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HK TODAY TOMORROW WEATHER AND HIGH 63° F 66° F TEMPS 17° C 18° C ’s Wanda Dealmakers Worried About Trump to Consolidate Filmart insiders say the U.S. presidential candidate’s harsh words for China and Japan could lead Film Units to less cooperation with Hollywood and negatively impact longterm trade deals By Gavin J. Blair By Patrick Brzeski he rise of leading U.S. content. China in 2014 I couldn’t sell any- hinese conglomerate presidential nominee “I hope he won’t become thing to them.” Dalian Wanda TDonald Trump has been president because it will affect Trump’s opposition to the CGroup is planning a watched with a mixture of bewil- relationships with countries in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) major restructuring of its film derment and irritation in Asia, Asia,” says Sunny Sun, from the deal, which he has described as assets, according to a filing particularly in China and Japan, international sales department at “insanity,” is also worrying to document issued by the com- two countries he’s vehemently a major Chinese entertainment rights holders in countries which pany last week. criticized over trade issues. The corporation. “I think he’s good as would see the copyright period According to the filing, specter of Trump as U.S. pres- president of a company, but not on content extended under the Wanda plans to inject its ident has raised fears among of a country. I think he doesn’t agreement. movie production subsidi- some Filmart attendees that his like Asians. He should be more The TPP was signed in ary Wanda Pictures into its rhetoric would negatively impact positive, Asia is a huge market. February by the representatives publicly traded movie theater cross-border business, while his His opinions are unbalanced. of 12 countries, including the unit, Wanda Cinema Line opposition to international trade Politics does influence business: U.S., Japan, Australia, , Co., which is listed on the deals could prevent the exten- I’m in charge of Vietnam and and , though Stock Exchange. sion of copyright protection on when there were tensions with CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Wanda Pictures comprises Wanda’s domestic Chinese movie-production business. Legendary Entertainment, HE WINTER which the Chinese conglom- Crosscurrent journey of a small cargo erate agreed to buy for $3.5 A journey up China’s Yangtze River becomes mystical poetry Tboat up the Yangtze billion in January, is expected River, from Shanghai to its in Yang Chao’s sophomore feature by deborah young to become part of Wanda source in the high mountains, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 becomes the excuse for a mystical mind trip of inner dis- review covery in writer-director Yang Desen Planning Chao’s Crosscurrent. Much like his previous film Passages, Prada Remake which won a Camera d’Or at By Karen Chu Cannes in 2004, it’s all about hina’s Desen metaphor and mood, while the International Media is storytelling is so lightweight Cto remake the 2006 Fox it might not exist. Without it, hit The Devil Wears Prada. this drunken boat sailing on The fashion focused comedy poetry can’t hold interest for that starred Anne Hathaway its entire two-hour running and Meryl Streep, will relocate time. Audiences willing to from New York to Shanghai in forego narrative for the sake of the Chinese-language version. basking in its gorgeous cine- Fox is currently not involved matography, haunting poetry in the remake. A studio insider and some splendid views of told THR that the company inland China are likely to con- is not considering Prada in its gregate at film festivals. slate of new Chinese-language A project 10 years in the remakes through the link-up making after Yang brought between Fox International Jiang is a boat hand who the screenplay to a Cannes spends most of his time Productions and Fox Networks drinking. See page 6 for workshop, Crosscurrent seems Group Asia. The Devil Wears a Q&A with Crosscurrent to address a youthful audience director Yang. Prada is not among the list CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

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TRUMP Pegasus Readies Trump is opposed to the CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 recently signed Trans Lee’s Hunter Pacific Partnership, which extends copyright By Karen Chu periods in major not China. The agreement effec- markets like Japan. egasus Motion Pictures tively imposes U.S. copyright laws has unveiled the cast of to the other signatories, meaning Pits $16 million Bounty that it will be 95 years before Hunter, that in addition to movies and TV programs become South Korean superstar Lee public domain after their release. Min-Ho, Wallace , In Japan, for example, the cur- Louis Fan, and Karena rent term is 50 years. Ng are joining the cast. “If Trump becomes president Produced by Pegasus, there’ll be no TPP and copyright

Lee Shanghai Xinyi Media, won’t be extended,” says Akhiro and Union Investment Takeda from the international Partners, the film is scheduled business department at Japan’s for a 2016 summer release. Toho. “A number of our classic The company is also titles would soon become public announcing Blossom Afresh, domain.” a $1.3 million family black Takeda is also concerned about comedy produced by Ng the effect a Trump presidency “Whoever represents the U.S. China criticism has already Kin-hung and directed by would have on access to the China as president, it won’t affect the provoked indignation and the former The Way We Dance market. appeal of American content,” government is keen to promote screenwriter Chan Tai-Li. The “China-U.S. business is growing says Darrin Holender of L.A.-based the development of the domestic filmis co-produced with Hong and that’s helping to open the Multicom Entertainment. “And entertainment industry. Kong’s Golden Scene and market for us, too. If Trump was China won’t want to restrict “Clearly Trump is out of touch. Local Productions Ltd. president then China might close access to U.S. content because it Before, we used to learn English, up again and there would be a side will lead to more piracy.” and now people are learning know your dealmaker effect for Japan,” adds Takeda. However, China already main- Mandarin,” says the represen- The representative of a U.S. tains a quota on the number of tative of a Hong Kong-Chinese content distributor at Filmart, imported films given theatrical distributor at Filmart. “It’s attending the event to tap into releases and last year placed undeniable that China is a strong the Chinese market, was more restrictions on foreign content country now, and Trump opposes optimistic. on Internet platforms. Trump’s China to his own detriment.”

WANDA PRADA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Pictures as soon as the deal closes. of potential remakes we’re planning for the new The document also stipulates that Wang collaboration,” the source said. CORA YIM Qingdao Wanda Pictures — the Wanda Beijing-based Desen confirmed the project and SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT OF FOX INTERNATIONAL CHANNELS, HEAD unit currently constructing a state-of-the-art that they are not working with Fox for the remake. OF CHINESE ENTERTAINMENT movie production facility in Qingdao — will be The company said it cannot reveal whether it has Integral to the deal made between Fox merged into Wanda Cinema Line, as well. the movie rights to the original Lauren Weisberger Networks Group Asia and Fox International Productions to produce Wanda Cinema Line halted from trading in novel. The project has been approved from produc- Chinese-language content for Shenzhen on Feb. 24 pending the announcement of tion by SAPPRFT, the Chinese censorship bureau. theatrical and television distribution, Yim will also be the producer of a an acquisition. The targets of that acquisition are Founded by Chinese film producer Ann An in mini-series in the new slate. The first now clear. The filing document says that Wanda 2006, Desen previously co-produced the Donnie production will begin in 2017. will reveal further details of the merger on April 8. Yen starrers Ip Man 2 and 14 Blades. Wanda had expressed interest in pursuing Prada was released in China in February MEANWHILE, IN THE REAL WORLD … an IPO for its movie production unit for over a 2007, eight months after its bow in the U.S. The year. In February, leaked documents revealed film created a sensation in the major cities in • Stock markets across Asia rose that Wanda was seeking $1.5 billion of outside China with corporations holding screenings of the Monday, led by China’s Shenzhen investment in Wanda Pictures ahead of an IPO, movie for March 8 Women’s Day parties. leaping 3.6 percent and Japan’s backdoor stock listing or asset injection into The Chinese version of the original novel also Nikkei adding 1.7 percent. another publicly listed company under the con- became a bestseller. • Danny De Vito appeared at a rally for U.S. presidential hopeful glomerate’s control. The terms of the offer indicated that Wanda Pictures would be valued Bernie Sanders in St. Louis on We’re going Sunday and compared the senator at $5.37 billion upon flotation. Wanda Group’s to China?? to Obi-Wan Kenobi. billionaire founder Wang Jianlin personally owns a •  successfully test-fired a 20 percent stake in Wanda Pictures. Wanda domestically-built nuclear-capa- ble ballistic missile with a range of Culture, which includes Wanda theaters, AMC 435 miles (700 kilometers) off the theaters and other entertainment assets, owns coast of Odisha on Monday. 55 percent, and the remaining 25 percent is owned by Wanda Group.

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Beta Cinema D2 031516.indd 1 3/8/16 12:45 PM Malaysia’s Animasia Teams With Singapore’s mm2 Unveils China’s Zero One for Chicken By Karen Chu alaysia’s Animasia Studio has inked a deal The deals marks the efforts of Malaysia’s Three Titles By Patrick Brzeski with China’s Zero One Animation to pro- National Film Development Corporation (FINAS), Mduce the CGI animated feature film Chuck which has recently set up a $5 million co-production ingaporean produc- Chicken — The Movie. The $8 million film is adapted grant to promote international co-productions. Now tion company mm2 from the successful television series Chuck Chicken on the agenda for FINAS is to promote collabo- SEntertainment unveiled a.k.a. Kungfu Chicken. Production will take place in rations between Asian film companies to produce three forthcoming film proj- China, but animators from both countries will work live-action feature films, said Azmir Mutalib, Senior ects on the first day of Hong on the project. The film will premiere first in China, Director of FINAS. Kong Filmart Monday. The as the original television series was particularly The Malaysian film industry has seen a boom projects include Take 2, a popular there, where it gained 300 million views in recent years, with the 2015 Polis Evo and 2014 heart-warming drama about within six months of its launch on the The Journey grossing $4.2 million and four ex-cons trying to make country’s VOD platform iQIYI. $4.1 million respectively. “There were good. Executive produced Malaysia’s Film Kingdom Group is 81 films produced through FINAS in by Jack Neo and directed by also collaborating with Hong Kong’s 2015,” said Mutalib. “And there were Ivan Ho (co-writer of Ah Boys Pegasus Motion Pictures and Eunice some more co-productions that didn’t To Men 3: Frogmen) the film

and Tonia Entertainment for Miss Chuck go through the FINAS system.” will be jointly produced with Sunshine, a romantic comedy directed Chicken Matalib attributes the success J Team Productions from a by veteran director Ko Chi-Sum that will of those films to the script. “The budget of $1 million. Director be shot entirely in Malaysia, specifi- Malaysian production houses are M. Rihan Halim (Banting), cally in Penang. The story chronicles starting to make the stories relevant meanwhile, will direct hor- a group of single women in their late commercially. The script and story is ror feature Ibu, the story of thirties in search of love. key,” he said. an eight year-old girl who befriends a Pontianak, a vampiric ghost in Malay and Indonesian mythology. Huayi Brothers to Open New Animation Unit The film will be shot and ABLAZE By Patrick Brzeski released in two completely LAUNCHES eading Chinese film studio Huayi Brothers announced on separate language versions for WA N DA’S Monday that it will launch a new animation division headed the ethnically diverse Malay Lby veteran Hollywood producer Joe Aguilar, formerly of and Singaporean audience. VILLAGE DreamWorks Animation and Twentieth Century Fox. Ghost Net, finally, will be a “The establishment of an animation company signifies that the Hong Kong horror feature By Gavin J. Blair company will enter the animated movie industry with world class centering on three scary aiwan’s Ablaze Pictures is production skills,” Huayi said in a statement to the Shenzhen stock stories related to the Internet. launching international exchange. It is directed by Wong Kwok Fai, Tsales for Yu-Hsun Chen’s The Chinese studio has been expanding its ties with Hollywood. Wong Kwok Keung and Patrick The Village That Forgets and The company signed a landmark 18-film co-financing and distribu- Yau. The film has a budget of Cheng-Chui Kuo’s debut feature tion agreement with Bob Simonds’ STX Entertainment last April. $1.3 million. Forêt Debussy at Filmart. The Village That Forgets is a $9 million martial arts comedy set in a rural village at the end of the and stars Eric Tsang, Exclusive Shu Qi and Joseph Chang. First Look The film’s seven investors include China’s Wanda Pictures and Warner Bros. , which will be distributing in their respective territories. The film is scheduled for a release during Chinese New Year in 2017. Forêt Debussy is the tale of a mother (Yi-Ching Lu) and (Lun-Mei Gwei) daughter who try to escape the trauma of their life in the city by hiding away in a forest. Billed as a “contemplation upon civilization and isolation,” it is produced by Filmagic Pictures and You Love Agent & PR Sisterhood Hong Kong actress-singer Gigi Leung stars in the drama Sisterhood, in which her character is forced to revisit her past working Executive Ltd. The film is due for in a parlor when one of her old friends passes away. One Cool Film is handling international sales at Filmart. a release in autumn this year.

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D2_HK_news3C.indd 4 3/14/16 5:10 AM theREPORT

Love, Saudi Arabian Style Golden Hidden GEM Mahmoud Sabbagh’s rom-com Barakah Meets Barakah playfully examines dating Network Finds in a world with strict rules about how men and women interact By Alex Ritman New Job By Patrick Brzeski played out in cyberspace. Fageeh stars as a civil servant who falls And in casting his romantic olden Network has for a woman with a popular online show. male lead, he turned to one of picked up interna- country’s rising social media Gtional sales rights stars. Hisham Fageeh became an to Golden Job, a car-chase Internet sensation in 2013 with action-comedy to be directed his song “No Woman, No Drive,” by Chin Ka-lok, the action which used Bob Marley’s “No maestro behind Cold War, Woman, No Cry” to mock the Motorway and Firestorm. notorious female driving ban. Produced by Eric Tsang, the The YouTube video racked up film follows a pair of con some 13 million views and helped artists who take one last job show the world that, despite what only to find themselves pitting many might think about their their wits against both the country’s seemingly harsh exte- police and criminals in a series oy meets girl. Boy loses creatives, cut his teeth making rior, Saudi Arabians aren’t averse of exhilarating to-the-death girl. Boy gets girl. So YouTube videos. “It’s also about to laughing at themselves. races across Asia. The film is B goes the standard struc- censorship, the layers of censor- But aside from the comedic expected to shoot in Macau, ture of most rom-coms. Things ship and authority.” elements at play, Sabbagh says Tokyo and , among get a little more complicated, The story sees twentysome- he hopes to use his film as a other locations in the region. however, when you set the story thing civil servant Barakah run standard-bearer during what has Golden Job is the first feature in Saudi Arabia, a country with into Bibi, an online star with a become an interesting period in from newly established Hong a few additional stumbling hugely popular vlog. But where the Kingdom’s history. Kong production banner blocks when it comes to unmar- other rom-coms might follow “There is this notion of change The Entertainer Production ried boys and girls hooking up the hilarious consequences of in Saudi Arabia now; we have a Company. Casting announce- with one another. the would-be-couple’s various younger leadership, and it seems ments are expected soon. Car So lies the basic outline for interactions, the ever-watch- this change has been coming at chase fare is red hot in the Barakah Meets Barakah (Barakah ful eye of Saudi’s rather strict a faster pace than ever,” he says, car-crazy mainland Chinese Yoqabil Barakah), an unlikely authorities —coupled with any adding that he’s hoping Barakah market, where Furious 7 love story from first-timer unchaperoned public meeting Meets Barakah has a domestic grossed a record $391 million Mahmoud Sabbagh screening being strictly prohibited — makes screening despite the lack of last July. in the HKIFF’s Young Cinema even getting to the first date a theaters (although there’s no Competition. near-impossible endeavor. official ban, there aren’t any cin- “I wanted to make a film “It’s a love story against the emas in the country). “We profit about the disenfranchised youth, odds,” says Sabbagh, who points from this new political climate. THR IN HONG KONG the millennials, who are more out that, hindered by such The kids over there are doing voiceless and have less political restrictions, youngsters have a great job, and we’d like our NEWS Kevin Cassidy representation, less economic turned to smartphones and social film to be a symbol of change [email protected] opportunities,” says Sabbagh, media in a rather big way, with and growing opportunities for +1 213 840 1896 who, like many emerging Saudi many blossoming relationships the youth.” Patrick Brzeski [email protected] +81 80 5900 0233 Karen Chu [email protected] +852 6171 3530 hong kong according to ... THE SALES EXEC Gavin J. Blair [email protected] +81 90 6479 4745 VIRGINIA LEUNG What’s a Hong Kong faux congee restaurant and try Director of Distribution pas to be avoided? beef brisket rice noodles in Workshop, a Hong Kong- Some Hong Kong supermar- beef brisket soup. You can REVIEWERS based film sales agent kets sell everything, often in get good dim-sum in other Elizabeth Kerr [email protected] and production company, Chinese, so be careful that countries, but it’s really representing many of China’s you know what things are difficult to find an authentic Clarence Tsui top titles in the international intended for. An expat friend bowl of noodles [email protected] marketplace. of mine bought some fancy elsewhere. Only with this Piera Chen papers to write notes on kind of simple local food do I [email protected] What’s your most memo- and found out later he was feel at home. rable “only in Hong Kong” writing on the traditional ART & PRODUCTION moment? “paper money” we burn to Any tips for how to Peter B. Cury The gorgeous sunset view worshipping our ancestors. blend in with locals in [email protected] from the 3,000-foot high Hong Kong? Sunset Peak. This is only for One thing that every Learn a few Cantonese those who are ready to hike. visitor should try? phrases to break the ice. SALES Ivy Lam It’s worth it. Go to a local noodle or People really appreciate it. [email protected]

BARAKAH: COURTESY OF BERLINALE. OF BARAKAH: COURTESY +852 6176 9272

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D2_HK_news4+hiddengem.FINAL.indd 5 3/13/16 9:53 PM Q&A DIRECTOR

meeting. drinks. We would gather up there at night and “It’s very important to me that Crosscurrent is seen in A work ten years in the have long discussions about the project, or China,” says Chao. making, Crosscurrent emerged just about life, as we floated along the river. from a 2005 talent campus at the Cannes Film Festival, The poetry and philosophical reflections in where Yang’s debut fea- the film seem to present the Yangtze as a marker ture Passages won a Camera of change in China. d’Or in 2004. In Berlin, the The poems in the book, which are read in film was honored with a voiceover in each chapter, were written by a Silver Bear for Outstanding [real] captain when he was a younger man, Artistic Contribution for the in the 1990s. He was an intellectual poet and spellbinding camerawork of not a successful one. Those poems were the cinematographer Mark Lee loyal record of his feelings towards China in Ping-Bing (The Assassin). Chao the 1990s — his anger, his complains and his sat down with THR to discuss dissatisfaction back then. That’s a highlight what it was like to live and work in the film, which is the reflection of an image on China’s largest river, the of China that was not prevented, a China of prospects for indie cinema in adversity and injustice, which comes through his country and how to parse the poems. In the film, the poet is more like the picture’s peculiar love story. a prophet, so his poems back then were a reflection of the China that is not presented What was it like making this film? image-wise. It was a very unconventional shoot. Unlike other crews that Are there any hints you can offer to the audience structure the shoot in a strate- on how to interpret the enigmatic love story at the gic way, stopping and starting heart of the film? at different points, and only bringing in the This isn’t an ordinary love story. It’s magical cast when you’re ready for them, our entire love. It’s not sweet. It’s a story of heartbreak Yang Chao cast and crew lived together on one boat and and loss. The male protagonist and the female The helmer discusses why his second another ship carried all of the props and protagonist are two souls that have been feature, Crosscurrent, is a love letter to equipment. We sailed together from Shanghai tortured by the afterlife. Their love only exists the Yangtze River and how the film shoot to Yibin, which is a few thousand [miles]. We in the magic of the river, and when the magic made him want to learn to swim made the film together during this journey. is gone, their love vanishes. It’s a very uncon- One of the biggest challenges was getting ventional emotion or feeling that I’m trying to By Patrick Brzeski permission. Because the Yangtze is such a convey. That being said, the possibility of real IRECTOR YANG CHAO’S SECOND long river, it traverses many different jurisdic- love is not possible from the very beginning. feature, Crosscurrent, was the sole tions and provinces, so we had to The love is closely related to the Chinese work to compete at last month’s do a lot of work to convince the BY THE NUMBERS river. The love only exists when DBerlin International Film Festival, public transportation bureaus the two meet at different ports. where it beguiled, bedeviled and divided crit- into letting us shoot on different When the magic of the river ics. The picture is getting another showing at stretches of the river. 2 is gone, the male protagonist the Hong Kong International Film Festival Feature films directed gives up his search for lost love this week. Had you spent time on boats before? through time. Yang describes the film as a love letter to As a child, I grew up beside a 1 International award China’s mighty Yangtze River, a waterway small river, but I couldn’t swim. (a Camera d’Or for It’s quite difficult to get an that has captivated Chinese poets and artists I’ve always had a craving for Passages in 2004) arthouse-style film of this kind across the ages, and thus, serves as a potent swimming and I’ve always been 3,900 released in China. Are you marker of change in the country’s compli- jealous of people who can swim. Miles traveled while optimistic that ordinary people in cated evolution. This theme undergirds So I think I have this obses- shooting Crosscurrent on China will get to see it? the Yangtze River the film’s meager, enigmatic plot. The film sion with water. I had never Of course, this film was pri- follows young riverboat captain Gao Chun, spent anytime on boats before, but I did a marily made for the Chinese audience. played by , as he pilots a decaying lot of prep work and felt very prepared by It has historical and cultural dimensions industrial freighter some 3,900 miles up the the time we began shooting. The experience and sentiments that I think you need to be Yangtze, from its mouth in Shanghai to its onboard was either like being part of a big Chinese — need to have lived through these source in the highlands of Tibet. Aboard the family, where everyone lives and eats together past two decades of change in China — to boat, Chun discovers a mysterious book of intimately, or it was like being stuck on in a fully appreciate. I’m actually quite optimistic. poetry written by a former captain sometime floating prison. [Laughs.] The bell rang and We’re holding discussions for an April or May in the 1990s. The book contains angst-ridden everyone came out with their meal box for release. The rising commercial box office in philosophical musings about the course of lunch and dinner breaks, and then the bell China has changed the outlook of the entire contemporary China, along with a map detail- rang again and everyone had to get back to industry. It may take more time, but I am ing the locations of villages along the river. work. The highlight in terms of relaxation, optimistic that there will be a space for art- At each port on the map, Chun encounters a was that the frater itself wasn’t a small one. house films in China. Aesthetically, this film is beautiful young woman, An Lu (Xin Zhi Lei), On the fourth floor there was a bar area a powerful example, which I believe will strike whose identity and intentions shift with each equipped by the producer with snacks and a cord with the Chinese audience.

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from Market Summary 50countries®ions Date : Oct.20-22.2015 Number of Exhibitors:347 UP Number of Buyers : 1,433 28%

Unijapan FP D2 031516.indd 1 3/3/16 11:03 AM UNIJAPAN_TIFFCOM_FILMART DAY2_AD.indd 1 2016/03/03 16:59 China and Japan: Friends at Last?

After years of tense relations, Asia’s two biggest film sectors are warming up to one another, and the first Japanese live action release in over five years in the Chinese market could lead to a new era of collaboration By Gavin J. Blair • Illustrations by Lars Leetaru

ELATIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND Over the subsequent years the diplomatic themes that could attract censors’ attention. Japan, Asia’s two biggest economies and situation slowly improved. China and Japan’s A lack of real-live Japanese faces on screen entertainment markets, have fluctuated leaders started meeting again, and deals for has also almost certainly been a plus. That Rin the decades since they signed a formal Japanese TV series and VOD movie releases too is about to change. Treaty of Peace and Friendship in 1978. began to be signed again. This spring, Flying Colors is set to be the Tensions have risen and fallen over historical A breakthrough came in May last year, first Japanese live action film released in issues and territorial disputes. Yet for most of when Stand By Me Doraemon, a CGI version Chinese theaters in more than five years. It that period, business ties continued to grow; of the hugely successful manga, anime and is currently scheduled for release on 2,000 despite a nearly 12 percent drop last year, big screen franchise, got a theatrical release to 3,000 screens. To put that in perspective, bilateral trade still amounted to more than in China. The blue “cat-type robot” had long Japan has a few more than 3,400 screens and $300 billion. And after years of tight restric- been a favorite across Asia, is hugely popular anything more than a 500-screen release is tion on Japanese content, opportunities in the in Hong Kong and well known in China. The reserved for blockbusters. huge and rapidly expanding Chinese enter- film finished with $87 million in China, beat- Based on a true story which was made tainment sector are once again emerging. ing its total of $79 million in Japan, where it into a million-selling novel, Flying Colors The latest Sino-Japanese chill descended was the third-biggest hit of 2014. The stellar was released in Japan in May 2015 and took over the issue of a group of uninhabited rocks performance in China helped boost total around $25 million at the domestic box office. in the seas between the two countries, known Japanese film export earnings by 50 percent The film tells the tale of a high-school slacker as Diayou in China and the Senkaku Islands last year. with the academic level of a fourth grade ele- in Japan, and claimed by both countries, Since then a few anime have been released, mentary school student who decides to apply as well as by Taiwan. The left-of-center including Toho’s Boruto: Naruto the Movie to one of Tokyo’s elite universities. Democratic Party of Japan government and Toei Animation’s Saint Seiya: Legend of The film was made by an 11-company film bought the islands in 2012. Despite claims it Sanctuary this year. While their box office production committee, common practice in was an attempt to keep them out of the hands grosses haven’t matched Doraemon’s, let alone Japan, led by Tokyo Broadcasting System of then Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, an a Hollywood blockbuster, they represent Television (TBS) and including cable and outspoken nationalist and serial China-baiter, good business for Japanese films, which have regional TV networks, an advertising agency, Beijing’s reaction was anger. registered limited commercial export success a telecoms group and a major newspaper. There were anti-Japanese protests in over the years. Production committees spread risk and give China, some Japanese companies’ premises According to Japanese industry insiders, the participants an opportunity, and incen- were damaged, bilateral trade plummeted it has been easier to get anime, at least the tive, to promote the films through their own and entertainment industry deals were off the mainstream, family-friendly variety, released media platforms, but often result in slow deci- cards. in China due to the absence of controversial sion making. In the case of releases in China,

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D2_HK_Japan.FINAL.indd 8 3/14/16 5:22 AM where censors can call for unpredictable cuts, any changes have to be approved by all the committee’s members. “According to the buyer, the reason that this film was chosen, among many good Japanese productions, is that the themes and story resonate with Chinese society. Particularly young people, who make up the movie-going segment,” explains Yuhka Matoi, from TBS, which also handled international sales. “They said that China has an even more competitive education system than Japan. And so using the medium of a movie, with a plot based on a true story, the theme of The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo not giving up even when the situation looks hopeless, is one that is encouraging to a lot of people,” adds Matoi. ’ The release won’t though open the flood- ANARCHY IN NIPPON: REVISITING JAPANS PUNK AUTEURS gates for Japanese productions into China, The Hong Kong International Film Fest’s Hachimiri Madness sidebar shines a spotlight on the indie rebels whose do-it-yourself ethos transformed Japanese cinema as they still have to compete for slots with releases from Hollywood and elsewhere showcase of early the film himself, Ishii would whose Fires on the Plain com- under China’s quota system, which restricts 8mm works from use different music depend- peted at Venice in 2014. the number of foreign films shown. Other Asome of Japan’s most ing on the occasion, ranging The DIY ethos developed Japanese companies have signed deals with highly-regarded auteurs freshly from John Coltrane’s A Love during the 8mm days car- Chinese buyers, but one said they are, “99.9 digitalized to 2K and with new Supreme to British punk band ried on through his career, percent sure the films won’t end up getting a English subtitles, is being The Pop Group. according to Tsukamoto, who theatrical release.” screened in Hong Kong under “I felt I had something to say says his approach to making Japanese entertainment properties, like the banner “Hachimiri Madness to the world, though I never his own films his own way those from other nations, still face hurdles in — Japanese Indies from the imagined it would be screened hasn’t changed. For the Tetsuo accessing the giant Chinese market. Japanese Punk Years.” Shot between 1977 around the world,” added Ishii, (The Iron Man) trilogy, which companies still usually need to work through and 1990, consisting of both full- who hasn’t yet seen the digi- cemented his worldwide cult intermediaries which have operations in length features and shorts, the talized version. following, Tsukamoto wrote, China and understand the complexities of 11 films portray the punk ethos In an unprecedented move in produced, directed, edited and doing business there. that influenced the young direc- appeared in the productions. Then there is the issue of the ever-moving tors and is still evident in many “8mm was like a child of and opaque censorship goalposts. of their later productions. The 35mm, but I’m so fond of that “Censorship is strict, especially around raw feel of much the filmmaking format,” added Tsukamoto. political themes and the kind of language is matched by the format – The only director to have

used. The criteria changes all the time so it “hachimiri” is Japanese for 8mm Sono two films in the program is Sion is difficult; the distributors are keen but they – as these punk directors were Sono, with I am Sion Sono!! struggle with censorship. Even if we make a discovering their creative voices. (1980) and A Man’s Flower deal, that’s a risk,” says a source who deals The oldest film in the series Road (1986). with the Chinese market for a Japanese com- is the Isolation of 1/880000 Japan’s conservative main- Festival circuit favorite Sono pany but asked not to be identified. “It’s the (also known as Solitude of One stream film industry, Ishii’s rarely watches his old films wild, wild east.” Divided by 880,000) made graduation film Crazy Thunder and says he’s embarrassed at in 1977 by Sogo Ishii, often Road was picked up for theatri- the thought of others watching hailed as the godfather of cal distribution by major studio them now. Japanese punk filmmaking. Toei. Among those in envious “I’m happy they’ve been Made by Ishii while a second awe of the instant success of chosen for the program, but I’m year film student at Tokyo’s the young director was Shinya also in both of them, and was Nihon University College of Art, Tsukamoto, a first year art stu- very young, so that’s embar- the alma mater of numerous dent at the same university. rassing too,” Sono says. Japanese directors, it portrays Tsukamoto would go on to The iconoclastic helmer a frustrated young man osten- become a director himself, recalls his use of handheld sibly studying for university and his cyberpunk cult favorite cameras was considered entrance exams. The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo “crazy” by his fellow film “It was shot mostly in the (1988) will be screened along- students, due to shaky footage room where I lived in Tokyo. side Ishii’s film. The film was they produced. I had no money and used all based on a stage production “At that time, nobody was different kinds of film to shoot, Tsukamoto had created with using handhelds,” he recalls. it was a Frankenstein. The film fellow students and would be “Now it’s the norm. There have I could afford didn’t record the last film he shot on 8mm. been films with a documentary sound, so it had no soundtrack,” “Looking back at it now, it’s touch, like The Blair Witch the director, who now goes by kind of cute, and in terms of Project, and everyone is using the name Gakuryu Ishii, tells the filmmaking techniques too. them in Hollywood. But at the The Hollywood Reporter. It had a lot of energy and love time, they thought I was mad.” Hiring out venues to screen in it, though” said Tsukamoto, — G. B. CREDITS HERE AND HERE

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1 The State Theatre in North Point in 1968. Architectural historian Haider Kikabhoy calls it “the last vestige of Hong Kong entertainment history from the midcentury.” 2 Innovative parabolic trusses on the theater’s roof allowed the structure’s ceiling to be supported from above. 3 The theater as it appears today: transformed into a mixed space that includes a shopping center, 1 2 apartments and a pool hall.

S THE SUCCESS OF THE film premieres and stage shows Hong Kong International The Fight to Save by international performers, Film Festival attests, Hong including the late British tenor AKong has one of Asia’s rich- Peter Pears, Katherine Dunham est histories of moviegoing. Hong Kong’s Last Company, and the late Taiwanese But even though the Hong pop superstar Teresa Teng. Kong film industry’s production Movie Palace Since its projectors went dark prowess lives on — local director With the iconic State Theatre facing possible in 1997, the cinema has fallen into Stephen Chow’s latest comedy demolition, local activists are battling to preserve a piece semi-disrepair. The complex now The Mermaid recently grossed a of local film history: ‘If it’s demolished, it will be very sad’ contains a shabby shopping mall, a record-smashing $500 million in snooker club and nearly 200 small By Patrick Brzeski — most of the residential flats. Over the past year, city’s monuments to its cinematic heritage have been erased. local developer New World Development has begun buying up the “A lot of the great old cinemas of Hong Kong have been relegated to apartments, leading local conservationists to suspect that the company the dustbin of history,” says Haider Kikabhoy, an architectural history plans to take over and demolish the building to make way for one of the researcher at Hong Kong City University residential skyscrapers it is known for erecting throughout the city. Just one postwar movie theater still stands, the State Theatre in the According to records from the Antiquities Advisory Board, the neighborhood of North Point — and this once majestic movie palace is government body that assesses and grades historic buildings for now under urgent threat by private developers. preservation status, the State Theatre has been on the board’s list of “This is a place that evokes a lot of fond memories for people of buildings in need of review since September. Kikabhoy and his col- Hong Kong,” says Kikabhoy. “If it’s demolished, it will be very sad — in leagues are urging the board to take immediate action. a way, it’s the last vestige of Hong Kong entertainment history from “There’s an official acknowledgement that the building may be the midcentury.” valuable, but there is no indication of when they will make a decision,” In 1950s Hong Kong, cinema was king. Television had yet to colonize he says. “That means the building has no status. If someone acquires it living-rooms, and nearly every neighborhood in the city had its own now, they can tear it down without issue.” standalone movie theater. Hong Kong was emerging from the privations Through an architectural tour group company he founded in 2013 of the World War II era, and the the city was starting to boom again. called Walk in Hong Kong, Kikabhoy and his allies commissioned an Competition in the narrow entertainment market was particularly independent analysis of the theater’s architectural, social and cultural fierce, leading local impresarios to build ever grander theaters to attract value. Architecturally, the building is believed to be valuable because ticket buyers — “it speaks to the optimism of the era,” says Kikabhoy. of the striking, concrete parabolic trusses on its roof, which were a Into this milieu appeared Harry Odell, a legendary Hong Kong char- midcentury architectural innovation used to suspend the ceiling from acter who was born to Russian Jewish parents in Shanghai and spent above, allowing for an expansive, pillar-less auditorium space. a colorful youth as a professional tap dancer in Nagasaki, Japan, later “There is no other building in Hong Kong that has adopted rein- fighting for the U.S. in the first World War in France, before ultimately forced concrete external parabolic trusses,” says Dr Lee Ho-yin, director settling in Hong Kong, where he married a wealthy socialite and of the University of Hong Kong’s architectural conservation program, launched a local film distribution business. In a 1952 business expan- one of six experts consulted for the report. “As far as I know, it is very sion effort, Odell unveiled the Empire Theatre in North Point. likely to be one of a kind in Asia.” Local coverage and advertisements at the time describe the the- The local activists’ ultimate vision for the State Theatre is ater as “gigantic,” with a 56-foot cinema screen, a ceiling “cut in the preservation, followed by a revival. The conservationists envision a shape of a diamond,” gold velvet curtains and walls that are “floodlit mixed-use venue showing a program of new independent film and local in blue, red and green.” Surveying the completed project on the eve of genre movie classics, along with making the space available for stage its opening — which featured the gala premiere of Paramount’s latest and musical performances, as it once was. musical, Just for You, starring Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman — Odell told “One of Hong Kong’s leading distributors has expressed interest to the South China Morning Post, “I emphasize that this is not just another me privately in running the theater again if it can be revived,” says theater.” Kikabhoy. “If the theater can get Grade 1 conservation status, reviving The theater’s name was later changed to The State Theatre it would make a lot of sense. It could be a spectacularly cool landmark, in 1959, and it continued to operate up until 1997, hosting local catering to the cultural interests and needs of our community.”

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PRODUCER Bill Borden The Hollywood vet on how pollution inspired the blockbuster Mermaids and the future of the Chinese film sector By Patrick Brzeski

ILL BORDEN HAS HAD A FRONT ROW view of China’s historic film boom. After two-decades in Hollywood — producing Bprojects such as Robert Rodriguez’s Desperado (1995), Spike Lee’s Get on the Bus “The studios might be surprised to learn that they’re going to have to (1996) and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s End of accommodate Chinese culture a little Days (1999) — the veteran producer was dis- more than they think,” says Borden, photographed by Scott Witter on patched to Hong Kong by Columbia Pictures March 4 at his office in Santa Monica. in 2002 to co-executive produce the Jackie Chan action picture The Medallion. During his have a story credit, too? don’t like to read subtitles in the U.S., but time in Hong Kong, Borden became friends No, I don’t have story credit. That’s a bone of there are stories that can be made in both with Chan and many of the local industry’s contention, but it’s okay. I have a consulting languages that will work. Animation is easier leading film figures, including Stephen producer credit. because you don’t have actors. On Dragon Chow, with whom he went on to develop the Nest: Warriors’ Dawn at Mili (2014), we had action-comedy for Sony and From the time that you worked on Kung Fu Hustle two sets of voice actors and we redid the lip Columbia. Written and directed by Chow to the current Mermaid moment, what’s changed synch for each language. I know Kung Fu and produced by Borden, Kung Fu Hustle in the Chinese industry? Panda 3 claimed it was the first movie made in grossed $17 million in North America, $20.2 A lot. ... Their system was one directed by Chinese and English, but that’s not true. We million in mainland China and $101 million the government, which basically paid for did the same thing. worldwide — a fantastic total at the time of its the movies. There were five major studios release in 2005. Fast-forward a decade, and and the government gave them a budget for Do you think that’s possible for live-action, too? Stephen Chow’s latest fantasy comedy, The making features and TV every year, and those If you have a cast that speaks both languages, Mermaid, which Borden again co-produced, studios were required to produce so many a piece like Mermaid could be made in two has grossed an astonishing $500 million from hours of film features and television. They versions pretty easily. A lot of those actors are the mainland Chinese market alone. In 2014, had directors they trusted and they just came from Hong Kong and speak English. With a Borden became the head of Mili Pictures in and did it. So the concept of developing little bit of extra production, you could run Worldwide, a Shanghai-based animation screenplays and having someone analyze the English takes. That has not been done yet, studio that is developing a slate of animated marketing potential of a picture, was simply but I’ve been preaching it, believe me. features around IP from Shanda Games, one not the system. It was government and direc- of China’s largest and most successful mobile tor-driven, without much market pressure. It Many studios are setting up Chinese joint gaming companies. Borden, who divides time didn’t even really matter how successful the ventures to produce big budget, Chinese-language between Los Angeles and Shanghai, spoke films were, because they were mostly paid for films. Is this the way forward? with THR about The Mermaid’s unprece- by the government. It is. Every studio is going to be in China. dented success, the changes he’s witnessed in There’s no reason not to be, with the box office the Chinese film sector and what the industry What needs to happen for Chinese movies to take potential that big. It’s going to be the trend. needs to do to reach a global audience. the next step — to go global like Hollywood? The studios are going to try to dominate by This is something I’m preaching all the time making movies with local partners. Kung Fu How did you get involved in The Mermaid? with the companies that I work with. With Panda 3 is a very good example. Also, you In October 2009, when Stephen was doing some light development where you under- have to remember that an A-list animator Green Hornet at Sony Studios, he didn’t like stand both the western market and eastern in Shanghai makes $100 per day, whereas in the script and it wasn’t working out. We were market, and add a few simple things — like California they can make $1,000 per day. So meeting occasionally in Los Angeles for connectivity between themes and some there are lots of reasons for DreamWorks dinner, so I said, well, there’s another movie character development, which is not in their Animation to do animation in China… I think we should make in China. He said tradition — we can make a big Chinese pic- what is it. I said I want to do this story about ture much more acceptable and palatable to Do you foresee any friction points? a group of mermaids, or mer-people, who live the West. Well, even if a studio does a $500 million deal in a beautiful grotto in China, and the grotto to create a joint venture, they’re going to find is being taken over by an industrialist who’s What other subject matter can you tackle to make out very quickly that it’s a different culture. going to ruin the environment and kill off the them internationally appealing? The studios might be surprised to learn that last beautiful area where the merpeople are That’s one of the things about these hit they’re going to have to accommodate the living, and so they decide to send a beautiful Chinese movies: most of them are very culture a little more than they think. A lot of young mermaid up to meet the industrialist parochial. They just don’t translate. But if people like to make way for Hollywood, but and kill him. it’s a subject that’s more international — like I’m not sure the Chinese are going to be quite say, Raman Hui’s — if you made as accommodating. The Chinese are very That’s the film’s whole story concept. So do you an English version, I think it could work. We culturally confident.

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platforms. General theatrical release could be a tough sell, but isn’t market entirely out of the question in the hands of a creative distributor. title Rupture On her way to kick-starting her life anew by skydiving, divorced single mother Renee (Noomi Rapace, very often channeling her Prometheus survivor) is abducted from a Kansas City highway by a group of mysterious men — led by The Shield’s Michael Chiklis — and taken to a anonymous, filthy laboratory. After the medical exam from hell, the head doctor, Nyman (Lesley Manville) and a wicked drug trip, Renee is, like the rest of the captives she can hear beyond her cell walls, subjected to a series of physio-psychological tests meant to determine if she’ll “rupture.” Suffice it to say, said rupture is a massive DNA reorganization on a genetic level that will usher in the next wave of humanity. And that’s just one reason Renee is there. Rapace is abducted and With help from a garish, red-washed production design by Jeremy subjected to Reed and often subjective cinematography by Karim Hussain, Rupture strange tests. manages a suitably claustrophobic and disorienting vibe for viewers Secretary director Steven Shainberg steps behind that matches Renee’s perfectly at any given moment. This is the grimy, the camera for the first time in a decade with this genre unregulated, down-low brand of lab experimentation — flickering lights, peeling paint, squeaky gurney wheels — so common in the thriller starring Noomi Rapacee by elizabeth kerr genre and which taps into a collective fear of the out-of-control scien- HE CONTINUING EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY AND OUR tist convinced they’re right. The real leader of the group of so-called post-human future are big science fiction ‘ideas’ that have been researchers is Terrence, played by Peter Stormare in full mad scientist Ttackled in various forms from Iain Banks and Octavia Butler glory, looming in the corners and disturbing in his stillness. on the literary side to Star Trek and Doctor Who in film and television. Rupture takes a little while to get going, flirting with Syfy Saturday Unable to resist the siren call of speculating on what we’ll look like movie awkwardness at the outset, but once it relocates to the night- generations from now, writer-director Steven Shainberg dips into one mare lab it settles into an effective rhythm that carries it almost to of the genre’s mainstay themes with the aggressively odd Rupture, a the conclusion. Shainberg fails to quit while he’s ahead, however, and sci-fi mystery that strings its premise along to nearly unsustainable misses a great opportunity for an ambiguous ending that would have lengths. Veering wildly from the S&M as therapy dynamic he explored been more affecting. Shainberg doesn’t contribute anything substan- in 2002’s compelling but uneven Secretary and the unconventional tial to the evolutionary debate, but Rupture, a tight diverting thriller, Diane Arbus biopic Fur, Shainberg mixes tropes and beats from horror isn’t trying to crowd in on Isaac Asimov’s territory anyway. and mystery as well, calling to mind Martyrs, The Signal and a lot in between in his flawed but strangely engrossing thriller. Rupture will Sales Ambi Distribution be a good fit for genre festivals worldwide and should be able to find Cast Noomi Rapace, Peter Stormare, Michael Chiklis its built-in, and considerable, audience for oddball sci-fi on download Director Steven Shainberg // 101 minutes

Qin is a boat captain who falls in love with a CROSSCURRENT voiced his melancholy and feel- first encounter, it is far from mysterious woman. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 ings of despair in a secret diary. being just casual sex. When Chun stumbles across the An Lu, as gradually becomes searching for its path in life. hand-written book, he is capti- apparent when she magically Drifting through seas of moody vated by its depth and longing. turns up in distant places along romantic doubts and yearning, From that point on, he charts his the river, is a river spirit herself. the scenically beat-up cargo boat course by the river ports in the In one of her incarnations, she commanded by young captain poems, and in each place he finds is a devout Buddhist living in Gao Chun (Qin Hao, the lead in Ye the same woman waiting for him. a remote temple, although she Lou’s Blind Massage) chugs its way While his crew of two, which doesn’t shave her head like the upriver. Chun’s father, the boat includes kindly, old alcoholic other nuns. She belongs to no Yichang mountains. Many of the owner, has recently died, and he Uncle Xiang (Jiang Hualin) and man and refuses no one who scenic towns have been gutted by keeps a black fish in an incense needlessly resentful young comes to her. So much for Chun’s flooding and many old buildings bowl, waiting for it to die so Dad’s deckhand, Wu Sheng (Wu longing to “have a woman of my have been relegated to a watery spirit can be released. This is the Lipeng), is still moored in the fog own.” grave with the construction of first intimation of the mystical/ of Shanghai harbor, Chun first As the ultimate romantic the controversial Three Gorges traditional/Buddhist themes catches sight of the beautiful An Chinese travelogue, the film Dam, whose sluice gates provide that underpin the film and which Lu (Xin Zhilei) who stares back delivers aesthetic pleasures a breathtaking scene of passage will turn viewers either on or off, at him from a boat even more far beyond the ken of National for the little boat. depending on their persuasion. decrepit than his own. When he Geographic. The Yangtze The film’s unique characteristic approaches her, she shares her becomes increasingly the pro- HKIFF Section Awards Gala is that it follows the rhythm of bed without further preliminar- tagonist as they pass ports with Cast Qin Hao, Xin Zhilei, poems. These have been written ies. It takes Chun’s voiceover to names like Yunyang, Pengze Wu Linpeng, by some long-gone deckhand who explain that although this is their and Fuling, all the way to the Director Yang Chao // 116 minutes

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Kalo Pothi, the Black Hen Min Bahadur Bham’s debut feature revolves around two boys’ mission to relocate a missing hen as war rages around them by clarence tsui

ET AT A TIME WHEN HIS begin the film engaging with home country was still more practical things in life. Sravaged by deadly battles While hailing from different between government forces and castes – one is the village head- Maoist guerillas, young Nepalese man’s grandson, the other the son filmmaker Min Bahadur Bham’s of a servant – Kiran (Sukra Raj Demons mix with rock music in Kudo’s imagined Buddhist hell. feature-film debut offers poised Rokaya) and Prakash (Khadka storytelling, heartrending Raj Nepali) are united by their performances and more than friendship and also a common Too Young to Die! a smattering of startling cin- desire to keep a hen, whose eggs Kankuro Kudo’s wacky musical crowd pleaser about life ematic moments. Revolving would bring in the money the around two rural boys’ search latter needs to get out of the cycle after death strikes just the right chord by piera chen for a chicken on which their of poverty his lowly family have N THIS DEMONICALLY DIVINE MUSICAL COMEDY, futures hinge, Kalo Pothi, the been condemned to. ‘Motherf---er!’ almost becomes Japan’s national morale- Black Hen has cut a surprisingly When Prakash’s father sells the Ibooster ‘Ganbatte!’ (‘Do your best!’) — so often is it hollered low-profile presence ever since fowl, the boys are plunged into a like a war-cry — yet judging by the guffaws it solicits, the film’s its bow at Venice Critics’ Week tortuous struggle to raise some outlandish, self-reflexive irreverence has struck the right chord. sidebar last year, with only a few cash to get it back. Just as the pair Helmer and writer Kankuro Kudo (Yaji and Kita: The Midnight festival appearances (Warsaw, runs into endless obstacles in their Pilgrims) has managed to turn a simplistic tale of love and life Singapore) to its name. But this task, circumstances around them choices into a thoroughly entertaining two-hour extravaganza Nepalese-German-Swiss-French also unravel: Prakash’s angst-rid- through wacky allusions to rock music, absurd interpretations of co-production deserves more rec- den sister Bijuli (Hansha Khadka) Buddhist beliefs and spots of well-placed humour. ognition for its deft combination joins the guerillas, while the Too Young to Die should draw attention in Asia, given the of art and social commentary. marriage of Kiran’s schoolteacher sweeping popularity of Kudo’s TV drama series Amachan which The film unfolds in 2001, at a sibling Uzhyale (Benisha Hamal) was shown in many regions in Asia. It may also appeal to niche time when a decades-long Maoist goes awry as the army and the markets as there are international fans of Kudo’s works, like insurgency seems to be winding insurgents resume hostilities. PingPong and Go. down as the government and the Bolstered by stirring perfor- The story is about a high-school student Daisuke (Ryunosuke guerillas call a truce to engage mances from his cast, Bham Kamiki, Bakuman, voice talent for Spirited Away) who has a in peace talks. But the tension and his crew have produced an crush on his classmate Hiromi (Aoi Morikawa). The bus they’re remains high, as both parties evocative piece about harsh lives on crashes and Daisuke wakes up to find himself face-to-face with continue playing brinksmanship in a war-torn, rustic land. Mixing the swashbuckling demon Killer K (Tomoya Nagase, Yaji and Kita: in the country’s rural hinter- moments of humor and tragedy, The Midnight Pilgrims) in hell — Buddhist hell. Daisuke, with K’s lands: menacing soldiers in full and also realism and the ethereal help, embarks on a quest to leave Inferno, but expectedly, he gets military attire still patrol the – the latter embodied in fantastic sidetracked — by K’s backstory and hellish bureaucracy. heavily militarized countryside, dream sequences about Prakash’s In Too Young to Die, as in his directorial debut, Kudo shows while guerillas stage sermons and feeling of grief and loss – Black himself to be a chameleon who weaves in and out of references shows in villages in an attempt to Hen is an effective showcase of a to Japanese medieval traditions and pop culture with alacrity rally support from the impover- promising filmmaker. and slings seemingly incongruous elements together. The pacing ished and mostly illiterate rural here, however, is better. The opening scenes have some shrewdly population. Sales Wide Management edited moments — back-and-forth among flashback, narration All this saber-rattling and ideo- Cast Khadka Raj Nepali, and musical numbers, accompanied by appropriate contrasts logical warfare seems to play out Sukra Raj Rokaya in cinematography. That said, the voltage drops a little after the as background noise, however, as Director Min Bahadur Bham narrative ground is laid and some parts feel repetitive. But the the film’s two young protagonists 90 minutes film always manages to pick itself up again. The culture-specific allusions are also easier to understand than in the previous film. Music is the best thing about the film. Ranging from metal to blues, and always given a ‘feel-good’ rendition, the pieces come with brilliant commentary about the industry, like what happens if you play the guitar with arms borrowed from Jimmy Hendrix, Gary Moore and Randy Rhoads? (They start fighting). Kudo’s experience in theatre is evident in the actors’ stylized movements and the minimalist sets. And it’s this inventive pre- sentation, as well as snide comments about hell’s badassism, that saves the boring-paradise versus tantalizing-hell dichotomy from market feeling like a big cliché. title

Kiran and Sales Toho / Asmik Ace Entertainment Prakash face numerous Cast Tomoya Nagase, Kamiki Ryunosuke, Kenta Kiritani, obstacles in their Nana Seino, Aoi Morikawa, Machiko Ono, Rie Miyazawa search for a missing hen. Director Kankuro Kudo // 123 minutes

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D2_HK_news1+2+REVIEWG.indd 17 3/14/16 4:41 AM Gang, pays the price for doing REVIEWS the right thing.

as to avoid paying for the victims’ long-term Old Stone rehabilitation fees. And one such report is Canadian-Chinese director Johnny Ma’s actually heard blaring from the radio at the debut depicts a small-town cabbie’s film’s opening sequence, as Lao Shi (Chen descent into madness in the aftermath Gang) drives along crammed streets of a small Chinese city to shadow a motorcyclist. of a traffic accident by clarence tsui The pic then cuts to three months earlier, EFYING ITS SOMEWHAT GENERIC- when Shi finds himself cut adrift after a traffic sounding title, Johnny Ma’s gripping accident; rather than taking flight, he stays, his boss (Wang Hongwei) and nearly everyone D criminal thriller Old Stone deploys calls for help, goes to the hospital and pays else turn their backs on what they believe powerful performances and eerie imagery to the bills for the victim, somewhat believing he to be some kind of monstrous selflessness. convey the moral breakdown of an upstand- would be reimbursed by insurance. Barely being able to hold himself together ing taxi driver and the society from which Shi’s wheels gradually come off, however, after losing his cab, his job and his family, Shi he emerges — one in which people could as he discovers old-fashioned goodness gradually succumbs to the cynicism around actually buy insurance to cover themselves doesn’t pay in a society where procedures him. His descent into violence and crime from being sued by people they help on the and cynicism reign supreme. Rather than becoming complete when he discovers how street. Drawing on multiple genres — from getting a pat on the back for ferrying the even victims can no longer be trusted in this Dardennes-style drama to jet-black noir dying victim to the hospital, Shi is cautioned day and age. — the pic is, at least in terms of Chinese by the police for leaving the scene, and then Starting out steeped in social-realist drama, independent cinema, a refreshing and solid told by insurance executives how he might Old Stone gradually morphs into a full-blown debut from the Shanghai-born, Toronto- have undermined his own claims for actually psychological thriller, complete with a devas- raised and New York-educated finance helping the victim. tating denouement unfolding in a muddy field consultant-turned-filmmaker. Learning of his victim’s financial predica- and on dark country lanes. Old Stone begins and ends with a red screen, ments through phone conversations with the a sign of the folly, fury and eventual blood- man’s wife, Shi somehow continues footing HKIFF Section Young Cinema Competition shed which drives the story, one inspired no those bills — and he soon discovers how he’s Cast Chen Gang, Nai An, Wang Hongwei doubt by the ceaseless reports in China about a lone moralist plunged into a theater of Director-screenwriter Johnny Ma drivers killing pedestrians they have hit so cruelty, as his nursery-operator wife (Nai An), 80 minutes

better suited to the intimacy of The biggest ailment afflicting television. Imaizumi’s modern eye Their Distance is writer, director and deft feel for youthful romantic and editor Imaizumi’s inability to rhythms should earn the film a commit to a single mood. When secure place on the festival circuit. Leon begins his comic pursuit Success in South Korea should be of Suna (some would call it at least moderate given the pres- stalking) which Kokaze doubles ence of Nu’Est boy band members down on (ditto the stalking) the Ren, Minhyun and JR, which film takes on a screwy, light tone should translate regionally given that’s dropped quickly in favor the continued Asian obsession of more genuine dramatic ele- with all things K-Pop. Overseas ments, highbrow arty observation distribution will rely on niche and irony. urban markets. Nonetheless, Imaizumi does The dots in Their Distance manage several moments of real begin to connect with Leon empathy and astute perceptions, (Nu’Ester Ren), the supermodel/ those coming courtesy most often shoe repair worker with a past of Kinami and Serizawa. Their Aoyagi, left, has a hidden crush on Ren. he can’t forgive himself for. His protracted, supremely uncomfort- life is defined by drudgery and able and honest discussion about market the same lunch on the same park their flailing relationship and their title Their Distance bench every day. Leon works future together feels grown-up in Japanese director Rikiya Imaizumi leads three-fifths of Korean with Kokaze (Fumiko Aoyagi), a way Kan and JR’s does not in the boy band Nu’Est on a romantic journey in his latest feature who has a not-so-subtle crush same situation. Kinami in particu- on him, though after finding the lar brings a gravity to Kanako that by elizabeth kerr hung-over Suna (Villain’s Hanae elevates the younger performers’ IKIYA IMAIZUMI love heptangle in Their Distance. Kan) on his bench, Leon sparks work by association; she’s subtle revisits the ensemble Well constructed if only fleet- to life. A bit. Suna’s Japanese and reactive, telegraphing feelings R romance of Sad Tea, which ingly insightful, when Their language student buddy Sangsoo that aren’t in the script. revolved around a more glamorous Distance does manage to make a (Minhyun, also in Nu’est) devel- filmmaker and a pop idol, for the salient point about contemporary ops a thing for Kokaze, while Sales Nikkatsu emotional trials and tribulations relationships it really lands, no her boyfriend Jiwoo (JR, the last Cast Ren, Fumiko Aoyagi, of a decidedly unglamorous yet matter which generational box boy bander) falls for his teacher Hanae Kan genetically blessed group of a viewer may tick. Slight to the Kanako (Haruka Kinami, in the Director Rikiya Imaizumi twentysomethings navigating a point of vanishing and probably film’s strongest performance). 107 minutes

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 18

D2_HK_Rev_spread2.FINAL.indd 18 3/14/16 3:35 AM Stranger Rich dramatic potential gets lost in translation in this western-like tale of a proud outlaw who reverts to nomadic tradition during the dark days of Soviet occupation

by stephen dalton Shiori becomes the object of two STIRRING PERSONAL largely because Tursunov men’s obsession. story set against the under-explains the dramatic A grand sweep of early 20th context. Historically inhabited century history, Kazakhstan’s by nomadic tribes, Kazakhstan While the Stranger is part western, part was co-opted into the Russian religious allegory and part empire in the 19th century, falling Women are Sleeping philosophical fable about the under the Soviet jackboot in the Wayne Wang’s stylish psycho noir never clash between tradition and 1920s. Stalinist repression, mass resolves its enigmas by deborah young modernity, individual freedom emigration and starvation caused and mass conformity. It takes by forced collectivization of N OVERLY CURIOUS NOVELIST DELVES TOO DEEPLY place in a gorgeous landscape of farms left millions dead, reducing into the affairs of an older man and his barely legal com- snow-capped mountains and sun- the native population by almost Apanion in While the Women Are Sleeping. In his first time drenched valleys, which is one of 40 percent. Moscow also used filming in the land of the rising sun, versatile Chinese-American its key selling points. But it also is the republic as a giant prison for director Wayne Wang (Maid in Manhattan, The Joy Luck Club) sluggish, incoherent and skimpy dissidents deported from other deftly transfers Javier Marias’s enigmatic, semi-erotic short story on explanatory background, parts of the Soviet Union, which from Spain to Japanese climes. The result has the calculated fas- which will severely limit its pros- helps explain some of the baffling cination of a Patricia Highsmith thriller, though minus her moral pects with non-local audiences. minor characters here, notably ironies and plus some very Wang-ian tongue-in-cheek satire. Shot Stranger is a pastoral parable the mute, alcoholic Caucasian with a light touch, pleasingly stylish and hard to second-guess, with echoes of Akira Kurosawa’s woman (award-winning Russian the film is a warm tease up to its deliberately ambiguous ending, Dersu Uzala and Sydney Pollack’s stage veteran Roza Khairullina) which will leave audiences scratching their heads and limit busi- Jeremiah Johnson, plus just a whom Ilyas takes under his pro- ness to card-carrying art house members. teasing hint of Rambo: First Blood. tective wing. The spotlight is on the performance of a zen-like Beat Takeshi Drawing on Kazakh folklore as But there are deeper flaws in (a.k.a. director Takeshi Kitano) in the role of a mystery man well as real characters from his Stranger than mere lack of detail. besotted with his young girlfriend, who he tapes every day while home village, writer-director Ilyas remains a childlike cipher she’s sleeping. In his first major role outside of his own films in a Yermek Tursunov plots the life throughout the film, with no decade, he grounds the story with an electrifying presence that is story of a proud outsider who apparent social or sexual curios- at once lovable and menacing, and turns what might be seen as a stands against a repressive society, ity, his psychological motivation a harmless perversion into a much more unsettling means of control. with inevitably harsh conse- blank page. The other characters But he’s not the only voyeur in the story. Kenji (Hidetoshi quences. Orphaned by the brutal are thinly rendered heroes and Nishijima, the unforgettable beaten-up cinephile from Cut), a nov- Soviet purges of the 1930s, Ilyas villains, a crude schemata that elist with writer’s block, has an obsession with the strange couple (Yerzhan Nurymbet) withdraws makes any kind of empathy diffi- and soon turns into a peeping Tom. And then there is the audience. from his village to live as a semi-fe- cult. Thus the final-act showdown Floating through the refined, slightly surreal atmosphere, the viewer ral hermit in a mountain cave, aims for operatic tragedy, but is made to feel like a voyeur watching the men watching women. communing with animals and simply falls flat. Kenji and his wife Aya, an editor (Sayuri Oyamada), are shar- mostly shunning human contact. ing a week’s vacation at a fancy beach resort. After an acclaimed Initially hailed as a spiritually HKIFF Section Global Vision first novel, Kenji has fallen into a writing slump, and despite Aya’s pure outlaw, he later becomes a Cast Yerzhan Nurymbet, coaxing is unable to start a new book. Inspiration is waiting on target of scorn and suspicion, and Alexander Karpov, Kuandyk the other side of the pool, where they first notice the odd couple is vilified as a traitor for refusing to Kystykbayev, Sahara (the 68-year-old Kitano, looking very much like a retired fight in World War II. Director-screenwriter yakuza) and his stunning 19-year-old girlfriend, Miki (Shiori Parts of Stranger are confusing, Yermek Tursunov // 105 minutes Kutsuna). It’s obsession at first sight for Kenji, who begins to stalk them. The mystery surrounding them only deepens when Sahara Yerzhan chooses lets him into his confidence and shows him the tapes he has made life in the wilderness of Miki while she’s asleep. He says that he has filmed her every day instead of war. for the last ten years, erasing each day’s previous tape, so he will have “a record of her last day.” Because one day he knows she will betray him. And then he will have to kill her. It’s a nice set-up and handled with flair. Even though nothing terrible happens on screen — nothing worse than a pair of bright red socks slowly sinking to the bottom of the pool — Wang charges the atmosphere and every act is filled with danger.

HKIFF Section World Cinema Gala Cast Beat Takashi, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Shioli Kutsuna, Sayuri Oyamada, Lily Franky, Hirofumi Arai, Makiko Watanabe Director Wayne Wang // 103 minutes

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 19

D2_HK_Rev_spread2.FINAL.indd 19 3/14/16 3:35 AM 8 Decades of The Hollywood Reporter The most glamorous and memorable moments from a storied history

Fat would follow up Tomorrow with two more Iconic John Woo actioners: 1989’s The Killer and Hard Boiled in 1992.

A Better Tomorrow Introduces ‘Gun Fu’ in 1986 P UNTIL THE 1980S lords. With Tomorrow, and later Many of the key players military epic The Taking of Tiger Hong Kong action the action classics The Killer and behind Tomorrow would go on to Mountain taking over $150 million films were almost Hard Boiled, Woo ushered in the find regional and international at the Chinese box office in 2015. always variants of age of “gun fu” marrying balletic success. The breakout star was Leslie Cheung was another who wuxiaU (period martial arts films movement with furious gunplay undoubtedly was Chow Yun-fat. sprung to prominence. Already featuring swordplay) or the using techniques that are now Though a supporting actor in a hugely popular Canto pop idol more globally ubiquitous kung fu considered action cliches such as Tomorrow, Chow is now very much when Tomorrow was released, films that made stars of Bruce slow-mo, tracking shots and the a global name having featured in Cheung would go on to forge a Lee and Jackie Chan. That all actors using two guns. Hollywood hits Crouching Tiger, critically acclaimed acting career changed though when John Woo’s Tomorrow, which celebrates its Hidden Dragon and Bulletproof with memorable roles in Wong A Better Tomorrow stormed the- 30th anniversary this year with Monk. Woo of course, parlayed Kar-wai’s Happy Together and aters in 1986. special screenings at the Hong his cult following in the West to Chen Kaige’s Temptress Moon. Woo sought to break with the Kong International Film Festival, work in Hollywood and enjoyed Tragically, Cheung would commit clownish kung fu films that were stunned audiences upon release a purple patch in the 90s with suicide in 2003 at the age of 46 being churned out at the time by and soon its fame would spread to action films like Broken Arrow, after suffering from depression. Shaw Studios and create stories the West where it heavily influ- Face Off and Mission Impossible 2. His death was a huge shock to the that were realistic and mired in the enced filmmakers such as Robert The film’s producer Tsui Hark has people of Hong Kong and tens of seedy world of the Triads, Hong Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino found continued success as a pro- thousands attended his memorial Kong’s notorious organized crime and the Wachowski Sisters. ducer, actor and director, with his service. — ABID RAHMAN

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 20 HKIFF OF COURTESY

D2_HK_endpg.FINAL.indd 20 3/13/16 10:07 PM IN POSTPRODUCTION CURRENTLY IN POSTPRODUCTION (2016) CAST: Mischa Barton US DISTRIBUTOR: Alchemy MISCHA GENRE: Paranormal horror. "Sometimes Evil Has A Pretty Face" BARTON

IN PRODUCTION CURRENTLY IN PRODUCTION (2016) CAST: Paz de la Huerta US DISTRIBUTOR: Alchemy PAZ DE LA GENRE: Thriller. "She’s Not Alone" HUERTA

PREPRODUCTION CURRENTLY IN PRE-PRODUCTION (2016) CAST: Tara Reid DIRECTOR: Robert reed Altman TARA REID US DISTRIBUTOR: Alchemy GENRE: Horror (Ghosts) "Hunger Is Not Solely For The Living"

CURRENTLY IN PRE-PRODUCTION (2016) CAST: Ana Coto US DISTRIBUTOR: Alchemy ANA COTO 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

CURRENTLY IN PRE-PRODUCTION (2017) CAST: Rachel Leigh Cook , Natasha Henstridge 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 [email protected] - www.rebelmovies.eu

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