Archive for March, 2009

Il diario di Sabrina - One (Last) Shot

Published
by
fareastfilm
on 26 March 2009
in News FEFF and Sabrina's Journal
. 4 Comments

I said goodbye to Hong Kong after a day spent at Milkyway, Johnnie To’s factory, where I met all the young talent: from Law Wing-cheung to Soi Cheang to Yau Nai Hoi!  Mr. To raised a toast with grappa from Friuli (something he picked up in Udine) - he had “one shot” with everyone: the representatives from Toronto Film Festival, New York, Cannes, Montreal, the French journalist from Premiere, and finally me (I had to down the shot in one go!)

Then onto the set of the Pang Ho-cheung film - what a film he’s making!  A budget of $3m, a crew of around 70 people (all really young!) and 30 days of filming (unusual because Pang normal completes in two weeks…)  It’s going to be an extreme and daring film, with rivers of blood and a political message.  What a great guy!

Goodbye Hong Kong - now it’s your turn to come to us!  From 24th April…

Il diario di Sabrina - Tutti a Hong Kong, tutti a Udine!

Published
by
fareastfilm
on 25 March 2009
in News FEFF and Sabrina's Journal
. 7 Comments

What an incredible day!! All day, I’ve come across people who are dying to come to Udine!  What a wonderful thing - and all the people who work at FEFF should be proud of these reactions, both from the people who work in Asian cinemna, but also buyers from France, Belgium and Spain and American and English journalists.  Todd Brown from Twitch, to give you an example, is a big fan of FEFF!

Obviously, the French are in pole position for everything: they organize parties and have spectacular stands.  Not only that, but they are also involved in Hong Kong film production (for example, with Johnnie To) - compare that to us Italians, who only have one representative at Filmart in the form of Fandango, whom I had fun presenting to some Korean and Thai companies…  and who knows?  Maybe we will finally see a FEFF 11 film shown in Italian cinemas.  We seem like such amateurs!

Lunch with Cat from Emperor, when we discuss the trip of two Hong Kong action stars (to be announced soon!) to Udine.  I also met with Wong Jing’s daughter and who do I find at the stand?  Wong Jing in person!  This producer and icon of commercial Hong Kong cinema is working on two fronts at the moment: Category III films (as usual) and arthouse films - he produced The Way We Are and Night and Fog, both by Ann Hui, thus making him the perfect incarnation of the two sides of the cinema of Hong Kong - a very powerful businessman and artist who manages to balance (and treat in the same way) risqué films and auteur films.  Anyway, it was a key meeting for unblocking a situation surrounding two films that we have invited to Udine which has troubled us for a long time…  These people soften up when they meet you in person, even if, before, their only objective was money!

Then I make a round of the Hong Kong companies, and finally a meeting with the Tokyo-based company Nikkatsu…  I don’t want to put anything down here in case I jinx it, but I will tell you that Mueller has been a great friend and that his passion for Asian cinema is unique and absolutely authentic!

At the end of the day, meeting with the representative of Warner Brothers Hong Kong, who introduced me to one of Takeshi Kaneshiro’s agents in Taipei (we could never afford to invite him because he travels with an entourage of seven people, make-up artist, various managers… but you never know…)

Oliver Stone graced a party hosted by MediaAsia with his presence - yes, it really WAS him!  He kept to himself, but I worked up the courage to go and shake his hand, saying that we, like him, love Asian cinema, and if he were ever passing through Udine…  oh well, he dismissed this with a smile.

Dante Lam arrives, followed by Johnnie To towards the end of the evening.  Tomorrow, there is a preview of a film by one of the biggest names here (FEFF has contributed in spreading this name), and then I’m visiting the set of Pang Ho-cheung’s slasher.  Everything will disappear for me at midnight, just like in Cinderella, on a Cathay flight to Rome, but I hope that by then we will be taking away with us the loot for FEFF 11 and that we will be able to bring a little bit of this magic to the Teatrone!

Three cheers for Hong Kong!

Il diario di Sabrina - Lampi e tuoni

Published
by
fareastfilm
on 24 March 2009
in News FEFF and Sabrina's Journal
. 2 Comments

The day began with a furious thunderstorm with lots of thunder and lightning at seven in the morning and we start off with an official meeting we one of the most important Thai companies… We are working hard to bring some important guests to Udine for the Thai Action section (curated by the legendary Roger Garcia) to Udine. Tony Jaa won’t be able to make it because come April, he will probably be somewhere in a jungle - he’s already started preparations for Ong Bak 3…  Who knows if we’ll be able to show a clip of the third installment of most exciting martial art saga in the world?

I watched two upcoming Japanese blockbusters produced by Nippon TV: MW, which is about a weapon designed to destroy the human race, and Oppai Volleyball, an unusual film aimed at young people, is about a young female teacher who motivates her volleyball team, made up of teenage losers, by promising to show them her breasts!

Then I run to have a Cantonese lunch with Mueller and Tsui Hark’s wife, where the conversation is focused on the Asian Oscars (Japan swept the board with Kiyoshi Kurosawa winning Best Film and Best Screenplay with Tokyo Sonata, Kore-eda Best Director for Still Walking and Motoki Masahiro Best Actor with our Departures (he was lost for words on stage)

An incredible meeting with Ryoo Seung-wan.  His words: “I WANT TO COME TO UDINE!” and we all want it too! Ryoo, unforgettable in City of Violence (presented at Venice after FEFF 2006)…  we’ll have him with us!! Yes, he’s a wonderful person!!

And after that, many meetings with Thai and Korean distribution companies, and then a magical moment with Pang Ho-cheung! He takes us to a Vietnamese restaurant - the food is really strange… but who cares? Pang has the ability to enchant with one of his ghost stories (in which he believes implicitly) and shocking tidbits of sex and horror!!  He’s filming Dream Home, a slasher film which happens in a haunted building in Clear Water Bay (where Shaw Brothers is based!) - the cast includes Anthony Wong, Josie Ho, Derek Tsang (all FEFF friends).  The DP is none other than Yu Lik Wai, who shocked everyone with Plastic City in Venice… Pang is in jeans stained in fake blood, because he had just done a test of special effects on set.  Pang is a pure talent, capable of dazzling you using using words… and I was listening, stunned - there is a certain wonder in feeling the same terror that you felt as a child.

There was also talk of Kirk Wong and Yon Fan, who are - it’s true - PREPARING A FILM TOGETHER!!  Tomorrow is an important day in terms of confirming titles which we have been trying to acquire for months.  The struggle continues in the city that never sleeps…

Il diario di Sabrina - Mercato e Oscar (asiatici)

Published
by
fareastfilm
on 23 March 2009
in News FEFF and Sabrina's Journal
. 2 Comments

Just a quick one because the jet-lag is really getting to me, and I’m about to pass out.  Today was the first proper day of the market, and there were buyers of all nationalities with stands: Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Chinese, Filippino…  in other words, a real melting pot of far eastern cinema.  Everyone was trying to sell as much as possible, and so the first day of the market seemed absolutely frenetic to me, something that we rarely see in European, and even other Asian, markets, where the economic crisis is hitting hard.

Saw a brand new Hong Kong film, Coweb, which is a pale imitation of Chocolate - Jeeja already has imitators! Met with people from KOFIC, who run the Pusan and Puchon Festivals and also representatives from Unijapan…  The Thai and the Indonesians are crazy about Udine (I also met the legendary Riri Riza, who is the man of the moment in Jakarta’s red-hot film scene).  Then, off to the highly anticipated Oscar ceremony (the Asian one, obviously).

It has to be said that FEFF had excellent seats and therefore must be held in high esteem by those who organize the Asian Awards (first row!! Immediately behind all the VIP!)  It was a bit like being at the Sanremo Festival, with the dancing and singing and the procession of stars: Oliver Stone, John Woo, Chris Doyle (who threw the meticulous schedule into turmoil by putting on a little show on the stage), Koki Mitani, Dante Lam, Nick Cheung (who seemed really short when compared to Gigi Leung) and finally Kim Jee-woon…  in short, many FEFF friends.

After practically not eating for two days, I treated myself to dinner in a local haunt, one which was like those that we have seen thousands of times in films - packed with people yelling in Cantonese,the overwhelming smell of food lingers on your skin along with the tropical humidity, kept in check by the exasperating air-conditioning… well, typical local food - so good and such good value!!

Tomorrow morning, an early meeting with the Thai company Sahamongkol to talk about the future and discuss the midnight screenings in Venice. A very early meeting… so I’m off to bed now.

Il diario di Sabrina - primo giorno al Filmart

Published
by
fareastfilm
on 22 March 2009
in News FEFF and Sabrina's Journal
. 0 Comments

I arrive in Hong Kong, which is immersed in fog, which provides an unexpected spectacle as the tops of the skyscraper are covered in a blanket of grey.  My hotel window looks out onto Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, on Hong Kong Island.  I feel very far away from my “home”, Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon…  The Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre is the hub of cinematic life: Filmart, the film market, and the opening of the Hong Kong International Film Festival will take place there.

Meeting with a representative of the Korean company iHQ, which has some good things for next year.  Next, Ramy from Fame.  Ramy used to work at Golden Harvest; we met her ten years ago and she remembers perfectly the time we visited their office on the 20th floor of Peninsula Hotel in Kowloon…  There are people and familiar faces that have showed up time and again over the years.

Then, I went to the opening ceremony of HKIFF, which was also attended by government representatives in a hall where, in raised ring-shaped platform, there were photographers going wild with their cameras and cameramen and beautiful TV presenters who were chasing after the stars…  and there were many of them present: from Jackie Chan to Daniel Wu, Xu Jinglei to Fan Bing Bing.  Obviously, also Derek Yee, whom we have been trying to invite to Udine for years.  His film, Shinjuku Incident, is the opening film for HKIFF, which has even been sold for distribution in Italy - unbelievable!  No-one knows of his plans for the coming festival season, as we will not be seeing him at Udine, Berlin, Deauville or Cannes. All the actors, the director and the producer go on stage, and it is emphasized that, for the first time in this film, Jackie Chan will not be climbing up skyscrapers or jump from the 20th floor.  Even though this is not the usual Jackie film, it is still an action film, insists Derek.

I see Lau Ching-wan and Amy Kwok, friends of FEFF, coming out of the screening.  Ching-wan has just finished shooting Alan Mak and Felix Cheung’s thriller, Overheard.  Bey Logan walks past and there’s Wong Jing!  He is perhaps the most incredible director/producer/businessman that Udine has had the pleasure of hosting, and he is the producer of Ann Hui’s latest film Night and Fog (a hommage to Alan Resnais, says the director on stage).  Before the screening, Simon Yam, the leading man of Night and Fog comes up to me and says, “Until next time…”

Il diario di Sabrina - Partenza per il Filmart

Published
by
fareastfilm
on 22 March 2009
in Sabrina's Journal
. 1 Comment

Destination: Hong Kong, where Filmart (the most important film market in Asia, and the last stop for those who want to buy or sell films before Cannes) is taking place.

This year is especially important for us, as there are several films (whose titles I will not even utter under torture!) that I will watch with our consultants for the first time.  Some will be too good and too “important” for our festival, and these will probably be destined for Cannes.  Others, however, will be too light-hearted or will be genre movies not suited to the big festivals like Cannes, and these will be the ones we will try to acquire for FEFF. The struggle to obtain the the best films continues, and believe me, it is an uphill struggle.  I will be in Hong Kong for 5 days, and there will be time to meet with distributors and companies to follow up on all the agreements made so far. This big reunion will see people come from all over Asia - Japan, Thailand, China and Korea.

This time, I have decided to update the blog to let you know about my trip so as to let you all feel as though you were right here with me (with a little bit of imagination) in one of the most beautiful cities in the world: the city which is always in the heart of the fans of FEFF, where everything began 12 years ago!  This is a new mission which I hope will end well…  with your help!