Filmart Daily Mar

FILMART DAILY MAR. 23, 2015 №1

THR.COM/FILMART

Contents Panda Cover D1 032315.indd 1 3/18/15 1:52 PM MARCH 23, 2015 THR.COM/FILMART HONG KONG №1

HK TODAY TOMORROW WEATHER AND HIGH 72° F 71° F TEMPS 22° C 22° C KOREA’S MBC U.S. Pins Asia Hopes on Filmart INKS ISLAND The Hong Kong market sees a record number of Hollywood dealmakers looking to crack the TV DEAL world’s hottest film sector. “It’s essential to attend” says one insider By Clifford Coonan By Clifford Coonan ollywood-Asia links are in focus as a accessing the China market given its prime location erenity Media Group’s record 47 American companies and as one of the most bustling, cosmopolitan cities in Christie Hsiao has signed Hindividuals have signed up to take part the region,” she tells THR. Sa partnership with South in Filmart this year. She is in the territory with two titles announced Korea’s Munhwa Broadcasting Links between Hollywood and China are deep- at Berlin: Chronically Metropolitan with Shiloh Corporation (MBC) network ening: in the last week alone Huayi Bros. partnered Fernandez, Chris Noth, Mary-Louise Parker to make a TV series and stage with Robert Simonds’ STX Entertainment, while and Ashley Benson and Untot with Hayden musical of her novel Journey to Lionsgate signed a $375 million film financing Christensen. Rainbow Island. deal with Hunan TV. “Filmart has grown in importance over Hsiao believes the Korean Hollywood companies hoping to move the years as Asia continues to dominate and deal will be a stepping stone to their projects in the region include The exert its force in the international market- further sales in Asia. Asylum, IM Global, Electric Entertainment, Anisi place. It’s now become essential for me to The deal involves the pro- Lakeshore International, MarVista attend and establish a direct relationship with duction of a children’s musical Entertainment and XYZ Pictures, which is rep- buyers there and understand their individual terri- TV series, as well as a transla- ping Kevin Smith’s forthcoming Yoga Hosers with tory needs,” she adds. tion of the novel into Korean. Johnny Depp at Filmart. Filmart features a panel discussion organized by The Korean language book Tannaz Anisi, president of 13 Films, is attending the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and will come out in October 2015, Filmart for the first time. the Producers’ Guild of America called Making followed by a stage musical in “Hong Kong is definitely a primary way of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 the first half of 2016. “I have always envisioned Journey to Rainbow Island as review an international project that The Taking of Tiger Mountain can reach audiences all over In Tsui Hark’s actioner, a People’s Liberation Army soldier infiltrates a clan of bandits CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 by clarence tsui

SUI HARK’S THE TAKING Mak’s Neon of Tiger Mountain — based Makes Market T on a 1957 novel about a communist soldier’s battle of By Karen Chu Bow wits with bandits during the igor Mortis director Chinese Civil War in the late Juno Mak will unveil 1940s — is a straightforward RSons of the Neon Night spectacle motored by high-oc- to buyers at Filmart. The $15 tane action sequences featuring million crime thriller is pro- simplistic heroes and grotesque duced by Mak’s Kudos Films, villains. Amid the and Hong Kong-based FC blinding visuals SEE PAGE 10 FOR A Q&A Movies, a member of the Shaw and ear-splitting WITH DIRECTOR Brothers Group. firepower, Tsui’s TSUI HARK The film is written, pro- adaptation stays duced and directed by Mak. very close to the simplistic moral Filming is planned to com- binary that shaped its source mence in the fourth quarter of material — hardly a surprise, as 2015 for a late 2016 release. the director counts among his Mak reinvented the Chinese backers the August First Film “jumping vampire” genre in his Studio, the Chinese military’s Military leader Lin directorial debut Rigor Mortis does his best to moviemaking unit. in 2013, and subsequently take down a group Tiger Mountain revolves around of thieves. garnered nominations for best CONTINUED ON PAGE 15 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 1

D1_HK_news1+2+leadrev.inddC.indd 1 3/22/15 10:08 PM theREPORT

U.S AT FILMART XYZ Pictures will be CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 shopping Kevin Smith’s HEAT INDEX Yoga Hosers at Filmart. Asian Films in America, featuring Elizabeth Dell, head of the PGA’s China Task Force, and Stu Levy, who chairs the Guild’s International Committee, Online Video Committee and the PGA ProShow. The Digital Entertainment Summit will also use ANDY LAU The Hong Kong mega star’s Love and Lost, Transformers and Avatar as a tale of a man looking for his abducted case studies in another panel, son, written and directed by Peng Sanyan, opened strong in China on March 20, T for Transmedia: Immersive taking $6.4 million on its first day. Storyworld and A New Way of Audience Engagement. While relations are expanding, IFTA, which puts on the annual companies that skipped the and Americans come here look- American Film Market, has European Film Market in Berlin ing for Asian content, so we also been vocal in calling for China to in Feb. The German event’s always try to keep an open eye honor the terms of a 2012 trade proximity to Chinese New Year for local content with Universal deal and allow Hollywood films to means many Asians don’t attend. themes. Filmart is a hub for compete on a transparent basis. “As Asia has grown, so has tons of new fresh material in the Katie Irwin, VP of interna- the competition for Asian distrib- region,” says Hoiseth. tional at Fortitude International utors’ attention,” adds Irwin. While Chinese companies CHEN GUANGBIAO The Chinese philanthropist and would-be says Filmart offers useful access “But nothing builds a better are increasingly reaching out media mogul, who once tried to buy The to the China market, which last bond than taking the time to get directly, Filmart remains a good NY Times, is in hot water – literally – after admitting he faked a 30-minute-long Ice year chalked up a 36-percent to know them, their company place to meet investors from Bucket Challenge by using water that was rise to reach $4.76 billion in total and their market.” mainland China. “as warm as a hotel swimming pool.” box office. Kevin Hoiseth, director of sales “It’s important to stay up to “There are many mainland at International Film Trust, says date on the marketplace with your know your dealmaker Chinese distributors, production Filmart offers a look at Asian partners. It’s also a great place to companies, financing entities, etc. content that can travel. see what’s working and what’s not who attend Filmart with an appe- “Everybody is trying to diver- working in the region,” he says. tite to do business,” says Irwin. sify in a global way and several Filmart also offers valu- markets in Asia are thriving at Karen Chu contributed able face time with Chinese the moment. Many European to this report.

ISLAND NEON CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

FRED WANG the world,” Hsiao tells new director at the Hong Kong Film Awards and CHAIRMAN, SALON FILMS THR. “My plan is to develop Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards. The film grossed Filmart regular Wang will host the working digital gaming and merchandise over $6 million worldwide, and was awarded the group meeting of the upcoming Asia Content Business Summit in Manila in based on Journey to Rainbow FIPRESCI Prize at the Golden Horse Awards. October, where government officials and Island, as well as the film. With “I’ve created a new world for the story. I’m industry insiders from nine countries across Asia will discuss topics ranging the launch of Journey to Rainbow attempting to re-establish the cops and robbers from film financing and tariff issues to how Island in Korea, it is my belief genre, and to redefine the boundaries of a crime to prevent online piracy. that it will generate success throughout Asia.” thriller,” Mak tells THR. “I’ll deconstruct then A spokesperson for MBC said it was in talks reconstruct the rules of the crime thriller genre, MEANWHILE, IN THE REAL WORLD … with major Chinese film companies and distribu- and hope to bring a breath of fresh air into a genre tion on a co-production based on Island. that audiences have watched for decades.” • Lionsgate’s Insurgent opened The spokesperson added that the company was With Rigor Mortis being a festival favorite, strong with $21.3 million in particularly attracted to the prospect of using invited to be screened at over 30 international North America, while Sean Penn’s Island as the basis for a theme park. The follow-up film festivals, including a premiere at Venice The Gunman misfired with only book will see the main female character, Yu-ning, and screening in Toronto, Mak’s frequent flying $1.8 million. • Snoop Dogg is developing an travel to Korea and China. became a catalyst for writing Sons of the Neon autobiographical drama series MBC is considering using its links to Hebei Night. “I had the concept of Sons of the Neon Night for HBO about growing up in Long TV in China to develop the project there because before Rigor Mortis,” says Mak, “and during the Beach, California in the 1980s. Island fits well with China’s need for “positive, promotional period of Rigor Mortis, I travelled • Taylor Swift says she bought the educational and inspiring content.” for a year and three months to festivals around domain names TaylorSwift.porn and TaylorSwift.adult to prevent “Our main focus is Journey to Rainbow Island the world. During these times of severe jetlag, I them from becoming available to as a global project, not only the book, but we are recommitted to the story of Sons of the Neon Night the public on June 1. also interested in other derivate works,” the MBC and decided to make it my second film. I’ve been spokesperson said. writing the script since.”

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 2

D1_HK_news1+2+leadrev.inddC.indd 2 3/22/15 10:08 PM BETA CINEMA AT

AFERIM by Radu Jude

WINNER SILVER BEAR BERLINALE 2015

13 MINUTES by Oliver Hirschbiegel

OUT OF COMPETITION BERLINALE 2015

MARKET SCREENING Wed | Mar 25th | 12:00 PM | Theatre 1

UMRIKA by Prashant Nair

WINNER AUDIENCE AWARD SUNDANCE 2015

FILMART CONTACT I European Pavilion #1C-D13 Tassilo Hallbauer I [email protected] | Mobile +49 176 1031 26 46 | HEAD OFFICE I Gruenwalder Weg 28d I D-82041 Oberhaching I Phone +49 89 673469 - 828 I [email protected]

Beta Cinema D1 032315.indd 1 3/16/15 5:14 PM Star Carrie Ng is also co-director of the thriller theREPORT Angel Whispers.

to be demon-possessed. Now in post-production, the film is Pegasus Has scheduled for a 2015 release. High Hopes for The companies are also Star Alliance and prepping the comedy My Wife Yen’s Wesley By Karen Chu is a Superstar and actioner Get Sundream Announce A Way. My Wife, a $3.5 million egasus Motion Pictures comedy starring Pak Ho Chau is announcing The Co-production Slate and Annie Liu, will be directed Wesley at Filmart, a $32 By Karen Chu P by Shirley Yung, while the million sci-fi action adven- $10 million Get A Way will be ture starring Donnie Yen (Ip ong Kong-based Star Wong and produced by Patrick directed by Henri Wong and is Man 1 & 2), adapted from Alliance and Sundream Kong and Shirley Yung. The set for release in 2016. the immensely popular novel HMotion Pictures have 2015 Hong Kong Film Award The co-production deal was ini- series Wisely by Hong Kong announced a five-picture co- Best New Performer and Best tiated by Shirley Yung on behalf author Ni Kuang. production slate. Supporting Actress nominee of Sundream Motion Pictures While the project is now First up is the $2.5 million Ivana Wong plays a policewoman and Angus Chan on behalf of in pre-production, filming is Angel Whispers, winner of the who goes undercover to investi- Star Alliance Movies (HK) Ltd. intended to start in 2016. The 2014 Hong Kong-Asia Film gate death threats received by a The two companies plan to film will revolve around Financing Forum Award. Helmed group of models. The film is now co-produce three to four films Wesley’s investigation by first-time directors Carrie Ng in post-production and will be a year, with the films’ budgets of a murder case and Shirley Yung, the thriller is released later this year. ranging from $3.5 million to involving priceless

set in a building populated by It is followed by Daughter, a $10 million. ancient treasures. Yen prostitutes, where mysterious $3.5 million horror film directed Sundream will handle the The film, intended to murders have occurred. by Pang Chun Chan and pro- films’ releases in Hong Kong kick start a franchise, The second film on the slate duced by Shirley Yung. The film and Macau, while Star Alliance will be produced by is Love Detective, a $3.5 million stars Kara Wai as a psychiatrist Movies (China) will release the Pegasus chairman

action comedy directed by Jill whose daughter is suspected films in China. and 1980’s powerhouse Wong studio Cinema City co-founder Raymond Wong. “During the days of Cinema Emperor Hopes EDKO BOARDS MASTER FAT City, we produced the most By Karen Chu Buyers Pursue successful Wisely movie dko Films will rep Master Fat, a $1.3 million horror film starring Sam Hui (The Legend Happiness directed by Nick Cheung. The film marks the second time of Wisely, 1987),” Wong tells By Karen Chu Ethe award-winning actor has taken the helm, after his horror The Hollywood Reporter. “The mperor Motion Pictures directorial debut Hungry Ghost Ritual in 2014. character of Wisely created by will be touting The Idea Master Fat, now filming, is produced by One Crew Production. Ni Kuang is a little bit James Eof Happiness at Filmart, Also making its market debut at Filmart is Monster Hunt, Bond and a little bit Indiana a drama about an Alzheimer’s Edko’s $40 million fantasy directed by Shrek the Third co-director Jones, with some extraterres- patient and her friendship with a Raman Hui. It is the live-action directorial debut of Hui. The film trial elements thrown in.” homeless young man. The film, had a series of reshoots after the original lead Kai Ko was arrested The company also has a now in production, is directed by on drug charges in China in August last year and was replaced by number of productions in the Lo Yiu-fai and produced by Daniel Jing Boran. pipeline, including: Bounty Yu and Catherine Kwan, and stars Also debuting at Filmart is Edko’s The Bodyguard, directed by Hunter, a $16 million Hong Kara Wai. martial arts veteran Sammo Hung. The film stars Hung and Andy Kong-South Korea-China Also new on the Emperor slate Lau as a retired bodyguard and the father of a young girl, the latter co-production directed by is Drink Drank Drunk, a com- disappears after falling in with the local crime world. The film is South Korean director Terra edy revolving around a night of now in post-production. Shin; the $9 million Z Storm celebration by three friends. Now II will see director David in post-production, the film is Lam return to the helm, and directed by Takkie Yeung and Chilam Cheung (Triumph stars Carlos Chan, Michelle Phoenix Inks Asia TV Deal in the Skies) and Vic Chou By Karen Chu Wai and Ken Hung. (Saving General Yang) join- Emperor is also develop- ong Kong-based television broadcaster Phoenix Satellite ing the original’s star Louis ing Love in Late Autumn, a Television has inked deals with Singapore’s MediaCorp Koo; the company will team romantic drama directed Hand Malaysia’s NTV7 for Phoenix’s food programs Sapor up with The Midnight After by Lim Kah Wai Tracing and Battle For Taste, respectively. director Fruit Chan for The and starring Irene Both programs were produced by Phoenix TV in 2014. Man With the Dragon Tattoo, a Wan as a Hong Acquired by MediaCorp, Sapor Tracing is a six-episode 35-minute $9.6 million crime thriller also Kong actress series that brings the audience on a roadtrip through the coun- starring Louis Koo. The film, experiencing tryside of China to find the most authentic local cusines. Sold to about an undercover agent a very bad NTV7, Battle For Taste is Phoenix TV’s first reality cooking pro- with a dragon tatoo who helps wedding gram. Consisting of seven 35-minute episodes, the show invites the police solve cases, will anniversary. cooks and chefs across China to show their cooking skills, for a begin principal photography in Michelle Wai chance to meet the judges after blind tastings. December.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 4

D1_HK_news3A.indd 4 3/22/15 8:00 PM Sun Entertainment D1 032315.indd 1 3/18/15 11:53 AM theREPORT

Finecut Pacts With Golden Network Asia By Clifford Coonan AF, the writers agency of the WSeoul-based international sales outfit Finecut, has formed a partnership with Golden Network Asia and announced 10 original stories at Filmart. WAF was set up by Finecut in December 2014 to cater to an increasing demand for Korean talent in China’s Lily & Bloom ever-expanding film market, and it represents the creative works of 16 Korean film and television screenwriters. So far this year, the agency INSIDE HONG KONG’S HIDDEN BARS has closed several deals for Hidden behind nondescript doors or down dark alleyways, these five watering holes offer its writers with prominent an intimate speakeasy-like vibe for closing that big Filmart deal in private By Patrick Brzeski film production houses in South Korea. ONG KONG SUFFERS NO SHORTAGE OF LIVELY WINING ”The China market is hun- and dining destinations. But the ubiquitous street-level pubs

gry for strong screenplays and of Lan Kwai Fong, Wanchai and Wyndham Street tend KOWLOON BAY has already recognized South Hto be more conducive to blasting pop music and Premier Korea as its natural partner League soccer than high-level business dealings. In Hong Kong, in the region,” said Clarence the most exclusive establishments are always lurking behind 1 2 HONG KONG Tang, director of Golden unmarked doors or hiding on the upper floors of otherwise anon- 3 4 5 Network Asia. ymous office towers. Here are five venues where the drinks are world-class and the atmosphere sophisticatedly cloistered.

1 001 2 BARSMITH 3 LILY & BLOOM 4 STOCKTON 5 THE CHINA CLUB, THR IN HONG KONG 001, Shop 1, L/F, 4/F, 60 Wellington 33 Wyndham St. 32 Wyndham St. LONG MARCH BAR Welley Building, Street Lily & Bloom can be Yet another centrally 13-14/F Old Bank of Wellington St This member’s only credited with kicking located venue hidden China Building NEWS The one Hong Kong Japanese cocktail off the boom in away in a blank-faced Diplomats and deal- Kevin Cassidy [email protected] venue that’s closest bar takes its mixol- high-quality mixology office tower down makers have been +1 213 840 1896 to a true speakeasy, ogy very seriously. that’s been sweep- a dank alleyway, partial to the Long Clifford Coonan 001 sits behind an Hidden on the fourth ing Hong Kong since Stockton takes its March Bar at Sir David [email protected] unmarked black door floor of a bland office 2010. The Boardwalk inspiration from 1890s Tang’s China Club +852 186 1019 3168 on a dark alleyway building in Central, Empire-esque London.The bar culti- since the fashion icon Karen Chu in the heart of the the concept is built drinking den has vates an atmosphere took over the upper [email protected] +852 6171 3530 city. Ring the bell for around the cus- won legions of fans of old world intrigue floors of the historic admittance and hope tomer-bartender with its well-crafted with dim lighting, vin- Bank of China build- Gavin J. Blair [email protected] that whoever’s peer- relationship — classic drinks and tage leather furniture ing back in the heady +852 30561013 Ext 1692# ing down through the idea being that upper-floor location and oriental rugs. The pre-handover days Patrick Brzeski the solitary video the barkeep will in the Lang Kwai Fong drinks are a tongue of 1991. A convincing [email protected] camera in the corner come to know your Tower, smack in the and cheek homage to tribute to chic 1940s +81 80 5900 0233 likes the looks of your personality so well middle of the city’s colonial days gone by, Shanghai, this REVIEWERS party. The interiors that they can suggest biggest party district. with offerings such Mao-themed space Deborah Young [email protected] are no less discrete, a clutch of signature Less known is its sis- as “The Bitter Bitch,” is tastefully deco- with low lighting drinks catered just ter venue, The Blind invented “in tribute” rated with Tang’s Elizabeth Kerr [email protected] and blue leather to you. The impres- Pig, a vintage-style to Queen Elizabeth private art and booths offering lots of sive collection of cigar bar tucked I. The bar’s alleyway period furniture Clarence Tsui [email protected] privacy. The cocktails obscure liquors behind a hidden entrance sits on the collection. The room and bar snacks are and hard-to-find door opposite. This far end of Wyndham is typically bustling ART & PRODUCTION Katherine Bryja loyal renditions of the whiskeys promises wood and leather-be- Street, still the most with finance merce- [email protected] mid-century classics. that everyone in decked lounge offers happening party naries and political SALES Try an Earl Grey your party will private cigar lockers strip in town — it’s elites. It’s member’s Ivy Lam Martini and the Spicy taste something and an expansive like a trapdoor into only, so you’ll need [email protected] +852 6176 9272 Deviled Eggs. memorable. whisky selection. another era. to score an invite.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 6

D1_HK_news4.inddB.indd 6 3/22/15 5:15 PM Contents Panda D1 032315.indd 1 3/16/15 5:22 PM Bucheon Intl Left D1 032315.indd 1 3/17/15 11:25 AM Bucheon Intl Right D1 032315.indd 1 3/17/15 11:26 AM Q&A DIRECTOR Tsui Hark The Taking of Tiger Mountain helmer discusses remaking one of the favorite films of his youth and why he hopes it gets remade again in 40 years By Karen Chu

IRECTOR TSUI HARK’S NEW RELEASE The Taking of Tiger Mountain has grossed $144 million at the Chinese box office, D a career best for a helmer who is no stranger to blockbusters thanks to 2011’s Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, which made $100 million worldwide, and Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, which took in $52 million. A remake of Xie Tieli’s 1970 release Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, “Chinese-language films will one day have a great deal of influence in the the story, about a soldier who infiltrates a international marketplace,” says Tsui. group of thieves, is based on one of only eight “model plays” allowed to be staged during everyone at the table laughed, because they The Taking of Tiger Mountain is your third movie the Cultural Revolution in China (and was didn’t know whether or not it was just a whim. shot in stereoscopic 3D. What kind of challenges even turned into a concept album by Brian did you encounter this time? Eno). Shot in stereoscopic 3D, Tiger Mountain How do you think Western audiences will All of my experiences of shooting in 3D have will have a gala screening in Hong Kong on react to the film? been very different. For Tiger Mountain, we April 3. Born in Saigon but now based in Tiger Mountain has been shown in Chinese shot in the snowy mountains in the north- Beijing, the 65-year-old Tsui first saw the orig- communities in North America, and that was east of China. The snowy terrain presented inal while he was a film student in the 1970s in very meaningful to me. Decades had passed a problem even for ordinary shooting; if I New York and it left a deep impression. A long- [since the original]. Many of my friends were to ask someone to take a picture in the time champion of 3D technology, Tsui talked living in North America have sent me their snow, he might sink waist deep, so deep that to The Hollywood Reporter about shooting in reactions to the film and this moved me. he wouldn’t be able to get back up. To shoot the snowy mountains of northeastern China, Suddenly, it was like I went back in time to a film in the snowy and icy landscape in the what he has learned from 3D and his part in the 1970s in New York. I hope some young northern country, we had to plan the details an upcoming Johnnie To omnibus project. people, like me then, who are students or in advance, to avoid danger and to make sure interested in film, will make another The it wasn’t technically impossible. It presented You saw the original Tiger Mountain in New York in Taking of Tiger Mountain in 40 years’ time. a complicated scenario for our equipment — the ’70s when you were a film student. Did it make It could become a cycle. the equipment wasn’t guaranteed to work an immediate impression on you? normally in minus 40 degrees. Another The movie felt very fresh. There had never Can Chinese-language films succeed in the challenge for Tiger Mountain was to maintain been such subject matter in Chinese cin- international marketplace? the continuity of the snowy terrain, because ema — about bandits and soldiers. And it One thing that is certain, for now, is that there the story entails that it was an untouched was based on a true story set in a particular is a discrepancy between the budgets and the environment, so the crew couldn’t leave any time and place, when most of the stories in technology in Hollywood and Chinese films. footprints in the snow. Chinese cinema about the military were But I believe that will not remain unchanged. fictional. It left a deep impression on me. History has shown to be changing all the time. Are you going to participate in the new, And the movie was very entertaining. The In the past, Westerners were in awe of Chinese as-yet-untitled Johnnie To-produced omnibus original Peking opera version of Taking civilization. They didn’t know what we were, as film that will involve directors Ann Hui, Tiger Mountain by Strategy was presented we appeared quite mysterious to them. Once Ringo Lam and To himself? in a theatrical manner, and it had a strong they found out that the Chinese were lagging Yes, I am. I am participating because this entertainment value. behind after the Industrial Revolution, they film is a tribute to the medium we have started to make attempts in used for many years: film. When did you know you wanted to commercial invasion. But BY THE NUMBERS I believe this tribute is remake the film? over the past hundred years, meaningful and necessary, There was a meeting of the Greater Chinese Westerners begin to realize 44 so I will participate in it. As directors that took place in Hong Kong in the that they don’t have the same Feature films directed for my story in the omnibus, 1980s, and after the meeting, I had dinner depth of civilization, history $144M I’m still thinking about with Chinese director Xie Jin (Hibiscus and tradition as the Chinese Box office for it. (Laughs.) We will all be Town). He asked me whether I was interested have. As film is a part of The Taking of Tiger Mountain shooting in film. It poses a in making a film in China, and I said yes. our culture, I believe that 3 challenge, as we are living at And then he asked me what kind of subject Chinese films will become Films shot in 3D (The Flying Swords the end of the era of film. It I was interested in making a movie about. one of the important forces of Dragon Gate, Young Detective Dee: will be quite difficult to find Rise of the Sea Dragon, I blurted out I wanted to remake Taking in international film culture The Taking of Tiger Mountain) ways to edit, to develop and Tiger Mountain by Strategy. (Laughs.) Then in the future. to print the film.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 10

D1_HK_Q&A_Hark_l.inddB.indd 10 3/22/15 2:35 PM Chinese Audio Visual D1 032315.indd 1 3/17/15 11:21 AM “Filmart is good because it’s EXECUTIVE SUITE very concentrated — in a very concentrated city,” says Shi, photographed March 15 in her office in Kowloong Tong.

CHAIRWOMAN, DISTRIBUTION WORKSHOP Nansun Shi The Hong Kong producer on Filmart’s importance, supporting young directors and why filmmaking shouldn’t be like making instant coffee By Clifford Coonan • Photographed by Jasper James

SK ANYONE AT FILMART TO NAME THE most influential woman in Hong Kong and Chinese cinema today, and Nansun AShi is the name you’ll hear. A key figure in promoting Hong Kong and Chinese cinema overseas for many years, Shi chairs Film Workshop, which she set up with her husband, director Tsui Hark, as well as Distribution Workshop, which she co-founded with Jeffrey Chan. As a member of the Film Development likeable city. People don’t have any hesitation priority, and now I need a good script. Once Committee, she has done significant work on about coming here for a week [to] do some you have a very good script, it’s about the developing the industry in Hong Kong from business, have some good food, do some shop- production, the actors, the director, the DP, the regulatory and financing side. ping and have a lot of business opportunities. whether you can capture the essence of the Shi, 64, has been on the Cannes and Berlin script during production. Then it’s post- main competition juries and also is a consul- It comes at the end of a busy year for you, correct? production, the editing, the sound. Overall, tant at Chinese private film company Bona Overall, it’s been very busy. A lot of things what’s most difficult for me now is the script. Film Group. She has worked on Infernal Affairs going on, a lot of people want to talk. In these Once I have a very good script, I’m 60 percent (which Martin Scorsese turned into the Oscar last couple of years, there’s been a lot of inter- comfortable. Getting a production together is winner The Departed), John Woo’s A Better action [with China]. It’s not necessarily that not so difficult. Our networking is much more Tomorrow, and Detective Dee: Mystery of the things will be achieved, but it’s part of the experienced, our knowledge is much more at Phantom Flame and Flying Swords of Dragon development. If you do the ratio of meetings our fingertips. Once I have a good script, I’m Gate, both with Tsui. versus results, there are no huge results yet. not afraid of anything. Born in Hong Kong and educated by Irish In filmmaking, serious filmmaking, it’s not nuns, Shi has a degree in statistics and com- instant coffee — you can’t just spoon it out What are you looking at in 2015? What are puting from Polytechnic of North London and that’s it. You need time to develop, define your big plans? and got her start at TVB television in Hong one another’s sensibilities and what works I’m always reading scripts, always looking for Kong in the 1970s, before for each market, so it opportunities in different ways. I always [look setting up China Cinema “I’m making more of does take time. for [big-budget action films,] but … now that Studios with partners Karl I have more resources available to me, I’d like Maka, Raymond Wong an effort to look at How much of a presence to offer [opportunities] to younger filmmak- and Dean Shek. smaller-budget films does Hong Kong still have on ers and try to move them along and give Shi spoke to THR about the global film scene? them some help. I’m also paying more atten- the challenges facing the with more interesting, People are sometimes tion and making more of an effort to look at Hong Kong film industry, novel ideas.” very torn between doing smaller-budget films with more interesting, working with smaller bud- SHI co-production films and novel ideas. gets and making inroads purely Hong Kong films. into collaborating more with China. I think as long as we are producing more So the big-budget action movies allow you to do films in terms of volume, that gives more the smaller movies? How has Filmart changed over the years? people opportunity to be more practiced I still have to do the big-budget action movies, Is it still relevant? in the art. I’m not saying numbers are the that’s my job, my responsibility, but I’m also What’s been very apparent since the fast only answer, but if you’re making very few very keen to keep actively looking for smaller- development of the industry in China is a lot films, it’s very difficult for young talent to be budget movies. On the slate, I have a bigger- of Chinese filmmakers come [to Filmart] involved in filmmaking. budget movie with Mabel Cheung and Alex because it’s easier for them to travel [to]. In Law. Alex and I are producing and Mabel is order to go to the European festivals, they Do you have a preferred approach when it comes directing. It’s a very classic story about strug- have to apply for a visa. On the other hand, I to starting a project? Do you consider the idea first gles and people who are not as privileged as think a lot of Europeans have taken the oppor- or do you require a script? others. We are paying tribute to a generation tunity of accessing China through Filmart. I always say that when you are starting a film, of Chinese people who came to Hong Kong in You can see that the contingents from the every single step is equally important, but the late 1940s and early 1950s and laid down U.K., France and various European countries once you are past that step, the priorities shift the foundations for Hong Kong’s prosperity. are bigger. Their stands are bigger, and it’s immediately. I have heard people say that Hard-working people, never questioning, who a very pain-free way for them to meet a lot the idea is important — and it is true — but for the first time had a roof over their heads — of Chinese companies. Hong Kong is a very once you have that idea, it’s gone, no more a our parents’ generation.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 12

D1_HK_ESnansun_L.inddB.indd 12 3/22/15 4:19 PM JASMINE_HRad_fullpage_v2.qxp_Layout 1 2015-03-20 8:39 AM Page 1

OFFICIAL WORLD PREMIERE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 l 9:45 PM The Grand Cinema, 2/F, ELEMENTS, 1 AUSTIN ROAD WEST, KOWLOON

ENCORE SCREENING THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2015 l 10:15 PM The Grand Cinema, 2/F, ELEMENTS, 1 AUSTIN ROAD WEST, KOWLOON TICKETS AVAILABLE AT FACEBOOK.COM/JASMINEHELOVEDHER

Sales & Media inquiries: www.lonhaber.com

Shanghai Street Films D1 032315.indd 1 3/20/15 10:35 AM THE SNOW QUEEN 2 Animation 78 min WIZART ANIMATION

SOULLESS 2 Drama 100 min RWV

QUACKERZ Animation/ Adventure 76 min PLANETA INFORM GROUP OF COMPANIES

THE BIG GAME Drama 90 min LIGA PRODUCTION

Expocontent D1 032315.indd 1 3/17/15 4:55 PM REVIEWS

volunteers to in!ltrate a gang of outlaws exerting regional control A group of bandits refuses from a heavily forti!ed castle. Having found his way into the den and to go quietly. worked his way up the gang’s hierarchy, Yang is pitted against a mon- strous leader named Hawk (Tony Leung Ka-fai). It’s a shame the script doesn’t provide Zhang, one of the best actors working in China today, with a more complex character to play. The possibilities on display in the !rst part of the !lm — with the character registering as a kind of unseemly rogue in a well-regimented military unit — are never seen through. Instead, the character becomes a one-dimensional stereotype just like his unit commander (Lin Gengxin), the nerdy and self-sacri!cial boy-soldier (Chen Xiao) and the angelic nurse (Tong Liya). Interestingly, Tiger Mountain also is a showcase for a modern Hong Kong/Chinese artist’s struggle to navigate and negotiate creative freedoms within the con!nes of the establishment. This is manifested most explicitly in director Tsui referencing his own experience with the awkward, 2014-set sequences bookending the !lm: A Chinese THE TAKING OF TIGER MOUNTAIN university graduate named Jimmy (Han Geng) is seen watching, CONTINUED FROM PAGE ! mesmerized, the 1970 !lm Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy in New York, and then elects to head back home to northeast China — where a good guy trying to destroy a criminal clan from within, though the Tiger Mountain takes place — and “reimagine” his own version of an !lm indeed is more about an artillery-fueled assault than tactical mind incredible, over-the-top !nal showdown between Yang and Hawk. In games. The reliance on pomp and bluster seems to have worked in e"ect, Jimmy’s wild fantasy take on the tale, tacked on to the end of China, as the !lm (released mostly in 3D in the country) secured $51.1 the !lm as a 10-minute coda, is very much the sort of movie Tsui ide- million at the box o#ce during its !rst !ve days of domestic release. ally would have wanted to make — but, in today’s China, couldn’t. Tiger Mountain originally was merely a section in Tracks in the Snowy Forest, a novel based on a real-life Chinese Red Army platoon’s Gala Screening missions in Manchuria a$er the end of World War II. The central Cast Zhang Hanyu, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Lin Gengxin character is Yang Ziyong (Zhang Hanyu), a surveillance o#cer who Director Tsui Hark // 141 minutes

headmistress of a small village kindergarten Little Big Master facing forced closure in four months’ time. Miriam Yeung and Louis Koo lead an engaging cast in an against-the-odds drama What follows is nearly inevitable, as Lui tries her utmost to care for the girls and win revolving around a run-down village school !" #$%&'(#' )*+, over their skeptical — and struggling — cus- EVOLVING AROUND THE MUCH- hit “Applause” will undoubtedly stir up nos- todians. And the kids are not alright: Siu-suet celebrated case of an educationalist talgia among the city’s parent-age viewers too. (Winnie Ho) sells scrap metal, cooks and does R taking up a 580-dollar-a-month job Continuing her recent turn toward more household chores to take care of her ailing rejuvenating a decaying village school in Hong mature, earthier screen roles — as in last father (Richard Ng); Chu-chu (Keira Wang) Kong, Adrian Kwan’s latest !lm is an un%inch- year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival lives with her dish-washer aunt (Anna Ng) ing melodrama with an unambiguous faith opener Aberdeen — singer-actor Miriam after her parents died in a car crash; Ka-ka in the goodness of humankind. Boasting an Yeung plays Lui Lai-hung, a headmistress (Fu Shun-ying) is forced to witness disputes abundance of Kleenex-worthy moments,Little dismayed by the pressure her prestigious at home between her disabled father (Philip Big Master is an optimism-fueled !lm reliant school has put on her pupils. Quitting her job, Keung) and mother (Jade Lau), and suffers more on sentimental brushstrokes than sharp she pledges to take a break while preparing constant intimidation from local bullies; Kitty social critique in presenting and understand- to go on a round-the-world vacation with her (Zaha Fathima) and Jennie (Khan Nayab), ing the tragedy and joy on screen. museum curator husband Dong (Louis Koo). siblings of Pakistani ancestry, have to contend What’s beyond debate here is the sincer- Soon bored out of her mind, Lui jumps back with their father’s disapproval of girls receiv- ity of the filmmaker. Rivaling his real-life into action by accepting a low-paid job as ing schooling in the first place. protagonist’s empathy and ability to tease Anthony Pun’s camerawork and Curran the best out of her charges, Kwan has deliv- -%&.') Pang’s precise editing help get the best out ered an effective and affecting tribute to the ),)$' of the kids’ raw performances, with the wonders of pedagogy. His two leads’ suitably film’s heart-rending finale — one pupil’s understated performances are nicely offset emotionally crushing speech — captured in a by the child actors’ intensity. Little Big Master harrowing long take. is bound for family-friendly domestic success amid ongoing contemplation about Hong Sales Universe Film Distribution Kong’s roots and values. The presence of the Cast Miriam Yeung, Louis Koo, Winnie Ho classic late 1970s toddler ditty “Little Sun” Director: Adrian Kwan and 1980s pop icon Danny Chan’s legendary Yeung does her best to help underpriveledged children. 113 minutes

THETHE HOLLYWOOD HOLLYWOOD REPORTER REPORTER 15 3

D1_HK_news1+2+leadrev.inddA.indd 3 3/22/15 3:57 PM REVIEWS

The Dead Lands Heightened performances give an epic edge to a sumptuously photographed coming-of-age tale fired by honor and revenge by deborah young

N EXOTIC ACTION- acting are rich enough to capture adventure liberally doused the fancy of any viewer who tunes Ain bloodshed, The Dead in to fantasy-adventure. Lands (Hautoa) chronicles a Posturing as a great warrior young man’s search for “repay- whose only thought is the glory ment” after his father and tribe that will come to him when he have been brutally murdered by avenges his ancestors, dashing savage intruders. It’s a remark- bad boy Wirepa (New Zealand Makoare (left) helps Rolleston avenge the able film experience in several TV star Te Kohe Tuhaka) strides murder of his father. ways. The first point is the respect into the hero’s village and uses director Toa Fraser and screen- his unburied ancestors as an Dead Lands, a fearsome creature bloodthirsty warriors pronounce writer Glenn Standring accord excuse to declare war. He and his who slays anyone on his property. a Shakespearean aside now and the Maori people and their tradi- bare-chested warriors sport long, The Dead Lands, which once then when they address Wirepa tions. Shot entirely in the Maori dreadlocked mohawks and invoke belonged to a vanished tribe, as “Milord,” but he never makes language, it creates a primal neo-Nazis in their determination indeed are haunted with witches fun of these cannibals who flick world populated by the living to kill. That night, the good chief- and malevolent spirits. Though their tongues out in contemp- and the dead. Performances tain is beheaded and the entire branded as a coward, Hongi tuous challenge to enemies. are intensely involving as the tribe murdered. The lone survivor bravely tracks down the mean, Rolleston makes a noble, preter- fiery cast, not all of whom are is the chief’s “stupid” son, Hongi, ugly, oversize warrior “monster” naturally calm everyboy intent on Maori, spit out their lines with played with soulful melancholy (Lawrence Makoare) and man- his coming-of-age quest, improv- Shakespearean passion. It also by James Rolleston. To the wail- ages to enlist him in his vendetta. ing in fighting skill and gaining in introduces a new martial art form ing women who mourn their men, They have more in common than maturity scene by scene, until his to the screen, armed fighting with he declares his intention to kill first meets the eye, and together final showdown with Wirepa. deadly paddles, in fight scenes Wirepa. Even his dead grand- they hunt Wirepa and his war- staged in breathtaking acrobat- mother laughs at him from the riors for the rest of the film. Global Vision ics. The high level of testosterone afterlife: He’s only 15 and notori- Fraser shows great confi- Cast James Rolleston, Lawrence unleashed in these combat ously unskilled in arms. But he dence on the directing side. Makoare, Te Kohe Tuhaka sequences points to a young male announces he will seek the help He may embellish Maori tra- Director Toa Fraser audience, but the visuals and the of the monster who lives in the ditions and make his caped, 108 minutes

about any TV sitcom today. The guys’ apart- Nasty Boy ment is one of those quasi-bohemian places Kristen Wiig plays a woman trying to have a baby with a gay couple in director where people are always coming and going, hanging out and playing music. Then there Sebastian Silva’s provocative drama by todd mccarthy are the colorful local characters, notably HAT SEEMS DESTINED AT THE directing two mostly English-language movies de facto neighborhood street monitor Richard outset to be a stultifyingly politi- with Michael Cera in Chile, Magic Magic and (the always welcome and wonderful Mark Wcally correct indie about a gay male Crystal Fairy. The filmmaker co-stars here as Margolis) and, problematically, an unpleas- Brooklyn couple — Latino and black — trying Freddy, a video installation artist who’s soon ant older man who calls himself The Bishop to have a baby with a single white woman informed that he should give up trying to help (Reg E. Cathey), yells at people, is always turns into a startling drama of extreme moral impregnate close friend Polly (Wiig) because angry and personally annoys Freddy by using ambiguity in Nasty Baby. Anyone who’s seen his sperm count is too low. He therefore pro- a loud leaf blower every morning at 7 a.m. the previous work of Chilean expat writer-di- poses that his partner, Mo (Tunde Adebimpe, But, morally speaking, the film has much rector Sebastian Silva knows that he’s going frontman for Brooklyn-based band TV on bigger fish to fry. The story in its final stretch to closely examine what’s on the underside of the Radio), take over, a suggestion that is met takes a very nasty left turn down a dark and the rock, not just on top of it, although here he with a pronounced lack of enthusiasm. perilous road to a place none of the characters waits to turn it over until very late in the game. So far, this could be an episode on just ever has visited before. Silva sticks it to a com- Pleasantly involving and sometimes annoying fortable, complacent and presumably morally throughout most of its running time, this is market liberal audience with his finale and twists the also a vibrant, thoughtful piece about modern title knife, to thought-provoking ends. If the movie life in a very particular gentrified neighbor- at the beginning is explicitly about life and hood. A small film shot in a rough-and-ready creating it, at the end it’s also about just as handheld style, it can benefit from co-star consciously taking it away. Kristen Wiig’s name to achieve a bit of initial exposure but generally will remain limited to Sales Versatile niche theatrical situations. Cast Sebastian Silva, Tunde Adebimpe, Nasty Baby is the first feature Silva has Kristen Wiig made since moving to the United States after Adebimpe (left) and Wiig contemplate parenthood. Writer-Director Sebastian Silva // 101 minutes

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 16

D1_HK_REV2_lB.indd 16 3/22/15 2:29 PM VIETNAM MEDIA CORP 1D-B26/28 Tel: +852 6284 1768

A CRIME/DRAMA FILM BY NGUYEN PHAN QUANG BINH BASED ON “QUYEN”, BEST SELLING NOVEL BY NGUYEN VAN THO

MAY 2015 BHD

MARKET SCREENING 3 KITES AWARDS MARKET SCREENING (for Movie, Actor and Young Actor Of The Year) InternationalInternational PremierPremier International Premier 3 BLUE STARS AWARDS 10:0010:00 am,am, Mon,Mon, 2323rd MarchMarch rd (for Movie, Actor and Young Actor Of The Year) 7:00 pm, Mon, 23 March 1 HONOR AWARD BY at N101AN101A (HKCEC(HKCEC MeetingMeeting Room)Room) at HK Arts Center LGBT community for Movie Of The Year

BHD

Vietnam Group D1 032315.indd 1 3/20/15 11:08 AM REVIEWS

Giaever hangs loose on a solo Early Spring, Kyoto hike in the hills. An impressive low bow to the traditions of Japanese cinema by deborah young

S DELICATE AS A FILM BY around, like an old man (Shyoji Ozu, who is clearly writ- Yamada) who roams the streets Aer-director Hiroshi Toda’s joyfully feeding cats and gulls, inspiration, Early Spring, Kyoto who claims not to remember his (Kyoto, Sosyum) is a parable-like age. One could take him for the ghost story that wouldn’t scare Buddha himself. He sets the stage a fly. Almost a variation on the for Kenichi’s close encounter idiosyncratic Japanese director’s with the dead in the long final 2013 Summer, Kyoto, this tale sequence when he drives to a of nostalgic spirits shows them remote cemetery in a dark forest hanging on to the living, much as to inter his wife’s ashes in the the living hang on to them, until family tomb. There he meets his in the end everyone goes their still beautiful childhood playmate own way the wiser for it. This Mitsuko, who looks remarkably reflection on death and old age like his dead wife. Desperately should make some more inroads lonely, she lives with her bedrid- for Toda (Night of Fish, Seventh den mother who is 105. How old, Out of Nature Cat) on the festival circuit and then, is Mitsuko? An office worker’s nature hike is a trip within himself could well entertain the older As in Summer, Kyoto, Hayashi is in this excellent look at middle-aged ambivalence art house crowd. extremely dignified without being by john defore The soul of the film is old- predictable as the old house- timer Kenichi (Yoichi Hayashi), holder whose life is changed by N EFFORTLESSLY PENETRATING SELF-PORTRAIT OF a recent widower who still feels a strange encounter. Playing the the artist as a doubt-plagued middle-aged man, Ole his late wife’s presence keenly. wide-eyed fellow who stares at the A Giaever’s Out of Nature plunges into the stream of con- While he does the ironing in his world in wonder, Yamada prac- sciousness of a narrator whose oppressive internal monologue one-room apartment, her ghost tically carries over his mystery will be recognizable to many viewers who don’t even share his (Harumi Arai) hovers behind him character from Summer, Kyoto. specific concerns. Exploring these incessant thoughts against the with a loving smile. His daugh- Toda rarely makes a misstep backdrop of a solo weekend hike through Norwegian hills, the ter occasionally helps out in his in this impressive homage to the film captures the reality of many a day trip that’s meant to clear small cafe, where he is learning traditions of classic Japanese the head but instead packs it more densely. Funny enough to to fix sandwiches alone. All this is cinema. Guillaumo Tauveron and entertain but serious at heart, the picture has plenty of art house closely observed. Toda’s black-and-white camera- potential beyond the fest circuit. All signs point to a lovely work skillfully incorporates some In the lead of this nearly one-man show, Giaever plays Martin, personality in this warm, mas- slow motion and jump cuts to whose office job affords him plenty of time to stare out the win- culine figure who likes to have Zenlike effect. The low camera dow and imagine the monotonous personal lives of strangers. He his fortune told and is delighted and fixed frame use this restful agrees to meet co-workers for drinks on a Friday afternoon despite when it reads “excellent.” A black-and-white palette until knowing he’s headed off for a hike; later he will fret over his phone, potentially threatening scuffle the final shots burst into color wondering how his “I’m not coming” text should be worded in with two punks unexpectedly as though heralding springtime. order to generate the least curiosity about his changed plan. turns to humor when Kenichi Mica Toda’s plaintive melodies The fantasies we hear Martin mull in voiceover as he tromps turns out not to be the helpless provide a subtle accompaniment through the countryside — of divorce, of his wife’s death, of an old man they take him for. This to the protagonist’s inner journey. accident that would paralyze him — are simply the work of a has been ably foreshadowed in a brain that still believes life might become more interesting than it brief scene in which he practices Sales Backstage Studio Co. currently is. Martin follows tangents these fantasized events sug- some gentle martial art by the Cast Yoichi Hayashi, Harumi gest: Absolved of the responsibility to care for himself if he were riverside, so it doesn’t just come Arai, Shyoji Yamada paralyzed, he’d become grotesquely obese; then he could travel out of the blue. Writer-director Hiroshi Toda the world in a freak show, supporting his family with his earnings. There are life’s mysteries all 90 minutes And then he stops for some self pleasure behind a tree. (Here and elsewhere, Giaever is not shy about the bottom half of his body.) market Eventually the film puts some of Martin’s escape fantasies to the title test, interrupting his solitude in a rustic cabin. Like some of his guilty fantasies, the encounter is fraught with quiet excitement, photographed and edited with exquisite intimacy. But Martin will probably be the same man tomorrow that he is today.

Global Vision Cast Ole Giaever, Marte Magnusdotter Solem, Siver Giaever Solem,

Hayashi (left) still Rebekka Nystadbakk, Ellen Birgitte Winther feels the ghostly Writer-director Ole Giaever presence of Arai. 80 minutes

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 18

D1_HK_REV2_lB.indd 18 3/22/15 2:29 PM In a city of seven million, a chance encounter gets a second chance.

RED SEA MEDIA, INC. Filmart booth 1C-B26 +1.323.632.6850 [email protected]

Its Already Tomorrow D1 032315.indd 1 3/17/15 12:27 PM REVIEWS

The Forbidden Room Guy Maddin’s latest nosedive into the nether realms of cinematic esoterica is a wild, demented feast by todd mccarthy

UY MADDIN GOES THROUGH THE has worked for him in various capacities since looking glass, down the rabbit hole, 2009, found the inspiration for his eccentric G into the twilight zone, beyond the style. He uses dialogue but encourages florid great divide or maybe just deep into the nooks silent-style gesticulating, as well as exposition and crannies of his own two-strip Technicolor via title cards, agitated cutting and any other imagination in The Forbidden Room. Anyone techniques the silent masters stumbled onto. experiencing Maddin for the first time with Russian montage, expressionistic German- this nosedive into the nether realms of cine- style sets and accelerated musical tracks are, matic esoterica might go as stark raving mad more often than not, brilliantly used in the as some of the characters who traipse through service of telling melodramatic stories that the fragmentary playlets the director has are familiar and campy; sometimes they are devised. But those familiar with his methods delightful, even stirring, and at other times will smile and swoon at his fetishistic re-cre- they fall flat with silliness. ations of storytelling modes of yore, even if, at The setup for Forbidden Room is as more than two hours, it begins to feel like too unexpected as a surfing exhibition in much of a good thing. Winnipeg: The poet John Ashbery, courtesy The overriding obsession that has deter- of Maddin regular Louis Negin, holds forth mined Maddin’s style throughout his career in mock instructional film “How to Take a is the transitional period between silent and Bath.” The action then moves to a submarine Sequences play out like fever dreams in the sound pictures, that being the late 1920s. with a dwindling air supply in which the cap- latest from Maddin. Silent cinema reached the zenith of its cre- tain proposes that the crewmembers sustain ative power at the end of its existence, but in themselves by sucking the oxygen parachuting onto an erupting volcanic island, the in-between period, primitive sound and out of pancakes. a squid thief, a doctor imprisoned by women sophisticated silent technique awkwardly Sequences play like shorts and the film in skeleton outfits, Udo Kier getting a lobot- co-existed, so that you might find talking moves between them willy-nilly, connected omy to cure his butt-pinching habit and a sequences and old-fashioned title cards only tangentially by the fractured mem- typical silent film blind mother. within the same film. ory of Margot (newcomer Clara Furey), an With no through-story to hold it together, It’s in this little-regarded pocket of film his- alluring young amnesiac rescued from a clan the film does become repetitive; it’s hard to tory that Maddin, who shares director credit of cavemen by a woodsman (Roy Dupuis). remain stimulated by the same techniques, with Evan Johnson, a young collaborator who Out of nowhere come passages featuring however imaginative, without some connective

story forward. But the simple interpretation. As time ticks by, End of Winter observations and little details the initial branding of Mom as An astute, if somewhat cold, family drama takes of Korean social and familial a typically demanding ajumma, an understated approach in portraying discontent protocols make up for a lack of Hye-jeong as a spineless pushover action and play a significant part and Su-hyeong as the entitled by elizabeth kerr in the story. Kim’s eldest son, baby are swept aside. Time also RINGING NEW MEANING Dong-wook (Kim Min-hyeuk), brings deeply buried frustrations, to “awkward family is in pharmaceutical sales, and anger and blame to the surface in B photos,” Kim Dae-hwan’s things may not be going that well everyone, leaving us to wonder if debut is an assured, if occa- for him. His wife, Hye-jeong (Lee Seong-geun hasn’t committed a sionally labored, exercise in Sang-hee), spends most of her selfless act whose consequences uncomfortable family dynamics time going overboard trying to will be positive in the long run. rooted in the simmering resent- please her hypercritical mother- End of Winter is astute, ment and repressed rage that in-law. Su-hyeong (Hur Jae-won), but it’s also dispassionate in Lee Young-lan only families can engender. (left) and her the youngest, is distanced both its observations. The cast is Unfolding over two snowy nights daughter-in-law by years and mentality from uniformly strong and the film Lee Sang-hee in a small Korean town, End of feel the tension. his family and can’t grasp the is technically polished, with Winter suffers from too much so-called shame of the situation. Kim and cinematographer wasted space and misunderstand- in provincial Cheorwon, Kim And Seong-geun’s wife lords Kim Bo-ran’s suffocating steel ing of when long is too long, but Seong-geun (Moon Chang-kil) over them all, alternating gray palette adding to the ultimately overcomes those minor announces he plans on getting a between spitting snob and overall reflective tone without flaws to deliver a keenly observed divorce. Why is a mystery to his put-upon matriarch. overwhelming it. portrait of a family living in a family, particularly his nagging, Through it all, Seong-geun communication vacuum and how oblivious wife (Lee Young-lan). himself says next to nothing, and Indie Power that leads directly to an irrevers- Nothing really happens in End his motivations are never fully Cast Moon Chang-kil, Lee Young- ible tipping point. of Winter; there’s no shocking explored. His baffling decision lan, Kim Min-hyeuk Following his retirement revelation or long-held grudge inspires confusion but never Director Kim Dae-hwan ceremony from teaching school that emerges to drive the discussion, leaving room for 102 minutes

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 20

D1_HK_REV3_lA.indd 20 3/22/15 2:19 PM director q&a Guy Maddin Canada’s king of quirk on still learning to make movies, those walkouts in Sundance and using color to ‘break people’s brains’ by etan vlessing The Forbidden Room has been described as I’m not ashamed of walkouts. It’s probably the another homage to films of the silent era, to lost melodramatic acting style and that the world isn’t cinema. How would you describe the work? realistic-looking. Even superhero movies seem to I don’t think it’s the same old thing. I think people be more grounded in a less theatrical, less artificial coming to this movie, if they were familiar with world than mine. So I long ago braced myself for my earlier work, might suspect this is something walkouts. And the walkout rate was about 10 by me. But I’m still learning how to put together to 15 percent at the [Sundance] screenings. The pictures the way I want to see them. There’s writer who started this [walkout] story wasn’t at some interesting developments, ones everyone the screening. She just heard me joking about the is used to. It’s in color, and there’s lots of dialogue. walkouts and decided to add the ratio as half. I I wanted to throw the kitchen sink at viewers don’t want to shut people out. I just want to tell a with this one. story, and I felt that those people who stayed had no problem following the film. Wouldn’t tossing a skillet have been enough? No, I wanted to overwhelm. I wanted there to be Was the opposition a result of the Sundance too much narrative. It’s not for me to say what festival itself and the type of movies it tends the movie is about. One of the things it seems to to screen? dramatic tissue. Still, for cinephiles and supply is a lot of narrative and a lot to keep track I kept being told by people who wanted to make aficionados of the singular, Forbidden Room of. There’s stories within stories within stories, me feel better that it’s not a typical Sundance film. represents a very particular kind of feast. Russian doll-style. I just wanted there to be too Which is just fine that it’s not a typical Sundance much. I wanted to give people their money’s worth. film. There’s too much subversion of film vocabu- Auteurs I wanted the color palette to break people’s brains. lary going on. And a lot of people didn’t get that. Cast Louis Negin, Charlotte Rampling, I don’t know. Maybe there will be an 80 percent Roy Dupuis There were reports that half of the audience walkout in Berlin. I’m not going to complain about Directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson walked out of your Sundance world premiere for the [Sundance] festival. I like Sundance. Everyone 132 minutes Forbidden Room. Did that alarm you? was wonderful there.

from its fuzzy-headed, free- him by robbing a bank. The heist wheeling first act. But it repays goes smoothly, but the after- our patience when it shifts gears math is a crescendo of mistakes from talk-heavy Eurodrama to and disasters. heart-racing, adrenaline-pumped Costa gives a committed heist thriller. With one foot in the performance, sacrificing some indie margins and another in the of her pixie-ish fashion-model multiple x mainstream, commer- beauty to sweaty, spittle-flecked cial prospects could be healthy. realism. An emerging force in From left: Costa, Victoria dances among the German cinema and television, Lau and Rogowski get up to no good. strobe-blasted bodies of a techno 25-year-old Lau is no pinup but club in Berlin. With dawn he radiates a cocksure charisma approaching, she leaves for work reminiscent of a young Brando. Victoria at a cafe, but runs into Sonne Victoria is not the first movie Sebastian Schipper’s competition entry is an audacious heist (Frederick Lau) and his pals with a single-shot conceit, but thriller shot in real time in a single take on the streets of Berlin Boxer (Franz Rogowski), Blinker many previous examples have (Burak Yigit) and Fuss (Max used visual sleight of hand, by stephen dalton Mauff). Falling into flirtatious from Rope to Birdman. Even if ILMED IN A SINGLE of her depth. Barely an hour conversation, Victoria joins the Schipper’s thriller essentially is mobile shot lasting more after meeting on the street, a boys to drink and smoke weed. one long technical stunt, it’s a F than two hours, director gang of criminals enlist Victoria Unfolding in real time, the bravura experiment and a kinetic, Sebastian Schipper’s competition to help them commit an armed conversation initially feels ran- frenetic roller-coaster ride. entry Victoria is a dazzling exper- bank robbery in a chaotic haze dom, but builds to a prearranged iment that largely pays off. Rising of booze and drugs. What could meeting with gangster Andi German Cinema Now Catalan star Laia Costa plays possibly go wrong? (Andre Hennicke), who makes an Cast Laia Costa, Frederick Lau, the eponymous heroine, a young Padding out a 12-page script offer they can’t refuse. Boxer owes Franz Rogowski Spanish exile looking for thrills in with improvised dialogue, Andi a favor from their shared Director Sebastian Schipper Berlin. She soon finds herself out Victoria takes a while to emerge time in jail, so now he must repay 140 minutes

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 21

D1_HK_REV3_lA.indd 21 3/22/15 2:19 PM REVIEWS

Coroy is set to be married but has a Tough Love guy on the side, just one of the many predicaments Cult ﬁlmmaker Rosa von Praunheim’s latest is a campy yet she faces. compelling docudrama about a victim of sexual abuse who later became a karate champ and pimp "# +(,-.$ /&$01%,

GERMAN PIMP WITH A penchant for violence. AA prostitute with a heart of gold. A demented mother. Lots of depressing sex scenes set in dreary working-class apartments. Ixcanul If these seem like the key Rumblings of talent distinguish this low-key ingredients of a Rainer Werner but promising debut about a teen girl’s transition to Fassbinder movie, they’re in fact part of a true story that inspired Koﬄer (left) plays the real-life Marquardt, whose womanhood in rural Guatemala "# $%&' #()$* troubled life is the subject of Tough Love. the latest docudrama from pro- OVERS OF LAVA!SPEWING GEOLOGICAL SPECTACLE li!c Berlin-based !lmmaker and up to become a !erce !ghter may be disappointed by Jayro Bustamante’s assured debut gay activist Rosa von Praunheim and street enforcer, eventually L Ixcanul, as from start to !nish the writer-director boldly (Rent Boys). Based on the harrow- setting up shop as a pimp in resists showing a full view of the eponymous peak. But nonvulca- ing life of Andreas Marquardt, a what he would call his personal nologists will !nd much to like about this sensitively handled tale victim of sexual abuse who grew “I Hate Women” campaign. Yet of a teenage girl’s halting progress to womanhood in a remote, into a karate champ, prosperous despite his outward loathing of dirt-poor village in western Guatemala. A solid example of low- hustler, federal prisoner and, the opposite sex, one woman pops key, well-observed, humanistically sympathetic ethnography, the eventually, martial-arts instruc- into his life with the possibility of French co-production likely will !nd plenty of festival bookings tor and author, the !lm jumps changing it: 16-year-old secretary over the coming months. between present-day interviews Marion (Luise Heyer), who soon Bustamante’s camera opens with and o"en lingers on the and kitschy $ashbacks shot in falls in love with Andy, only to face of his nonpro lead, Maria Mercedes Croy. Croy’s visage in black-and-white, revealing a man become one of his streetwalkers. repose has the impassivity of an African tribal mask — and even who overcame trauma through Much of the !lm’s midsection in states of emotional extremis, there’s always something intrigu- therapy and his own two !sts. depicts the push-and-pull between ingly guarded about this young woman as she !nds her place Tough Love should play well pimp and prostitute, and in that in a complicated world. with the !lmmaker’s local fan sense recalls Fassbinder’s Love Is Maria is the only child of Juana (Maria Telon) and Manuel base and cult followings abroad, Colder Than Death, especially with (Manuel Antun), the trio eking out a living working on a co#ee with continued gigs on the inter- its stark, colorless imagery (by plantation on the slopes of a rumbling, presumably dormant vol- national fest circuit. Nicolai Zorn and El! Mikesch) cano. Juana and Manuel’s priority is to get their daughter married Adapted by the director and and faux theatrical backdrops. o#, and they arrange an engagement with their overseer Ignacio writers Nico Woche and Jurgen Some of these scenes veer into (Justo Lorenzo). Maria seems to accept this development, but Leme from Marquardt’s 2006 camp, especially when Mom pops nevertheless sneaks o# for trysts with Pepe (Marvin Coroy). When autobiography, the !lm begins back into the picture, but stars she becomes pregnant, this spells trouble for all concerned. with its subject speaking can- Ko%er (Free Fall) and Heyer When the action relocates temporarily to a nearby city in the didly about his past, before (Jack) o#er convincing, intensely !nal third, the sudden appearance of modern technology is jarring jumping into dramatized re-cre- physical performances, playing — and the extent of the family’s deprivation becomes apparent. ations where young Andreas, two self-punishing people !nding With no running water, no reliable electricity, unable to read or a.k.a. Andy (Hanno Ko%er), is their way toward true love. write, speaking no Spanish — only the Mayan language Kaqchikel raised by a single mother (Katy If the last act is less visceral as — they are easy prey for exploitative employers and rely heavily on Karrenbauer) a"er his abusive it follows Andy’s quest for psycho- superstition to help them through problems minor and major. father is kicked out of the house. logical aid, Tough Love works as a Most pressing of these is an infestation of snakes that menaces But rather than !nding solace portrait of a man who was able to the livestock on the family farm, location of one of those unsimu- in the arms of Mutter, Andy lands channel his rage into a lucrative, lated animal-slaughter sequences that apparently is de rigueur for between the legs of a perverted if highly questionable, existence. all low-budget rural pictures from Latin America these days. Mommie Dearest who forces him It’s obviously not easy for sexu- Bustamante’s visuals have a consistent, entrancingly classy into an incestuous relationship — ally abused kids to surpass their depth and sheen thanks to the celluloid-like beauty of experi- one from which von Praunheim childhood su#ering, and in that enced DP Luis Armando Arteaga’s wide-screen cinematography. hardly shies away, capturing sex- sense, Marquardt — who now Further deepening the sensory appeal of Ixcanul, farm noises, ual acts from the boy’s POV as his runs karate schools for inner-city indigenous music and the volcano’s near-incessant rumblings are mom strips down for him, plays youths — can be seen as a hero, conjured into an impressive, organic soundscape by sound design- with his genitals or, in one rather and one who still kicks ass. ers Eduardo Caceres and Julien Cloquet. unbearable sequence, lubricates a dildo like she’s spreading icing on German Cinema Now Global Vision a tray of cupcakes. Cast Hanno Ko!er, Luise Heyer, Cast Maria Mercedes Croy, Maria Telon, Manuel Antun To say Andy had an unhappy Katy Karrenbauer Writer-director Jayro Bustamante childhood is more than an under- Director Rosa von Praunheim 91 minutes statement, and he soon grows 89 minutes

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 22

D1_HK_REV4_lA.indd 22 3/22/15 2:31 PM Phranakorn D1 032315.indd 1 3/19/15 10:31 AM

PROMOTION SEE & BE SEEN at the INTERNATIONAL CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

CANNES PREVIEW ISSUE 5/6 CLOSE: 4/29 • MATERIALS: 5/1

FESTIVAL AND MARKET DAILIES 5/135/20 THR.COM/CANNES LIVE MAY 2015

Untitled-95 1 3/20/15 11:01 AM

Untitled-96 1 3/20/15 11:12 AM

THR_FILMART_DAILIES_CANNES_HOUSE_AD.indd 2 3/18/15 12:13 PM 8 Decades of The Hollywood Reporter The most glamorous and memorable moments from a storied history

In 2004, Chang Served Up Rice Rhapsody A IWAN-BORN ACTRESS, director, producer, screenwriter and musician Sylvia Chang has had the sort of prolific four- decadeT movie career that James Franco would envy, appearing in nearly 100 films, including Ang Lee’s 1994 family drama Eat Drink Man Woman and 2004’s 20 30 40, which she wrote, directed and starred in. In 2004, she also starred in the Hong Kong indie Rice Rhapsody as a restaurateur who invites a female French exchange student (Inglourious Basterds’ Melanie Laurent) into her home because she fears her son might be gay. Her co-star, Martin Yan — best known as the host of public television’s Yan Can Cook — signed on with little acting experience, but Chang took him under her wing. Says Yan, 66, who played a competing restaurateur: “The first thing I said was, ‘I don’t really know how to act. I can only be myself.’ She said, ‘Well, that’s the best way to do [it].’ She was very comforting, very nurturing, very friendly and receptive.” She also was tenacious. “We were filming long hours with very little sleep,” says Yan. “At one point she actually fell [down a stairwell] from the third floor almost to the first, but the next day she performed and didn’t show any pain.” Now 61, Chang is married and has a son, Oscar. Her private life was thrust into the spotlight in 2000 when Oscar, then 9, was kidnapped and held for a $2 million ransom. Although he was returned unharmed and the kidnappers arrested, Chang later told CNN the incident made her weaker, “in the sense that you don’t trust this world as much as you used to trust it before.” Her latest directorial effort,Murmur of the Hearts, opens the Hong Kong Film Festival on March 23. She also will discuss her life and work during a “Face to Face” seminar April 5. — ELIZABETH ISENBERG

Yan and Chang promoted Rice Rhapsody in Hong Kong in 2005.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 24 LO SAI HUNG/AP PHOTO.

D1_HK_endpg.indd 24 3/22/15 11:48 AM PROMOTION

SEE & BE SEEN Daily, breaking news and reviews from the front lines at all major international ﬁ lm festivals & markets in print, online and social.

CANNES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL May 13-24, 2015

TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL September 10-20, 2015

AFM AMERICAN FILM MARKET November 4-11, 2015

SUNDANCE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL January 2016

THR_FILMART_DAILIES_HOUSE_AD_FESTIVAL_OVERVIEW.indd 1 Untitled-94 1 3/20/15 10:55 AM Universe Films D1 032315.indd 1 3/17/15 11:31 AM Kudos Films D1 032315.indd 1 3/16/15 5:34 PM