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Emperor slate warms up with Cold Detective

BY LIZ SHACKLETON

Chrysanthemum blossoms for Free Stone Japan’s Free Stone Productions has sold historical drama The Chrysanthemum And The Guillotine (pictured), directed by Takahisa Zeze (Heaven’s Story), to China (Bright East Films).

Based on a little-known story from life in Japan around the time of the Great Kanto earthquake, which destroyed Tokyo in 1923, The Chrysanthemum And The Guillotine explores a romance between a professional lady sumo wrestler and a young anarchist dreaming of a classless society.

The film won the $15,000 Bright East Films award at last year’s Asian Project Market at Busan International Film Festival.

Bright East Films subsequently decided to buy all rights for China. “This is a great kickstart for Japanese films, to have this attention from the China market.

It means if the content is strong enough, we can sell titles even when they’re not yet completed,” said Miyuki Takamatsu, CEO at Free Stone Productions. The film is in post-production.

Jean Noh

Emperor Motion Pictures (EMP) has unveiled a trio of high-profile action pictures, headed by Cold Detective, which reteams frequent Johnnie To collaborator Wai Ka-fai with star Sean Lau Ching-wan.

The action drama is a loose follow-up to award-winning 2007 crime thriller Mad Detective, which starred Lau and was co-directed by Wai and To. The story revolves around the race between two rival sleuths to uncover the identity of an assassin before he strikes again.

Film Constellation has presold New York-set romcom Permission, starring Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens, to mainland China (Red Apollo Media) and South Korea (SYcomad). The deal was negotiated by Yoyo Song of Red Apollo Media and Edward Parodi of Film Constellation at Filmart.

In Permission, Anna and Will are each other’s first kiss, first loves and first and only relationship. But as Will is about to propose, their

between drug lords and the police.

EMP is also producing Patrick Kong’s rom-com Father Vs FatherIn-Law, starring Michelle Wai as a cardiologist who saves the life of a perpetual bachelor, played by Simon Yam. Wai also stars in EMP’s previously announced horror title The Sleep Curse, directed by Herman Yau, which is screening at HKIFF and Udine Far East Film Festival next month. Yau also directed EMP’s 77 Heartbreaks, which received its world premiere at the recent Osaka Asian Film Festival.

T Moment to beef up Cops

BY SILVIA WONG

T Moment, the joint venture between Tai Entertainment’s Visute Poolvoralaks and publicly listed Mono Technology, is launching its debut film Oversize Cops at Filmart.

Scheduled to open in Thailand on March 23, the action comedy is about four porky policemen who have to go through extreme training to lose weight. It is the first feature by directors Chanon Yingyong and Phuwanit Pholdee.

Mono Film, a subsidiary of the Mono Group, is handling international sales here.

Film Constellation gives Permission

BY JEAN NOH

EMP is also reteaming with As The Light Goes Out director Derek Kwok on mystery thriller Schemes In Antiques. The Beijingset film revolves around the search for a Ming Dynasty Buddha relic.

Also new on EMP’s slate is the company’s first collaboration with Jeff Cheung Ka-kit — scriptwriter on Johnnie To’s Life Without Principle. Cheung will direct Dirty On Duty, starring idols Alex Fong and Carlos Chan. The Macau-set thriller follows five cops accused of corruption who are caught in the crossfire

best friend suggests they should date other people before spending the rest of their lives together, leading the duo on an unexpected romantic journey.

Written and directed by Brian Crano, the film also features Gina Gershon, Francois Arnaud, Morgan Spector, David Joseph Craig and Jason Sudeikis.

Film Constellation’s slate includes event documentary David Lynch: The Art Life and Scandinavian horror hit Lake Bodom.

TODAY

Pang Ho Cheung, page 10

NEWS Twenty years on…

HKIFF commemorates the 1997 handover with acclaimed films » Page 4

INTERVIEW Love’s maker Pang Ho Cheung on writing, earthquakes and his romcom threequel Love Off The Cuff » Page 10

Final print daily This is Screen’s final print edition at Filmart 2017. Continue to follow all the news at ScreenDaily.com

Movement has Zhang’s Soul

BY LIZ SHACKLETON

Film Movement has acquired North American rights to Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yang’s Soul On A String. Hong Kong-based Asian Shadows is selling the film, which premiered at last year’s Shanghai International Film Festival, where it won best cinematography, before playing in Toronto, Busan, Chicago and Tallinn.

The film, which Film Movement plans to release in the autumn, follows a Tibetan cowboy who embarks on a mission to return a sacred stone to a holy mountain.

Asian Shadows also handled Zhang Yang’s Paths Of The Soul, which was released in North America by KimStim and Japan by Moviola in summer 2016.

GDH 559 bags Genius deals

Oversize Cop

BY SILVIA WONG

NFDC seals streaming pacts India’s National Film Development Corp (NFDC) has sealed catalogue deals with three of the biggest streaming platforms in India: Amazon Prime Video, JioCinema and Hotstar. The deals include classics such as Gandhi, Salaam Bombay! and Mirch Masala, as well as recent titles Qissa: The Tale Of A Lonely Ghost, directed by Anup Singh, and Gyan Correa’s The Good Road.

Amazon Prime Video, which launched in India in late 2016, has

acquired non-exclusive worldwide rights to 97 NFDC titles, while JioCinema and Hotstar have India rights to 94 and 80 titles respectively. All three platforms have already started onboarding the films.

“Our aim is to work with as many premium platforms as possible to help these classics reach a global audience,” said NFDC head of distribution & syndication Awadhesh Kumar.

Liz Shackleton

Thailand’s GDH 559 has scored a raft of deals at Filmart for Bad Genius, including Cambodia ( Westec Media), Singapore (Golden Village), Indonesia (PT Inter Solusindo), Malaysia (Suraya Filem) and Vietnam (Galaxy). The thriller opens locally in May. The company has also sold A Gift for Hong Kong (Orange Sky Golden Harvest) and Taiwan (Bees Factory). Released in December, the comedy omnibus is directed by Jira Maligool, Nithiwat Tharatorn, Chayanop Boonprakob and Kriangkrai Wachirathamporn.

NEWS

HK festival to mark handover anniversary Duay Klaw

Five Star restores regal docudrama Five Star Production, one of Thailand’s oldest film companies, is breathing new life into Duay Klaw, a 1987 award-winning docudrama that celebrated the 40th anniversary of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s reign in Thailand. Duay Klaw is the only film to feature original music compositions by the king, who died in October. It sees folk singer Jaran Manopet play a farmer who nurtures a rice crop grown from a seed obtained from the King’s Royal Projects.

Five Star has remastered Duay Klaw and the restored version will be re-released in Thailand this year, prior to the king’s cremation ceremony.

Another new title on Five Star’s slate is horror The Lost Case, which has been picked up for Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Silvia Wong

BY LIZ SHACKLETON

This year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) will mark the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from the UK to China with a special focus on major Hong Kong movies of the past 20 years.

The special section, ‘Paradigm Shift: Post-97 Hong Kong Cinema’, kicks off with films such as Fruit Chan’s Made In Hong Kong and Ringo Lam’s Full Alert from the period immediately after the handover, when local cinema was under pressure with box office declining and the mainland market starting to grow.

It then moves on to landmark titles such as Stephen Chow’s

mon mon mon Monsters

Shaolin Soccer (2001), Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs (2002) and Johnnie To’s Election (2005), which all defined Hong Kong cinema in their own way. The series of 20 titles ends with Pang Ho Cheung’s Love In A Puff (2010) and Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster 3D (2013). The focus also includes a seminar with

experts on Hong Kong cinema including Lam Kam-po, Colin Geddes and Stephen Teo. Elsewhere in the programme, Taiwanese filmmaker Giddens Ko’s mon mon mon Monsters, about a group of teenagers who capture a man-eating monster, will close the festival, which as previously announced will open with the third film in Pang’s ‘Love’ trilogy, Love Off The Cuff.

Japanese filmmaker Yuya Ishii’s The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always The Densest Shade Of Blue, which recently premiered in Berlin, will screen at the Awards Gala. Other Berlin titles selected as HKIFF gala premieres include Golden Bear winner On Body And Soul.

Mirovision spends 7 Hours with Lee

BY JEAN NOH

South Korea’s Mirovision has launched sales on political documentary 7 Hours, directed by Lee Sang-ho (The Truth Shall Not Sink With Sewol). The film investigates the seven hours former South Korean president Park Geun-hye was unaccounted for on April 16, 2014 — the day the Sewol ferry sank off the coast of Korea, with the loss of 304 lives.

Park was removed from office last Friday when Korea’s constitutional court ruled on her impeachment over a corruption scandal.

Part of the accusations against her concerned the “missing seven hours” between initial reports of the sinking and her first TV appearance of the day, seemingly ill-informed about the tragedy.

An award-winning investigative TV journalist, Lee’s first theatrical

documentary was The Truth Shall Not Sink With Sewol, co-directed with Ahn Hae-ryong, which gave rise to the censorship storm at Busan International Film Festival where it premiered in 2014.

“I think Lee Sang-ho is about to become the Michael Moore of Korea,” said Jason Chae, head of Mirovision.

In post-production, the film is a Cannes hopeful.

Localisation and originals key for Asia’s OTT platforms, say panel

BY LIZ SHACKLETON

Localising content and producing originals are key to developing OTT platforms in Asia, said speakers on yesterday’s Filmart panel, ‘New Opportunities in the Explosive Growth of Online Entertainment’.

PCCW’s Meg Lee explained the company’s Viu OTT platform offers local-language content in most markets it operates in across Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East. However, Korean dramas that it licenses from Korea’s major broadcasters seem to work almost everywhere.

Dan Zonmani, from Korean platform LINE’s Thai operations,

said K-dramas are gaining traction among the service’s 33 million Thai users. Localisation is still important, however, so the platform produces Thai-language spin-offs around the Korean shows.

Panel speakers also said they deploy different revenue models in different markets, depending on the purchasing power of the local audience. iQiyi’s Yang Xianghua said Chinese streaming platforms have ended their user acquisition phase and are focusing on profit: “Young Chinese viewers are relatively affluent so they’re willing to pay for higher-quality content and don’t like to waste time finding pirate content and watching ads.”

4 Screen International at Filmart March 15, 2017

SF Studio scores sales on Nordic trio

BY JEAN NOH

Swedish sales company SF Studio has sold Danish drama The Man, directed by Charlotte Sieling, to China (Lemontree Media), Mikkel Munch-Fals’ comedy drama Swinger to South Korea (Media­ Soft) and Hallvard Braein’s comedy action film Borning to South Korea (Micon).

Starring Soren Malling, Jakob Oftebro, Ane Dahl Torp and Soren Pilmark, The Man had its world premiere at the recent International Film Festival Rotterdam in the IFFR Live section.

The story is about a wealthy, wellknown artist whose son shows up suddenly, disrupting his comfortable lifestyle and turning out to be the world-famous graffiti artist The Ghost.

Swinger is about 40-year-old Adam who feels his life is over until he falls in love with a young girl in the only place where no one should fall in love — a swingers’ club. The film stars Martin Buch, Mille Dinesen, Rasmus Botoft and Natalie Madueno.

Borning, starring Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Jenny Skavlan, Sven Nordin and Otto Jespersen, is about a group of car enthusiasts who decide to stage an illegal street race from Oslo to the North Cape.

iTunes sows Seed

BY SILVIA WONG

Hevia shares Moonlight tips Andrew Hevia, co-producer of Oscar best picture winner Moonlight, shared his tips for turning a low-budget film into a global phenomenon at Filmart yesterday. “All the things people said would be problems with Moonlight were reasons why the film worked,” said Hevia, speaking to moderator Maurice Lee. “They said it’s a film for a limited audience, but that means a specific audience, and that is an asset. Make your film for a community and compete on ideas, not on money.” Hevia is now developing Hong Kong-set thriller Dark Room with debut director Joshua Wong.

Liz Shackleton

Mocha Chai Laboratories founder Chai Yee Wei’s new company A Little Seed has announced it is linking up with iTunes Singapore to showcase Singapore films.

The first batch of 12 acclaimed titles will be launched on the digital platform from June, and include Anthony Chen’s Camera d’Or winner Ilo Ilo, Boo Junfeng’s Sandcastle, Eric Khoo’s 12 Storeys, Ken Kwek’s Unlucky Plaza and Banting by Raihan Halim, who is presenting project La Luna at HAF. Chai set up A Little Seed with Objectifs Centre For Photography & Filmmaking. The latter company, headed by Yuni Hadi, will handle the iTunes curation.

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REVIEWS Reviews edited by Fionnuala Halligan finn.halligan@screendaily.com

Pop Aye Reviewed by Fionnuala Halligan

Mr Long Reviewed by Jonathan Romney A Chinese hitman finds redemption and a culinary vocation in Mr Long, a pan-Asian comedy drama that hits so many different registers that viewers may abandon trying to keep up with its narrative caprices.

With its dominant tone of soft-hearted whimsy, the latest film from Japan’s versatile Sabu (Unlucky Monkey, Monday, Dead Run) certainly rings the changes. Sabu’s films have tickled the Japanese box office, and this one has wide appeal thanks to Taiwanese star Chang Chen, recently seen in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin and Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster.

The film begins promisingly in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where a plug-ugly gaggle of wiseguys are chewing the fat when cool-cat hitman Mr Long (Chang) walks in and displays his lethal prowess with a dagger. His next stop is Tokyo, where he has been sent to dispatch a Japanese gang member, but things go awry and Long ends up on the run. He takes shelter in a burnt-out conglomeration of shanty dwellings occupied by heroin-addicted Chinese ex-prostitute Lily (Yiti Yao) and her adorably solemn young moppet of a son, Jun (Bai Runyin).

Long befriends the boy and shows tough love to his mum, helping her go cold turkey. A group of irrepressibly jovial citizens, who function throughout as a madcap Greek chorus, help refurbish Lily’s house, and set Long up in business cooking delicious noodle dishes for which he has a distinct aptitude. Eventually, however, the snarling heavies re-enter the picture, and the film concludes with a long overdue but disappointingly underwrought showdown in which Long takes on all comers.

Mr Long shifts so unpredictably between bleakness and whimsy, between the sugared and the sordid, that it is difficult for viewers to remain invested in the fiction, still less in the characters. And the sort of fantasy woven around prostitution as a form of martyrdom makes the drama feel decidedly retrograde. There are, however, some juicy characterisations, especially among the mobsters, and Chang Chen is charismatic as the moody scowler. Yet the most consistent ace is the inventive, genuinely surprising music by Junichi Matsumoto, who also scored Hirokazu Koreeda’s Like Father, Like Son.

6 Screen International at Filmart March 15, 2017

CREDITS Jap-HK-Ch-Tai-Ger. 2017.

129mins Director/screenplay Sabu Production companies Live Max Film, LDH Pictures, BLK2 Pictures, Kaohsiung Film Fund, Rapid Eye Movies International sales Jet Tone Films, winnielau03@jettone.net Producers Koki Kageyama, Yoichi Shimizu, Jacky Pang, Stephan Holl, Shozo Ichiyama Cinematography Koichi Furuya Editor Georg Petzold Production design China Hayashi Music Junichi Matsumoto Main cast Chang Chen, Sho Aoyagi, Yiti Yao, Bai Runyin

Thailand-set, Singapore-backed drama Pop Aye is a charming tall tale about a disillusioned big-city dweller who reunites for a road trip with his family’s elderly elephant. Kirsten Tan’s bright and airy debut is also quietly eloquent, speaking of a loss and regret that is, by nature, very specifically Thai, but should find wider play. While it does not always avoid contrivance, Tan’s crowdpleasing film should eye up the audience-friendly space previously occupied by titles such as The Lunchbox.

Pop Aye is essentially an archetypal road trip, a Straight Story undertaken by a man and elephant played out as a series of vignettes. One lengthy strand involving the police, a ‘ladyboy’ and some amusingly vigorous fellatio in a roadside girlie bar would, by itself, make the 101-minute running time worthwhile, but Tan is also holding some fire for a perceptive final act. Yet elements involving a wild-haired bum and his former girlfriend see the first-time writer/director over-reach, while the self-centred wife and floundering career of pot-bellied middle-aged architect Thana (Thaneth Warakulnukroh) are given very wide brush strokes indeed.

Tan is much more successful in offering a clear-eyed commentary on the developing world’s rush for progress and what has been left behind. This is symbolised by the elephant, Pop Aye, whose lumbering stillness anchors the film.

Bright, airy and wreathed in particularly apt sound design, which stretches to musical choices, Pop Aye is about an elephant who has had “many owners”. Yet, famously, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to be colonised, and Tan — who hails from Singapore — certainly is not blaming any outsiders for the country’s losses.

A famous song from the days when US GIs made the country an R&R respite from the traumas of Vietnam is the most memorable of a terrific soundtrack from Matthew James Kelly. “Oh John, you make me cry,” goes the refrain, as the singer laments a situation that is “so much sadder than sad movies”. Pop Aye looks on at all of this, says Tan, and never forgets; neither should audiences, wherever they find him.

CREDITS Sing-Thai. 2017. 101mins Director/screenplay Kirsten Tan Production companies Giraffe Pictures, E&W Films, New Influence Century Films International sales Cercamon, sebastien@ cercamon.biz Producers Lai Weijie, Deng Li, Zhang Jianbin, Huang Wenhong Executive producer Anthony Chen Cinematography Chananun Chotrungroj Production design Rasiguet Sookkarn Editor Lee Chatametikool Music Matthew James Kelly Main cast Thaneth Warakulnukroh, Penpak Sirikul, Bong, Chaiwat Khumdee, Yukontorn Sukkijja, Narong Pongpab

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EVENTS, PAGE 8

The Young Karl Marx Reviewed by Lee Marshall

On The Beach At Night Alone Reviewed by Jason Bechervaise Discussing life and love over copious amounts of alcohol is nothing new when it comes to the work of Hong Sangsoo, but the striking similarities between this film — about an actress who has an affair with a married film director — and the intense local speculation surrounding Hong’s own private life distinguishes it from the renowned auteur’s other work.

International viewers unaware of the media attention in the Korean press will inevitably read this film, which is set in Hamburg for the first half hour, in a different light. It clearly lacks the formal layers of his other work and its structure is weak. But once Hong is back on home soil, the awkward encounters and conversations become more fascinating, especially as the married director has cast the actress — Kim Min-hee — with whom he has reportedly had a real-life affair.

In Hamburg, Korean actress Young-hee (Kim) is avoiding the spotlight, having had a relationship with a married man. She walks around the German city talking to a friend about her feelings for this man, and wonders whether he will come and visit her in Europe. The film’s second chapter is set in the town of Gangneung, where Young-hee comes to meet her friends, still unsure what to do about the situation.

Unsurprisingly, On The Beach At Night Alone does not attempt to offer any answers. Love is an abstract concept that is discussed between the lovers, often in a heated manner, but Hong steers clear of resolutions. The film’s long takes and occasional zoom-ins are characteristic of the filmmaker’s work, and Kim gives another stellar performance following roles in Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden and Hong’s last film Right Now, Wrong Then.

Hong’s pictures often feel like narrative puzzles but this is certainly less so in On The Beach At Night Alone, which is more linear in terms of its storytelling as it focuses on the film’s central protagonist. As such, the film is sympathetic to this character as she finds herself in isolation. Some may interpret this as a response to the scandal, which has put both the director and Kim in the public glare, even though the film was shot before news of their reported affair broke.

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CREDITS S Kor. 2017. 101mins Director/screenplay/ producer Hong Sang-soo Production company Jeonwonsa Film International sales Finecut, cineinfo@finecut.co.kr Cinematography Kim Hyung-koo, Park Hong-yeol Editor Hahm Sung-won Main cast Kim Min-hee, Seo Young-hwa, Jung Jaeyoung, Moon Sung-keun, Kwon Hae-hyo, Song Seon-mi, Ahn Jae-hong

CREDITS

A spry romp through the seven years leading up to the drafting of The Communist Manifesto, Raoul Peck’s biopic of Karl Marx’s early years feels like a mix between a prestige BBC drama and a Marx For Dummies primer. Yet this fusion of waistcoat buttons and workers’ control of the means of production has charm and verve — not to mention a breezy attitude to chunks of theory that carries us past production values Marx himself would have probably found irredeemably bourgeois.

Peck’s lively drama is at heart a bromance, based largely on the letters exchanged by Marx (August Diehl) and Friedrich Engels (Stefan Konarske) between 1843 and 1850. It charts the course of their friendship and political brotherhood from a first wary meeting at the home of Marx’s German publisher to the eve of the drafting of The Communist Manifesto.

The Young Karl Marx does not shirk its family duties, however. Vicky Krieps’ luminous performance as Jenny von Westphalen — the young aristocrat from Trier who married this “damn socialist atheist Jew”, as she teasingly calls him — is one of several pleasures to be gleaned from what is an unashamedly old-fashioned film.

Peck’s story, co-penned with veteran French writer Pascal Bonitzer, is at least in part about the paradox of two intellectuals, fond of their cigars, wine and stovepipe hats, who champion the proletariat. Diehl’s Marx has an easy awareness of his own superiority and doctrinal purity — untroubled by the fact he and Jenny employ a servant. But the conflict is especially keen in the case of Engels, the son of a German mill owner with factories in Manchester, England. Visiting the urban hovel of Mary Burns (Hannah Steele), an Irish worker sacked by his father for defiance, he seems to be the classic slumming rich kid.

But one of the merits of The Young Karl Marx is the way in which it evokes the revolutionary climate of 1840s Europe as something of a game, an alpha-male sparring match between old-school anarchists such as PierreJoseph Proudhon (a wry Olivier Gourmet) and these two radicals who, in five short years, move themselves, their ideas and their hangers-on between Cologne, Paris, Brussels, Manchester, London and Ostend.

Fr-Ger-Bel. 2017. 112mins Director Raoul Peck Production companies Agat Films, Velvet Film International sales Films Distribution, info@ filmsdistribution.com Producers Nicolas Blanc, Rémi Grellety, Robert Guédiguian, Raoul Peck Screenplay Pascal Bonitzer, Raoul Peck Cinematography Kolja Brandt Editor Frédérique Broos Production design Benoit Barouh Music Alexei Aigui Main cast August Diehl, Stefan Konarske, Vicky Krieps, Olivier Gourmet, Michael Brandner, Alexander Scheer, Hannah Steele, Niels Bruno Schmidt

March 15, 2017 Screen International at Filmart 7

EVENTS 10:00 – 12:00 OPPORTUNITY FOR DOCUMENTARIES IN ASIA Venue Moonlight Theatre,

Hall 1, HKCEC Organisers HKTDC, CNEX Moderator Ruby Yang,

Oscar-winning director, Project Director, Hong Kong Documentary Initiative Speakers Ruby Chen, CEO and co-founder, CNEX Foundation Limited; Takahiro Hamano, Senior Producer, Content Development Center, Programming Department, NHK; Jeong Joong Kim, Director, Acquisition and Chief Producer, KBS Languages Cantonese, Mandarin, English, Japanese, Korean With a long, illustrious history in the US and Europe, documentaries are now a rising force in Asia as audiences seek more diversity in their entertainment content. The panellists will share their insights on the production,

» Event times and venues are correct at the time of going to press but subject to alteration

acquisition, marketing and distribution of documentaries in Asia.

10:30 – 12:00 CHINA ANIMATION: READY TO HIT THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET? Venue Starlight Theatre,

Hall 1, HKCEC Organisers HKTDC,

Annecy International Animation Film Festival Market Moderator Dan Sarto, co-founder and Publisher, Animation World Network Speakers Joe Aguilar, CEO, Huayi Brothers Wink Animation; Delna Bhesania, CEO, Bardel Entertainment; Christopher Bremble, CEO, Base FX; Gordon Chin, CEO, Asia Animation Limited Languages Cantonese, Mandarin, English Animation studios and distributors in China face challenges both in finding stories worth telling and securing the talent, resources and production management skills necessary to tell

them for increasingly sophisticated Chinese audiences. This panel of international animation executives will discuss the current animation landscape, and ask whether Chinese animation is ready to compete successfully with Western titles in the main international markets.

10:30 – 17:00 TV WORLD 2017 WORKSHOP & DISCUSSION FORUM: VR + AR + MR

11:30 – 12:50 THE 4TH FIRST FEATURE FILM INITIATIVE — BRIEFING SESSION Venue Meeting Room

S228, HKCEC Organiser HKFDC Language Cantonese

13:30 – 15:30 DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT SUMMIT 2017: THE PAST AND FUTURE OF FILMMAKING, FROM CONTENT AND VFX PERSPECTIVES Venue Starlight Theatre,

Venue Meeting Room

Hall 1, HKCEC

S221, HKCEC Organisers HKTDC, Hong Kong Televisioners Association Language Mandarin

Organisers HKTDC,

11:00 – 12:00 TAILORMADE PRODUCTION PROJECT CONFERENCE 2017 — PRESENTED BY SHAW BROTHERS Venue Galaxy Theatre,

Hall 1, HKCEC Organiser Shaw Brothers Holdings Limited Languages Cantonese, Mandarin, English

HKDEA Sponsor CreateHK Part 1 moderators Aki Yamada, Festival Director, DigiCon6 Asia Headquarters; Takafumi Yuki, producer, DigiCon6 Asia Headquarters, International Alliance Officer and DigiCon6 Magazine editorial office Editor-in-Chief Speaker Genki Kawamura, producer, Your Name Part 2 moderator Eddie Leung, Senior Teaching Fellow, City University

of Hong Kong, School of Creative Media Speakers Daniel Son, Head of VFX Division, Digitalidea; Felix Xu, CEO, Illumina Technology, Beijing Languages Cantonese, Mandarin, English, Japanese, Korean As innovations continue to redefine the cinemagoing experience, this summit will discuss ideas for developing polished films that contain local characteristics while still being able to travel, and also explore the most recent trends in visual effects.

13:45 – 15:10 ‘SHOCK WAVE’ PRESS CONFERENCE

16:00 – 17:00 DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY NETWORKING RECEPTION Venue Hall 1A, HKCEC Organiser HKTDC

16:30 – 17:30 FANTASTIC TV PRESS CONFERENCE Venue Galaxy Theatre, Hall 1, HKCEC Organiser Fantastic TV Language Cantonese

16:30 – 17:50

Venue Galaxy Theatre,

Hall 1, HKCEC Organiser Universe Languages Cantonese, Mandarin

THE 15TH HONG KONGASIA FILM FINANCING FORUM AWARDS PRESENTATION CEREMONY Venue Starlight Theatre,

Hall 1, HKCEC

14:45 – 15:55

Organisers HAF, HK

OPERATION GREENLIGHT – HONG KONG YOUNG FILMMAKERS PITCH SESSION Venue Moonlight Theatre,

Hall 1, HKCEC

Organisers HAF, HK International Film Festival Society Sponsors CreateHK, Film Development Fund Languages Cantonese, Mandarin, English

International Film Festival Society Sponsors CreateHK, Film Development Fund Languages Cantonese, Mandarin, English

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INTERVIEW PANG HO CHEUNG

Triple treat Filmmaker Pang Ho Cheung talks about Love Off The Cuff, the third part of his rom-com trilogy and opening film for the 41st Hong Kong International Film Festival (April 11). Silvia Wong reports

F

ollowing the box-office success of Love In The Buff in 2012, which won Miriam Yeung the best actress prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards, the most frequent question asked of Hong Kong director Pang Ho Cheung was about a third instalment.

Love In The Buff was the sequel to 2010’s Love In A Puff, a romantic comedy that introduced the bantering and bickering couple played by Yeung and Shawn Yue. The two stars were eager to reunite for a third chapter while Hong Kong-based Media Asia, which financed the first two films, was more than willing to give Pang the go-ahead, as were new investors.

But the filmmaker wouldn’t bite easily. He knew full well the pressure of making a sequel and the weight of expectation that comes from dedicated fans who have been faithfully following the series. “If I ever did it again, I’d better get it right,” he says.

The main reason for the five-year gap between the second and third instalments, however, was Pang’s dissatisfaction with the story ideas, until he started recalling his near-death experience in Japan’s March 2011 earthquake. The disaster struck while he was in a high-rise in Tokyo, preparing for the worst as the building swayed violently. “When thrown into a natural disaster, how we react shows our real personality,” says Pang. “Just 10 seconds in a crisis tells more than a lifetime together.”

Unlike the second film, the new movie is not about a third party ruining the couple’s relationship. “It’s easier if there’s another woman. You can just get rid of her,” says Pang. “But the problem is inherent this time, which makes it more challenging. The couple have to face up to their own personality differences and decide whether the other half is the right person for the rest of their life.”

Genre twister As with the previous instalments, Pang enjoys mixing genres. The new film opens with a horror prologue and features sci-fi fantasy elements such as the appearance of a UFO. Pang also tackles the action genre for the first time, bringing fight sequences to his romantic comedy.

Pang Ho Cheung (centre) on the set of Love Off The Cuff with Miriam Yeung and Shawn Yue

‘Just 10 seconds in a crisis tells more than a lifetime together’ Pang Ho Cheung

Love Off The Cuff

With a $10m budget, the latest film is the most expensive in the trilogy. There were 34 shooting days, which was only a day short of the first two films combined. Pang explains that the sci-fi and action scenes required much longer to set up and shoot.

Tokyo was Pang’s first choice for the setting of the film’s earthquake scene, but it turned out to be too costly. Osaka was another option, but it lacks the skyscraper landscape. Taipei, which is also prone to strong tremors, was selected in the end. Taiwan’s capital was used only for a small portion of the shoot, however,

10 Screen International at Filmart March 15, 2017

which took place primarily in Hong Kong. The first film was also set in Hong Kong, before the couple relocated separately to Beijing in the second film.

Pang is noted for his imaginative stories and sharp-witted scripts but he admits to being a slow writer. While he is open to working with different DoPs to create a varied visual impact — he worked with Chou Yi-hsien from Taiwan for the first time on Love Off The Cuff — he is more comfortable sticking to his long-time writers Jimmy Wan and Luk Yee Sum. “They know me well. We can communicate easily,” he says.

Despite his busy schedule as a writer/ director, Pang takes time out to produce for new filmmakers such as Wan, Luk and Jason Kwan, the DoP on both Love In A Puff and Love In The Buff. The latter’s directorial debut A Nail Clipper Romance, starring Zhou Dongyu and Joseph Chang, opens on April 14. “Creative writing is a very long process that will make you feel lost in your own world,” says Pang, who prefers to write his own dialogue. “When it’s not going anywhere, I will give it a break. Producing is a good break for me.

I always feel more refreshed when I return to my writing afterwards.”

Love Off The Cuff will open this year’s HKIFF on April 11 — a hat-trick for Pang, whose Aberdeen and Love In The Buff kicked off the festival in 2014 and 2012 respectively. The film’s Hong Kong s release is scheduled for April 27. ■

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HAF PROFILES

SCREENINGS, PAGE 18

I’mPerfect

The Patient

Leftover Women

Dir Sigrid Andrea P Bernardo

Dir Yang Long

Dirs Hilla Medalia, Shosh Shlam

Project’s country of origin Philippines

Project’s country of origin China

Project’s countries of origin Israel, Germany

“It’s our imperfections that make us perfect,” says Filipina director Sigrid Andrea P Bernardo, who is in development on a romance drama about a young couple, both with Down syndrome. They fall in love but are pulled apart because of their families’ and society’s prejudices. “The script is ready. We have a teaser online — you can find it on Facebook under ‘ImPerfect’ because it can also read like ‘imperfect’ — a double meaning,” Bernardo explains.

“I wanted to make this film because in the Philippines, it’s very rare for people to understand that people with disabilities, particularly with Down syndrome, do have abilities and feelings of love and affection. If you have a Down syndrome child or relative, people think you can’t do anything else, that it’s really a disability for the family, and they treat them like children even if they’re in their twenties.”

Bernardo has directed several award-winning shorts after working both as an actor and behind the camera on the films of compatriot Lav Diaz. She made her feature directorial debut with Anita’s Last Cha Cha in 2013 and it picked up multiple awards at festivals including Cine Filipino and Osaka Asian.

Her second feature was Lorna in 2014, which also won several regional awards.

I’mPerfect is being produced by VYAC Productions and Ekweytor MC. The project won Best Film Pitch, the CMB prize and the Gender Sensitivity award at last year’s Cinemalaya DGPI Film Pitching event.

Jean Noh

Chinese director Yang Long explores the modern disease of internet addiction in his new project The Patient. It is about a seemingly hard-hearted mother who checks her 17-year-old son into a rehabilitation centre, notorious for the extreme measures it uses to treat online addiction, including electric shock treatment. Yang will ask who is the real patient of the title, and discuss the social need to educate parents and families about the dangers of online addiction.

He will portray three different groups: the profiteers, the parents and the troubled teenagers.

“The story is set in Tangshan, but this kind of story is prevalent in China,” says Yang. “One of my cousins was so addicted, but his parents can’t get to him. All they could do was nag and whack him. I hope this realistic film will make people take this problem seriously and examine the causes and the people who should be responsible.”

Born in Shaanxi province, Yang attended both the China Central Academy of Fine Arts and New York Film Academy. His short films The Song Of Seashore and Exit have won several awards. Last year, he completed his first feature film, black comedy The Fury Gold Buddha, as well as web series Advance Bravely and Darker 3, and web film Darker 3: Juvenile Story.

Yangzhou-born producer Zhou Jia previously worked as production manager at Phoenix Satellite TV. Her film credits include Shadows Of Love, The Old Cinderella and most of Yang’s work.

Silvia Wong

Award-winning Israeli filmmakers Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia are back in China after co-directing Web Junkie, a documentary about rehabilitation centres for internet addicts. The film made its international premiere in the Sundance World Cinema Documentary Competition 2014 and was picked up for broadcast around the world, including by the BBC in the UK and PBS in the US. While they were in China, Shlam was struck by a widespread, state-backed media campaign using the term ‘sheng nu’, translated as ‘leftover women’, a derogatory term coined by the All-China Women’s Federation in an effort to encourage educated single women in their mid-twenties to marry and have children or else be deemed incomplete and obsolete.

This has given rise to their next documentary, Leftover Women, which they are co-directing and coproducing. Shlam describes it as “a protest film”.

“There is a group of women here who are stigmatised and violated every day by the media for political reasons and demographic reasons,” she says.

The filmmakers plan to follow three women as they contend with the phenomenon. They try matchmaking sites, blind dates and dating camps. The directors already have footage of one of the protagonists and plan to complete the film in a year. The project won the DOK Leipzig and EWA development prize, which includes $1,055 (¤1,000), for the best female-driven documentary in the DOK Co-Pro Market.

Jean Noh

I’mPerfect

The Patient

Leftover Women

Producers Alemberg Ang, VYAC Productions, Ekweytor MC Budget $310,000 ($120,000 raised) Contact Alemberg Ang vyac.prod@gmail.com

Producer Zhou Jia Production company Shenzhen Surprise Movie Budget $2m ($100,000 raised) Contact Yang Long yanglongfilm@163.com

Producers Hilla Medalia, Shosh Shlam, Jürgen Kleinig Production companies Medalia Productions, Shlam Productions, Celluloid Fabrik Budget $534,700 ($20,000 raised) Contact Hilla Medalia hilla@medaliaproductions.com

12 Screen International at Filmart March 15, 2017

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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

No. 1 Chung Ying Street

Upside Down

Dir Derek Chiu

Dir Yasu Tanaka

Project’s country of origin Hong Kong

Project’s country of origin Malaysia

A Life Lost And Found Working title

Dir Prateek Srivastava Project’s country of origin India

Set against the backdrop of the 1967 anti-British riot, Hong Kong director Derek Chiu’s latest project will look to both the past and future of Hong Kong.

Divided into two parts, the story first follows four youngsters who are caught up in the large-scale riot between the pro-communist left-wingers and the British colonial government. Fast forward to 2019 and the second part takes place along the frontier border town Sha Tau Kok. It is here three young Hong Kong freedom fighters cross paths with an old man from the 1967 riot.

By putting the two periods side by side, Chiu aims to hold up a mirror to present-day Hong Kong, which is undergoing a significant social and political transformation. “If history does not repeat itself, we can still see many similarities,” he says.

Although the film is not a documentary, Chiu has spent years along with his scriptwriter Tse Ngo Sheung (a novelist and culture editor of Hong Kong Economic Times) interviewing those at the heart of this political storm, including the leftists, police officers and young prisoners.

Production is underway, with about one-third completed. At HAF, Chiu is looking for additional funding to complete the film. Hong Kong-based One Cool Film Production handles international sales.

Chiu is a veteran filmmaker in TV and film, with 17 feature credits, including the 2001 Berlinale Forum title Comeuppance.

Silvia Wong

Yasu Tanaka’s Malaysian horror title sees the star of a feature film drive off in a fit of rage, only to have an accident and end up suspended upside-down in the middle of the jungle. Found by some local boys, he is held and tortured while they shoot footage to broadcast on the internet.

“There is a primitive power game between strong and weak, adult and child, innocence and evil, movie star and village boys,” says Tanaka of themes he wants to probe. “They all come from extreme ends of our society, with different morals and values.”

Upside Down (previously known as Terbalik) won the Aurora producing award at the Southeast Asian Film Financing (SAFF) Project Market last December. It comes with a $14,200 (sg$20,000) investment from Aurora Media Holdings. Bront Palarae, whose credits include Dain Said’s Bunohan, is attached as the lead. With a fully developed script and storyboard, the filmmakers hope to start production this year.

Originally from Tokyo via Los Angeles, Tanaka has been working in Malaysia after marrying Bea Tanaka, who is his co-writer and producer. Through their company 42nd Pictures Sdn. Bhd., the couple produced psycho-thriller Nota, directed by Yasu, which opened Johor Bahru Film Festival in 2016 and won Bea the best screenplay award at the Malaysian Film Festival that same year.

The duo also produced TV film Lari Sayang Lari in 2011, which was turned into a 2014 mini-series of the same name, and documentary 10 Things We Love About Malaysians (2016). Yasu directed all three.

Jean Noh

Set in the 1970s, Prateek Srivastava’s debut feature tells the story of a young village girl trying to replace a photograph of her late mother that her alcoholic father burned in a drunken rage. When she tracks down the photographer, he is blind and uncooperative, but his caretaker persuades the girl to stay in their house with them. She starts to rebuild her life, until the photographer’s estranged daughter returns from England.

Srivastava says he believes the story has strong human elements, universal appeal and also explores the social and cultural constraints that Indian women struggled under in the 1970s.

“Also, to see how photographs used to mean so much to people presents a stark contrast to today, when the whole world is drowning in images due to technological developments,” Srivastava says. “It could be a fascinating eye-opener for the generations born in the 1990s and later.”

Srivastava, who is making his feature debut with the project, has previously worked as assistant director for Indian filmmaker Rahul Dholakia (Lamhaa: The Untold Story Of Kashmir) and Mumbai-based production houses Yash Raj Films and Vijayta Films. His 2012 short Qafas won awards at India’s Kala Ghoda Arts Festival and Italy’s VideoMaker Film Festival.

A Life Lost And Found (working title) is being produced by Oddball Motion Pictures, founded by producer Nitin Upadhyaya and director Tony D’Souza, which has a slate of both indie and mainstream Indian films in development.

Liz Shackleton

No. 1 Chung Ying Street

Upside Down

A Life Lost And Found Working title

Producer Derek Chiu Production company Boundary Film Production Budget $800,000 ($450,000 raised) Contact Karina Chow

Producer Bea Tanaka, 42nd Pictures Sdn. Bhd. Budget $300,000 ($100,000 raised, including from the

Producers Nitin Upadhyaya Production companies Oddball Motion Pictures Budget $764,000 ($68,000 raised) Contact Prateek Srivastava prateek.little@

tszkwan@onecoolfilm.com

14 Screen International at Filmart March 15, 2017

Aurora award from SAFF) Contact Bea Tanaka bea@42ndpictures.com

gmail.com

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HAF PROFILES

Ten Thousand Happiness

Forget You, Still Love You?

Made In Bangladesh

Dir Johnny Ma

Dirs Paul Sze, Kenneth Lai

Dir Rubaiyat Hossain

Project’s countries of origin China, Canada

Project’s country of origin Hong Kong

Project’s country of origin Bangladesh

Set in present-day Beijing, Chinese-Canadian director Johnny Ma’s latest project is a comedy drama revolving around the chaos caused by the sudden divorce of an 80-year-old grandfather, which forces his family to re-evaluate their own relationships.

“We have a unique voice for this new Asian family story as our voices represent a new generation of storytellers who have both Western and Eastern sensibilities. Like the family stories by Edward Yang, Yasujiro Ozu, Ang Lee and Hirokazu Koreeda, our goal is to represent the people of Beijing in this moment in history,” says Shanghai-born Ma, who migrated to Toronto at the age of 10.

Like the main character, 34-year-old Ma is cynical about marriages in China. “I hope that by the end of the film, I will be able to find a hopeful answer, that indeed marriage is in the future for the main character and also myself,” he says.

The project has received development funding from Canada’s Harold Greenberg Fund and Telefilm Canada’s Pitch This!. It previously went to the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriting and Directing Lab and more recently the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Ma’s feature debut Old Stone premiered at Berlin last year and won the best Canadian first feature award at Toronto. It also won the best first feature prize at this month’s Canadian Screen Awards.

Old Stone producers Wang Jing and Wu Xianjian will produce again. Wu is the founder of award-winning TVC company Image X Productions, which also produced Ma’s Columbia University MFA thesis short film, A Grand Canal.

Silvia Wong

Hong Kong directors Paul Sze and Kenneth Lai return to HAF after winning the NAFF award — presented here last year by Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival — for their suspense drama Hypnotize The Jury, and a further three post-production awards at Bucheon’s NAFF project market.

Their new project is Forget You, Still Love You?, about a couple struggling to recover from the death of their infant son. They separate but when the husband is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, his wife returns to look after him. Although his deteriorating memory allows the husband to finally forget the pain of losing his son, his wife begins to feel more connected with him and their long dormant love rekindles.

The directors pose the question: “If love has come to an end, can we turn back from the finishing line, retrace our steps and relive the time when we first fall in love?” The project was shortlisted for the third First Film Feature Initiative, co-organised by Create HK and Hong Kong Film Development Council. It has also been selected for HAF’s Operation Greenlight.

The directors launched the Hong Kong-based outfit Vow Production with Lau Wing Tai in 2007 and have since built up extensive TV and short-film experience. Vow will produce Forget You, Still Love You? and Hypnotize The Jury. The latter is expected to go into production by the end of the year.

Actor-turned-producer Tin Kai Man serves as producer for both projects. He is the vice-president of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers and a director of the Hong Kong Film Awards Association board.

Silvia Wong

One of Bangladesh’s few female filmmakers, Rubaiyat Hossain made her debut in 2011 with Meherjaan, following the experiences of women during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence. The controversial film was pulled from local cinemas, but screened widely at international festivals and won a clutch of awards. She followed it with Under Construction, about a middle-class Muslim woman, which screened at the Seattle and Montreal World film festivals.

Hossain is now telling the story of a woman working in a garment factory in Dhaka, who becomes involved with the workers union after an accident kills dozens of her co-workers. While battling the factory owner, she also faces her husband’s restrictive Islamist ideology at home.

Hossain says Made In Bangladesh is targeted at the same global, middle-class consumers who wear the clothes produced by women in sweatshops of Bangladesh: “These women are related to all of us, but the details of their life stories and their labours are largely unknown to the world.” The film will be co-produced

by Dhaka-based Khona Talkies and Francois d’Artemare’s Paris-based Les Films de l’Apres-Midi.

In addition to Hossain’s first two features, Khona Talkies produced Aung Rakhin’s My Bicycle (2015), which played at Tallinn Black Nights and Goteborg film festivals. D’Artemare’s credits include FrenchIranian co-production Drum and French-Portuguese drama Sao Jorge, which both played at Venice last year. Hossain and d’Artemare are looking for funds, co-producers and sales agents at Filmart. Made In Bangladesh was previously selected for Berlinale Talents Script Station and Locarno’s Open Doors Lab. Liz Shackleton

Ten Thousand Happiness

Forget You, Still Love You?

Made In Bangladesh

Producers Wang Jing, Wu Xianjian Production company Image X Productions Budget $2.5m ($300,000 raised) Contact Wang Jing fdemilywong@gmail.com

Producers Tin Kai Man, Lau Wing Tai Production company Vow Production Budget $1m Contact Vow Production info@vowproduction.com

Producers Rubaiyat Hossain, Francois d’Artemare Production companies Khona Talkies (Bangladesh), Les Films de l’Apres-Midi (France) Budget $350,000 ($46,000 raised) Contact Khona Talkies meherjaan. film@gmail.com

16 Screen International at Filmart March 15, 2017

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SCREENINGS Edited by Paul Lindsell

paullindsell@gmail.com

“Everyone has a broken ridge in their mind, it’s just that you had never been there yet.” You hide your secrets behind this ridge: it could be your homosexual relationship, your ambiguous interactions with your crush or the knot in your heart that you could hardly get over. Fred’s singing career is in the doldrums. His manager, Kim, wants Fred to pretend to be gay so they can achieve publicity by making the singer “come out”. But Fred is unwilling to be manipulated.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 15 10:00 THE 16TH TRAVELLER

(Hong Kong) Drama.

9mins. Hong Kong Association of Interactive Marketing — Microfilm Production Support Scheme (Music).

Dir: Kevin, Philbert Tse. Sally, a Guangzhou native, revisits Hong Kong with her mind full of suicidal thoughts and memories of the past. During her stay at Alan’s hostel home, he takes good care of her, hoping to help open her heart to the beauty of the present and let go of the past.

Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC

10:00

A LONG RIDE

AT WAR FOR LOVE

(Hong Kong) Drama.

25mins. Fresh Wave Film Festival. Dir: Ng Chun.

A laundry shop in To Kwa Wan is closing down due to urban redevelopment. Kau, the shop’s worker, wishes to return in person a jacket owned by a loyal costumer.

Holding a broken pocket watch, he strolls alongside buildings and railways under construction and searches through every part of the district.

(Italy) Comedy.

102mins. Rai Com. Dir: Pierfrancesco Diliberto (Pif ). Key cast: Pif, Andrea Di Stefano, Sergio Vespertino, Maurizio Bologna.

New York, 1943: Sicilian

Meeting Rooms N204-N205, HKCEC

AN INDIGO

(Hong Kong) Drama.

20mins. Fresh Wave Film Festival. Dir: Poon Kin-ho.

Angela has no doubt that “one of these days, father will come back from outer space to take her away, because he is an alien”. This thought was instilled by her mother, who committed suicide due to severe mental illness.

Under the watchful eyes of her grandmother and psychiatrist, Angela starts to hear voices from the sky.

Meeting Rooms N204-N205, HKCEC

ANIMATION & DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT PAVILION HIGHLIGHTS

(Hong Kong) 60mins.

Animation & Digital Entertainment Pavilion.

Meeting Rooms N202-N203, HKCEC

Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC

FILMART WEDNESDAY MARCH 15

AT WAR FOR LOVE See box, above

EMOJI

(Hong Kong) Drama.

12mins. Hong Kong Association of Interactive Marketing — Microfilm Production Support Scheme (Music).

Dir: Cheung Chun Kiu, Matthew Manson.

Lily neglects her mother.

Paying her a visit has become just another mundane errand. Then an accident takes Lily’s life.

Waking up in a pitch-black room, all she can see is an old computer. Following the instructions on the computer, Lily looks back on all the unfulfilled plans, the unread messages and the unexpressed affection she has for her mother. Can Lily seize one last chance to bid her mother a proper farewell before the phone battery runs out?

Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC

FENCING

(Hong Kong) Sport.

20mins. Fresh Wave Film

18 Screen International at Filmart March 15, 2017

immigrant Arturo is in love with Flora and they would like to get married.

He enrolls in the US Army in order to start a journey to Sicily, home to Flora’s father, and seek his blessing.

Meeting Rooms N104-N105, HKCEC

Festival. Dir: Tse Hei-long.

Two university fencing team members are meant to be arch enemies. Fung, who is talented but badtempered, loses his place representing the university in the upcoming interschool competition to Pun. He blames the fact Pun is the son of a past representative of the Hong Kong fencing team, an advantage he doesn’t have.

However, Pun is being pushed to the edge of a nervous breakdown by his over-aggressive father, who wants his son to complete his unfulfilled dream.

Meeting Rooms N204-N205, HKCEC

GUI ZI SHOU

(Hong Kong) Wu Xia. 23mins. Fresh Wave Film Festival. Dir: Leung Tinchun Jimmy.

Justice applies to all, equally — but some are more equal than others.

Hai was adopted by executioner Keung after his parents were murdered.

Hai had instilled in him the belief that justice is

always upheld by the ruling class. Hai may be shunned by others for being an executioner but he never wavers in his belief of the system — until he witnesses a girl being harassed by the rich. When the girl is executed without a fair and open trial, Hai realises the banner of moral righteousness he upheld over the years is worthless. The brutality and corruption of those in power is deadlier than the sword of an executioner.

Meeting Rooms N204-N205, HKCEC

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 Choden’s stories might provide the very clues needed to understand the investigation, he might have to surrender to both her charm and a belief in the supernatural.

Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC

I AM TERRY ZOU

(Hong Kong) Drama.

14mins. Hong Kong Association of Interactive Marketing — Microfilm Production Support Scheme (Music). Dir: Den Lam. Terry Zou is an insignificant singer. He is threatened by gangster Fat John, who mistakes Terry for a cop. With little profile, Terry cannot prove his innocence, until he meets his final chance: Mistress Hung. To prove his true identity, Terry showcases his talent on the stage.

Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC

LUCHA

(Hong Kong) Sport.

9mins. Fresh Wave Film Festival. Dir: Chow Chunming.

After more than 10 years on the wrestling circuit, Jason will play the match of his life — a worldwide audition to fight in the prestigious WWE. Always ready to do his best, Jason is outraged when his manager asks him to take the easy way out in an arranged match.

Meeting Rooms N204-N205, HKCEC

THE MAN AND THE MANAGER

(Hong Kong) Drama.

10mins. Hong Kong Association of Interactive Marketing — Microfilm Production Support Scheme (Music). Dir: Tak Yuen.

Ang Lee once said:

MERRY GO ROUND

(Hong Kong) Drama.

14mins. Hong Kong Association of Interactive Marketing — Microfilm Production Support Scheme (Music).

Dir: Harris Kristanto.

Office boy Kaka spends his off-work hours busking to fulfil his only interest — singing. His girlfriend Ching isn’t happy with this. She thinks Kaka is wasting time performing on the street. One day, while Kaka is out with his guitar after work, his memories come back in flashes.

Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC

ORDINARY PERSON

(South Korea) Drama.

118mins. United Pictures.

Dir: Kim Bong-han.

Key cast: Son Hyun-joo, Jang Hyeok.

Major crimes unit detective Seong-jin arrests Tae-sung for petty crimes, and is shocked to find he is a notorious serial killer. However, Seongjin becomes doubtful of his identity as the serial murder case is investigated. Nevertheless, when Gyu-nam offers help to treat Seong-jin’s sick son, Seong-jin has to assist him in fabricating the evidence. Meanwhile, journalist Chu dies in suspicious circumstances and Seong-jin realises Gyu-nam is behind Chu’s www.screendaily.com

» Screening times and venues

are correct at the time of going to press but subject to alteration

12:10

death. As Seong-jin gets closer to the truth, Gyunam’s threats intensify.

SPOOR

(Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden, Slovak Republic) Drama.

128mins. Beta Cinema.

Dir: Agnieszka Holland.

Key cast: Agnieszka Mandat, Wiktor Zborowski, Miroslav Krobot.

When a number of hunters are found murdered, an eccentric animal activist has her own explanation: the killings were committed by vengeful animals.

Meeting Room N201B, HKCEC

REMEMBER MERCURY

(Hong Kong) Drama.

13mins. Hong Kong Association of Interactive Marketing — Microfilm Production Support Scheme (Music). Dirs: Timothy Wong, Ivan Law. Even the best memories can become indistinct, like a droplet falling into the sea. After a drowning accident, Mercury awakes from her coma only to find her boyfriend, Mark, leaving for Japan. She can’t remember anything, let alone a reason why he would leave her.

As she slips back into unconciousness, pieces of the day when she had the accident return. Her desperate search for lost memories takes her on a surreal journey to find the truth.

Theatre 2, HKCEC

12:15

10:00 SNATCH UP

(South Korea) Action/ adventure drama.

100mins. Littlebig Pictures. Dir: Her Joonhyung. Key cast: Kim

Moo-yul, Park Hee-soon.

A delivery man, gangsters, a killer and a cop all try to get their hands on a golf bag filled with cash.

Theatre 2, HKCEC

SNATCH UP See box, above

of the break-up of their favourite band. But Mei Bo is nowhere to be seen.

ROMANS

TOKYO TWINS ATHLETIC TOURNAMENT

Meeting Rooms N204-N205, HKCEC

Meeting Rooms N109-N110, HKCEC

(Japan) Comedy.

48mins. CREi. Dir: Meguru Saito.

Twenty-four pairs of twins face gargantuan challenges on an enormous athletic field. The bonds between twins are pushed to the limit in the Ultimate Athletic Tournament. The contest consists of three difficult obstacle courses.

Teamwork and human drama are forged by these challenges.

SEXY DURGA

Meeting Rooms N102-N103, HKCEC

(India) Drama. 85mins.

Reel Suspects. Dir: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan.

Key cast: Rajshree Deshpandey, Kannan Nayar.

Durga and Kabir, a young couple, are on the run. As they wait for transport to go to the nearest railway station, an encounter with local gangsters takes place, leaving them at the mercy of adverse circumstances.

Meeting Rooms N111-N112, HKCEC

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keep living her everyday life even if money is short.

Escaping from their common reality, they slowly become strangers to one another as tensions grow.

Theatre 1, HKCEC

11:20 LAUGHING LUCKY CATS

Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC

(UK) Drama. 91mins.

Wide. Dir: Ludwig Shammasian, Paul Shammasian. Key cast: Orlando Bloom, Janet Montgomery, Charlie Creed-Miles, Anne Reid.

The story of a man still struggling to come to terms with crippling insecurity and childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a trusted and idolised priest.

MY LITTLE BROTHER

FILMART WEDNESDAY MARCH 15

TWO OF US

(Hong Kong) Drama.

25mins. Fresh Wave Film Festival. Dir: Lee Ka-yan.

Japanese band Aomori Hensou is the only thing that makes Mei Bo feel alive. Her new neighbour, Lily, also happens to be a fan of the band. Lily eventually tires of the excitement from Mei Bo and starts exploring the city on her own. One day Lily appears at the door of Mei Bo’s home with news

THE XX SUITMAN

(Hong Kong) Drama.

12mins. Hong Kong Association of Interactive Marketing — Microfilm Production Support Scheme (Music). Dir: Leung Wing Chung.

What will you do when shit happens? Will you let it define you or defeat you?

Will you hold on or let go? Life is a journey of choices, what you choose determines how you live.

Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC

11:00 COLO

(Portugal) Action/ adventure. 136mins.

Films Boutique. Dir: Teresa Villaverde. Key cast: Joao Pedro Vaz, Alice Albergaria Borges, Beatriz Batarda.

Struggling with the economic crisis in Portugal, a mother whose husband is unemployed doubles up jobs to pay the bills. Their teenage daughter tries to

(Japan) Drama. 126mins.

ColorBird. Dir: Ken Iiduka. Key cast: Fumika Shimizu, Rena Matsui.

About an irrepressible female standup comedy duo and what the future holds for them. They’re poor and struggling but together forge uplifting bonds.

Meeting Rooms N102-N103, HKCEC

12:00

Entertainment. Dir: Inaki Dorronsoro.

Burglar Victor joins a dangerous gang of deliquents made up of former army members — a closed group that’s forced to recruit a new member when one of their own is killed.

The plan: a bank robbery.

Hong Kong Arts Centre cinema

I’M NOT BRUCE LEE

(China) Horror/suspense.

86mins. China Film Promotion International.

Dir: Xu Ruiyang.

Action and adventure in the search for a missing wife.

Meeting Rooms N111-N112, HKCEC

PRETENDERS

ESCAPE PLAN

(Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia) Drama. 100mins.

Wide. Dir: Vallo Toomla.

Key cast: Mirtel Pohla, Priit Voigemast, Mari Abel, Meelis Rammeld.

Keen to repair a rift in their relationship, Anna and Juhan retreat to a seaside house lent to them by wealthy friends. After witnessing an accident on the rocky shore, they take in a wounded woman and her husband — a couple they find they have much in common with. Anna and Juhan pretend they own the house, engaging their guests in a game of domination that propels their relationship to the brink of destruction.

(Spain) Organised crime.

105mins. Film Factory

Meeting Rooms N109-N110, HKCEC

BARKLEY

(Taiwan) Animation.

86mins. China Film Promotion International.

Dir: Chiu Li-Wei. Fido meets Barkley and other human-like animal friends in Animal City.

He accidentally finds out the place is governed by a magician known as “God”, who pretends to have infinite supernatural powers. Using dazzling tricks, “God” convinces the animals to worship him. Fido and Barkley are determined to expose “God” for what he truly is.

Meeting Room N101B, HKCEC

(South Korea) Comedy.

106mins. Contents Panda (Next Entertainment World). Dir: Ma Dae-yun.

Key cast: Lee Yo-won, Jeong Jun-won, Jeong Man-sik, Esom.

No day was peaceful for the unpredictable family members: an unemployed big brother, a penniless second sister and a pretty but talentless younger sister.

One day, a boy appears who introduces himself as their new youngest brother.

Meeting Rooms N104-N105, HKCEC

12:45 THE POSTERIST

(Hong Kong) Documentary. 71mins.

HKIFF. Dir: Hui See-Wai. Key cast: Yuen Tai-Yung.

Yuen Tai-Yung is a Chinese artist known for his creation of more than 200 iconic Hong Kong movie posters — which include many films from Bruce Lee, the Hui Brothers, Karl Maka, Stephen Chow, Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung’s kung fu and comedy series.

Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC

13:30 THE 22ND IFVA AWARDS — OPEN CATEGORY FINALIST SHOWCASE 2 » ANGELA

(Hong Kong) Drama.

25mins. Hong Kong Arts Centre. Dir: Chan Sheung-shing.

Ma works part time in a laundry shop. One night

March 15, 2017 Screen International at Filmart 19

»

SCREENINGS

during the Umbrella Movement, Ma encounters Shum, a customer whose head is hurt in the protest.

While Shum’s clothes are being washed, the two begin to understand each other’s world for the first time.

However, her parents ask her to stay and help. At this point, she becomes an object of covetousness, especially to the wild Li Wei, son of a wealthy contraband-alcohol supplier.

» CONDITIONED

THE STOLEN PRINCESS

(Hong Kong) Drama.

25mins. Hong Kong Arts Centre. Dir: Chan Kamhei.

Born in a walled village, Yeuk-lam wears short hair and dresses like a man, against her will. Her father is always away and her mother is a hysteric.

Yeuk-lam lives a life that is more challenging than any other 16-year-old. Can she leave this suffocating situation the way her friend Ka-yeung does?

(Ukraine) Animation.

30mins. FILM.UA Group.

Dir: Oleg Malamuzh.

Told in the time of valiant knights, beautiful princesses and battling sorcerers, this is a story about a determined young bard named Ruslan, who travels to meet the king’s daughter, Mila. In spite of their disparate standings in society, Mila and Ruslan find themselves to be kindred spirits and fall in love. But their happiness is shortlived when Mila is abducted by an evil sorcerer.

» FISH IN PUDDLE

(Hong Kong) Drama.

19mins. Hong Kong Arts Centre. Dir: Wong Suknga.

A story about mutual dependence and love.

Fifteen-year-old Wing lives with two foster siblings in an old lady’s apartment.

To reunite with his father, Wing saves money by all means. Likewise, his brother believes in returning to his mother’s shelter while Wing’s elder sister, who has a mild intellectual disability, feels distant from her own parents.

Meeting Rooms N104-N105, HKCEC

FILMART WEDNESDAY MARCH 15 14:00 DESPERATE

(China) Action/ adventure. 90mins.

China Film Promotion International. Dir: Yan Gaoshan.

Su Honger’s husband and son are killed by

back at the clips two years ago, to find that my wounds were never healed.

Father had an accident in July 2015, which led to ‘This Is The Man Fu’.

STRAY NIGHTINGALE

bandits. She seeks revenge but all of the ‘doughty warriors’ have been killed. Helpless, can Su Honger became a real gunner and avenge her husband and son?

Meeting Rooms N204-N205, HKCEC

HAVE A NICE DAY

DESPERATE

(China) Animation.

77mins. Edko Films.

Dir: Liu Jian.

Driver Xiao Zhang robs a million dollars from his boss in order to fix his girlfriend’s failed plastic surgery, but he is soon faced with a bigger predicament when a hitman, a gangster and a robber go after him.

See box, above

Theatre 1, HKCEC

» NO COINCIDENCE 2

GHOST IN THE MOUNTAINS

MY VOICE, MY LIFE

(Hong Kong) Drama.

29mins. Hong Kong Arts Centre. Dir: Sung Ka-wai.

Ho is a novelist writing her ghost fiction alone in a hotel. Her story portrays two screenwriters composing a play for a ghost movie. But unexpected changes are about to occur in her real and fictional worlds.

(China) Drama. 136mins.

Go Global. Dir: Yang Heng.

A man just out of jail returns to his home town after years away. He meets up with his childhood friend, ex-girlfriend and long-estranged brother.

He seems to be looking for something but finds nothing. He is lost between the past, the present and the future. All he can do is stay on the road.

(Hong Kong) Documentary. 91mins.

Dir: Ruby Yang.

Misfit high-school students from Hong Kong are cast together for a musical theatre performance. From low self-esteem to blindness, each student confronts unique personal challenges.

» THIS IS THE MAN FU

(Hong Kong) Drama.

30mins. Hong Kong Arts Centre. Dir: Tse Nga-in.

“To create is a tool for selfrecovery,” a saying that I learnt when I was at university. Picking up my DV for the first time, I shot my father who was never at home. The crappy work was titled ‘Family’. I looked

Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC

14:00

(Japan) Drama. 134mins.

Village. Dir: Hidenori Inoue. Key cast: Arata Furuta, Izumi Inamori.

Chivalrous thief Juzaburo is betrayed by his henchman and his gang is slaughtered. Gravely wounded, Juzaburo escapes and is saved by Inspector Sadaemon and Kansuke and Okayo, who run a tavern. There, Juzaburo retires from the trade and changes his name to Genzaburo. A few peaceful years goes by, then Kansuke dies. Genzaburo helps Okayo to run the tavern.

One night, a police chief inquires about a bandit and Genzaburo realises he is the son of the man who saved his life years ago.

Genzaburo plans to repay the debt.

Meeting Rooms N209-N210, HKCEC

SUPER ULTIMATE CANDID CAMERA

(Japan) Comedy. 104mins.

CREi. Dir: Nakaba Ueda.

No script — just funny candid camera moments

Meeting Room N201B, HKCEC

Meeting Rooms N102-N103, HKCEC

STALIN’S COUCH

WATERBOYS

(Hong Kong) Animation.

225mins. Hong Kong Digital Entertainment Association.

(France, Portugal) Drama.

92mins. Alfama Films.

Dir: Fanny Ardant. Key cast: Gerard Depardieu, Emmanuelle Seigner, Paul Hamy.

In 1950s Soviet Union, an artist commissioned to create Stalin’s monument must pass KGB scrutiny.

Meeting Rooms N206-N207, HKCEC

Meeting Rooms N111-N112, HKCEC

(Netherlands) Comedy.

93mins. Wide. Dir: Robert Jan Westdijk. Key cast: Leopold Witte, Tim Linde, Helen Belbin, Julie McLellan, The Waterboys.

Victor is a womanising crime novelist, his son Zack a shy cello player from Amsterdam. When Victor is kicked out by Zack’s mother, it turns out Zack

Meeting Room N101B, HKCEC

ANIMATION SUPPORT PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

20 Screen International at Filmart March 15, 2017

has also been dumped by his girlfriend. With nowhere else to go, the two set off on a turbulent trip to Scotland where they gain a deeper understanding of themselves and each other.

Meeting Rooms N109-N110, HKCEC

14:30 CERTIFIED DEAD

(Singapore) Drama.

90mins. Singapore Cinema. Dir: Marrie Lee. Key cast: Michael Hadrievic Chua, Vanessa Aguirre Tan, Toni Ravelo.

About a May-December couple, mid-life Ian Lee and young bride Megan Lim. Together they have Erin, a cute four-year-old pre-schooler. Life is good but Ian is worried he won’t live long enough for his young family. As a result, he falls prey to a drug experiment conducted by his best friend. It throws his whole life as a devoted husband into chaos and he ends up in a race against time to fulfil his bucket list.

Meeting Rooms N202-N203, HKCEC

CIAO CIAO

(France) Drama. 83mins.

Wide. Dir: Song Chuan.

Key cast: Liang Xueqin, Zhang Yu, Hong Chang, Zhou Lin, Wang Laowu.

Ciao Ciao, an arrogant young Chinese woman, returns to visit her parents in her home village, nestled in the heart of the mountains. She wants to return to Canton as soon as possible to set up a business with her friend Li Li.

Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC

15:00 BEUYS

(Germany) Documentary.

107mins. Beta Cinema.

Dir: Andres Veiel.

Documentary about the 20th century German sculptor and performance artist Joseph Beuys.

Hong Kong Arts Centre cinema

THE TOKYO NIGHT SKY IS ALWAYS THE DENSEST SHADE OF BLUE

(Japan) Drama. 108mins.

Film-makers Inc, Little More Co Ltd. Dir: Yuya Ishii. Key cast: Shizuka Ishibashi, Sosuke Ikematsu, Paul Magsalin, Ryuhei Matsuda, Tetsushi Tanaka.

Mika is a nurse by day, a ‘girlie bar’ hostess by night, subject to feelings of anxiety and isolation, and unable to reach through a hard outer shell that stops her from expressing tenderness to anyone else.

Shinji struggles as a dayhire construction worker with a sense of impending doom but who still tries to find the source of an unnameable hope he feels inside. The setting is Tokyo in 2017, where empty words, a sense of doom and feelings of isolation co-exist with hope, trust and love.

Theatre 2, HKCEC

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is heading towards new presidential elections. A visually impressive, layered thriller about politics, art and murder.

15:50 ANA, MON AMOUR

(Romania) Action/ adventure. 127mins.

HKIFF. Dir: Calin Peter Netzer.

Toma meets Ana while they are studying literature at university. Ana has a mild neurotic disorder and suffers from panic attacks.

Toma follows her to every dark corner, he fights his parents when they reject her, he accepts being a father and marries her, he becomes her babysitter, her driver, her everything.

Toma appears to be in control of the couple’s relationship, when in fact he just gravitates around a woman he cannot understand, pushing his endurance to the limit trying to save her.

Theatre 1, HKCEC

16:00 ALL I WANT

(Hong Kong) Drama.

22mins. Hong Kong Arts Centre. Dir: Wu Tin-long.

Depicts several conflicts between a couple. He wants to be released from repression, while she hopes to leave behind her emptiness.

Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC

CRAZY IN LOVE

(France) Drama. 85mins.

Wide. Dir: Jacky Katu.

Key cast: Eloise Valli, Gery Clapier, Fabien Hengbart.

Nurse Felicia meets war reporter Dimitri. Their attraction is mutual and they engage in passionate sex. Felicia soon lives only for those encounters. Is this true love or irresistible physical attraction?

Meeting Rooms N109-N110, HKCEC

THE DORMER

(Hong Kong) Drama.

10mins. Hong Kong Arts Centre. Dir: Ho Yui-chi Savio.

We are all searching for a place with freedom. But once we get there it may not be as beautiful as expected.

Could there be anyone who does not yearn for his own home, a place that really belongs to oneself?

Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC

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Theatre 2, HKCEC

18:20 VANITAS

FILMART WEDNESDAY MARCH 15 16:15 MOM THINKS I’M CRAZY TO MARRY A JAPANESE GUY

(Japan, Taiwan) Romance. 93mins.

CREi. Dir: Akihisa Yachida. Key cast: Yuta Nakano, Manshu Jian.

Lin, has a thing for Japanese culture while living in Taiwan.

THE ICE RUTS

(Japan) Drama. 109mins.

ABC International. Dir: Tomoyuki Takimoto. Key cast: Ko Shibasaki, Ikki Sawamura, Kimiko Yo. Mayu Daimon is a novice detective at the Criminal Investigation Division.

When the bodies of two old men are found, their deaths seem unrelated but Mayu finds a connection.

Meeting Rooms N204-N205, HKCEC

IN SEARCH OF PERFECT CONSONANCE

(Hong Kong) Documentary. 39mins.

Hong Kong Documentary Initiative. Dir: Ruby Yang.

Twenty-five years ago, China was at war with Vietnam, the Chinese and the Japanese were at loggerheads and relations across the Taiwan Strait were frosty. The Asian Youth Orchestra was established against this backdrop with the aim of connecting the region’s young people through music. As we watch the budding musicians of today learn to work together, we

Following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, she received a Facebook message from a Japanese guy, Mogi, who has been curious about the Japanfriendly country. The two start to interact through Facebook and finally meet.

Meeting Rooms N102-N103, HKCEC

are reminded of the higher ideals that music inspires.

Meeting Room N201B, HKCEC

MUR MUR

(Hong Kong) Animation.

3mins. Hong Kong Arts Centre. Dir: Lo Hin-kit.

Earlier this morning, I attended a funeral. It was peaceful and calm.

Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC

SOD-032

(Hong Kong) Drama.

26mins. Hong Kong Arts Centre. Dir: Cheung Ho Lam. Nerdy Yosuke creates a computer animatron named Alice, who resembles a person. Yosuke has a crush on classmate Miyuki and hopes Alice can help him get a date with her.

But when Alice comes down with a virus, Yosuke has to woo Miyuki by himself.

Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC

SPLIT

(South Korea) Drama.

121mins. United Pictures.

Dir: Choi Kook-Hee. Once described as a

bowling legend, Cheoljong teams up with his old friend Hee-jin and Younghoon, who is autistic and a genius bowler. The three were brought together by the sport but are now at a crossroads.

Meeting Rooms N111-N112, HKCEC

WHITEBOARD

(Hong Kong) Drama.

4mins. Hong Kong Arts Centre. Dir: Keung Shinglok.

When a simple whiteboard doodle comes to life, it interacts with its creator and hilarity and mishap ensue. Playtime is cut short, however, as an evil being appears with only one intention: to bring chaos and destruction. It is now up to the doodled hero to save the day.

Meeting Rooms N211-N212, HKCEC

16:15 MOM THINKS I’M CRAZY TO MARRY A JAPANESE GUY See box, above

16:40 THE CHALLENGE

(France, Italy) Documentary. 70mins.

Slingshot Films. Dir: Yuri Ancarani.

Director Yuri Ancarani crosses the Persian Gulf to accompany a falconer to an important competition. Among SUVs, Lamborghinis, private jets and Mad Max-like dunebashing contests, the film tells the story of an intense weekend in the desert.

Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC

16:45 ELEVENTH STATION

(India) Drama. 75mins.

Keraleeyam Collective.

Dir: Renjith Chittade. Key cast: Jithinraj, Manglu Sreedhar, PT Manoj.

The problems of the Aborigines of Kerala and the meddling of mainstream society that is uprooting them, even from the miserable living conditions in their motherland.

Meeting Room N101B, HKCEC

17:15

(Japan) Drama. 104mins.

Pia Film Festival. Dir: Takuya Uchiyama. Key cast: Gaku Hosokawa, Gen Ogawa, Yasu, Yudai Nogawa, Koichi Ito, Yota Kawase, Kiyohiko Shibukawa.

Shibahara, a thirdyear university student, is skipping class and shooting hoops alone in the gym. His friends Ito, Tachibana and Nagai join in to play mini games as their laughter echoes.

During classes they each sit looking lethargic. Ito is an inspiring presence, Nagai is always cheerful and Tachibana is the central figure of the group. Their relationship is shallow and they don’t know each other’s lives outside university. But then the gym becomes off-limits and they lose their only place to hang out.

Meeting Rooms N102-N103, HKCEC

UNCERTAIN GLORY

SMALLER AND SMALLER CIRCLES

(Philippines) Crime drama. 111mins. HKIFF. Dir: Raya Martin.

A dead boy is found in a sprawling dumpsite in the Philippines. Father Gus, a Jesuit forensic expert, finds himself caught up in the case as the bodies of preteen boys pile up. With his colleague Father Jerome and journalist Joanna Bonifacio, they investigate the murders.

Meeting Rooms N104-N105, HKCEC

(Spain) Romance.

116mins. Film Factory Entertainment.

Dir: Agusti Villaronga.

Spain, 1937: Lluis is a soldier, a loner who doesn’t support the war.

While stationed at an inactive posting, he falls in love with Carlana, a swindling landowner whose only thirst is for power. Carlana tricks him and tramples on Lluis’s self-esteem, dragging him into a downward spiral of passion, betrayal and humiliation.

Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC

17:30 THE LAST PAINTING

(Taiwan) Drama.

106mins. Swallow Wings Films Co. Dir: Chen Hung-i. Key cast: JC Lin, Chang Ning, Kiwebaby, Lin Wei Yi. A student and political activist becomes the new housemate of a solitary painter. He is brusque and disillusioned, she is filled with hope. Outside, Taiwan

18:30 ONE BUCK

(US) Organised Crime.

90mins. All Rights Entertainment. Dir: Fabien Dufils.

Shifting from one pocket to another, a lowly dollar bill, ‘One Buck’, takes us on an odyssey through the heart of a forgotten town in Louisiana Theatre 1, HKCEC

March 15, 2017 Screen International at Filmart 21

»

SCREENINGS

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 Reviews editor Finn Halligan, finn.halligan@ screendaily.com Group head of production and art Mark Mowbray, mark.mowbray@ screendaily.com Sub-editors Paul Lindsell, Adam Richmond, Richard Young Advertising Tel +852 5237 7638 Sales consultant Ingrid Hammond +852 5237 7638, ingridhammond@ mac.com International account manager Pierre-Louis Manes, +44 7768 237 487, PierreLouis.Manes@screendaily. com Production manager Jonathon Cooke, jonathon. cooke@mb-insight.com Marketing executive Charlotte Peers, charlotte. peers@mb-insight.com Commercial director Scott Benfold, scott. benfold@screendaily.com Managing director (publishing and events) Alison Pitchford Chief executive officer, MBI Conor Dignam Printer G.L. Graphic & Printing Ltd, level 1-8, Howard Factory Building, 66 Tsun Yip Street, Kwun Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong Published by Media Business Insight Ltd (MBI) Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ Subscription customer services Tel: +44 330 333 9414 E-mail: help@subscribe. screendaily.com

FILMART THURSDAY MARCH 16

THURSDAY MARCH 16 10:00 ANIMATION SUPPORT PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

(Hong Kong) Animation.

225mins. Hong Kong Digital Entertainment Association.

Meeting Rooms N206-N207, HKCEC

cast: Mizuki Yamamoto, Kei Ino. Live-action adaptation of the extremely popular ‘shojo’ comic ‘Peach Girl’.

The heroine suffers the many usual anxieties of adolescence. A high-school romantic comedy tale filled with laughter, pain and heart-pounding emotion.

Meeting Room N201B, HKCEC

ELEVENTH STATION

(India) Drama. 75mins.

Keraleeyam Collective.

Dir: Renjith Chittade. Key cast: Jithinraj, Manglu Sreedhar, PT Manoj.

Based on the problems of the Aborigines of Kerala and the meddling of mainstream society that is uprooting them, even from those miserable living conditions in their motherland.

Meeting Room N101B, HKCEC

LITTLE SECRET

(Brazil, New Zealand) Drama. 107mins. All Rights Entertainment.

Dir: David Schurmann.

Based on true events: three interlocking stories connected by a single secret converge to reveal the tragic yet beautiful lives of three families and how hope, dreams and destiny can unite people.

Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC

MAD WORLD See box, above

PEACH GIRL

(Japan) Romance.

116mins. Shochiku Co. Dir: Koji Shintoku. Key 22 Screen International at Filmart March 15, 2017

SMALLER AND SMALLER CIRCLES

(Philippines) Crime Drama. 111mins. HKIFF. Dir: Raya Martin.

A dead boy is found in a sprawling dumpsite in the Philippines. Father Gus, a Jesuit forensic expert, finds himself caught up in the case as the bodies of preteen boys pile up. With his colleague Father Jerome and journalist Joanna Bonifacio, they investigate the murders through the cramped urban landscape of Manila.

Meeting Rooms N109-N110, HKCEC

VANITAS

(Japan) Drama. 104mins.

Pia Film Festival. Dir: Takuya Uchiyama. Key cast: Gaku Hosokawa, Gen Ogawa, Yasu, Yudai Nogawa, Koichi Ito, Yota Kawase, Kiyohiko Shibukawa.

Shibahara, a thirdyear university student, is skipping class and shooting hoops alone in the gym. His friends Ito, Tachibana and Nagai join in to play mini games

as their laughter echoes.

During classes they each sit looking lethargic. Ito is an inspiring presence, Nagai is always cheerful and Tachibana is the central figure of the group. Their relationship is shallow and they don’t know each other’s lives outside university. But then the gym becomes off-limits and they lose their only place to hang out.

Meeting Rooms N104-N105, HKCEC

12:00 ANIMATION & DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT PAVILION HIGHLIGHTS

(Hong Kong) 60mins.

Animation & Digital Entertainment Pavilion.

Meeting Rooms N202-N203, HKCEC

10:00 MAD WORLD

(Hong Kong) Action/ adventure. 101mins.

Golden Scene Co. Dir: Wong Chun.

“To avoid or to confront?

To deny or to embrace?

To give up or to make a change?” The film begins with an old man, who has long been absent as a father, visiting a mental hospital to pick up his

but no one can imagine his real intention. And no one knows that his confession is just the beginning of his unfathomable masterplan.

Meeting Rooms N102-N103, HKCEC

12:10 WHITE ANT

MEMOIRS OF A MURDERER

(Japan) Horror/suspense.

117mins. Warner Bros.

Japan. Dir: Yu Irie. Key cast: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Hideaki Ito. The statute of limitations expired without the killer being apprehended.

Twenty-two years later, he sensationally resurfaces at a press conference where he announces the launch of a memoir about the murders he committed.

Cameras flash as the killer holds up his book with a daring, charismatic smile.

Soon his words and his image are everywhere in the media. His confession entrances, provokes and tricks the whole of Japan

(Taiwan) Drama. 95mins.

Ablaze Image. Dir: Chu Hsien-Che. Key cast: Wu Kang-Jen, Aviis Zhong, Yu Tai-Yan. Seemingly an ordinary youth from the outside, White Ant is in fact an underwear fetishist who cannot hold back from sneaking out and taking female lingerie.

One day, he receives a DVD containing footage of him stealing women’s underwear. While his fear of exposure eventually leads him to inevitable doom, it turns out that people around him also suffer from their dark side, which is like a gnawing ‘White Ant’ within, and

son, who is suffering from bipolar disorder.

Both men are in deep remorse for the accident that caused the death of the mother. The tension and anxiety boil as they stay with each other in a tiny subdivided flat. As time passes, they realise the pain between them is not the only confrontation that awaits.

Theatre 1, HKCEC

the turning point of their intertwined fate has secretly approached.

Hong Kong Arts Centre cinema

12:30 HAVE A NICE DAY

(China) Animation.

77mins. Edko Films.

Dir: Liu Jian.

Driver Xiao Zhang steals a million dollars from his boss in order to fix his girlfriend’s failed plastic surgery, but he is soon faced with a bigger predicament when a hitman, a gangster and a robber go after him.

Theatre 1, HKCEC

13:30 BEATEN BLACK AND BLUE

(South Korea) Comedy.

130mins. Jeonju International Film Festival. Dir: Kim Soo-hyun. Key cast: Koo Kyohwan, Woo Dongbang, Sang-hyon.

Kyohwan is a keyboard warrior who spends most

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of his time in an online community for rabid right-wingers, mocking the leftists. Jeongsu, whose only dream is to be buried in the national cemetery, claims he has dedicated his life to the country, fighting against the leftists.

When their paths cross, they become close, like a grandfather and son. The two conspire something big for their own causes.

Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC

14:15 THE SUMMER IS GONE

(China) Drama. 110mins.

PAD International.

Dir: Zhang Dalei.

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.

together in an abandoned warehouse to work on experimental sounds in an improvised studio.

Meeting Rooms N102-N103, HKCEC

Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC

MANGA-JIMA: THE ISLAND OF CARTOON

(Japan) Action/ adventure. 107mins.

Spirits Project. Dir: Fumio Moriya. Key cast: Shingo Mizusawa, Fumio Moriya, Yuya Matsuura, Shohei Uno, Taishi Masaoka, Yota Kawase, Kurumi Morishita, Tatsuaki Hojo Five unpopular cartoonists live on an isolated island.

All they have is a passion for cartoons. They finish their new illustration at last, call a ship from a nearby island and depart for Tokyo. Is there a bright future waiting for the five middle-aged cartoonists?

Meeting Rooms N104-N105, HKCEC

Theatre 1, HKCEC

16:00

SPLIT See box, below

THREE LIGHTS

(Japan) Drama. 100mins.

Finecut Co. Dir: Kohki Yoshida.

Four people in Tokyo are united by their love of music. Fate brings them

Kim Min-hee, Seo Younghwa, Jung Jae-young.

An actress wanders around a seaside town, pondering her relationship with a married man.

16:10 ON THE BEACH AT NIGHT ALONE

(South Korea) Drama.

101mins. Finecut Co. Dir: Hong Sangsoo. Key cast:

18:15 AUTUMN, AUTUMN

(South 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 home in Chuncheon. On the way he sits next to a middleaged couple. The film separates into two stories, one following Jihyun and the other following the couple. Jihyun falls into despair after failing his interview. Drowning his sorrows, he narrowly escapes a dangerous situation thanks to the help of a friend. Together they head aimlessly to Cheongpyeongsa Temple, but he misses the last ride home and decides to stay the night. The middle-aged couple also head towards Cheongpyeongsa Temple.

They open up to each other by recalling memories of their first loves.

Meeting Room N101A, HKCEC

FILMART THURSDAY MARCH 16 16:00 SPLIT

(South Korea) Drama. 121mins. HKIFF. Dir: Choi Kook-Hee. Once described as a bowling legend, Cheol-jong teams up with his old friend

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Hee-jin and Young-hoon, who is autistic and a genius bowler. These three were brought together by bowling but now they are at a crossroads.

Meeting Rooms N111-N112, HKCEC

March 15, 2017 Screen International at Filmart 23