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Emperors 2016
Slate Led by
Yuen Wo-ping

Japans Kiyoshi Kurosawa abandons his auteurist chores of late to return

to the classic horror that made him a cult figure by deborah young

By Gavin J. Blair

mperor Motion
Pictures slate for
2016 will be led by
Hand Over Fist, a new feature
directed by kung fu legend
Yuen Wo-ping. Hand Over Fist
is the tale of a 600-year long
feud between ancient rival
kung fu masters that draws
modern Hong Kong protagonists into the action.
Yuen is known around the
globe for his fight choreography on The Matrix trilogy,

Creepy

review

Nishijima, center, is a
former detective with some
very troubling neighbors.

C O N T I N U ED O N PA G E 2

JOHNNIE TO
READIES
ELECTION 3

By Karen Chu

irector Johnnie To is
readying Election 3
for a tentative 2018
production date.
The Hong Kong auteur
told THR that he is almost
finishing the script of the third
installment of his critically
acclaimed Election series. He
is considering whether Louis
Koo, will reprise his role in the
third film.
The script is rather long
right now, I havent decided
which section of the script to
be used, said To. If I use the
later section, Koo might not
be in it.
Election (2005) and its
sequel were both huge local
hits in Hong Kong. Both films
have become cult hits, becoming something akin to The
Godfather films thanks to their
operatic look at the innner
workings of local organized
crime figures.

H E G OOD N EWS FOR FA NS OF K I YOSH I

Kurosawas early psychological J-horror

is that the master is back with all his
signature tropes intact: the haunted houses and
scary atmosphere; the hypnotic evil-doer who
forces others to do his unholy bidding; the good
detective going insane over a case that hits too
close to home; his mentally unstable wife; and a

C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 10

New Macau Film Fest Goes Big

The gleaming casino enclave showed its hand on day two of Filmart, revealing an ambitious
bid to become a major hub on the global festival circuit By Patrick Brzeski

irst announced in
February at the
Berlinale, the inaugural
International Film Festival and
Awards Macao (IFFA Macao)
will kick off in the second week
of December this year. The
Macanese government has
recruited former Venice and
Rome Film Festival head Marco
Mueller to topline the upstart
event. Mueller and his partners
are betting that with the right
positioning, IFFA Macao can

exploit a moment of uncertainty

announced that Hong Kong
in the regional film festival scene, industry titans Johnny To and Ann
while also riding a boom in the
Hui have boarded the festival as
greater Chinese movie
official ambassadors. The
business, to become a prefestivals programming
eminent industry platform
plan is also beginning
in East Asia.
to come into greater
Greater China needs
focus. For the first edition,
Mueller
a film festival and market
Mueller has recruited ten
organized in an internationally
Asian genre filmmakers whom
connected and welcoming envihe says will be big names to
ronment and Macau can fill
lend their star power by selecting
that gap, says Mueller.
one film each to screen at the
On Tuesday, IFFA Macao
C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

D3_HK_news1+2+REVIEWG.indd 1

disappointing ending. As a matter of fact,

Creepy feels an awful lot like the directors 1997
cult horror piece Cure, with the caveat that
theres more smoke than fire in the mind-games
featured here, and one can see the ending coming from a very long way off.
Still, this is prime real estate for midnight

3/15/16 6:28 AM

theREPORT
Macau is often called
the Las Vegas of Asia
thanks to its numerous
casinos and hotels

MACAU
C O N T I N U ED F R O M PA G E 1

WO-PING
C O N T I N U ED F R O M PA G E 1

Kill Bill and foreign language

Oscar-winner Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon, as well as
directing this years sequel
Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon: Sword of Destiny. He
made his name in Hong Kong
in the late 1970s directing
what would become kung fu
classics like Drunken Master
and Snake in the Eagles
Shadow.
Rounding out the slate,
Hong Kong actor, singer,
songwriter, musician,
entrepreneur, and martial
artist Nicholas Tse will star in
Emperors Cook Up A Storm,
directed by Raymond Yip.
Emperor regular Tse will play
a Cantonese street cook who
competes against a Michelinstarred chef.
Meow, directed by Benny
Chan (Shaolin) and starring
Louis Koo and Ma Li, will be a
comedy in which two pet owners find out that their cats are
actually aliens come to earth
to domesticate them.

festival. To suit the interests of

the local audience as well as
the realities around film import
in Mainland China Mueller
says the festival will have a deliberate slant towards genre films
and popular cinema: They will
be mainstream films, but those
with interesting differences,
he explains, adding it would be
pointless to offer a new festival
in Greater China unless the films
had some chance of entering the Chinese market.
Meanwhile, other would-be regional leaders in the
East Asian scene are seen to be faltering. The Busan
International Film Festival, long artistically preeminent, has been battling brand-damaging political
interference since its 2014 edition, when city officials lashed back at organizers for their decision to
show the activist documentary Diving Bell (aka The
Truth Shall Not Sink With Sewol), which explored
the Korean governments response to the deadly
Sewol ferry disaster. In mainland China, neither
the Shanghai nor Beijing film festivals have carved
out much global influence. And the much hyped
Qingdao International Film Festival which was
expected to debut in 2017 at the $10 billion commercial real estate development-cum-movie production
facility being built by Dalian Wanda Group is
currently in jeopardy after government regulators
denied it permission to hold an international jury
competition.
Mueller and his team are also banking that
Hollywood will be eager to participate in Macau, as
the event will provide an invaluable international
PR opportunity in the ballooning Greater Chinese
market Mainland box office grew by 48 percent
last year and is on track to surpass North America

next year as the biggest box office on the planet

right in the middle of awards season.
The key point would be to make Macau into the
major hub for press junkets for Hollywood awards
season films, Mueller says especially since
[the types of mainstream, creative films we want to
screen] would be those campaigning for awards.
These films can have a premiere in Los Angeles
or New York, and then they can come to us for international premiere, he adds.
Although IFFA Macao may add industry panels
and market activities, too, Filmart organizers say
they believe there is plenty of space in the Greater
Chinese film sector for another major event. The
Asian market now has the attention of consumers
around the world, says Peggie Liu, senior service
promotion manager of Filmart organizer HKTDC.
The demand for quality entertainment content in
the region is huge.
IFFA Macaos new ambassador To, who also
serves as the vice-chairman of the Hong Kong
International Film Festival, agrees that there is no
need for tension between the neighboring events. I
dont believe in such a thing as conflict between film
festivals. We all promote film culture multilaterally
I respect any festival that promotes cinema.

Chinas Huace Partners

With Koreas Kakao in
Cartoon Adaptation Deal
By Patrick Brzeski

oreas dominant mobile chat app and social

media platform Kakao has partnered with
leading Chinese film and TV company
Huace Group to adapt five internet cartoon titles
into feature films, TV shows and online dramas in
China.
Kakaos first success in bringing its digital
cartoons to screen came with the local Korean adaptations of Moss in 2010, Secretly, Greatly in 2013 and
the TV series Misaeng: Incomplete Life in 2014.
Four of the new titles that Huace will adapt
include Help! Breakup Ghost, Just One Shot, Girl in
the Mirror and Casheoro. The fifth title is expected
to be My Boss Dies Once a Day, according to local
sources.
KakaoTalk, the companys chat app, is used by
93% of smartphone owners in South Korea.

Exclusive
First Look

Call of Heroes

Sean Lau, center, leads a group of villagers in a rebellion against a corrupt general during the Qing Dynasty in
director Benny Chans period adventure Call of Heroes. The film is repped at Filmart by Universe Films.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

D3_HK_news1+2+REVIEW.FINAL.indd 2

3/15/16 6:31 AM

Nikkatsu Tests
Online Market
With Distance
By Gavin J. Blair

apans Nikkatsu released

its Filmart market title
Their Distance online on
Tuesday, making it available
directly to global audiences
through platforms including
iTunes, Google Play, YouTube
and VIMEO. An app featuring
stills, music and information
about the film will be available
free to download; users whose
interest is piqued can then
opt to pay $5.99 to watch the
full film.
Its a new approach to
distribution for a title that is
also being theatrically released,
essentially bypassing buyers
and going straight to audiences
around the world, Taku Kato
from Nikkatsus international
business department told THR.
Distance stars Ren, Minhyun
and JR from Korean boy band
NUEST in a romantic entanglement ensemble drama.
Nikkatsu admits it is unsure
how the availability of the
film online will affect interest
from buyers. Online viewing will be geo-blocked in
Germany until it screens at the
Nippon Connection festival
there in May.

THR IN HONG KONG

NEWS
Kevin Cassidy
kevin.cassidy@thr.com
+1 213 840 1896
Patrick Brzeski
patrick.brzeski@gmail.com
+81 80 5900 0233
Karen Chu
kchuwork@gmail.com
+852 6171 3530
Gavin J. Blair
gavin_blair@yahoo.com
+81 90 6479 4745
REVIEWERS
Elizabeth Kerr
delizabethkerr@yahoo.ca
Clarence Tsui
c_extra@hotmail.com
Piera Chen
scaredturtles@gmail.com
ART & PRODUCTION
Peter B. Cury
peter.cury@thr.com
SALES
Ivy Lam
ivy.lam@thr.com
+852 6176 9272

n
Hidde
GEM

Gaza Biopic Offers Unlikely Musical Uplift

Director Hany Abu-Assad turns dismay into delight with his poignant look at a
determined wedding singer from a refugee camp who wins Arab Idol By Alex Ritman

he story of how Mohammed Assaf in 2013 won

the second season of Arab Idol, the Middle
East version of the global talent show, almost
seems as if it were written with a swooping musical
biopic in mind. For Hany Abu-Assad, whose previous
two features, Paradise Now and Omar, earned him

stopped accepting auditions. The story goes that

Assaf climbed over walls, but without a pass to
perform was left waiting in the hall, singing to the
other contestants. From there, its a classic feelgood trajectory: He was allowed to sing, made it
to the finals in Beirut and was crowned the winner
as thousands of captivated
fans watched from TV sets in
cafes and courtyards in Gaza
and the West Bank.
Since then, Assaf has
toured relentlessly, been
named a U.N. Goodwill
Ambassador and become
a figure of hope and unity
across the occupied territories and wider region.
Although Assaf was at first
skeptical about the film, AbuAssad persuaded him that
it was more about positive
energy than simply his own
achievements. The singer
went on to record two tracks
that Abu-Assad says will be
huge but stopped short of
playing himself, a role that
went to Gazan newcomer
Qais Atallah.
The Idols shoot saw the
crew actually venture inside
For me, this movie is about how people can create beauty from ugliness, Abu-Assad says of The Idol.
Gaza, just months after the
Israeli invasion last summer and the first time a film
foreign language Oscar nominations, this tale of
has been made there in 30 years.
triumph over adversity gave him goosebumps,
Abu-Assad says the experience left him in a
despite admitting to never having watched such
state of shock. You wont believe the amount of
programs.
destruction there, he says. I just cant believe that
Abu-Assads The Idol tells the story of a 22-yearhumanity is allowing these kinds of crimes.
old wedding singer from a refugee camp in Gaza,
But from this came The Idol. And unlike AbuAssaf journeyed to Cairo with the hope of auditionAssads other features, which went deep into the
ing for the show, no small feat given the somewhat
world of suicide bombings and enemy informants
tight border restrictions around his war-torn
and left the director feeling disheartened and queshomeland. Having persuaded Egyptian security to
let him through, he then found that the hotel where tioning his choice of trade, Assaf s story was such a
pleasure to make.
the trials were taking place had shut its doors and

CARINA LAU
The veteran actress and
singer can currently be seen
in From Vegas to Macau 3.

Where is the best place to

unwind with a late drink
in Hong Kong?
At a friends home.

What is your only in

Hong Kong moment?
Enjoying dinner in a wooden
boat at Causeway Bays
typhoon shelter. Endless
boats offering fresh seafood
and fruit. Those were the
days.

What do you consider

essentials to bring for
events like the Hong Kong
Film Awards?
Perfume.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

D3_HK_news3+HiddenGem.FINAL.indd 3

THE ACTR E S S

hong kong according to ...

Wheres the best place to

escape to on a short trip

from Hong Kong?

For me it would have to be
Japan.
What are the best places
to eat in Hong Kong?
Italian restaurant Da
Domenico (25 Tung Lo Wan
Road, Causeway Bay) and
the contemporary Chinese
restaurant Howards
Gourmet (5/F, CCB Tower, 3
Connaught Road Central).

3/15/16 6:04 AM

Q&A DIRECTOR

suffering. I think it all stems from

that CEPA policy.

H E PA R A BL E OF DAV ID A N D

Goliath tends to be overused

and misapplied these days,
but in the case of the small
independent Hong Kong film
Ten Years and its critics in the
Chinese government the analogy
is most fitting.
Made for less than $80,000
with a cast and crew of volunteers, enthusiastic amateurs and
film school students, Ten Years
is a collection of five short films
that present a Hong Kong of the
future, asking what if questions on a number of local issues.
A segment called Extras deals
with the harassment faced by
pro-democratic protestors; Season
of the End touches on the loss of
identity wrought by the bulldozers of development; Dialect deals
with the creeping dominance
of Mandarin over Cantonese;
Self-Immolator considers whether
hard core believers in Hong Kong
independence would adopt the
extreme act of self-immolation
for their cause; and Local Egg
tackles censorship.
The five directors, Ng
Ka-leung, Jevons Au, Chow
Kwun-Wai, Fei-Pang Wong and
Kwok Zune never expected the
film to make it to theaters and
Ten Years quietly made its debut
at the Hong Kong Asian Film
Festival in November last year.
From there, through rapid wordof-mouth, the film began to sell
out its limited screenings, moving
to bigger theaters due to demand
and eventually going on to gross
ten times its budget.
One of the films directors
Jevons Au, who directed the segment Dialect, spoke to THR about
why Ten Years needed to be made
and why it has struck a chord
with the local population.
How did Ten Years come to be made?
From the very beginning, we just
wanted to make a film together.
We are five guys, coming from
different universities but we all
wanted to know what the future
of Hong Kong will be for our
generation. We are of a similar
age, but its five different points of
view, so theres more perspective
to see how Hong Kong will be. We
had a very limited budget, so we
wanted to make an independent

Despite glowing local reviews, the

Chinese press savaged Ten Years,
and the government banned the live
telecast of the 35th Hong Kong Film
Awards since the film was up for best
film. What are your thoughts on the
Chinese response to the film?
I havent really considered
that as thats politics. We had
four script writers work on Ten
Years and one of them was from
Mainland China. She gave us so
many ideas as she had experienced a lot of the issues in the
film but [in] her province in
China. She comes from Wuhan
where they have their own dialect
and the government has forced
them to speak Mandarin, marginalizing their language.

The issues in the five short films are things

people are conerned about, Jevons says.

Jevons Au

The young helmer discusses capturing the political zetgeist

in Hong Kong with the controversial omnibus film Ten Years
By Abid Rahman

film about Hong Kong issues. For

commercial projects, we dont
have a chance to discuss these
kinds of topics. We wanted to
make a film we wanted to make,
we really didnt expect proper
screenings at all.
How do you feel about the positive
reaction to the film in Hong Kong?
It was a total surprise to us. We
went to the Hong Kong Asian
film festival and we had a single
cinema, then more and more cinemas joined in. Then we went to
overseas film festivals. We never
planned any of that, we didnt
expect this kind of reaction. Ten
Years success made me feel that
many people in Hong Kong love
their city and are interested and
concerned with its future. The

BY THE
NUMBERS

800K
Total gross for
Ten Years from a
9-week run that
never exceeded 6
screens

five issues in the five shorts films

are things people are concerned
about, I think thats why it was
such a huge success.
Ten Years was a rare local Cantonese
film made for a local Hong Kong
audience, why arent there more
films like that?
There are more and more Hong
Kong-China co-productions
due to the Closer Economic
Partnership Arrangement
(CEPA) policy. It seems like a
benefit to the Hong Kong film
industry as theres investment
and we can make films for a
larger audience, the big China
market. But, this kind of system induces behaviour to make
Chinese productions and
so local film is declining and

Nomination
for the Hong Kong
Film Awards
in the best film
category.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

D3_HK_Jevons.FINAL.indd 4

Number of films
in the Hong Kong
International Film
Fest this year (the
other being Trivisa)

Speaking of language, thats the

topic of your segment in Ten Years,
calld Dialect. Could you explain the
inspiration behind it and what you
were trying to achieve?
For Ten Years the other four
directors working on it looked at
it in a way of what will happen
in 10 years, whereas I looked
back at the last ten years in Hong
Kong and what has changed and
touched me specifically. So for
me language, both written and
spoken, has changed hugely.
Mandarin and simplified Chinese
text have become more important
in Hong Kong. Im a scriptwriter,
that is my job. At the beginning, I
wrote in Cantonese but as theres
more and more Hong Kong-China
co-productions, we have to write
in Mandarin and thats not my
mother tongue. It may seem similar but it is totally different, and I
dont have the same confidence to
articulate my feelings or ideas and
that was a big impact on me as its
my career.
Also education is changing
rapidly. As kids we used to learn
Cantonese then Mandarin and
now its Mandarin a lot earlier.
I have a friend whose kid is in
primary school and he cant
speak to his son as the mother
wont allow the boy to speak
Cantonese as learning Mandarin
is so important. Thats what Im
afraid of: how will we talk to the
next generation?

3/15/16 1:41 AM

Meet Ghanas Kick Ass Movie Posters

ARTWORK COURTESY OF ERNIE WOLFE GALLERY

The Hanart TZ gallerys Kung Fu in Africa exhibition unveils a rare collection of lively, hand painted film art from
the 80s and 90s depicting everyone from Bruce Lee to Jean-Claude Van Damme By Patrick Brzeski

This is about returning to Hong Kong images that came from Hong
ONG KONGS F ILM HER ITAGE IS COMING F U LL CIRCLE BY
Kong but were never filtered through Chinese or Western eyes, says
way of West Africa.
Wolfe. There is an independent reality to their being that anyone can
Currently showing at Hanart TZ, one of the citys finest gallerimmediately appreciate.
ies dealing in Chinese contemporary art, is Kung Fu in Africa,
Sadly, the works on view at Hanart TZ already represent a lost form.
an exhibition of 32 colorful, hand-painted martial arts movie
By the late 1990s, import laws were relaxed in Ghana and a tsunami
posters, which were produced by enterprising artists in Ghana during
of technology swept into the country, including printing technology,
the 1980s and 1990s. Painted on huge canvas flour sacks, the images
cheap TVs and chalk boards, which artists use to
are as delightful as they are unlikely. As the exhibimake quicker and cheaper temporary signage.
tions curator Ernie Wolfe puts it: These works are a
Home viewing and the import of chalk boards
product of globalization in the best possible way.
ended this tradition, says Wolfe.
Wolfe, a long-time dealer in African art via his
Whats important about this show, he adds, is
namesake gallery in Los Angeles, collected the
that these posters were made during a time when
works over dozens of trips to Ghana during the past
quite literally the best and brightest of Ghanas arttwo decades. A personal friendship with Hanart
ists kept technology at bay and created images that
founder Johnson Chang the two went to college
Ghana artists painted elaborate movie
were utterly organic in their creation and in their
together lead to the galleries collaboration on the
posters on canvas flour sacks. Most artists
invention.
current show.
never saw the movies first.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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3/15/16 5:04 AM

Mandarin
Oriental Sanya,
China

Making A Quick Getaway

After few days of frenetic negotiations youll need a few days of rest and relaxation, heres five destinations
close to Hong Kong that will take your mind off work in no time By Abid Rahman

OU R DAYS OF INTENSE DE A LM A K ING AT F ILM A RT CA N TA K E IT OU T OF THE

Nezima Beach
House, Boracay,
Philippines

best of us, so what better way to unwind after the market than a quick trip somewhere to recharge the batteries. Weve picked five very different places to suit all
tastes where you can lose yourself for a few days. And best of all, they are all only
a few short hours on a plane from Hong Kong.

The Adventure

WHERE Six Senses Ninh Van

Bay, Vietnam
WHY Situated in a sandy bay
overlooked by mountains, the
Six Senses Ninh Van Bay resort
is a feast for the eyes but its
also a place to explore. Hop on
a bicycle and visit the interior
with its lush paddy fields, gorgeous scenery and delicious
local food.
HOW Vietnam Airlines flies the
5 hour route to Nha Trang via
Ho Chi Minh City once daily.

The Spa

WHERE Mandarin Oriental

Pacific, Hong Kong Airlines

and Hainan Airlines all fly to
Sanya several times daily.

The Beach

WHERE Nezima Beach House,

Boracay, Philippines
WHY This one is a no-brainer.
Boracay is simply stunning
with crystal clear waters,
sun and white sand aplenty.
Inspired by Balinese architecture, Nezima is located right
on the beach so you dont even
have to move too far and it has
all the other amenities and
facilities youd expect of a top
class resort.

HOW Both Philippines Air

and Cebu Pacific fly the 5

hour trip to Boracays Caticlan
airport via Manilla several
times daily.

The Food

WHERE Bangkok, Thailand

WHY Up until recently, the Thai
capital was better known for
its rowdy nightlife and glittering array of Buddhist temples
rather than world class dining.
Sure, the best Thai food
anywhere is found in Bangkok,
but now the city boasts the
best restaurant in all of Asia
according to Restaurant

magazine and tenth best in the

world. Gaggan, the contemporary Indian restaurant is simply
a must for anyone who takes
food tourism seriously. Other
gems include Nahm, Issaya
Siamese Club and Eat Me.
HOW Despite its outwardly
chaotic nature, Bangkok is

Sanya, China
WHY A trip to the Mainland
might seem counterintuitive
after the hustle and bustle of
Hong Kong, but Sanya is an
island paradise a million miles
away from the hectic China
of popular imagination. The
Mandarin Oriental has created
a resort thats sole focus is
making you feel completely
relaxed. Theres yoga, the
beach and an award-winning
spa that uses both traditional
Chinese medicine and more
modern techniques and
treatments.
HOW Less than a 2-hour flight
from Hong Kong, Cathay

Six Senses Ninh

Van Bay, Vietnam

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

D3_HK_Travel.FINAL.indd 6

one of the most accessible big

cities in Asia with excellent air
links. Several airlines fly the
3-hour route daily from Hong
Kong, including Cathay Pacific,
Thai and Bangkok Airways.

The Experience
WHERE Yangon, Myanmar

WHY A formerly closed country, Myanmar has begun to

open itself to visitors looking
to sample one of the most
intriguing cultures in Asia.
Yangon is a wonderful city
to explore steeped as it is in
history and cultural influence
from the British, the Chinese,
the Indian and of course
Burmese cultures. Yangon is
also youthful and vibrant too.
Make sure to check out art
space TS1 and the incredibly
hip Port Autonomy restaurant.
HOW At just over 5 hours,
Yangon is worth the extra time
flying. Thai Airways flies via
Bangkok once a day.

3/15/16 1:47 AM

HK_DAY3_Filmartad.indd 7

3/15/16 3:10 AM

EXECUTIVE SUITE

FOUNDER, EASTERNLIGHT FILMS

Ying Ye

The L.A. and Beijing-based exec on

Chinas appetite for horror movies,
dealing with censors and the future of
the quota system By Patrick Brzeski

N 2005, YING YE FOU NDED EASTERNLIGHT

Films, the Asian offshoot of influential film

sales outfit Arclight Films, established by
her husband, Gary Hamilton. The timing
of the companys eastward push would prove
fortuitous. Initially based in Los Angeles and
Sydney, Easternlight grew to acquire one of
the most formidable Asian film libraries of
any indie label not stationed in the region.
At the same time, Yings work in her native
China helped the company build the relationships that would make the banners first
major production success possible. In 2012,
relatively early in Chinas recent ascendance
as the worlds fastest growing major film market, Arclight produced horror thriller Bait 3D
via its budding genre label Darclight Films.
Crucially, Yings contacts in China contributed a sizable chunk of the films financing
and helped arrange for portions of the picture
to be shot there. Although the movie was
officially a Singapore-Australia co-production, Chinese authorities deemed that it had
enough Chinese cast and story elements to
qualify as a Chinese co-production, granting
it permission to access the theatrical market
without going through the countrys notorious import quota. The film grossed some $25
million, an unheard of performance for an
Australian genre film in China at the time.
The companys next release, on which Ying
is a producer, will be the monster picture
Nest, starring Chinese superstar Li Bingbing,
Kellan Lutz and Kelsey Grammer. Ying, who
divides her time between offices in LA, Sydney
and Beijing and airplanes sat down with
THR to talk about the censorship challenges
but huge market potential of the horror genre
in China and whether Hollywood can expect
some of the barriers to the booming Chinese
theatrical market to be lifted anytime soon.
The are various models that international film
companies have been pursuing to access
China. Smaller film companies can sell their titles
to Chinese distributors for a one-time flat fee,
while the studios compete fiercely for the 34
import slots allocated for releases that get to
share box office revenue. What are some of
the advantages and disadvantages of each model
in the current climate?
There is a large burden for Chinese distributors who want to import films. Its hard, but
many are also very motivated.
Partnering with Chinese companies is the

I think importing smaller

films [in China] is getting
tougher and tougher, says
Ying, who was photographed
by Scott Witter on March 2
at her office in Beverly Hills.

new trend for those that have the scale and

resources to do that. The advantage is that
the movies you produce in China through a
China-based joint venture will be categorized
as Chinese, so the import difficulties are not
an issue. The challenge is finding the right
local parter, and this takes a lot of time and
trust. For co-productions, you need to meet
a lot of criteria to qualify as a co-production
with the government: the film needs to have
enough Chinese story elements, cast and
locations, and then you need to get the local
government approval and the central government approval and the co-production SARFT
permit. So there are a lot of processes to go
through.
You made the co-production system work very
well for Bait 3D back in 2012. What did you learn
from the process?
First of all, it was a different genre than the
market had seen. It was a light horror film.
Theres an appetite for these kinds of movies, because there havent been many horror
films made and released in China because of
censorship issues. But so many Chinese young
people have found a way to watch these types
of films online and they love them. They havent seen them on the big screen yet. Thats
what made Bait 3D successful. So with Nest,
were coming back with the same director
and the same team and one of Chinas biggest
stars, Li Bingbing.
How do you develop horror films like Nest that the
Chinese censors can tolerate?
Well, we spoke with the censorship committee early on and they read the script and
they really love the concept. The censorship
committee is a little more open-minded now.
There have been a lot of Hong Kong-Chinese
co-productions with quite a lot of violence
and action. The whole story is set in China,
the lead actress is Chinese. And its not a
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D3_HK_YingYe.FINAL.indd 8

ghost story or a slasher. Not too much blood,

nothing supernatural. Supernatural stories
will only be accepted if they are based on
a classic Chinese story. The horror in Nest
comes from a spider. Were going to do a
whole slate of these types of films for China.
We have three movies that have already gotten
censorship approval. In our pipeline, we have
a dozen movies that are very solid. We have
scripts and famous Chinese actors and good
directors in negotiation. Hopefully, well make
two or three this year. Also, were going to do
the sequel to Bait.
You mean Deep Water, the film that was
put on hold after the flight MH370 went missing?
Did you have to retool the story?
Yes, thats the one. Weve actually had so
many investors chasing us and asking us when
were going to make it. These are people who
invested in Bait 3D and theyre very eager for
us to move forward with the sequel. But we
had to wait a while, because in that instant, it
was just so you know. Were thinking probably next year will be okay.
A lot of industry players are speculating that at the
2016, when the U.S.-China film trade agreement
expires, that the import quota of 34 films might be
lifted. Do you think that will happen?
Thats a question that everyone in the Chinese
industry is discussing, on both the government and private sector sides. I honestly
cannot see that happening them dropping
the quota altogether. In some way, they
will open up, but they will keep some other
restrictions and control, too. Maybe they will
remove the specific number, but there will still
be hurdles. You could optimistically begin
to prepare for the quota to lift, but focusing
on doing films for the full Chinese audience
is the key. Making movies that can excite the
mainstream audience is a requirement that
wont change.

3/15/16 2:20 AM

PRO MOT IO N

SEE & BE SEEN

at the

CANNES
INTERNATIONAL
FILM FESTIVAL
CANNES PREVIEW ISSUE 5/4
CLOSE: 4/27

MATERIALS: 4/29

FESTIVAL AND MARKET DAILIES

5/11-5/18

THR.COM/CANNES
LIVE MAY 2016

CONTACT: UNITED STATES | Debra Fink | debra.fink@thr.com

EUROPE | Alison Smith | alison.smith@thr.com Tommaso Campione | tommaso.campione@thr.com
Frederic Fenucci | frederic.fenucci@billboard.com | +44 7985 251 814
ASIA | Ivy Lam | ivy.lam@thr.com AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND | Lisa Cruse | lisa@spiritedmedia.co.nz

thrhaff_FP_filmart_Cannes_Coverage_2016.indd 1

3/2/16 4:08 PM

R E V I E WS
CREEPY
C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 1

madness sidebars, and the tale

holds viewers in its grip for much
of its 130-minute running time.
An ace cast adds almost too
much depth, and one can sense
the actors shimmying into their
genre roles with difficulty. Add
in the directors following, and
the Shochiku release should have
little trouble raising the temperature of the horror market.
Dapper and broodingly cool,
police detective Koichi Takakura
(Hidetoshi Nishijima) is called
in to interview a brash young
serial killer at headquarters. He
is excited to talk to the perfect
psychopath. But the youth
escapes and sows panic in the
building, leading to a promising
and dynamic opening sequence.
A year later the action resumes:
Koichi has retired from the force
and is teaching his specialty,
criminal psychology, to college
students. He and his wife, Yasuko
(Yuko Takeuchi, an early victim
in the classic Ring), are moving
into a new house in the suburbs to
start a new life. The only problem
is the neighbors.
The screenplay, which
Kurosawa co-wrote with
Chihiro Ikeda, based on Yutaka
Maekawas novel, is quite intricate and laden with intriguing
twists. Not quite satisfied with
academic life, Koichi becomes
curious about an unsolved
missing-persons case in a nearby
town. Rather surprisingly, his former assistant Nogami (Masahiro
Higashide) turns up, requesting
him to informally investigate.
A father, mother and son
mysteriously disappeared from
their house six years ago, leaving
their junior high daughter Saki
behind. Like so many characters
in Kurosawa films, Saki has some
serious memory problems and
has blanked out on what exactly
happened. But Koichi is ready to
browbeat her to find out.
Meanwhile, back home, hausfrau Yasuko patiently tries to
break the ice with the weirdo next
door, Mr. Nishino (Tokyo Sonatas

Director Kurosawa
sets the right
tone but the film
fails to pay off.

Teruyuki Kagawa), probably the

films title character, and certainly its best. Though he makes
it abundantly clear he doesnt
want company, Yasuko insists
rather hilariously on bringing
over her home cooking in an
attempt to overcome his lack of
social skills. The audience knows
better. Not only does Nishino
have a schoolgirl daughter who
proclaims, Hes not my father,
hes a total stranger to Koichi,
he also has an invalid wife who is
seen about as often as Norman
Bates mother.
All of these ingredients should
come together in a mouth-watering finale, but such is not the
case; in fact, the film becomes
more obvious and less psychological as it goes on. Kurosawa is not
a gore lover, and there is nothing to cringe over when things
heat up. On the other hand, the
last-reel revelations, awkwardly
doled out as the victims multiply uncontrollably, are more

repulsive than scary.

Koichis status as a reliable
hero is never totally cast in doubt,
as happens to the detective-hero
in Cure, but there are moments
when he loses control. Nishijima,
who starred in Kurosawas License
to Live and played the tortured
cineaste in Amir Naderis Cut,
continually hints at a deeper
dimension to the detective who
has thrown in the towel. He seems
to be heading for an identity crisis
in a Kafkaesque scene where he is
hauled into police headquarters.
Admittedly, his story about the
bad things happening to his wife
and neighbor is too wild to make
sense, but the film chooses not to
go there.
A saving grace is the tongue-incheek humor that keeps popping
up at unexpected moments.
When Koichi instructs his class
on the three types of psycho-killers organized, disorganized
and mixed characteristics one
can hear the college-prof director

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having a laugh.
Ambience also plays a major
role, and Akiko Ashizawas
lighting keeps a cloud of gloom
hanging over every shot. The
cluttered, claustrophobic houses
with their narrow entranceways
and low ceilings suggest the
characters repressed desires,
in much the same way their
junky backyards pockmarked
with abandoned appliances and
overgrown chain fences remind
us of some unresolved issues in
the attic. But the nearest the film
comes to identifying the source of
all this psycho-cinema is Yasukos
involuntary confession of dissatisfaction with her marriage too
little, too late.
HKIFF Section Closing Film
Cast Hidetoshi Nishijima,
Yuko Takeuchi, Teruyuki Kagawa,
Haruna Kawaguchi,
Masahiro Higashide
Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa
130 minutes

10

3/15/16 2:56 AM

Brand is a privileged young

German woman who decides
to take a road less traveled.

The Navel of the Earth

Kazushige Togos understated comedy unfolds in a

futuristic Kyoto where localized foreigners help Japanese
understand their own culture by clarence tsui

market
title

Bitterwseet

Sound designer Krishna Ashu Bhati steps

behind the camera for this gritty, yet uneven drama
with a stellar turn by newcomer Lisa Brand

by piera chen
IR ECTOR I A L DEBU T OF SOU N D DE SIGN ER A N D

composer Krishna Ashu Bhati, Bittersweet is an ambitiously crafted drama that makes revealing statements
about affluent capitalist societies and the clash of old and new values, but fails to deliver due to sketchy characterization and weak
acting though Lisa Brand is certainly a talent to watch out for.
Mina (Brand), a would-be German med school student, decides
to move out of her conservative parents sumptuous home to live
with her sister, Mandy, a prostitute. Almost immediately, Mina
meets and falls in love with Tony (Manuel Armando Cortez), a DJ,
at a friends party. She soon finds out about Tonys financial problems when debt collectors coerce both of them into repayment.
Failing to get help from family and friends, she takes up her sisters
proposition of selling her virginity.
The film makes an interesting point about the limited options
available to people who opt for a non-mainstream path and youngsters trying to gain independence. Everyone has a dream even
the gangster has his swingers club but everyone gets sucked into
one thing or another. Drugs, sex, money, the Internet are their
vices and the fillers of their vapid lives.
Above all this, Mina stands like Venus on a seashell. She has
a propensity for spacing out, which doesnt just happen at her
parents middle-class home, but even when shes with Tony at her
sisters boudoir. This sets her apart from the other characters who
all try but fail to rise above themselves. She becomes disillusioned
and her decision at the very end of the film paints a terribly bleak
picture of the future for dropouts from the mainstream. Brand
shines as a 19-year-old who demonstrates equal parts vulnerability
and confidence. Behind her pensive gullibility lurks a razor-sharp
intelligence that evokes Emma Stone.
Tony and his LSD-dropping hippie friends rave about healing
and mindfulness in 70s garb but none of the talk ever gets above
clichs. Tony is a potentially interesting character, but sometimes
leaves you scratching your head. Hes superficial, narcissistic,
and seems to like Mina. Yet the superficiality, the narcissism, the
fondness for her, none of it convinces. Theres a nagging insincerity
about him thanks as much to the writing as the acting, that undermines even the superficiality. This makes his reactions at pivotal
moments in the film, like when in bed with Mina and at the end
when the debtors knock, downright baffling.
The music and insights into European psyculture will be
eye-opening to audiences unfamiliar with the scene.
Sales Wide
Cast Lisa Brand, Manuel Cortez, Steffen C. Jurgens, Milton Welsh,
Stefan Lampadius// Director Krishna Ashu Bhati // 95 min

OU FOR EIGN ER S H AV E

stolen Kyoto from the

Japanese! so says a
character in Kazushige Togos
2057-set drama in which the
city is basically taken over by
expatriates. But The Navel of the
Earth doesnt take its cue from,
say, Blade Runner. Rather, the
low-budget indie production is
more a feel-good utopian comedy in which cultural differences
are played up merely for gentle
laughs.
Shot on digital video in 2008
and finally making its international premiere at Filmart this
year, The Navel of the Earth is
admittedly far from a cinematic
treat. Somehow surprisingly,
however, the film hasnt dated
that much, and the many morsels
of wit still play well. While not
exactly fit for a theatrical release,
the title could still work on the
ancillary markets especially for
in-flight entertainment on planes
bound for Japan.
The films title stems from a
belief harbored by a character
in the film about Kyoto being
the center of the world. In a
way, the ancient Japanese city
has become a hub as such, as
decades-long passport-free access
have led to the city becoming a
cosmopolitan nirvana. Somehow,
the Japanese-speaking foreigners
have become the locals, as they
man police stations, own restaurants and teach traditional arts.
Against this backdrop, the
tacky tourists coming into town
are actually Japanese, as shown
in a running gag of an over-excited couple (Takashi Taniguchi

Sales Genki Production

Cast Meibi Yamanouchi, J.A.T.D.
Nishantha, Takahi Taniguchi,
Kappa Kunikida
Director Kazushige Togo
74 minutes
market
title

Nishantha, left, and

Yamanouchi have little
in common.

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HK_DAY3_REV2.FINAL.indd 11

and Kappa Kunikida) struggling

to adhere to stringent daily
rituals and having their language
corrected (by foreigners, of
course).
But the main cultural clash
here takes place between Nin
(J.A.T.D. Nishantha), a South
Asian taxi driver, and Mei (Meibi
Yamanouchi), a ditzy Japanese
tourist. After failing to stop a
thief from nicking Meis suitcase, Nin is forced to take her in.
The pairs interaction subverts
expectations one might have
about their cultural identities:
while Nin abides strictly to his
host countrys traditions from
demeanor to diet Mei is brash,
prefers bread to rice, and is
unabashed in dismissing Kyotos
cultural merits.
Somehow, it will be Nin who
helps Mei rediscover the beauty
of her country and culture, as he
shows her around Kyotos tourist
hotspots. This is perhaps partly
an excuse for Togo and his DP
Rou Makiitsu (who passed away
in 2009) to showcase the citys
cultural and culinary splendor;
the director himself was giving
out Kyoto postcards to people at
the Filmart screening. But somehow the film also transcends this
travel-brochure component with
a simple narrative brimming with
humor and on-screen relationships oozing humanity.

11

3/15/16 4:55 AM

REVIEWS

Autohead

Youn, center, takes in a young boy after his mother is arrested.

Rohit Mittals debut

revolves around a film crew
following a Mumbai cabbies
decent into madness

The Bacchus Lady

Veteran Korean actress Youn Yuh-jung delivers a powerful

performance as a sex worker confronting her and
her ex-patrons problems in old age by clarence tsui

R ET T Y U PSTA RTS, BEWA R E: PL E A SE M A K E WAY FOR

the grand dame. Already into the fifth decade of her career,
veteran thespian Youn Yuh-jung shows her younger counterparts how the job should be done in The Bacchus Lady, a gritty
drama about an elderly sex worker confronting not just the repercussions of her own spiraling mortality but that of her past and
present clients.
Reteaming with helmer E J-yong (Untold Scandal, Dasepo
Naughty Girls) with whom she flourished playing a version of
herself in the documentary-drama mash-ups of Actresses (2009)
and Behind the Camera (2013) Youn has delivered a nuanced,
dignified turn worthy of attention and awards aplenty. Youn plays
So-young, a woman who peddles sexual services to retirees in a
park in Seoul. The title refers to her way of soliciting business, as
she codes her offer through an invitation of opening a bottle of
Bacchus energy drink for interested men.
Despite having contacted gonorrhea, she persists in her job so
as to pay for her sons university studies in the U.S., with her using
whats left to pay for her very modest life in a run-down apartment
next to a young disabled figurine maker (Yoon Kye-sang) and a
transgender nightclub singer (An A-zu).
So-youngs predicaments begin after she takes in a boy (Choi
Hyun-jun), whose Filipino mother is arrested after a violent run-in
with her ex-partner. As she attends to the needs of the child,
problems from her pension-aged acquaintances begin to seep in,
ranging from the awkward needs of current customers and also
observations of the deteriorating health of patrons who once paid
for her services.
In what is perhaps a nod to her career-defining murderous
femme fatale roles in the 1960s, Youn again gets to play the angel
of death here but an unwilling one, perhaps, as she is somehow
pushed into helping old men end their sorry, confused lives. Its
perhaps fair to describe Youn as having outdone her younger self
here with a performance banking not on histrionics but delicate
representations of guilt and despondency.
Given the obsession with beauty and youth in South Korean
screen entertainment, The Bacchus Lady is an audacious reminder
of how lives could be lived once the youthful vigor is gone.

by clarence tsui
N DI A N CI N EM A F I NA L LY

catches up with the mockumentary genre with

Rohit Mittals s debut about a
film crews spiraling shoot of a
psychotic cabbies increasingly
deadly deeds. A cross of Rmy
Belvauxs legendary 1992 film
Man Bites Dog and Taxi Driver,
Autohead is admittedly late in
coming but better than never.
This well-designed title actually
reveals a lot about the multitude
of schisms within Indian society
today, while also taking a jab at
the countrys infatuation with
cinema and celebrities.
Autoheads protagonist is
Narayan (Deepak Sambat), a
moto-tricycle driver being filmed
by a three-person crew (led by
Mittal, playing a director himself) as he whizzes around town.
From the outset, Narayan also
appears to be a bit off-kilter.
He muses about how hes got
talents nobody cares about, and
that the documentary will make
everybody know about me. He
delights in talking on camera
about his sexual skills, while
dismissing all women as merely
gold-diggers who have forgotten
the social revolutionary potentials of love.
His misogyny stems from
his troubled relationship with
Rupa (Ronjini Chakroborty),

who appears to be at once his

girlfriend and an escort whom
he transports to her clients.
But she is not the only source
of Narayans snowballing frustrations: a lowly-educated man
hailing from a village in the
Indian-Nepalese borderlands, he
is shown via footage shot from
a pursuing vehicle or a Go-Pro
camera installed within his
auto-rickshaw bullied by other
drivers, chastised by passengers
and constantly nagged at by
his mother who has arrived in
Mumbai to check on him.
A mess of contradictions,
Narayan will soon turn increasingly homicidal and the
documentary crew themselves
eventually become willing
accomplices to all this mayhem.
But just like in the 1996 Japanese
film Focus in which a seemingly
meek interviewee turns the tables
on the manipulative TV producers tailing him Autohead sees
the crew ending up in a much,
much worse place than at the
beginning. While mild when
compared to the myriad features which have been produced
worldwide about the exploitative
nature of modern mass media
Autohead is still an audacious
attempt to shine a light on a
society where the moving image
reigns supreme.
HKIFF Section Indie Power
Sales Salker Films
and Amit Verma Films
Cast Deepak Sambat,
Ronjini Chakroborty, Rohit Mittal
Director Rohit Mittal
97 minutes

Sambat is the Travis Bickle of moto-tricycle drivers.

HKIFF Section Gala Premiere

Cast Youn Yuh-jung, Chon Moo-song, Yoon Kye-sang, An A-zu,
Choi Hyun-jun // Director E J-yong // 110 minutesw
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

HK_DAY3_REV3+4.FINAL.indd 12

12

3/15/16 5:28 AM

but rigorously executed drama should please

international festival audiences brought up on
Charlie Kaufman screenplays while at home
it should solidify the reputation of opera
and theater director Johannes Schmid, here
market
title directing his third feature film, and striking
leads Odine Johne and Stephan Kampwirth.
Johne, right, asks Kampwirth to write a
The film opens in media res to suggest
novel about their relationship.
something very dramatic will happen down
the line before flashing back to the first time
Agnes (Johne) runs into Walter (Kampwirth),
as the novels nameless narrator has been
A rigorous, well-acted adaptation
called here. Hes a non-fiction writer researchof Peter Stamms bestselling novel of the ing a vague book idea and shes a young
same name by boyd van hoeij
physicist. Schmid, who co-wrote the adaptation with Nora Laemmermann, manages to
SOM EW H AT ST U F F Y NON-F ICT ION
clearly convey that its Walter who is immediwriter in his early forties is fascinated
ately attracted to Agnes. Indeed, her ethereal,
by an icy blonde at least a decade his
slightly otherworldly qualities imagine a
junior in the high-minded yet structurally
young Mia Farrow and youre halfway there
jocular German drama Agnes. Based on the
immediately stand out in the otherwise
bestseller by Swiss-German author Peter
entirely unremarkable university library in
Stamm, this is the kind of relationship drama
Dusseldorf (changed from Chicago in the
in which the stunning female lead pushes the
novel) where they first meet.
male protagonist to write a romance novel
Agnes is a striking but also somewhat
about their relationship, allowing him to
unusual presence. She often looks like shes
effectively look past the present and into the
living in her own world rather than the physpast and the future and rewrite or actually
ical world shared by everyone else and it is
invent parts of their courtship. This low-key

Agnes

Sori:
Voice From
The Heart

Journeyman supporting
player Lee Sung-Min ventures
into a starring role
in a touching sci-fi drama
by elizabeth kerr

IK E T H E M U TA N T

offspring of Short Circuit

and Robot & Frank, Lee
Ho-Jaes Sori: Voice from the
Heart is that peculiarly engaging
and engagingly peculiar genre
mash-up with a semi-tragic
undercurrent the Korean industry does so well. Chronicling the
odd bond between the grieving
father of a murdered child and
the sentient AI-loaded communications satellite he finds
washed up on a beach on their
mutual quests to find her,
Sori hangs a very conventional
story on a goofy structure but
somehow manages to pull it off
thanks to a pair of strong central
performances and a premise so
ridiculous it can be forgiven it
trespasses.
When it was released in Korea

at the end of January the film

got trounced at the box office by
Kung Fu Panda 3. Not surprising,
considering Sori may look like
a heartwarming family, sci-fi
drama on the surface but is, in
reality, a sensitive, mostly successful meditation on grief and
reconciling the people we think
we know with who they really
are. Though nearly indefinable,
Soris brand of bittersweet acceptance of loss without being an
outright weepie could receive
a warm reception regionally and
also find a place on Asia-focused
festivals globally.
Sori starts with a flashback
to 1990, with customs worker
Hae-Kwan (Lee Sung-Min, The
Attorney) and his wife frantically
looking for their missing, clearly
stubborn daughter Yoo-Ju. All
ends well with father and daughter making a pact stating that
should this happen again, theyd
meet at their favorite ice cream
shop. In 2013 Yoo-Ju is missing
again, this time tragically presumed dead in the disastrous fire
(by arson) that ripped through
the Daegu subway in 2003.
Presumed dead by everyone,
that is, except her father, who is
unable to give up on the idea she

Sales Pluto Film Distribution Network

Cast Odine Johne, Stephan Kampwirth,
Director Johannes Schmid // 102 minutes

market
title

market
title
Lee teams up
with an A.I. to
find his missing
daughter.

may still be alive.

Before that however, Sori
details a satellite, S19, falling
from orbit and quickly getting
hunted by both (hilariously stiff)
American NSA types, its creator
NASA and their South Korean
intelligence and scientific counterparts: Agent Shin (Lee Hee-Jun)
and engineer Ji-Yun (Lee Honey).
The threads come together when
the government discovers HaeKwan has the tech hes dubbed
Sori, and Ji-Yun empathizes with
Hae-Kwans plight.
Sori is at its strongest when
it focuses on Hae-Kwan and
the surprising onion layer style

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never clear if shes very absent-minded or perhaps just extremely guarded or standoffish.
This only further adds to both her beguiling
air of mystery and the sense that shes a blank
canvas that people like Walter can project
their own desires on. And this is exactly what
happens when she suggests he pen a romance
novel about their slowly deepening bond.
At first, the story has fun contrasting the
differences between the duos real and fictional selves, with Agnes questioning Walters
decision to highlight or omit certain details
from their courtship. Editor Henk Dreess
precision cutting, which keeps toggling
between the real and fictional worlds, is key
in making sure audiences can always follow
the story. Schmids firm handle on the material is equally important, even if it gradually
slips in the films second latter reels, which
start to feel a bit repetitive and drawn-out
before closing in on the finale, which underlines how life is different from most stories in
that life doesnt have to end unless someone
actually dies.

discoveries he makes about the

daughter he was sure he knew
(played by Chae Soo-Bin in
flashback). Lee balances regret
and disbelief effortlessly, and
makes the mans sadness real
without tipping into histrionics.
As his partner in quasi-crime,
Lee Honey brings a smart,
no-nonsense attitude to the role,
underwritten as it is. Tech specs
are polished across the board.
Sales Lotte Entertainment
Director Lee Ho-Jae
Cast Lee Sung-Min, Lee Hee-Jun,
Lee Honey, Shim Eun-Kyoung
117 minutes

13

3/15/16 5:29 AM

REVIEWS

Taang

Documentarian Wang Bing examines the lives

of refugees living on the war-torn borderlands between
Myanmar and China by clarence tsui

H I L E A L L EY E S

remain set on the waves

of refugees landing
on European shores, Chinese
documentary-maker Wang Bings
latest offers a stark reminder
that similarly tragic dislocations
are happening elsewhere as well.
A two-and-a-half-hour treatise
about an ethnic minority moving
between their war-torn homeland
in Myanmar and the Chinese
border towns in which they try
to seek shelter, Taang is slightly
protracted but still visually and
thematically engrossing.
Wang whose previous
work was mostly focused on the
marginalized in Chinese society
or history has somehow fallen
into step with the zeigeist, both in
terms of its depiction of a refugee
crisis and also the international
focus on the future of a post-dictatorship Myanmar.
Taang begins with a scene
which is familiar to many documentaries about refugees: a
uniformed man, presumably a
Chinese refugee camp guard,
abuses and kicks a traditionally-attired and seemingly
uncommunicative tribeswoman
from the titular ethnic minority.
But onscreen state violence
and cultural exotica ends here.
After this brief scene, officials
and soldiers have become nearly
absent; forced by the Chinese
authorities to return home to
Kokang in Myanmar the
battleground of Myanmars army
and anti-government rebels the
Taang individuals seen onscreen
are thoroughly assimilated to

their host cultures, complete with

T-shirts and cellphones.
But they are outsiders, nevertheless, and Wang chronicles
their slow trek home. Though
theres not much trekking, actually. Much of the film is devoted
to depicting the refugees being
stranded in an alien land with
minimal support and resources.
When Wang cuts away from
this first group, he then follows
yet another band of returnees
who stopped moving in the middle of a muddy road after hearing
explosions and shooting in the
distance. Again, Wang manages
to reflect the complex social and
psychological make-up of these
refugees: a woman is wearing a
floral hat, jeans and sneakers,
while a man walks on, carrying
a quaint yellow umbrella in one
hand and a machete in the other.
In Taang, Wangs eye for
intriguing visual juxtapositions
comes alongside intriguing
framing and lighting: using only
natural light, the fireside scenes
bring out the weary refugees
rugged facial contours. Adding
to that is a soundtrack capturing
the distinct ambience surrounding the individuals Emmanuel
Solands sound-work providing
a texture vital to the viewers
understanding and empathy of
people whose lives are shaped
by looming circumstances far
beyond their control.
HKIFF Section Masters
and Auteurs
Director Wang Bing
148 minutes
Refugees from
Myanmar
attempt to
assimilate in
China.

Jadidi is a suave detective in Iran in 1964.

A Dragon Arrives!

Director Mani Haghighis noirish ghost story questions

Iranian history by deborah young

UZ ZL I NG Y ET T HOROUGH LY EN T ERTA I N I NG, M A N I

Haghighis A Dragon Arrives! lands somewhere between a

mockumentary, a ghost story and a hard-boiled detective
yarn, with a pinch of Indiana Jones tossed in. Set on the surreal-looking desert island of Qeshm in the Persian Gulf, it playfully
throws a handful of characters into a search for some incredible
truth that supposedly lies buried in a haunted cemetery.
Its 1964 and detective Hafizi (suave newcomer Amir Jadidi) is
in trouble. He has been drugged and abducted by his own agency,
and is being interrogated by his implacable boss, Major Jahangiri
(Kamran Safamanesh), about what exactly transpired on the
island of Qeshm. Things are not as they seem, however, because
we are soon told that Babak and Jahangiri are actually counterspies who have infiltrated the agency, a stand-in for SAVAK,
the Shahs dread secret police network. They are good guys who
distribute information indiscriminately to all the countrys opposition parties.
In any case, Hafizi looks extremely hot in a Blues Brothers suit
and hat and an amazing orange Chevy when he turns up to investigate the suicide of a political prisoner sent into exile on the island.
Call it a flashback, described by a range of unreliable off-screen
narrators. Accompanied by local gumshoe Charaki (Ali Bagheri),
he finds the dead man still hanging from a rope aboard the rusty
ship he has made his home. Oddly, the ship is nowhere near water
but is in the middle of a sandy cemetery, but thats another story.
During the night, after the corpse is buried in the ancient
cemetery, an earthquake knocks Hafizi out of bed. Qeshm has
had major quakes before, but how can they be limited to just one
cemetery?
Of the many questions the film gives rise to, the most difficult
one to answer is whether all this has a hidden meaning. Politics?
Oil? The rise of Islam? The language of allegory being as veiled as
it is in Iran, its probably best to just sit back and enjoy the ride in
detective Babak Hafizis bright-orange Impala.
HKIFF Section Global Vision
Cast Amir Jadidi, Homayoun Ghanizadeh,
Director-screenwriter-producer Mani Haghighi // 108 minutes

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3/15/16 4:58 AM

market
title

The Storm Inside

Fabrice Camoin makes his feature debut with an

adaptation of Marguerite Duras 1960 novel Ten-Thirty on
a Summer Night by elizabeth kerr

IDDL E -AGE M A L A ISE A N D T H E SE A RCH FOR SOM ET H I NG

greater is at heart of The Storm Inside, a quietly affecting psychodrama from debuting filmmaker Fabrice Camoin, adapted
from Marguerite Durass novel, Ten-Thirty on a Summer Night. The
Storm Inside refers not only to the event that sets the action in motion
but to the conflicting desires and fears of the central characters as they
search for redemption of sorts from their own lives. Economical with
its words as well as its images and loaded with themes ranging from
casual racism, collapsing marriage and bourgeois activism, The Storm
Inside is likely to find the most exposure on the fesitval circuit, in limited release in Europe where much of subject matter will be familiar,
and in art house markets overseas.
Self-destructive alcoholic Maria (Marina Fois, Polisse), her husband
Pierre (Louis-Do De Lencquesaing, Looking for Her), their daughter
Judith (Jeanne Jestin) and family friend Louise (Valerie Donzelli)
have their summer vacation interrupted when a violent thunderstorm
closes the roads between France and Spain and strands them on the
border. After checking into an overcrowded hotel for the night, Maria
wanders into a local pub and proceeds to drink away her unhappiness. At the same time, a manhunt is on for Nabil (Sami Bouajila, The
Crew), an Arab man who just killed his wife and her lover, by both the
police and some angry locals. When Maria and Nabil encounter each

The search for a missing relative

drives much of the plot in Island.

The Island
Funeral

Pimpaka Towiras second feature

charts three young urbanites journey
into rural Thailand by clarence tsui

H ER E A R E NO SIDE S FOR US, SAYS

one of The Island Funerals characters,

discussing how she will define herself on Thailands fragmented ideological
spectrum. This could easily have been the
films director, Pimpaka Towira, talking.
With her first fictional feature in 12 years,
the Thai indie cinema stalwart delivers an
atmospheric, intriguing piece transcending
conventional aesthetical and political norms.
Tracking three young city-dwellers as they
search for a missing relative in the heavily
militarized south of Thailand, The Island
Funeral incorporates and reinvents generic

Fois is an
alcoholic who
decides to
help a murderer.

other on the hotel roof, she impulsively offers to help sneak him across
the border, and ultimately onto a ship to Morocco. Having few options,
Nabil finds himself going along with her plan.
From the opening minutes of painterly, otherworldly landscapes
and foreboding skies, The Storm Inside suggests the roiling emotions
of its characters and the baffling, reckless choices they make in a
delicate balancing act that maintains empathy and dispenses with
judgment. Marias reckless decisions often strain credulity, but then
Camoin, co-writer Ariane Fert and Fois wrestle her back to reality with
an understated dose of self-awareness. She refers to herself as anaesthetized to her own life, making her frequent flashes of lucidity more
painful than infuriating, especially with regards to Judith. Similarly,
Bouajila makes Nabil, who could easily tip over into the abyss of symbolic archetype (he calls Maria out on her middle-class alcoholism
and desire to save the Arab), shades the remorseful cuckold with
equal parts fury, shame and emotional hurt as he toggles between
running away and turning himself in.
Camoins debut is an assured, if occasionally on-the-nose, exploration of individuals on the verge of imploding.
Sales Reel Suspects // Cast Marina Fois, Sami Bouajila, Valerie Donzelli
Director Fabrice Camoin // 84 minutes

tropes from road movies, paranormal thrillers

and documentaries. Meanwhile, characters
are also allowed to move beyond the cliched
social binaries tearing the southeast Asian
country apart in recent years, with their journey eventually ending at a haven where class,
ethnicity and religion no longer matter.
The Island Funeral begins with its three
protagonists traveling through the conflict-ridden Thai province of Pattani, where Muslim
siblings Laila (Heen Sasithorn) and Zugood
(Aukrit Pornsumpunsuk) accompanied by
the latters friend (Yossawat Sittiwong) plan
to visit their hometown and an aunt whom
they havent seen since childhood. Penned by
Pimpaka and well-known Thai film critic Kong
Rithdee who, like the siblings, is a Muslim
living in Bangkok the screenplay introduces
these pretty young things with a succinct airing of their petty cosmopolitan traits. Through
cocky and barbed exchanges, they reveal their
worldview in which maps are archaic, mobile
phones are essential and the countryside a
strange land lurking with menace.
The acerbic humor shaping their initial conversations quickly gives way as the trio grow
increasingly anxious about their surroundings. The headstrong and sassy Laila, dressed
in a sleeveless top and skinny-fit jeans, visibly
flinches when the two young men taunt her
by saying she should blend in with the local
population by wearing a veil. Zugood and his
friend, in turn, fall silent as they watch online
news clips or listen to radio news bulletins
about political violence spreading across the
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country, as shopping arcades go up in flames,

anti-government protests rock Bangkok and
shoot-outs erupt in the south between the
army and separatist insurgents.
Terror finally catches up with them during
their first night on the road, as Laila stops
the car to search for a chained, naked woman
she insists she had seen sprinting across the
road. While she returns unscathed, having
found nothing, the Pandoras box of fear and
self-loathing is already open. The siblings
bubbly friends lively demeanor disintegrates
as he blurts out that Laila and Zugood are
putting him at risk in a land of menacing
Muslims a comment that reveals his suppressed prejudices, something that surfaces
again the next day as he and Zugood offer different takes on the history of a local mosque.
The friend, who remains unnamed throughout the film, is only a cipher. Just like in
Pimpakas previous films The Island Funeral
places its emphasis on women struggling in
and overcoming uncertain and unforgiving
circumstances.
Just like her fellow Thai New Wave auteurs,
Pimpaka reworks rather than rejects popular
culture, and The Island Funeral is a thoughtful
allegory about the importance of being able
to make informed choices out of the social
and creative options on offer.
HKIFF Section Young Cinema
Cast Heen Sasithorn, Aukrit Pornsumpunsuk,
Yossawat Sittiwong
Director: Pimpaka Towira // 105 minutes

15

3/15/16 5:08 AM

8 Decades of The Hollywood Reporter

The most glamorous and memorable moments from a storied history

Kurosawa regular
Toshiro Mifune played a
MacBeth-like general
in 16th century Japan.

S PA RT OF A SHOWCA SE

trio of film interpretations of Macbeth to mark

the 400th anniversary
of Shakespeares death, the Hong
Kong International Film Festival
is screening Akira Kurosawas
Throne of Blood. The 1957 production substituted the 16th century
Sengoku (Warring States)
era of Japan for 11th century
Scotland, reworked much of the
storyline and made no attempt to
translate the original dialogue.
Lord Macbeth became samurai
General Washizu, played by
Kurosawas favorite leading man
Toshiro Mifune in a memorably
intense performance.
The central themes of loyalty,
betrayal, tragedy and superstition

that define the original play

remained intact in what has
been latterly hailed as one of the
finest celluloid renderings of the
Bards work. However, much of
the praise lavished on Throne of
Blood came in recent decades.
In Japan, Kurosawa was accused
at the time of being stuck in
the past for his heavy use of
techniques from Noh, a theatrical tradition that predates
Shakespeare by a few centuries.
Meanwhile, a 1961 New York
Times review dismissed the film
as serio-comic and a pictorial
extravagance that provides a
conclusive howl.
Titled Kumonosu Jo, literally
Castle of the Spiders Web, in
Japan, it was one of a trilogy of

Kurosawa films loosely based on

Shakespeare plays: The Bad Sleep
Well (1965) was a reimagining of
Hamlet and also starred Mifune,
while 1985s Ran borrowed heavily
from King Lear.
As in a number of Kurosawa
films, the elements become
almost a protagonist in the story
of Throne of Blood. Mifunes
Washizu and General Odagura
played by the prolific Takashi
Shimura, who appeared in 21
Kurosawa films get lost while
riding in thick fog back to their
castle. The fog then clears to
reveals the castle, an allegorical
reference to the clarity of vision
Washizu acquires after meeting the witch who foretells his
destiny. Where most directors

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would have simply used artificial

smoke for the scene, the famously
perfectionist Kurosawa waited
for days with his crew high on
Mt. Fuji, where the castle set was
built, for fog to envelop the slopes
and then lift.
Kurosawas insistence on realism was demonstrated even more
dramatically in the climactic
scene of Washizus betrayal. The
volley of arrows that rain down on
the samurai included real shafts
shot by expert archers. Mifunes
frantic arm waves at the arrows
stuck in the wood around him
also signaled to the archers which
way he would move next: a safety
measure concocted to reduce the
probability of him being skewered
for real. GAVIN J. BLAIR

COURTESY OF HKIFF

Kurosawas 1957 Throne of Blood Was Ahead of Its Time

3/14/16 9:24 PM

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3/9/16 3:50 PM

IN POSTPRODUCTION

MISCHA
BARTON

CURRENTLY IN POSTPRODUCTION (2016)

CAST: Mischa Barton
US DISTRIBUTOR: Alchemy
GENRE: Paranormal horror. "Sometimes Evil Has A Pretty Face"

IN PRODUCTION

PAZ DE LA
HUERTA

CURRENTLY IN PRODUCTION (2016)

CAST: Paz de la Huerta
US DISTRIBUTOR: Alchemy
GENRE: Thriller. "Shes Not Alone"

PREPRODUCTION

TARA REID

ANA COTO

CURRENTLY IN PRE-PRODUCTION (2016)

CAST: Tara Reid
DIRECTOR: Robert reed Altman
US DISTRIBUTOR: Alchemy
GENRE: Horror (Ghosts) "Hunger Is Not Solely For The Living"
CURRENTLY IN PRE-PRODUCTION (2016)
CAST: Ana Coto
US DISTRIBUTOR: Alchemy
GENRE: Thriller. "Down There, No One Can Hear You Scream"
CURRENTLY IN PREPRODUCTION (2017)
CAST: Mischa Barton
GENRE: Paranormal horror. "Sometimes Evil Has A Pretty Face"

MISCHA
BARTON

NATASHA
HENSTRIDGE

CURRENTLY IN PRE-PRODUCTION (2017)

CAST: Rachel Leigh Cook , Natasha Henstridge
GENRE: Sci-Fi Erotic Drama
There Are No Limits To What We Can Experience

RACHEL LEIGH
COOK

REBEL MOVIES FIlmart 1E-F31 Hall 1, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
Telephone: 310.458.6700 xt 323 rebelmovies@rebelmovies.eu - www.rebelmovies.eu

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