A Simple Life wins HK Film Awards

Hong Kong has held its 31st Annual Film Awards. The big winner was "A Simple Life", a Hong Kong drama film. "A Simple Life" has been sweeping many international festivals since late last summer.

A Simple Life wins HK Film Awards.

It took home 4 awards including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. Best actor went to Andy Lau, his third time to win the award. Best Actress Deanie Yip has been undefeated in the category that she’s nominated for. Other winners include Best New Performer Jam Hsiao, Best Supporting Actor Lo Hoi Pang and Best Supporting Actress Ho Hang Shuen.

HK cinema has "renewal" issues, says HK film awards chairman Gordon Chan

HONG KONG: Veteran Hong Kong director Gordon Chan, the chairman of the Hong Kong Film Awards Association, which organises the prestigious Hong Kong Film Awards, said Sunday that Hong Kong cinema's greatest challenge is "renewal", reported Hong Kong media.

Speaking to the media hours before the 31st Hong Kong Film Awards on Sunday which is widely regarded as the Hong Kong film industry's Oscars, Chan, who has served as chairman for five years now, said there is "a gap between old talents and the new" in the industry today.

Chan pointed out that this year's Best Director nominees were all familiar faces at the awards, and so were the Best Actor nominees like Hong Kong actors Andy Lau, Lau Ching Wan as well as China's Jiang Wen, with few fresh faces to be seen.

He attributed this to film investors' aversion to risk and the lack of perseverance among younger filmmakers and artistes.

"This gap in the Hong Kong film industry is very obvious both in front of [the camera] and behind the scenes.

"The reason for this is that our generation of talents is very enduring. Older talents have market value. The bosses don't want to change their talents and grooming new ones is both risky and costly," said Chan, who had been directing films since the late 80s, and was responsible for hits like "Fight Back to School 2" along with "Painted Skin".

He added that today's talents "aren't as willing to put up with hardship like the previous generation", which serves to compound the problem.

Chan went on to caution that even as the Hong Kong film industry celebrates its achievements in the past year, there is a need to examine its problems.

"Whether it is the unique 'Let the Bullets Fly', fiercely Hong Kong-styled 'Life Without Principle' or the art film 'A Simple Life', these films all have a special flavour.

"But this past year's Mandarin films, save for those few, weren't very good," Chan commented.

"There was a complicated time in Hong Kong cinema when everyone just shot the types of films that made money."

"We need to find new types of films, new directions and break away from conventions for Hong Kong cinema to have a future."

Chinese 'Titanic' Fans Balk at Cuts to Rerelease

UPDATED: Government regulators edit out nude scenes, but the film is expected to surpass the 2D version’s box-office performance.

Chinese moviegoers turned up en masse for the debut of Titanic 3D on Tuesday, netting 20th Century Fox International $11.6 million, the second-highest opening-day take ever in the country.

James Cameron on the Re-release of 'Titanic' in 3D
The original Titanic earned $44 million in China in 1998, which stood as the highest gross for 10 years, until it was surpassed by Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in 2009, with $15.9 million.
The original romance disaster movie screened in just 180 theaters. The 3D version is currently showing on at least 2,400 3D screens and 66 IMAX screens, with correspondingly higher ticket prices. It is expected to surpass the 2D version’s former record this week.
But many Chinese James Cameron fans in the audience on opening night were dismayed to find that the Chinese release of Titanic 3D is not quite the film they remembered. The State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television has excised the film’s few, but memorable, nude scenes. Most noticeably, during the peak romantic moment when Kate Winslet as Rose poses nude for Leonardo DiCaprio to sketch her, Winslet is now cropped from the neck up.
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The same scenes were censored during the film’s original run in China in 1998, but many viewers first saw the film on pirated copies from the West, and thus are more familiar with the unedited version.
During opening night and the following day, Chinese micro-blogs were alight with simultaneous gripes about the censoring and nostalgic gushing over the film’s sweeping romantic drama.
"I've been waiting almost 15 years, and not for the 3D icebergs," said one widely cited micro blog commentator, according to Xinhua News Agency.
More worryingly SARFT’s move suggests that while Chinese cinema has been making remarkable strides in terms of infrastructure development, the industry’s regulatory regime has stood still, if not occasionally slipped backwards, in terms of freedom of expression.

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Adding to the Titanic frenzy, many prominent Western media outlets (including THR for a brief period) were momentarily duped by a satirical joke that swept through Chinese micro-blogs, attributing the following explanation for the cuts to a SARFT official: "Considering the vivid 3D effects, we fear that viewers may reach out their hands for a touch and thus interrupt other people's viewing. To avoid potential conflicts between viewers and out of consideration of building a harmonious ethical social environment, we've decided to cut off the nudity scenes."
In fact, SARFT has not released any official comment about the censorship.
Ironically, in Hong Kong, where the film is playing uncensored, it has performed markedly worse, opening third behind local rom-com Love in the Buff and the Julia Roberts starrer Mirror Mirror, pulling in just $670,000.
Some signs suggest that Titanic fever may soon take hold in Hong Kong too though. To mark the occasion of the 100-year anniversary of the disaster, a well known luxury restaurant in the city’s colonial themed Hullet House hotel will soon be serving select diners a special recreation of the last menu dished out on the luxury cruise ship before it went down, along with original wine recovered from the wreckage, according to the South China Morning Post.
"The idea is to recreate the ambience on the ship," Michelin-starred chef Philippe Orrico, who is re-envisioning the menu in Hong Kong, told the Post. "It's for people who want to be somewhere else."
During the occasion, the hotel’s waiters will be outfitted in period-appropriate uniforms and tables will feature dressings evoking the vessel’s original dining hall, along with bone china produced by the same manufacturer who supplied the Titanic in 1912.
For HK$15,000 (US$1,930) per head, the first diners on April 14 can enjoy their ten-course dinner with a glass of Heidsieck Monopole Gout American vintage 1907, pulled from the sea in 1998 and reportedly purchased by Hullett House for $11,000.

In Old Age the Servant Bercomes the Served

In an efficient, mostly wordless sequence near the beginning of her quietly affecting film “A Simple Life,” the director Ann Hui shows the rhythms of shared routine and intimacy that bind the lead characters. Ah Tao (Deanie Ip) has fixed Roger Leung (Andy Lau) an elaborate meal that seems to be his ordinary fare. As she shuffles around serving, Roger eats with a kind of distracted concentration. There are no thank yous or compliments, just a request for ox tongue soon.

These two aren’t married or lovers, but servant and master. Ah Tao, orphaned as a child, has been with the Leung family for 60 years, since long before Roger was born. Now he is the last of his family in Hong Kong — the others have decamped to San Francisco — and Ah Tao works for him alone, sharing his compact apartment.

Just as soon as Ms. Hui establishes their relationship, she changes its terms. Ah Tao has a stroke and announces she’s retiring. What’s more, she says, she wants to live in an old people’s home. In scenes with an almost documentary flavor, Roger finds her one. We learn about this growth industry in Hong Kong, about the price of a single room versus a shared one and about the various charges for an escort outside the home. (South Asian immigrants are the cheapest.)

Once Ah Tao has moved, the old-age home becomes the film’s center. Roger visits Ah Tao there regularly. He takes her to restaurants and looks out for her as she always has for him.

That’s more or less the story of “A Simple Life,” which in its understated, slightly melancholy way considers the varieties of affection and love. Roger, who works in the film business, may seem callous and self-involved at first. But Ms. Hui lets his decency be revealed and grow. Mr. Lau, whose features increasingly look cut from stone, gives the character an implacable solemnity. People comment on Roger’s kindness or assume he must be Ah Tao’s godson or nephew, an impression he doesn’t correct.

The bond they have doesn’t keep Roger and Ah Tao from seeming alone in the busy city; neither is married or has family around. Ah Tao finds a tentative social life in the home, a place that Ms. Hui doesn’t sentimentalize or make into a cautionary tale. There too she emphasizes the distance between people. The occasional overhead shot shows a busy warren of atomized spaces, with a sense of each keeping to each.

The film’s bleached-out palette, with its muted colors — and the sometimes harsher fluorescent light of the home — heightens the atmosphere of loneliness. Ms. Hui often shoots Mr. Lau by himself in the frame, alone in his apartment or the sole person in a row of empty airport seats. A successful man, Roger runs into acquaintances everywhere. Still, he, like Ah Tao, remains essentially self-contained.

Mr. Lau (“Infernal Affairs,” “House of Flying Daggers,” Ms. Hui’s “Boat People”), wears Roger’s gravity lightly, as Ms. Ip does Ah Tao’s wariness. They’re both guarded but not impenetrable. Ms. Hui, a rare successful female director in the Hong Kong film industry, drew her story from real events, and the movie retains a tonic flavor of the everyday: its drama unfolds simply, without explosive moments but not without emotion. She and her two excellent leads keep the film buoyant.

A Simple Life

Opens on Friday in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver.

Directed by Ann Hui; written by Susan Chan and Roger Lee; director of photography, Yu Lik Wai; edited by Eric Kong Chi Leung and Manda Wai; music by Law Wing Fai; production design by Albert Poon; costumes by Boey Wong; produced by Chan Pui Wah, Mr. Lee and Ms. Hui; released by China Lion Film Distribution. In Manhattan at the AMC Empire 25, 234 West 42nd Street, at Eighth Avenue. In Cantonese, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 59 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Andy Lau (Roger), Deanie Ip (Ah Tao), Qin Hailu (Nurse Choi), Wang Fuli (Roger’s Mother), Eman Lam (Carmen), Anthony Wong (Elderly Home Boss), Hui Bik Kee (Aunt Kam), Chin Pei (Uncle Kin), Hui So Ying (Mui Gu), Wu Wing Chong (Mui’s Mother), Elena Kong (Aunt Kam’s Daughter) and Jason Chan (Jason).

'Buff' Tops Easter Weekend in Hong Kong

Local favorite "Buf"' draws in audience against 'Mirror, Mirror', 'Titanic 3D' and 'The Hunger Games'

HONG KONG – Local crowd pleaser Love in the Buff continues to steam ahead during Easter in Hong Kong, topping the box office chart through the four-day public holidays from April 6 through 9, besting Mirror, Mirror, distributed by Intercontinental Films, and Fox’s Titanic 3D, both released just before the break.
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'Love in the Buff' Triumphs Over 'Hunger Games' in Hong Kong
The Pang Ho-cheung directed comedy from Media Asia took HK$6.6 million during the four-day weekend, adding up to a total of HK$22.4 million since its March 29 release.
The Julia Roberts fairy tale update Mirror, Mirror came in second with HK$3.95 million, while James Cameron’s 3D version of his 1997 megahit came neck to neck with HK$3.87 million, according to the Hong Kong Motion Picture Industry Association.
U.S. March blockbuster Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, which opened the same week as Love in the Buff, took HK$2.7 million, just a few dollars more than The Hunger Games.  The worldwide box office mammoth and cultural phenomenon, which opened on March 22, has accumulated a HK$17 million gross.
The total box office take during the four-day Easter holiday in 2012 marked a 10.6 percent rise from the same period in 2011, from HK$24.2 million to HK$26.7 million.  The 2011 Easter holiday box office was dominated by the erotica-in-stereoscopic 3D, Sex and Zen 3D, which went on to take a total of HK$41 million during its four-month run. The film’s success was partly attributed to the enthusiastic support from tourists from China, where the film was not released.

Is 3D the next step for disaster movies?

The disaster film genre was originally thought to be left behind in the dust of the 70’s with The Poseidon Adventure and Earthquake.



However, the genre has lived on, albeit in a different form, with Roland Emmerich (ID4, 2012) the current master of disaster. 

We also recently discussed an upcoming disaster flick called Skyscraper, which will star Paul Walker, and should be a throwback to The Towering Inferno.

Although Earthquake pioneered the gimmick of Sensurround, which was sort of a precursor to THX, there hasn’t really been one in 3D.

This is going to change very soon, because a 3D earthquake film is already in the work, and now the Hollywood Reporter tells us about a movie called Inferno in Hong Kong, which is being made by the country’s own "genre specialists" Oxide and Danny Pang, who are twin brothers, and who also gave us Bangkok Dangerous.

The Reporter also tells us the filmmaking duo are the first in Hong Kong who’ve worked in 3D. Danny was also the editor on Infernal Affairs, which got remade in America as The Departed.

As you can tell by the title, this is a movie about a big blaze, and the heroic firefighters trying to stop it. Even if it’s CGI flames, a fire flick in 3D could be enormous fun, and in Hong Kong they’ll be able to pull it off for a mere pittance, an $18 million dollar budget. Let’s see an American studio do that.

3D is also apparently taking off in mainland China, and it should be interesting to see what develops from here. A disaster film in 3D is a good idea, a chop socky film in 3D could also be enormous fun. 

In fact, The Reporter mentions a recent 3D martial arts film, The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, and the title alone, which to me reminds me of Master of the Flying Guillotine or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is cool. Actually, both Flying Guillotine or Crouching Tiger in 3D would be pretty wild, and how about an Enter the Dragon 3D conversion too while we’re at it?

China's booming movie industry is attracting interest from Hollywood heavyweights

Films with Asian and especially Chinese themes are becoming more prominent after Hollywood hit a 16-year low in movie tickets sales last year, while some of its biggest studios are setting up shop in the country.

DreamWorks Animation is setting up a China base while Legendary, the studio behind Christopher Nolan's wildly successful Batman series as well as Clash of the Titans and The Hangover franchises, is also developing a venture.

Keanu Reeves is making his directorial debut with Man of Tai Chi which is currently filming in China and Hong Kong, while Aamir Khan's Bollywood comedy drama 3 Idiots is in talks for a Hollywood remake.

"It's a hugely interesting time now," said executive producer Tracey Trench, whose projects have included Just Married and Ever After.

"The United States is still the biggest market. Within the next 10 years, we are not going to be the biggest market place, everything is going to change," she told a forum at the Hong Kong International Film and Television Market (FILMART) in March.

China's rapidly expanding film industry continues to break new ground and set new records, collecting an estimated 13 billion yuan ($2 billion) in 2011 -- up by around 30 percent on-year.

Around 2,500 more cinema screens are expected to be unveiled across the country this year, with its market now the third largest behind Japan and the United States.

This compares with a clear slowdown in North America.

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) says box office takings from 2007 to 2011 in the United States and Canada grew only 6.3 percent to $10.2 billion, while the Asia-Pacific region saw 38-percent growth to $9 billion.

Zhang Yimou's The Flowers of War was China's biggest box office smash of the past 12 months, starring Oscar-winning American actor Christian Bale.

It collected around $90 million from the Chinese box office while picking up a nomination for best foreign language film at the prestigious Golden Globes in the United States.

It comes as Hollywood looks to increasingly give a Chinese angle to its output.

"There are so many stories that you can tell and right now China is hot, so many people want to know more," said screenwriter Glenn Berger, who wrote the popular 2008 animated Hollywood comedy Kung Fu Panda and its 2011 sequel.

A box-office hit in China, the film told the story of Po, an oversize and unfit panda who dreams of becoming a martial arts hero. But Berger said the movie was never really about China or kung fu.

"We were just trying to tell a classic underdog story, not particularly a Chinese story," he said of the film.

"But it was very well received in the Chinese market because they thought it was very respectful of Chinese culture," he said.

Kung Fu Panda raked in an estimated $630 million, with $26 million from the Chinese mainland alone.

Hong Kong's FILMART exhibition is Asia's major entertainment industry market and one of the top three events of its kind in the world.

This year it attracted a record 648 exhibitors and more than 5,700 buyers, up 14 percent from last year. The US pavilion had over 40 US exhibitors, or about 25 percent more than last year.

Industry veterans say Chinese audiences are particularly drawn to movies that include Chinese references or elements of Chinese culture.

"People want to feel connected," said Chinese American writer Rita Hsiao, who wrote the screenplay for Toy Story 2 and 1998 animated musical Mulan, a story about a legendary Chinese girl-warrior.

"If you have that universal message and it's interesting, everybody everywhere can connect with it," she said.

One of the main obstacles for foreign filmmakers wanting to crack the Chinese market is a law limiting the number of international films that can be screened in the country to just 20 a year.

It forces studios to co-produce films with Chinese partners or risk having their films blocked at the border.

But all the pandas in the world won't guarantee a hit in China.

"It has to succeed on all the fundamentals of a movie, not just because it is shot in China," Berger said.