Aaaaaaaad, we’re back. These toys in my living room say “Hi”:

Clearly, my toy collection kicks ass

Anyway, the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival is now over. During that 17-day period I consumed 18 movies, 5 short films, 2 regular theatrical releases and plenty of bad food. Amazingly, I did not get sick, though I do recall nodding off during my screening of 881.

 
Hokkien musicals put this cat to sleep, too

This year’s movies at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival ranged from underwhelming to pretty damn good, with the overall quality tipping towards the “good” portion of the scale. As always, reviews of some (though not all) of the films will be forthcoming on LoveHKFilm.com. Since I’m actually managing to stick to my “800 words or less” mandate on the new reviews, I may be able to increase my output. The gun to my head also ensures that I follow the rules.

Anthony Wong disapproves of lengthy reviews

Here’s a list of films that I saw - not that the titles themselves necessarily mean anything to anyone. If there’s a review on LoveHKFilm.com, I’ve linked to it. If the review is well-written and fair, then it was written by either Kevin Ma or Sanjuro. If you wish for extra info on any of the films, please feel free to check out the official website. I helped with a couple of the catalog blurbs this year, so this notice also qualifies as minor self-promotion.

Movies I saw at the fest:

Miao Miao
True Women For Sale
Claustrophobia
Dada’s Dance
Some Like It Hot
Ticket
Parking
The Sky Crawlers
Tokyo!
Dream
881
12 Lotus
The Magic Hour
Cape No. 7
What on Earth Have I Done Wrong?!
Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit
After School
The Equation of Love & Death

Plus some Short Films:

Mr. Right
Family Viewing
Summer Afternoon
Young Blood
Mine

In between all the screenings, I saw two regular Hong Kong films, THE VAMPIRE WHO ADMIRES ME and WUSHU, both of which will see reviews on the site soon. WUSHU is supposed to be a Hong Kong film, but plays more like a China film, in that it uses China-centric actors, sets, locations, language, and probably undergarments. The line between HK and China cinema is so incredibly blurred nowadays that it is impossible for me to classify anything on this website, much less for LoveHKFilm.com’s yearly important-to-only-four-people LoveHKFilm Awards. I figure when we run them again this year, I’ll simply draw up a list and thumb my nose at any film that doesn’t make the cut.

I think this year, Donnie Yen should be up for a few awards. Besides his “acting” in EMPRESS AND THE WARRIORS and PAINTED SKIN, he could win something for his cool parenting skills:

Donnie Yen and his daughter were caught
off guard by Po, who proceeded to maul them indiscriminately

Looking forward, November brings the theatrical release of many of the fest’s featured titles. Hong Kong films will be rather sparse, though. Maybe we’ll finally see the release of Media Asia’s big gun, the Sammi Cheng-Eason Chan starrer LADY COP AND PAPA CROOK, but who knows if that’ll actually happen. The film looks like a pop thriller, and not like much of a comedy, but it’s directed by the duo of Alan Mak and Felix Chong, so anticipation is high.

Sammi + Eason should equal box office.
If not then Hong Kong Cinema really is in hell.

Also in November, we’ll be getting BALLISTIC, the Taiwan-set political thriller from director Lawrence Lau and CHAMPIONS, the Tsui Siu-Ming-directed action film starring Dicky Cheung. The trailer for CHAMPIONS looks action-heavy, and yet it also features the line of dialogue, “I must compete in the Olympic games!”, which is shouted by someone while they’re righteously shaking their fist. I predict laughs all around in the theater.

If you can name 2 people on this poster,
you deserve a prize

Finally, on the 27th, we’ll be getting THE BEAST STALKER, directed by Dante Lam of the lost-in-limbo Edison Chen film SNIPER. Nicholas Tse, Nick Cheung, and Zhang Jingchu star. I have seen neither a trailer nor heard any buzz, so I have no irresponsible, off-the-cuff comments to make.

Sorry, this photo is small

There’s probably another Hong Kong film or two heading our way in November, and if so I’ll try to mention it here. I will leave the monthly blog post with some photos taken at the fest. Please note that I was standing next to the person taking this photo, meaning I was only four feet from the subject in question:

“My spider-sense is tingling…like someone horrible
and absolutely evil is standing four feet from me…”

A suggestion was made that I actually attempt to “photo stalk”, meaning insert myself somewhere nearby in an attempt to go for an impromptu “Me and Ekin Cheng” photo opportunity. I declined, however, because my HKAFF Festival Pass was a privilege, and not an excuse to behave like some sort of annoying groupie.

Besides, if I had to photo stalk someone at the fest, it would be this person instead.

Who doesn’t love Karena Lam?
Not so sure about the dress, though

Also, if I had really found a way to take a photo wth Ekin Cheng, I probably would have discovered first-hand what a swell and wonderful human being he is, thereby causing waves of guilt for all the crap he receives on LoveHKFilm.com. Afterwards, I would probably be honor-bound to close down this site once and for all because of the disservice it does to Ekin and humanity in general.

By the way, next week is the 2008 Presidential Election, so please go out and vote next Tuesday. If you can’t vote, you can at least root for the candidate most suitable to lead the free world. You all know who that is:

Anpanman Prime says, “Bye”.

“Damn you, Megatron!”

This entry was posted on Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Toys, Donnie Yen, Film Festivals, Movie News, Ekin Cheng, Celebrity Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.