Market Badge for $100 | Sales Booth for $1,150 For more information: www.asianfilmmarket.org market @ asianfilmmarket.org
HOT PROJECTS SOUTH KOREA
Korean craft With South Korean titles finding huge success at both international festivals and cinemas, all eyes are on a line-up of new projects from the territory. Jean Noh reports
I
nternational sales of South Korean films enjoyed a record-breaking year in 2016, reaching $43.8m, up 49% from 2015, according to KOFIC. This year has started off steadily with auteur films such as Hong Sangsoo’s On The Beach At Night Alone, which screened to much acclaim in Competi-
tion at the Berlinale for sales company Finecut. There was brisk business at the European Film Market on South Korean films of all genres including Na Hyun’s thriller The Prison (Showbox) and Kim Tae Yun’s crime drama New Trial (Mirovision), which both sold to major ter-
ritories. Meanwhile, India’s Reel Life Production bought remake rights to CJ Entertainment’s period epic Ode To My Father, directed by JK Youn. Now sales companies are looking to build on this momentum at Filmart with a dynamic raft of South Korean titles.
Midnight Runners
16 Screen International at Filmart March 14, 2017
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Room No. 7
(also known as D.O. from the K-pop group EXO). Doh plays a part-time employee at a ‘DVD room’ (a small room where paying customers can watch films in private), who hides a shipment of narcotics there in exchange for having a debt cancelled. But when he goes to retrieve the drugs, he finds the door to the room has been locked by his employer, who has hidden a dead body inside. A dangerous battle of wits ensues. Now in post-production, the film is set for release in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Happy Bus Day
Happy Bus Day Dir Lee Seung-won After his award-winning feature directorial debut with Communication & Lies, which screened at Busan, Rotterdam and Karlovy Vary in 2015, Lee Seungwon returns with black comedy Happy Bus Day. Starring Seo Gap-suk (Bongja), Kim Sun-young and Lee Juwon, the film follows a family that gathers at their mother’s house to celebrate the eldest son’s birthday. Nicknamed ‘Monster’, the mentally and physically disabled man is treated like an animal by the family, who all agree it is time to (illicitly) put him to sleep. Forced by their mother to each spend 10 minutes with Monster as the poison runs through his body, the family members start revealing more secrets and horrors.
Contact Lotte Entertainment international@lotte.net
V.I.P. Dir Park Hoon-jung
Ordinary Person
Ordinary Person
Room No. 7
Dir Kim Bong-han
Dir Lee Yong-seung A black-comedy thriller directed by Lee Yong-seung (10 Minutes), Room No. 7 stars Shin Ha-kyun and Doh Kyung-soo
Jason Kim’s action comedy stars Park Seo-jun, best known for The Beauty Inside and TV series She Was Pretty, and Kang Ha-neul, whose credits include New Trial and DongJu: The Portrait Of A Poet. They play two police academy recruits who aren’t so interested in duty and justice, but become best buddies during the tough training. When they witness the kidnap of a woman and the police pay little attention, they take matters into their own hands. Now in postproduction, the film is set for local release in May.
Set in 1987 when democracy was on the cusp of overthrowing South Korea’s military dictatorship, Ordinary Person stars Son Hyun-joo as major crimes unit detective Seong-jin. Jang Hyuk plays the petty criminal whom Seong-jin is shocked to find out is supposedly an infamous serial killer. With a sick son to support, the detective is compelled to help a National Security Agency official fabricate evidence to manipulate public sentiment. But he is thrown into further crisis and danger when his friend, a journalist, dies under suspicious circumstances and he investigates. Set for local release on March 23, Ordinary Person makes its market screening debut at Filmart.
Contact Lotte Entertainment international@lotte.net
Contact United Pictures hana@upictures.co.kr
Contact M-line Distribution sales@mline-distribution.com
Midnight Runners Dir Jason Kim
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A crime thriller directed by Park Hoonjung, best known for New World and The Tiger, V.I.P. stars Jang Dong-gun, Kim Myung-min, Park Hee-soon and Lee Jong-suk. When a North Korean defector — the son of a key political figure — turns out to be a prime suspect in a serial murder case, a national intelligence agent, a detective and a North Korean officer all collide in their attempts to capture him. Presented by Warner Bros Pictures in Korea, the film is produced by Gold Moon Film. Now in post-production, V.I.P. features Korean and English dialogue. Contact Finecut s cineinfo@finecut.co.kr n
V.I.P
March 14, 2017 Screen International at Filmart 17
HOT PROJECTS JAPAN
Battle ready
T
he huge success of Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name highlights how anime continues to be Japan’s international calling card, despite the on-off retirement of anime master Hayao Miyazaki. Released in Japan in August 2016, Your Name has grossed around $340m worldwide, including $218m in its home market, $80m in China and $25m in South Korea. Sold to 126 international territories, the film has also had theatrical openings in the UK, France, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. It will next open in North America and Spain on April 7. Toho is hoping to replicate some of that success with animated feature Fireworks: Should We See It From The Side Or The Bottom?, directed by Shaft Inc’s Akiyuki Shinbo and produced by Your Name producer Genki Kawamura. Filmart attendees will be able to hear more about Japanese anime at the Digital Entertainment Summit tomorrow, where Kawamura is a keynote speaker. Outside of animation, Japan’s major studios and broadcasters continue to focus on manga and novel adaptations with big-name directors and stars. Toho is also introducing a live-action feature based on bestselling manga Ajin: Demi-Human at Filmart, which brings together talent from the Bayside Shakedown and Rurouni Kenshin series, while Takashi Miike has two manga adaptations in the works: HanWay Films’ Blade Of The Immortal and TBS’s Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Award-winning filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Tokyo Sonata, Creepy) has turned to theatre for his latest project, Before We Vanish, a d a p t e d f r o m To m o h i r o Maekawa’s science fiction-themed play about an alien invasion. France’s Wild Bunch and Japan’s Nikkatsu are handling sales. Meanwhile, news recently surfaced that Miyazaki is working on a new film at Studio Ghibli, thought to be a feature-length version of his CGI short Boro The Caterpillar, suggesting he’s been convinced to come out of retirement yet again. Whatever the film turns out to be, it is guaranteed to garner a huge amount of international attention.
Aliens, cursed samurai, spooky children and serial killers are among the enticing line-up of protagonists for Japan’s upcoming projects. Liz Shackleton reports
Mukoku
Ajin: Demi-Human Dir Katsuyuki Motohiro Toho is at Filmart unleashing an adaptation of bestselling manga Ajin: DemiHuman, about a subspecies of humans that cannot be killed. The sci-fi action drama is directed by Katsuyuki Motohiro, best known for the Bayside Shakedown series, and has a cast headed by Takeru Satoh, star of the Rurouni Kenshin series. In post for a September release, the film also stars Go Ayano (Rage), Tetsuji Tamayama (Lupin The Third) and Yu Shirota (The Prince Of Tennis). Contact Akihiro Takeda, Toho a_takeda@toho.co.jp
Before We Vanish Dir Kiyoshi Kurosawa Based on a play written by Tomohiro Maekawa, the latest film from Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a new take on the alieninvasion genre, reinvented as a human tale of mystery and love. Currently in post-production, the film tells the story of a woman in a loveless marriage, who is puzzled by her husband’s behaviour, until he reveals he is an alien who has possessed her husband’s body. The cast is headed by Masami Nagasawa (Our Little Sister), Ryuhei Matsuda (The
18 Screen International at Filmart March 14, 2017
Ajin: Demi-Human
Great Passage) and Hiroki Hasegawa (Shin Godzilla). Asia contact Emico Kawai, Nikkatsu kawai@nikkatsu.co.jp RoW contact Olivier Barbier, Wild Bunch obarbier@wildbunch.eu
Blade Of The Immortal Dir Takashi Miike UK producer Jeremy Thomas’s Recorded Picture Company (RPC) is reteaming with Takashi Miike on this action drama about a samurai cursed with immortality. Adapted from Hiroaki Samura’s hit manga, the film stars
Takuya Kimura (2046), Hana Sugisaki, Ebizo Ichikawa and Min Tanaka. Japan’s OLM Production is producing with RPC. Warner Bros Japan will release the film locally on April 29. Contact Anna Chettle, HanWay Films ac@hanwayfilms.com
Fireworks, Should We See It From The Side Or The Bottom? Dirs Akiyuki Shinbo, Nobuyuki Takeuchi Based on a TV series created by director Shunji Iwai (A Bride For Rip Van
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Memoirs Of A Murderer (inset below) and Little Nightmares
oir about the murders he has committed. Scripted by Irie and Kenya Hirata, the film is scheduled for Japanese release on June 10. Irie’s credits include award-winning dramas 8,000 Miles (2009) and thriller Joker Game (2015). Contact Naoko Satoh, Nippon TV satohn.stf@ntv.co.jp
Mukoku Dir Kazuyoshi Kumakiri
Contact Akihiro Takeda, Toho a_takeda@toho.co.jp
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Dir Takashi Miike Filmed almost entirely in Sitges, Spain, Takashi Miike’s adaptation of popular manga Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure stars Kento Yamazaki (Your Lie In April), Nana Komatsu (The World Of Kanako) and Ryunosuke Kamiki (Bakuman). The film is set in a picturesque seaside town, disturbed by a series of strange occurrences, which appear to be the handiwork of local residents with supernatural powers. In post-production, the film is scheduled for Japanese release on August 4. Contact Yuhka Matoi, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television Inc (TBS) yuhka@green.tbs.co.jp
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Little Nightmares Dir Takashi Shimizu The latest project from horror meister Takashi Shimizu, director of The Grudge series, is set in a suburban town rocked by a series of child disappearances and subsequent suspicious deaths of their guardians. A reporter refuses to believe that children are killing adults and begins to investigate. Scheduled for release in June, the film stars singer-actors Hideaki Takizawa and Daiki Arioka, along with Mugi Kadowaki, who won the best new actress prize at the 2015 Kinema Junpo awards for Love’s Whirlpool. Contact Shion Komatsu, Shochiku shion_komatsu@shochiku.co.jp
Memoirs Of A Murderer Dir Yu Irie Starring Tatsuya Fujiwara from the Death Note franchise and Hideaki Ito (TerraFormars), Yu Irie’s drama revolves around a serial killer who is never apprehended and 22 years after his crimes announces his intention to write a mem-
Go Ayano and rising star Nijiro Murakami star in this contemporary action drama about a former Kendo champion. Now an alcoholic security guard following a tragic accident, he encounters a high-school student with natural skills in the Japanese martial art. Based on a novel by Shu Fujisawa, the film is directed by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri who won several awards for My Man (2014) and Sketches Of Kaitan City (2010). The Japanese release is scheduled for June. Asia contact Konomi Sasaki, CREi konomi@crei.co.jp RoW contact Kino Films maki-shimizu@kinofilms.jp
This music-themed drama stars Mei Nagano (Rurouni Kenshin) and Ai Hashimoto (Confessions) in the story of a high-school girl searching for a woman mentioned in a love letter written by her late father. She eventually discovers the woman has also died but has a musical connection to her father. Directed by Natsuki Seta (A Liar And A Broken Girl), the film recently received its world premiere as the closing film at the Osaka Asian Film Festival. Contact Fongyi Tseng, Stardust Pictures so@stardustpictures.co.jp
Stray Nightingale Dir Hidenori Inoue Japanese theatre company Village Inc and its Geki Cine label produce filmed versions of the company’s acclaimed stageplays using multiple HD cameras, surround sound and high-end post-production. Its latest sell-out production, Stray Nightingale, has been re-edited for international audiences and will receive a market screening at Filmart. Contact Hiroyuki Hata, Village Inc hata@village-inc-jp
Mumon: The Land Of Stealth
What A Wonderful Family 2
Dir Yoshihiro Nakamura The latest work from one of Japan’s most versatile filmmakers, Mumon: The Land Of Stealth is a period drama based on Ryo Wada’s novel Shinobi No Kuni, about the showdown between a warlord and a rebellious ninja clan. Starring Satoshi Ohno, Satomi Ishihara and Yusuke Iseya, the film is in post-production for Japanese release in July. Contact Yuhka Matoi, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television Inc (TBS) yuhka@green.tbs.co.jp
Dir Natsuki Seta
Dir Yoji Yamada The cast of Yoji Yamada’s 2016 hit comedy drama What A Wonderful Family!, including Satoshi Tsumabuki (The Assassin) and Yu Aoi (Tokyo Family), return for this sequel, which is in post-production. The story picks up several years after the first film, with the family growing concerned about the safety of their father. Contact Shion Komatsu, Shochiku s shion_komatsu@shochiku.co.jp n
March 14, 2017 Screen International at Filmart 19
2017 Memoirs of a Murderer Film Partners
Winkle), this animated feature is produced by Genki Kawamura, who was behind last year’s recordbreaking animation hit Your Name. Directed by Akiyuki Shinbo of the Shaft Inc animation studio and Nobuyuki Takeuchi, who has worked with Studio Ghibli, the film tells the story of two boys and a girl whose fates are intertwined. Hitoshi One (Bakuman) adapted Iwai’s original story.
Parks
SCREENINGS Edited by Paul Lindsell
paullindsell@gmail.com
10:00
BUS TIMETABLE UA CINE TIMES, CAUSEWAY BAY
ALL THE BEAUTY
(Norway) Drama. 91mins. Pluto Film Distribution Network. Dir: Aasne Vaa Greibrokk. Key cast: Ann Eleonora Jorgensen, Magnus Krepper, Andrea Braein Hovig. Sarah visits David at his summer house, 10 years after their upsetting breakup. He wants her to help finish his play but she wants him to abandon it when he tells her it is about their relationship.
ROUTE A HKCEC to TIMES SQUARE (SHARP STREET EAST, CAUSEWAY BAY) 09:40, 11:35, 12:15, 13:45, 15:35, 16:05 ROUTE B TIMES SQUARE (SHARP STREET EAST, CAUSEWAY BAY) to HONG KONG CONVENTION & EXHIBITION CENTRE 11:50, 12:30, 13:55, 15:15, 16:05
Meeting Rooms N104-N105, HKCEC
ALMOST COMING, ALMOST DYING
(Japan) Comedy. 90mins. Gaga Corporation. Dir: Toshimasa Kobayashi. Celebrating his successful return as a teacher after being out of work for many years, Manabu goes to a massage parlour to treat himself on New Year’s Eve. Just as he is about to reach climax, he is suddenly struck by a severe headache and, to his embarrassment, is sent to hospital naked. He is diagnosed with a brain hemorrhage and needs to have surgery, but his main concern relates to the shameful fact of where he was when he fell ill — a fact his family demands to know. Meeting Room N201B, HKCEC
FILMART 10:00 LOVE AND OTHER CULTS
(Japan) Comedy. 95mins. SDP. Dir: Eiji Ushida. Key cast: Sairi Ito, Kenta Suga, Kaito Yoshimura, Ami Tomite, Denden. Ai is sent to a commune by her religious maniac mother and lives there for seven years. After the cult is exposed by the police, Ai attends a normal school for the first time but can’t fit in. She drops out of education and society. In a strange twist
DAPHNE
of fate she finds herself living with a middle-class family, but her troubled life continues to lead her into more deep and seedy paths. The only person who understands Ai is another cast-off from society, Ryota, who is in love with her. Ryota lives in a shady world but wants a normal life. A black comedy depicting the lives of modern youths and their struggles. Meeting Room N101B, HKCEC
APR-21
(Hong Kong) Animation. 4mins. Hong Kong Arts Centre. Dir: Jessica Poon Yin-tung. An extended graphical metaphor that compares cubical shapes to anxiety.
of a whole country. And she did all this with a book. Three different stages in life: one character, one book and many adventures and obstacles.
Meeting Rooms N209-N210, HKCEC
Meeting Rooms N204-N205, HKCEC
THE ART OF LOVING
BEHIND THE SCHOOLBAG
(Poland) Drama. 120mins. Be For Films. Dir: Maria Sadowska. Key cast: Magdalena Boczarska, Piotr Adamczyk, Justyna Wasilewska, Eryk Lubos. The story of Michalina Wislocka, a woman who achieved the impossible. Disposing of conservative stereotypes and pervasive ignorance, Wislocka revolutionised the sex lives
(Hong Kong) Animation. 10mins. Hong Kong Arts Centre. Dir: Ho Chu-yu. A story about selfsalvation. Having suffered from a miserable childhood, Shaun could not help but question his own values. Human relationships have always been his barrier. Sometimes he wishes he could remain alone but, in reality, Shaun
20 Screen International at Filmart March 14, 2017
has to re-enter society. But safe in his comfort zone, he can lock up his heart and distance himself from others.
(UK) Drama. 87mins. The Bureau Sales. Dir: Peter Mackie Burns. Key cast: Emily Beecham, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Geraldine James. Daphne is caught in the daily rush of her restaurant job and a nightlife kaleidoscope of new faces. She is witty, funny, the life of the party, but deep down Daphne is not happy. Busy fending off her mother’s attempts to get closer to her, she is stuck in a rut and can’t move forward. When she saves the life of Benny, a shopkeeper stabbed during a robbery, her impenetrable armour begins to crack.
MOKSHA
UA Cine Times, house 2
LOVE AND OTHER CULTS
Meeting Rooms N209-N210, HKCEC
UA Cine Times, house 1
IN THIS CORNER OF THE WORLD (KONO SEKAI NO KATASUMI NI)
BLACK HOLLOW CAGE
(Japan) Action/adventure. 129mins. Genco. Dir: Sunao Katabuchi. Anime chronicling a woman’s life in Japan during the Second World War.
Meeting Rooms N109-N110, HKCEC
Meeting Room N201A, HKCEC
(Hong Kong) Documentary. 13mins. Hong Kong Arts Centre. Dir: Kwok Hon Fan. In September 2014, the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement broke out in Hong Kong, asking for Western democracy from Communist China. This film captures different kinds of people involved in this revolution that was deemed impossible to succeed.
Meeting Rooms N209-N210, HKCEC
(Spain) Sci-fi. 105mins. Reel Suspects. Dir: Sadrac Gonzalez-Perellon. Key cast: Lowena MacDonell, Julian Nicholson. A girl who lives in a secluded house in the woods with only her father and a wolfhound for company finds a mysterious device that can change the past.
138mins. Toho Co. Dir: Keishi Otomo. Key cast: Ryunosuke Kamiki. The bestselling comic is made into a live-action film. Set in Japan as it faces a historic turning point leading up to the Tokyo Olympics, the first of the two-part work will tell the story of ‘today’ as the protagonist finds the strength to stand on his own two feet, and the second will tell the story of ‘tomorrow’ as he begins to live a new life with the people he loves.
See box, above
MR & MRS ADELMAN MARCH COMES IN LIKE A LION
(Japan) Action/adventure.
(France) Romance. 120mins. Le Pacte. Dir: Nicolas Bedos.
Key cast: Nicolas Bedos, Doria Tillier. When Sarah meets Victor, back in 1971, she has no idea they will spend the next 45 years together, sharing a life filled with passion, sorrows and surprises. This film follows the odyssey of an extraordinary couple. Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC
ON THE BEACH AT NIGHT ALONE
(Korea) Drama. 101mins. Finecut Co Ltd. Dir: Hong Sangsoo. Key cast: Kim Minhee, Seo Younghwa, Jung Jaeyoung, Moon Sungkeun, Kwon Haehyo, Song Seonmi, Ahn Jaehong, Park Yeaju. An actress wanders around a seaside town, pondering her relationship with a married man. Theatre 2, HKCEC
ROOM 213
(Sweden) Adventure, mystery, horror. 80mins. Media Luna New Films. Dir: Emelie Lindblom. Key cast: Wilma Lundgren, Ella Fogelström, Elena Hovsepyan. Summer vacation after sixth grade and Elvira, 12, is going to camp. She and her roommates Meja and Bea will stay in room 213 — where no one has lived for 60 years. Soon inexplicable events occur. A letter in an ancient handwriting leads the girls to an old lady in a rundown house in the » www.screendaily.com
SCREENINGS
woods. The lady tells them a girl died at the camp 60 years ago and since then a red-haired girl in a white dress has been sneaking around in the corridors at night. Meeting Rooms N111-N112, HKCEC
SHEAR MARKS
(Hong Kong) Animation. 9mins. Hong Kong Arts Centre. Dir: Lam Ho-tak, Kwok Man-ho, Ng Kaichung. The lines marked on the lamppost, which records the height of Chi, carry his childhood memories in the era of resettlement. The frivolousness of youth, the incipient love, the past with little regrets, reappear in his mind’s eye like a flash of light, lighting up the passionate childlike innocence of his heart. Meeting Rooms N209-N210, HKCEC
SISTER OF MINE
(Spain) Drama. 94mins. Stray Dogs. Dir: Pedro Aguilera. Oliver, a film director, discovers on an erotic website that the protagonist of one of the videos is his half-sister, Aurora. In the
process of finding out what she was doing there, Oliver becomes fascinated by her. Meeting Rooms N102-N103, HKCEC
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
(Hong Kong) Drama. 15mins. Hong Kong Arts Centre. Dir: Michelle Hung Tsz-ching. Follow Alice down the rabbit hole as she falls through the other side of the mirror world. Meeting Rooms N209-N210, HKCEC
WIND RIVER See box, below
11:50 HANDLE WITH CARE
(Norway) Action/ adventure. 100mins. Films Distribution. Dir: Arild Andresen. Kjetil, a Norwegian offshore worker, is a recent widower, now left alone to take care of his adopted son, Daniel. Unable to deal with his role as a single parent, Kjetil decides to take Daniel back to Colombia, where a taxi driver helps him look for his biological mother. Meeting Rooms N111-N112, HKCEC
12:00 I CAN QUIT WHENEVER I WANT MASTERCLASS
(Italy) Comedy. 119mins. Fandango. Dir: Sydney Sibilia. The most highly cultured gang of criminals of all time are back in an epic trilogy. Something we hadn’t realised has already taken place. And they are coming back to protect us. Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC
LIFE BEYOND ME
(France, Uruguay) Drama. 95mins. The Bureau Sales. Dir: Olivier Peyon. It’s been four years since Sylvie’s son Felipe was abducted by his father Pablo after their divorce. Having been let down by French officials who had succeeded in finding them, only to let them escape again, Sylvie has decided to take matters into her own hands. UA Cine Times, house 1
THE MONSTER (ORIGINAL TITLE: RAAKSHAS)
(India) Drama. 115mins. HKIFF. Dir: Dnyanesh Zoting. Key cast: Saie Tamhankar, Sharad
FILMART 10:00 WIND RIVER
(US) Thriller. 118mins. Voltage Pictures. Dir: Taylor Sheridan. Key cast: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Jon Bernthal, Graham Greene. Cory Lambert is a tracker and hunter who discovers the frozen body of a
teenage girl. He teams up with rookie FBI agent Jane Banner and tribal Police Chief Ben Shoyo to track down those responsible for the grisly crime. The deeper Cory, Jane and Ben delve into the investigation, the more they put their own lives at risk. Hong Kong Arts Centre cinema
»
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SCREENINGS
Kelkar, Rujuta Deshpande. Munni, aged eight, loves fairy tales. Her father, Avinash is making a documentary on the tribal protests against a township project. One day Munni accompanies him to visit the tribe. Here, she finds a fairy-tale book named ‘The Raakshas’ (Monster). On reading the story, she believes the monster lives in the forest. Munni and Avinash return to Mumbai. Soon Avinash is required to visit the tribe again. Munni, fearing the monster, asks him not to go but Avinash leaves only to go missing the very next day. An ancient tribal myth unfolds.
THE YOUNG KARL MARX
(France) Action/ adventure. 118mins. Films Distribution. Dir: Raoul Peck. The early years of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Jenny Marx, between Paris, Brussels and London. Meeting Rooms N111-N112, HKCEC
14:10 JAILBREAK See box, left
LITTLE HARBOUR
(Slovakia ) Drama. 85mins. Loco Films. Dir: Iveta Grofova. A story inspired by true events about two children whose innocent play will change their lives forever.
Meeting Room N101B, HKCEC
THREE LIGHTS
(Japan) Drama. 100mins. Finecut Co Ltd. Dir: Kohki Yoshida. Four people in Tokyo are united by their love of music. Fate brings them together in an abandoned warehouse to work on experimental sounds in an improvised studio. Meeting Room N201B, HKCEC
12:10
Meeting Rooms N102-N103, HKCEC
FILMART 14:10 JAILBREAK
(Cambodia) Action/ adventure. 92mins. Kongchak Pictures. Dir: Jimmy Henderson. Key cast: Jean-Paul Ly, Celine Tran, Dara Our, Tharoth Sam, Savin Phillip. A group of Special Task Force Officers are sent to
Prei Kla prison, where the country’s top criminals are detained. What starts as a simple escort mission will soon turn into chaos as the prisoners take over the prison grounds. Trapped in the building, our four heroes will have to fight their way out for survival or die trying. UA Cine Times, house 1
GORAN
(Croatia) Drama. 86mins. Wide. Dir: Nevio Marasovic. Key cast: Franjo Dijak, Natasa Janjic, Goran Bogdan. Goran lives a simple life surrounded by his friends and family in the snow-covered Croatian highlands. This carefree existence is put to an end when his wife announces she is expecting a child. Meeting Rooms N102-N103, HKCEC
12:15 THE FURLOUGH
(Italy) Drama. 104mins. Intramovies. Dir: Claudio Amendola. Key cast: Luca Argentero, Claudio Amendola, Giacomo Ferrara, Valentina Belle. Luigi, 50, convicted for double murder. Donato, a 30-something innocent convicted to cover up the crimes of his boss. Rossana, 25, a diplomat’s daughter arrested for international drug trafficking. Angelo, 20, a suburban boy convicted of robbery. All of them finally benefit from
a 48-hour furlough. An occasion for redemption for some… a search for vengeance for others.
Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC
for Sachiko, the woman mentioned in a love letter of her late father. She meets Jun, a female university student who loves playing guitar. Jun becomes interested in Haru’s cause and they start to search for Sachiko’s family house where they meet Tokio, Sachiko’s grandson. He tells them Sachiko recently passed away. Later, Tokio finds a tape in Sachiko’s belongings. Apparently, Shinpei and Sachiko used to play music together and the tape contains a song they sang. However, the tape is damaged and they cannot hear it to the end. Tokio, Haru and Jun decide to complete it themselves.
PARKS
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12:30 FELICITE
(France) Drama. 123mins. Jour2fête. Dir: Alain Gomis. Key cast: Vero Tshanda Beya, Papi Mpaka, Gaetan Claudia. Felicite, a strong and proud woman, sings in bars in Kinshasa. She drifts away from reality when her 14-year-old son gets into an accident and wanders in a world of music and dreams... until love unexpectedly brings her back to life.
(Japan) Drama. 118mins. SDP. Dir: Netsuke Seta. Key cast: Ai Hashimoto, Mei Nagano, Shota Sometani. High school girl Haru comes to Kichijoji looking
24 Screen International at Filmart March 14, 2017
12:40 HONEYGIVER AMONG THE DOGS
(Bhutan) Action/ adventure. 132mins. Premium Films. Dir:
Dechen Roder. Key cast: Jamyang Jamtsho Wangchuk, Sonam Tashi Choden. Detective Kinley investigates the case of a missing Buddhist nun and falls into a risky alliance with his only suspect — Choden, an alluring woman known as the village “demoness”. When Kinley realises that Choden’s stories might provide the clues needed to understand the investigation, he might have to surrender to both her charm and a belief in the supernatural. UA Cine Times, house 2
13:00 BODO
(Poland) Drama. 104mins. TVP Polish Public Television. Dir: Michal Kwiecinski. Key cast: Tomasz Schuchardt. The story of Eugeniusz Bodo, the most popular cinema and cabaret star of the interwar period. He was an actor, director, producer, businessman and celebrity who was gossiped about, a star of scandals, loved by women and idolised by men. Meeting Room N201A, HKCEC
13:30 VAMPIRE CLEANUP DEPARTMENT
(Hong Kong) Action/ adventure. 93mins. Entertaining Power Company. Dir: Pak Wing Yan, Sin Hang Chiu. Key
cast: Babyjohn Choi, Lin Min Chen, Chin Siu Ho, Ng Yiu Hon, Yuen Cheung Yan, Bondy Chiu, Law Mon. One night, nerdy Tim Cheung sees a vampire in a dark alley. He is saved by Uncle Chau, who asks Tim to join a secret government organisation call VCD — Vampire Cleanup Department. In his first mission hunting vampires, Tim meets lady vampire Summer. He believes she is harmless to humans, and so hides her in his home, away from VCD. Meanwhile, the ‘Red Moon’ phenomenon draws the most powerful vampire king to rise from his grave. Tim plans to find Uncle Chau to reunite VCD, save Summer and fight against the vampire king. Theatre 1, HKCEC
14:00 THE CHINESE MAYOR
(China) Documentary. 84mins. CNEX Foundation. Dir: Zhou Hao. Once the thriving capital of Imperial China, the city of Datong now lies in near ruins. Not only is it the most polluted city in the country, it is also crippled by decrepit infrastructure and even shakier economic prospects. But Mayor Geng Tanbo plans to change all that, announcing a bold plan to return the city to its former glory. Meeting Room N201B, HKCEC
14:30 ARMED RESPONSE
(US) Action/adventure. 100mins. Voltage Pictures. Dir: John Stockwell. Key cast: Wesley Snipes, Anne Heche, Seth Rollins, Kyle Clements, Dave Annable. A team of highly trained operatives find themselves trapped inside an isolated military compound after its artificial intelligence is suddenly shut down. The crew begin to experience strange and horrific phenomena as they attempt to uncover what killed the previous team. Hong Kong Arts Centre cinema
DREAMS OF NATURE AQUARIUM
(Japan) Documentary. 47mins. Broadcasting System of Niigata. Dir: Asami Naito. Key cast: Takashi Amano. Photographer Takashi Amano (1954-2015) had advocated the importance of environmental protection and is also known as the instigator of ‘Nature Aquarium’, an artwork recreating an ecosystem in an aquarium. This documentary captures his works over seven years. Meeting Rooms N209-N210, HKCEC
THE FLUSH OF DAWN
(Taiwan) Documentary. 93mins. Time Vision Co. Dir: Norman Lin, Chingchung Ma. »
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SCREENINGS
Dir: Leung Lok Ting. Yan dances all the time. Her mum thinks she is wasting her time but Yan’s best friend Muk has a different idea. He thinks Yan can follow her dream. Meeting Rooms N209-N210, HKCEC
THE MISSING
(Hong Kong) Drama. 16mins. Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. Dir: Feng Huiquan. Thomas and Johnny have been best friends since they were little. One day Thomas decides to join the drama club because of a girl. Johnny gives his support. What awaits them is a magical adventure.
FILMART 14:30 THE HANNAS
(Germany) Comedy. 102mins. Pluto Film Distribution Network. Dir: Julia C Kaiser. Key cast: Anna Konig, Till Butterbach, Ines Marie Westernstroer. Anna and Hans, a couple in their 30s, belong
together; so much so all their friends simply call them the Hannas. A new life begins when they meet two sisters with ADHD. They become emotionally entangled and end up putting themselves through the wringer. Meeting Room N101B, HKCEC
Dir: Cyril Mennegun. Key cast: Alexandre Guanse, Corinne Masiero. The decision is made. Daniel goes off on a journey into the forgotten realm of his childhood in order to seek the truth and — who knows? — consolation. Meeting Rooms N102-N103, HKCEC
THE EIGHTH
Documentary about teenagers from Chio Tian Folk Drums & Arts Troupe challenging the notorious Sahara marathon for the first time. Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC
THE HANNAS See box, above
THE HOUSE
(Norway) Horror/ Suspense. 84mins. Reel Suspects. Dir: Reinert Kiil. Key cast: Sondre Krogtoft Larsen, Mats Reinhardt. Follows two German soldiers escorting a Norwegian soldier and prisoner of war. As the Scandinavian winter takes its toll on them, they find a house where they can finally get some rest. However, this turns out to be anything but a welcome shelter.
Be For Films. Dir: Greg Zglinski. Key cast: Birgit Minichmayr, Philipp Hochmair, Mona Petri, Mehdi Nebbou. A collision with a sheep initiates a series of weird experiences for Anna and Nick, which leave them incapable of being certain exactly where they are: in the real world, in their own imaginations — or in someone else’s. Meeting Rooms N204-N205, HKCEC
(Hong Kong) Fiction. 30mins. Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. Dir: Wong Lok Yi, Bow Yin Kwan, Jonathan. When Tak, a middleaged computer technician working in a secondary school, visits a prostitute, he discovers the prostitute is his niece. In a city full of moral standards and rules, where can Tak turn?
Meeting Rooms N209-N210, HKCEC
MY BLOSSOMING SUMMER
UA Cine Times, house 2
(Hong Kong) Drama, youth. 30mins. Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. Dir: Wu Boping. In the summer, when hormones spread in the air, 15-year-old Lan begins to blossom, carrying her little secrets.
JUST DANCE
Meeting Rooms N209-N210, HKCEC
(Hong Kong) Drama, music. 20mins. Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University.
OPENING NIGHT See box, below
SUBSCRIBE
(Hong Kong) Comedy. 22mins. Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. Dir: Shum Ka Pik. An aspiring YouTuber discovers what the people of Hong Kong are interested in — comedy and the misfortune of others. Meeting Rooms N209-N210, HKCEC
WHEN DREAMS END
(Hong Kong) Youth. 32mins. Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. Dir: Wang Shaohan. Meeting Rooms N209-N210, HKCEC
YOUNG & FABULOUS ONE OR TWO THINGS HE KNOWS ABOUT THEM
(Hong Kong) Romance,
(Singapore) Comedy. 105mins. Encore Films. Dir: Michael Woo, Joyce
EYE’M FREE
ANIMALS
CONSOLATION
(Switzerland, Austria, Poland) Drama. 95mins.
(France) Drama. 80mins. Pyramide International.
Meeting Rooms N209-N210, HKCEC
15:00
(South Korea) Comedy. 116mins. M-Line Distribution. Dir: Lee Seung-won. Monster is the eldest son but treated like an animal by the family as he is mentally and physically disabled. When family members gather to celebrate his birthday, they agree to poison him.
Meeting Rooms N209-N210, HKCEC
Meeting Rooms N209-N210, HKCEC
(Hong Kong) Sci-fi. 9mins. Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. Dir: Louise Pau Ching-yee. In the near future: holographic goggles have substituted all electronic devices and those who can afford them have become wholly dependent. Chuck is one of the devoted users. When an incident leaves him deprived of privileges, his classmate offers help but things take a turn for the worse when she cooks up an inventive solution.
Meeting Rooms N109-N110, HKCEC
HAPPY BUS DAY
youth. 30mins. Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. Dir: Zou Qiao. An innocent juvenile staying with his big brother, who is a pimp, gets his first sentimental education from the adult world when he falls in love with a mysterious hooker.
AUTUMN, AUTUMN
(Korea) Drama. 77mins. Bomnae Films. Dir: Jang Woo-jin. Key cast: Woo Ji-hyeon. Jihyun attends an interview in Seoul before taking a train back to his hometown. On the way he sits next to a middle-aged couple. The film soon separates into two stories, one following Jihyun and the other following the couple. Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC
16:00
26 Screen International at Filmart March 14, 2017
FILMART 16:00 OPENING NIGHT
(Japan) Musical. 100mins. ColorBird. Dir: Mai Sakai. Key cast: Nanoka Hara, Rena Matsui. Since her mother’s death, Nanoka has dreamed of being a famous actress just like her. But she struggles to find the time while she is at school and lives
in a small town. Then one day she gets the chance to appear in a play and things begin to change. Another Nanoka, an invisible double, appears to help her and the story of the play has strange echoes of her own life. Nanoka becomes even more confused as reality and fantasy blend. Meeting Room N201B, HKCEC
»
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SCREENINGS
Lee. Key cast: Gurmit Singh, Henry Thia, Quan Yi Fong. A coming-of-age story of teenage friends — Royston, Violet and Hao Ren — who strive against all challenges and obstacles to pursue their dreams. Theatre 1, HKCEC
16:30 THE ACCOMPOURNEY
(Hong Kong) Drama. 21mins. The International Federation of Creativity and Technology — HK Heart. Dir: Chow Po Kit. Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC
BOZZETTO NON TROPPO
(Italy) Documentary. 74mins. Slingshot Films. Dir: Marco Bonfanti. Key cast: Bruno Bozzetto. Takes us into the 79-yearold animation maestro’s world. Meeting Rooms N104-N105, HKCEC
CORPORATE See box, below
DELETE
(Hong Kong) Drama. 10mins. The International
Federation of Creativity and Technology — HK Heart. Dir: Li Chun Sing. Mrs Au opens the door to a man she does not know. He is the Devil pretending to be a investigator, who uses money and greed in exchange for people’s lives. How much money will make her delete the most important people around her? Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC
LOST AND FOUND
(Hong Kong) Drama. 17mins. The International Federation of Creativity and Technology — HK Heart. Dir: Lauushing. Ah Ho rekindles his dream of becoming a singer after meeting terminally ill Ah Shan. Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC
LOST STAR
(Hong Kong) Drama. 15mins. The International Federation of Creativity and Technology — HK Heart. Dir: Poon Tsz Yin. Leo receives a call he thinks is from Anthony, his former classmate. But it is in fact from another person who is
more understanding of Leo than Leo himself, who is planning to rewrite his life. Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC
ONE THOUGHT
(Hong Kong) Drama. 6mins. The International Federation of Creativity and Technology — HK Heart. Dir: So Wing Yiu. The story of a worker engaged in unstable work who buys food every night to distribute to people in need. He also eats dinner with them, chats with them and makes them feel someone is caring for them. Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC
PREJUDICE
(Hong Kong) Drama. 9mins. The International Federation of Creativity and Technology — HK Heart. Dir: Agnes Hou, Leo Chow. Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC
SECRET INGREDIENT
(Macedonia, Greece) Comedy. 104mins. Wide. Dir: Gjorce Stavreski. Key cast: Blagoj Veselinov,
FILMART 16:30 CORPORATE
(France) Drama. 94mins. Indie Sales. Dir: Nicolas Silhol. Key cast: Celine Sallette, Lambert Wilson. Emilie is a bright young workaholic manager in human resources, working for a huge French agro-food company.
Ambitious and dedicated to her job, she is ready to use ruthless methods of management to meet the requirements of her superiors. But one day an employee commits suicide in front of her. Afflicted by the death of her colleague, she realises the company has to take responsibility too. Meeting Rooms N109-N110, HKCEC
»
28 Screen International at Filmart March 14, 2017
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SCREENINGS
Anastas Tanovski, Aksel Mehmet. Vele cannot afford to buy expensive medication for his father, who has cancer. Desperate, he steals marijuana from some criminals, makes a cake with it and gives it to him, hoping it will reduce his pain. His father’s health miraculously improves but Vele is suddenly confronted by their neighbours, who demand the recipe for the “miraculous” cake — and by the criminals who want their drugs back.
Editorial office: Room G202, second floor, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, 1 Expo Drive, Wanchai, Hong Kong Filmart stand: 1E-E21
Editorial Tel +852 2582 8958 Editor Matt Mueller, matt. mueller@screendaily.com Asia editor Liz Shackleton, lizshackleton@gmail.com Reporters Jean Noh, hjnoh2007@gmail.com, Silvia Wong, screenasia@ yahoo.com
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Reviews editor Finn Halligan, finn.halligan@ screendaily.com
THE TASTE OF BETEL NUT
Group head of production and art Mark Mowbray, mark.mowbray@ screendaily.com
(China) Romance. 85mins. HKIFF. Dir: Jia Hu. Key cast: BingRui Zhao, Ye Yue, ShiYu Shen. This little coastal town is a popular surfing spot. People flood in as summer arrives. Li Qi, gentle and goodhearted, works in the local aquarium. Ren Yu, who looks strikingly similar to the late Hong Kong star Leslie Cheung, runs an outdoor karaoke bar. A college student, Bai Ling, comes to town, helping out at her mother’s BBQ stand. The three become involved and gradually swallowed by emotions and desires, when tragedy strikes. UA Cine Times, house 1
16:40 THE VILLAGE OF NO RETURN See box, above
16:45 BRAVE STORM
(Japan) Sci-fi. 83mins. Blast. Dir: Junya Okabe. In the year 2050, mankind is almost extinct on Earth. The last survivors, five Kasuga brothers, plan to use a time machine and exterminate Kyrgyz before he invades Earth. They travel back in time to 2015 with the design data of the Kyrgyz’s giant robot, Black Baron. When the brothers arrive in the past, they contact roboticist Kenichiro Kurenai and start to build their own robot, Red Baron. Meeting Room N101B, HKCEC
Sub-editors Paul Lindsell, Adam Richmond, Richard Young
FILMART 16:40 THE VILLAGE OF NO RETURN
(Taiwan, China) Comedy. 116mins. Ablaze Image. Dir: Chen Yu-Hsun. Key cast: Shu Qi,Wang Qianyuan, Chang Hisao-Chuan, Yo Yang, Lin Mei-Hsiu, Eric Tsang. A mysterious Taoist priest arrives at the
17:00 THE CASE FOR CHRIST
(US) Drama. 126mins. Pure Flix/Quality Flix. Dir: Jonathan M Gunn. Key cast: Mike Vogel, Erika Christensen, Faye Dunaway. When an atheist reporter for the Chicago Tribune learns his wife has become a born-again Christian, he sets out to prove the religion is a cult by interviewing leading apologists, only to discover the truth for himself. Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC
LOVE TO THE POWER OF 4
(Cambodia) Romance. 120mins. PuPrum Enterainment Co. Dir: Sothea Ines. Key cast: Cheky Athiporn, Briya, Mean Sonyta, Kim Saron. Follows four young couples as they strive for their
30 Screen International at Filmart March 14, 2017
remote and isolated Desire Village carrying a magical instrument that can erase one’s memory. Subsequently, all the villagers forget their pasts, living happily ever after, oblivious to the fact a dangerous plot is being hatched behind their backs. Hong Kong Arts Centre cinema
dreams and ambitions, while confronting the tribulations that threaten to shatter their love. Meeting Rooms N204-N205, HKCEC
18:00 PARIS LA BLANCHE
(France, Qatar) Drama. 83mins. Doc & Film International. Dir: Lidia Terki. Key cast: Tassait Mandi, Zahir Bouzerar, Karole Rocher. At the age of 70, Rekia decides to leave her village in Kabylie to go to Paris. All by herself, she travels across the Mediterranean sea to bring her husband, Nour, back home. But her hero, the war veteran, the one that has been providing for his family from abroad for the past 40 years, has become a stranger. Meeting Rooms N102-N103, HKCEC
18:20 TO EACH HIS OWN
(Japan) Action/adventure. 114mins. Kadokawa Corporation. Dir: Izuru Narushima. Key cast: Sota Fukushi, Asuka Kudo, Haru Kuroki. Takashi is under immense pressure to meet his tough sales quota at work. Mentally and physically exhausted, he loses consciousness at a train station and begins to fall from a platform with a train fast approaching. At the last moment he is saved by a man who calls himself Yamamoto and claims to be a childhood friend, but who Takashi has no memory of whatsoever. After meeting the mysterious yet charming man, Takashi rediscovers his cheerful old self and his job performance gradually improves. Then one day, Takashi looks Yamamoto up on the internet and discovers a shocking truth: Yamamoto had died three years earlier. Meeting Room N201A, HKCEC
18:30 SEX COWBOYS
(Italy) Drama. 73mins. Wide. Dir: Adriano Giotti. Key cast: Francesco Maccarinelli, Nataly Beck’s, Federico Rosati, Francesca Renzi. Simone and Marla are
madly in love. They have lots of sex, every day. When they run out of money, they decide to start selling sex. Meeting Rooms N109-N110, HKCEC
THE SUMMER IS GONE
(China) Drama. 110mins. PAD International. Dir: Zhang Dalei. Key cast: Weiyi Kong. In Inner Mongolia in the early 1990s, 12-year-old Xiaolei enjoys summer with his father, who works at a film studio, and his education-minded mother. But life is rapidly changing, as stable jobs at state-owned companies disappear. Theatre 1, HKCEC
18:40 BLUEBEARD
(South Korea) Thriller. 117mins. Lotte Entertainment. Dir: Lee Soo-youn. Dr Seung-hoon sedates his landlord before a medical check-up and the old man begins telling him a convincing murder confession. Sometime later, a young woman’s severed head is discovered at a butcher’s shop run by his landlord’s son, and Seunghoon begins to suspect the landlord and his son are the serial killers.
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