Asian Film Festivals and Awards

[GeneChing]

Afa

Go Jeeja! Go Deepika!

The Good, The Bad, The Weird tops nominations for Asian Film Awards
Jean Noh in Seoul 21 Jan 2009 17:46

The Good, The Bad, The Weird - Kim Jee-woon’s rollicking Oriental Western, took eight nominations in total, including those for best film, director, and cinematographer. Song Kang-ho picked up a nod for best actor, while Jung Woo-sung and Lee Byung-hun both got nominated in the best supporting actor category.

Other nominees in the best film category are Chen Kaige’s Mei Lanfang biopic Forever Enthralled, Hayao Miyazaki’s animation Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea, Riri Riza’s school drama The Rainbow Troops, John Woo’s historical action film Red Cliff, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s family drama Tokyo Sonata.

Choosing the winners from the nominations will be a 13-person jury presided over by actress Michelle Yeoh. Other jury members include Christian Jeune from the Cannes film festival; Kenji Ishizaka from the Tokyo film festival; Christophe Terhechte from the Berlinale; Noah Cowan from the Toronto film festival; and Park Ki-yong, filmmaker and head of the Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA).

The awards presentation ceremony will be held March 23 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, as the Opening Gala of the Entertainment Expo Hong Kong.

The 33rd Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) and the 7th Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) also start March 23.

Full list of Asian Film Awards nominations

Best Film
Forever Enthralled (Mainland China)
The Good, The Bad , The Weird (South Korea)
Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea (Japan)
The Rainbow Troops (Indonesia)
Red Cliff (Mainland China)
Tokyo Sonata (Japan / The Netherlands / Hong Kong)

Best Director
Feng Xiao-gang - If You Are The One (Mainland China)
Kim Jee-woon - The Good, The Bad, The Weird (South Korea)
Koreeda Hirokazu - Still Walking (Japan)
Brillante Mendoza – Service (The Philippines)
Miyazaki Hayao / Frank Marshall - Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea (Japan)
John Woo - Red Cliff (Mainland China)

Best Actor
Ge You - If You Are The One (Chinese)
Ha Jung-woo - The Chaser (South Korea)
Akshay Kumar - Singh Is Kinng (India)
Matsuyama Kenichi - Detroit Metal City (Japan)
Motoki Masahiro – Departures (Japan)
Song Kang-ho - The Good, The Bad, The Weird (South Korea)

Best Actress
Fukatsu Eri - The Magic Hour (Japan)
Jiang Wenli - And The Spring Comes (Mainland China)
Deepika Padukone - Chandni Chowk To China (India)
Yoshinaga Sayuri - Kabei - Our Mother (Japan)
Zhou Wei - Painted Skin (Mainland China / Hong Kong)
Zhou Xun - The Equation Of Love And Death (Mainland China)

Best Newcomer
Matsuda Shota - Boys Over Flowers: The Movie (Japan)
Sandrine Pinna - Miao Miao (Taiwan / Hong Kong)
So Ji-sub - Rough Cut (South Korea)
Xu Jiao - CJ7 (Hong Kong)
JeeJa Yanin – Chocolate (Thailand)
Yu Shaoqun - Forever Enthralled (Mainland China)

Best Supporting Actor
Nick Cheung - Beast Stalker (Hong Kong)
Jung Woo-sung - The Good, The Bad, The Weird (South Korea)
Lee Byung-hun - The Good, The Bad, The Weird (South Korea)
Tsutsumi Shinichi - Suspect X (Japan)
Wang Xueqi - Forever Enthralled (Mainland China)

Best Supporting Actress
Aoi Yu - Sex Is No Laughing Matter (Japan)
Jaclyn JOSE – Service (The Philippines)
KIKI Kirin - Still Walking (Japan)
KIM Ji-yeong - Forever The Moment (South Korea)
Gina PARENO – Service (The Philippines)

Best Screenwriter
NA Hong-jin - The Chaser (South Korea)
LI Qiang - And The Spring Comes (Mainland China)
Tom Lin / Henry Tsai - Winds Of September (Taiwan / Hong Kong)
Kurosawa Kiyoshi / Max Mannix / Tanaka Sachiko - Tokyo Sonata (Japan / The Netherlands / Hong Kong)
Mitani Koki - The Magic Hour (Japan)

Best Cinematographer
Ato Shoichi - Paco And The Magical Book (Japan)
Cheng Siu-keung – Sparrow (Hong Kong)
Lee Mo-gae - The Good, The Bad, The Weird (South Korea)
Jola Dylewska – Tulpan (Germany / Kazakhstan / Poland / Russia / Switzerland)
Wang Yu / Nelson Lik-wai Yu - 24 City (Mainland China)
Waluyo ICHWANDIARDONO - The Rainbow Troops (Indonesia)
KIM Sun-min - The Chaser (South Korea)

Best Visual Effects
Craig Hayes - Red Cliff (Mainland China)
KIM Wook - The Good, The Bad, The Weird (South Korea)
Yanagawase Masahide - Paco And The Magical Book (Japan)

[GeneChing]

Sfiaaff

Launch Party is tomorrow.

Fasten Your Seatbelts! Official Festival Launch Party Takes off Friday, February 13, 2009

Posted February 10, 2009 by menriquez in SFIAAFF 2009, Event, Featured

launchparty2.jpg

27TH SFIAAFF 2009 OFFICIAL LAUNCH PARTY
Be the first on your block to pick up the Festival program guide hot off the
press, meet local filmmakers, and mix and mingle with fellow festival goers!

Friday, February 13, 2009 | 9pm *- 2am
111 Minna Gallery, 111 Minna Street, San Francisco
$5 | Free Admission for CAAM Members, 21+
For ticket info, visit www.asianamericanmedia.org

Featuring the sounds of:
Robot Hustle (Honey Soundsystem) - Cosmic Disco
DJ VNA (Good Life) - Old School Hip-Hop + R&B
Eug (Public Release) - Italo Disco + Electro
Shred One (Brooklyn Circus/LA/SF) - Funky Soul + Dance Classics

SAVE THE DATE! March 12-22, 2009
27th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
Program announced on February 10, 2009 @ www.asianamericanmedia.org

[GeneChing]

Hkiff 2009

So much focus on Shinjuku Incident…

Hong Kong Int’l Film Festival to Open in March
2009-02-27 10:49:14 Xinhua

The 33rd Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) is to be held from March 22 to April 13,the organizer announced Thursday.

Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (HKIFFS) said at a press conference on Thursday that that “Shinjuku Incident”, starring famous actor Jackie Chan and directed by Derek Yee Tung- shing, and “Night and Fog”, from acclaimed Director Ann Hui, will open the 33rd Hong Kong International Film Festival. The World premiere of both films will take place on March 22, 2009 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

Some 300 films from over 50 countries will be screened at the 33rd Hong Kong International Film Festival, including 20 world premieres and 30 Asian premieres.

“We have launched a number of new initiatives at this year’s HKIFF. The launch of our new brand is aimed at positioning the Festival within the global film calendar, as well as highlighting our mission to discover and introduce new creative film talent to the world. In this way, we hope to form a stronger bond with a new generation of viewers,” said HKIFFS Chairman Wilfred Wong.

“In this time of global financial crisis, the role of the Festival is more important than ever. Films have the ability to inspire, uplift and bring hope to people, allowing us to believe again in our lives,” Wong added.

The HKIFFS also unveiled a new key art icon for the 33rd HKIFF, featuring the mascot ‘BAUFA’, which means exploding fireworks, set against a background of blue skies and white clouds. The symbolism of the key art aims to deliver on the festival’s promise of hope and fantasy, and to engage future generations in the art and creativity of film.

“Shinjuku Incident” Director Derek Yee and cast members Jackie Chan, Daniel Wu, Xu Jinglei, Fan Bingbing and Chin Kar-lok; and “Night and Fog” Director Ann Hui, cast Simon Yam and Zhang Jingchu attended the press conference in support of the festival.

“Shinjuku Incident” is a harrowing portrayal of the lives of illegal Chinese immigrants in the dark underbelly of Tokyo’s gangland. The film is a departure for Jackie Chan, marking a darker dramatic role for the action star.

Directed by acclaimed New Wave helmer Ann Hui, “Night and Fog” is an intimate exploration of domestic violence in Hong Kong. The film stars celebrated character actor Simon Yam, and co-stars actress Zhang Jingchu in a career-defining role.

The Hong Kong International Film Festival is one of Asia’s most reputable platforms for filmmakers, film professionals and filmgoers from all over the world to launch new works and experience the latest outstanding cinema projects.

[GeneChing]

Hiff

Nice line up in HI. I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz on Ghaniji, Yamagata Scream and Tokyo Sonata.

HIFF greets spring with diverse global lineup
One locally made short, a Japanese horror-comedy and a documentary about Burma have since been added to the Spring Showcase schedule
By Star-Bulletin staff
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Apr 03, 2009

A particularly strong lineup of films from all over the world will be featured at this year’s Hawaii International Film Festival Spring Showcase, always the appetizer leading up to the festival’s main course. (Its larger fall event is coming up in mid-October.)

HAWAII INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 12th ANNUAL SPRING SHOWCASE
Place: Regal Dole Cannery multiplex
Time: Friday through April 9
Tickets: $10 and $9 military, students and seniors
Call: 550-8457 or visit www.hiff.org

Since the print schedule’s release, there have been changes in the lineup. The critically acclaimed Italian Mafia feature “Gomorrah” is out and three films have been added: the locally made short “Ma’ili Land: Stories of Hope”; the Japanese horror-comedy “Yamagata Scream”; and “Burma VJ,” a documentary about a brave group of video reporters who risk their lives to expose the repressive dictatorship ruling their country.

Burma became international headline news in 2007 when Buddhist monks led a massive rebellion against the government. The peaceful religious order is also the subject of a remarkable and moving documentary in the lineup, “Unmistaken Child.” It’s a quietly told yet riveting story of a disciple’s search through the rugged terrain of Tibet for the reincarnation of his master in a village infant. How the disciple finds the old soul in a little boy after a four-year search, and the bond he forms with his little “master,” takes on an immensely spiritual tone. Effectively capturing the essence of Tibet in its landscape, people and culture, “Unmistaken Child” could turn out to be one of the hits of the showcase.

The schedule:

» “20th Century Boys Part I” (Japan/6:30 p.m. Monday and 3 p.m. Tuesday) and Part II (6:15 p.m. Tuesday and 3 p.m. Wednesday): See review.

» “Birdwatchers” (Italy/Brazil/8:45 p.m. Sunday): A drama about a group of indigenous natives who decide to leave their restricted reservation in Brazil and return to the land of their forefathers – now occupied by wealthy plantation owners who allow bird-watching tourists on “their” property.

» “Burma VJ” (Denmark/9:15 p.m. Tuesday): See article intro.

» “Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone” (Japan/3 p.m. Sunday): The first of four planned animated features, it retells roughly the first six episodes of the influential apocalyptic mecha TV series “Neon Genesis Evangelion.”

» “Food Inc.” (U.S./6:15 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday): How much do we really know about the food we buy at our local supermarkets? The documentary lifts the veil on our country’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the consumer with the consent of the government’s regulatory agencies.

» “Ghajini” (India/6:30 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. April 9): India’s highest-grossing movie of all time, this 2008 Bollywood film was inspired by the hit “Memento.” A businessman loses his short-term memory following a violent encounter that results in his girlfriend’s death. He tries to avenge her killing with the aid of Polaroid photos and tattoos on his body. (The film features six songs by the prolific A.R. Rahman, who became familiar to U.S. audiences for his score for the multiple Oscar-winning “Slumdog Millionaire.”)

» “Gu-Gu the Cat” (Japan/3:15 p.m. Saturday and 8:45 p.m. April 9): A manga artist is devastated by the death of her cat, which kept her company for more than 15 years. She can no longer concentrate on her work – that is, until a new kitten enters the lives of both the artist and her assistants.

» “Ichi” (Japan/8:30 p.m. Friday and 3:15 p.m. Monday): A reimagining of the popular Zatoichi story, with Haruka Ayase starring as a blind woman who roams from town to town with her shamisen. When a village becomes hostage to two opposing clans, she reveals her deadly swordsplay to help protect the innocent villagers.

» “Luck By Chance” (India/12:15 p.m. Sunday and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday): A satirical but affectionate tale of the Bollywood film industry, as a fresh-faced actor from New Delhi and his girlfriend – still waiting for her own big break despite living in Mumbai for a few years – try to become movie stars in a world of heated ego battles and jealousies.

» “Ma’ili Land: Stories of Hope” (Hawaii/11 a.m. Saturday): As originally reported by our local film/TV columnist Katherine Nichols, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Honolulu will sponsor this screening of three shorts directed and produced by 10 youngsters who live at the Leeward transitional housing land project. One of the featured shorts, “Friendship,” is about a once-homeless boy struggling with his peers after moving into transitional housing. (Admission $5, and a Q&A session will follow the screening.)

» “Marine Boy” (South Korea/6:15 p.m. Wednesday and 3 p.m. April 9): A former swimming athlete, desperately in debt, decides to become a drug mule by swimming waters between Korea and Japan. Along the way, he meets a mysterious beauty who has been tracking him. The two of them then plot to swindle the swimmer’s moneylender and take the drug money for themselves.

» “Night and Day” (South Korea/France/6 p.m. Tuesday and 3:15 p.m. Wednesday): A painter lives in exile in Paris, on the lam after getting caught smoking pot with some American tourists back in Seoul. Not speaking a word of French, the painter joins a floating group of Korean ex-pats and exchange students. When he meets an art student and her roommate, could there be love in the air for the 40ish, married artist – or is it just Paris?

» “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi” (India/6:15 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Monday): Translating its Hindi title, “A Match Made in Heaven” is a romantic comedy about a mild-mannered office worker who transforms himself into a suave and dashing dancer in order to win the love of a beautiful and vivacious woman.

» “The Sky Crawlers” (Japan/6 p.m. Sunday and 9 p.m. Wednesday): An animated adaptation of a popular manga series of books set in an alternate history, following the journeys and tribulations of a group of young fighter pilots.

» “The Song of Sparrows” (Iran/12:15 p.m. Saturday): From acclaimed director Majid Majidi, it’s the story of a simple man who loses his job at an ostrich farm and then travels to Tehran, where he starts his new job of moving people and goods through heavy traffic on his motorcycle. But the job starts to transform his inherently generous and honest nature for the worse, much to the distress of his wife and daughters.

» “Summer Hours” (France/6:15 p.m. Monday and 3:15 p.m. Tuesday): Olivier Assayas’ latest film is a bittersweet elegy about love and memory and the ways in which we hold them. Three adult siblings who have grown apart reunite at their late mother’s home to decide what to do with the family house, filled with artwork from their grandfather, a celebrated artist whose legacy hangs over the family.

» “Tokyo Sonata” (Japan/6 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday): See review.

» “Treeless Mountain” (South Korea/3:15 and 6:15 p.m. April 9): With cinematography by the University of Hawaii’s Academy for Creative Media assistant professor Anne Misawa, the film tells the dreamlike story of a 6-year-old girl and her younger sister coping with loss when their single mother leaves them with a diffident aunt.

» “Unmistaken Child” (Israel/3 p.m. Saturday and 3:30 p.m. Sunday): See article intro.

» “Wushu: The Young Generation” (China/8:45 p.m. Saturday and 9:15 p.m. Tuesday): Co-produced by Jackie Chan and starring his friend and fellow martial arts icon Sammo Hung, the movie follows the lives of a group of friends who go to an elite, small-town martial arts school where the father of two of them is played by Hung. As the group reaches their graduation year, and with the provincial team selection looming for the championships, their friendship is tested and they are forced to face the ills of the outside world in the form of child kidnappings and illegal fight matches.

» “Yamagata Scream” (Japan/9:15 p.m. Sunday): See review.

[GeneChing]

Siff 2009

The 12TH SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL is 6/13-21. Couldn’t find a film listing, but then I didn’t look that hard…

[GeneChing]

More on SIFF

2000 films?!? No wonder I couldn’t find a listing…

Shanghai International Film Festival Kicks Off
2009-06-13 17:56:11 CRIENGLISH.com Web Editor: Ma Ting

Cinema lovers in China will celebrate their own festival this month with hundreds of celebrities from home and abroad, as the Shanghai International Film Festival kicked off Saturday night.

CRI reporter Shuang Feng takes you for an up and close encounter with one of the world’s most vibrating film fetivals.

Reporter:

"-Hi, I’m Halle Berry.

-Nihao, I’m Danny Boyle, director of “Slumdog Millionaire.”

-Hi, this is Annie MacDowell. This time I’m going to be on the jury, so I’m really looking forward to that."

What brought these most-sought-after celebrities together is not the Berlin or Cannes film festivals, but the Shanghai International Film Festival, or SIFF. Starting from Saturday, Chinese filmgoers will be treated to the most lavish cinematic feast of the year.

Tang Lijun, the festival’s spokesperson, talks about the highlights.

“What’s highly anticipated is that audiences will be able to watch those fantastic movies from 79 countries and regions around the world. The star-studded cast on the red carpet is another highlight. There will be about 300 stars taking part, including Halle Berry, Quincy Jones and Zhang Ziyi.”

Since its inception 15 years ago, the Shanghai International Film Festival has become one of the fastest growing cinematic events in the world. Each year, the festival draws a growing number of international filmmakers and investors looking to enter the Chinese film market.

Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle is chairman of the jury at this year’s film festival.

“It certainly becomes an incredible place to launch a film, because you can start a film here and release it throughout the nation and throughout Asia. And also you hear about the provision of digital cinema in China. It’s groundbreaking, and that’s the future.”
The week-long festival would include Film Competitions, Film Forums, among others.

As the most eye-catching part of this film festival, the competition section of the festival will cover nearly 2,000 films from all over the world.

The film “Wheat,” the latest production by Chinese director He Ping, has premiered as the opening film to this year’s event. Insiders regard it as one of the most anticipated films of the year.

The event lasts until next Sunday.

“Wheat” Grows out of Golf Course
2009-06-13 16:29:21 CRIENGLISH.com Web Editor: Ma Ting

“Wheat” director He Ping found a large part of the film’s cast on golf courses.

The lead actors and actresses of the historical drama attended a press conference in Shanghai on Friday before the film premieres and opens the 12th Shanghai International Film Festival on June 13.

Veteran actors Wang Zhiwen, Wang Xueqi and Wang Ji told media that all of them became acquainted with the director through playing golf with him.

The film also features Fan Bingbig and Huang Jue.

The historical drama tells a story about the women left behind when their men have gone off to war – and the lies they are told by two runaway soldiers to keep them from knowing the awful truth.

[Shaolinlueb]

gene i just heard from a friend in korea that THIRST wasnt that good or popular in korea.

[xcakid]

Guess Dallas’ Asian Film Festival is not large enough to get coverage.
http://2009.affd.org/
My friend Julie actually sang harmony for their trailer music.

[GeneChing]

That’s on you, xcakid.

I thought CA sent you to TX to cover these sorts of things.

Nice to see Ip Man took the Audience Award Winner. Maybe there’s hope for TX after all.

[xcakid]

[QUOTE=GeneChing;953710]I thought CA sent you to TX to cover these sorts of things.

Nice to see Ip Man took the Audience Award Winner. Maybe there’s hope for TX after all. ;)[/QUOTE]

I tried covering it, but the women were too distracting.

They had to dubbed in a few “ya’ll’s” in the dialogue to make Ip Man palatable here in TX. But it worked out well in the end.

[Hebrew_Hammer]

Got my tickets for Red Cliff tonight!

[GeneChing]

Hong Kong International Film Festival

I’ve never seen The Kid, The Orphan or The Thunderstorm. This is the first time I’ve even heard of Thunderstorm.

HKIFF celebrates Bruce Lee’s 70th birthday
Festival spotlights martial arts master starting Mar. 30
By Jonathan Landreth
March 26, 2010, 07:56 AM ET

BEIJING – Celebrating the 70th anniversary of Bruce Lee, the 2010 Hong Kong International Film Festival will shine a spotlight on the martial arts master’s influence on global cinema with a program beginning Mar. 30.

The festival’s Bruce Lee 7010 tribute will include nine of his best movies, from “The Kid” (1950) – when Lee was just 10 years old – through to his lead role in “The Orphan” (1960) at 20, allowing the audience the rare chance to watch him grow up on screen.

The program also will include a few Cantonese films, such as “The Thunderstorm” (1957), and the kung fu classics, such as “Enter The Dragon” (1973), the film that made Lee a global superstar.

“Bruce Lee’s legacy continues to inspire filmmakers and audiences around the world,” said Shaw Soo-wei, executive director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society, organizer of the festival and Bruce Lee celebration going on until Apr. 6.

Lee’s work continues to drive worldwide interest in Hong Kong action cinema. His films have influenced all areas of popular culture including fitness, music, sport, dance and video games and drove the martial arts film industry into the mainstream, putting Hong Kong cinema on the world map.

“The HKIFF is proudly committed to supporting Hong Kong film talent of the past and present who pave the way for new filmmakers to establish themselves globally,” Shaw said in a statement.

To better celebrate the films, this weekend, Mar. 25-28 from 7PM, the W Hong Kong, the official film festival hotel, will host Bruce Lee Hours, serving complimentary popcorn during film screenings in the hotel’s Living Room ****tail bar.

In partnership with Bruce Lee Enterprises and sponsored by Tiger Beer, the exhibition and tribute will be open officially opened at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre on Mar. 30 by Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee Keasler, and Linda Lee Cadwell, wife of the late Bruce Lee.

Also as a part of the tribute, on Apr. 4, Hong Kong Film Archive programmer, Sam Ho will lead a group seminar on Bruce Lee films in Cantonese with simultaneous English interpretation at the Hong Kong Science Museum.

In addition to the film retrospective, the tribute will launch “Bruce Lee Lives,” a special HKIFFS publication of new articles by critics Sek Kei, Bryan Chang, Bono Lee and Po Fung, offering insight into Lee’s life and the impact he had on those who met him and the audiences whose lives he touched.

Free to the public, the exhibition will display some of Lee’s personal belongings, including costumes, his kung fu practice helmet, family and behind-the-scenes photographs, his own hand drawings and sketches of his martial arts techniques, letters to friends and family and contracts with film studios.

[GeneChing]

Bruce’s 70th

Seems like just yesterday when we were celebrating Bruce’s 60th.

Back to Google News
Bruce Lee’s wife, daughter open Hong Kong exhibit
By MIN LEE (AP) – 3 hours ago

HONG KONG — Bruce Lee’s wife and daughter on Tuesday unveiled an exhibition of the late kung fu star’s personal items, photos and movie posters in Hong Kong.

The exhibit, which includes a boxing head guard and a pair of sunglasses used by Lee, is part of a tribute to the late actor at the 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival. The festival is also hosting a seminar on his work this Sunday and screening nine of his movies in honor of what would have been his 70th birthday later this year.

“I think that he would be thrilled to know that his legacy has gone on and on for as long as it has and that it will continue to go on and inspire people for many, many more years to come,” said Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee Keasler, who attended the opening ceremony with her mother, Linda Lee Cadwell.

Lee became a chest-thumping source of Chinese pride by portraying characters that defended the Chinese and the working class from oppressors in films like “Return of the Dragon.” He died in Hong Kong in 1973 at age 32 from swelling of the brain.

“I think my father continues to be really influential because he was so unique. There hasn’t really been anyone like him,” Lee Keasler said.

Lee’s daughter said earlier that plans to convert her father’s old house in Hong Kong — now used as an hourly love motel — into a museum and to build a new museum in Seattle, where Lee studied and taught martial arts, are in the fundraising stage.

[GeneChing]

Will this be the first of many 70th observances?

Shannon is working it. Good on her.

* March 30, 2010, 4:00 PM ET

Bruce Lee Legacy Lives On Through Film Retrospective, Brand Awareness
By Dean Napolitano

Bruce Lee’s family kicked off a celebration in Hong Kong Tuesday night honoring the legendary kung-fu star, as interest in his movies continues to grow nearly 37 years after his death in 1973.

Lee’s wife, Linda Lee Cadwell, 65, and daughter, Shannon Lee, 40, presided over the opening of an exhibit at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre featuring costumes, movie posters and other memorabilia from his life and career. The show coincides with a retrospective of Lee’s movies at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, which runs through April 6.

Since buying back the rights to her father’s image from General Electric Co.’s Universal Studios in 2008, Shannon Lee has been working to develop her father into a major global brand and spread awareness of his life to new generations.

“He was a man of great depth,” Linda Lee Cadwell said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “He read all the Chinese philosophers. … He read both Eastern and Western philosophy.”

Part of that philosophy is on display at the exhibit, where the script for planned — but unmade — film titled “The Silent Flute” reveals a passage of Lee’s writing: “True mastery transcends any particular art. It stems from mastery of oneself — the ability, developed through self-discipline, to be calm, fully aware, and completely in tune with oneself and the surroundings,” it reads in part.

“Bruce Lee always said that a person must know themselves and not follow others blindly,” Linda Lee Cadwell said. He took action in his own life, her daughter said, by breaking social and racial barriers.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of Lee’s birth, and his popularity endures: Broadway is preparing a musical based on his life for the 2010-11 theater season, and his former home in Hong Kong — now a “love hotel” — is being transformed into a museum.

Shannon Lee said she wants to recreate the look of the house as it was when she lived there as a child. “It’s a unique opportunity to capture that point in time.”

[GeneChing]

Next thing you know, Bruce will be on magazine covers again…

…whoops! Too late. :eek::o;)

Site Last Updated: Apr 6 2010 3:35PM
Tribute to kung fu legend
2010/04/06

THE daughter of late kung fu legend Bruce Lee said last week she was thrilled his fame had endured four decades after his untimely death, and hoped Hong Kong would soon have a museum in his memory.

Shannon Lee Keasler was visiting Hong Kong with her mother, Linda Lee Cadwell, to launch an exhibition dedicated to the Enter the Dragon star, who died of brain swelling at the peak of his film career in 1973 aged just 32.

“We are absolutely thrilled that so many people continue to be inspired by him and find so much value in his life and work,” Lee said , adding that she would be in Tokyo next month to launch another exhibition in honour of her father.

Keasler, an actress in the US, said some of the exhibits were from the family’s collection, including a pair of sunglasses, boxing headgear, film costumes and samples of her father’s handwriting. The exhibition, which ends tomorrow, is part of a series of events to pay tribute to Lee during this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival. The future martial arts hero was raised in Hong Kong before moving to the United States in his late teens.

Keasler said they were raising funds for a US museum, and hoped a government plan to transform Lee’s former home in Hong Kong’s Kowloon Tong district – now a seedy love hotel that rents out rooms by the hour – would begin soon.

“We hope there will be some sort of symbiotic relationship between the museums in Hong Kong and the US, so that the two museums can share some of the exhibits.” The Hong Kong museum’s final look, building costs, and the project’s completion date have yet to be determined. — Sapa-AFP

[GeneChing]

Laapff

Another Bruce Lee tribute. They are also showing Bodyguards & Assassins.

BRUCE LEE, CULTURAL ICON: 70th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
The Film Festival is pleased to collaborate with Bruce Lee Enterprises to observe the 70th birthday of martial arts legend and Asian American cultural icon Bruce Lee.

THE CHINESE CONNECTION
(FREE Outdoor Screening)
THE work that introduced Bruce Lee to young urban and Asian American audiences (contains action violence and brief nudity; parental guidance suggested).
Friday, April 30, sundown, Madang the Courtyard (FREE Parking)
621 S. Western Ave. (one block north of Wilshire Blvd.),
Los Angeles Koreatown

ENTER THE DRAGON
Plus PANEL DISCUSSION w/ Lee Family & Special Guests
A martial artist agrees to spy on a reclusive crime lord using his invitation to a tournament there as cover. Includes a special post-screening panel with Linda Lee, Shannon Lee, Directors Reggie Hudlin and Diana Lee Inosanto, moderated by Phil Yu of angryasianman.com.
Saturday, May 1, 12:00 p.m., Laemmle’s Sunset 5
8000 W. Sunset Blvd. (one block west of the DGA), West Hollywood

[GeneChing]

Nyaff

New York Asian Film Festival

If Gallants doesn’t lure you in, what would?

Festival Moves to Fancier Base but Keeps Its Genre-Bending Fare
Film Society of Lincoln Center
By MIKE HALE
Published: June 24, 2010

The New York Asian Film Festival has been waving the fan-boy flag proudly since 2002. Glossy crime dramas and horror shows, martial-arts spectaculars, machine-gun-wielding schoolgirls — “the kind of crazed, populist blockbusters that we were born to show,” in the words of Grady Hendrix, one of the festival’s founders — have led the way, as the series, which started with just 11 movies at the Anthology Film Archives, has grown to 45 films and moved to the uptown precincts of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater.

That habit of gorging on genre fare continues in this year’s festival, the ninth, which officially opens Friday night with the Hong Kong martial-arts hit “Ip Man 2” and closes July 8 with the Korean swordplay period piece “Blades of Blood.” It has driven ticket sales (the opening night screening is sold out) and drawn attention, resulting in this year’s partnership between Subway Cinema, the four-man cooperative that has run the festival since its inception, and the decidedly mainstream Film Society of Lincoln Center. But the event has always made room for many other kinds of films, including the art-house exercises its organizers claim to abhor. Movies like “Kung Fu Chefs” and “Mutant Girls Squad” will find their own audiences; presented here is a sampling of some other sides of the festival’s schedule.

A film with a foot in both the genre and art-house camps in Tetsuya Nakashima’s “Confessions,” which, in a nice piece of timing, has been the No. 1 box-office hit in Japan for three weeks running, holding off “Iron Man 2” and “Sex and the City 2.” Based on a novel by Kanae Minato and being shown for the first time outside Japan, it’s an elaborate revenge fantasy with a twist: the protagonist is an adult who exacts vengeance, in a clinical and psychologically sadistic way, on a pair of children.

The bright palette and amped-up, music-video style Mr. Nakashima exhibited in “Memories of Matsuko” (winner of the audience award at the 2007 festival) are both toned down in “Confessions,” which is shot in dark blues and grays and moves with a grim stateliness. One recurring motif is school milk cartons flying through the air in slow motion. The thematic territory of nihilistic Japanese teenagers and their frantic, career-obsessed parents is awfully familiar — Natsuo Kirino’s novel “Real World” is a close analogue — but Mr. Nakashima gives it an operatic intensity, especially in the film’s first half-hour, an inventive and eerie piece of stage setting.

(“Confessions” is one of eight films being presented in conjunction with Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film. Some of those will be screened at both the Japan Society and the Walter Reade; “Confessions” will be shown only at the Japan Society, where it opens Japan Cuts on Thursday night.)

Miwa Nishikawa’s “Dear Doctor,” a pastoral tale about a village doctor who may not be what he seems, is in a radically different style. Like Mr. Nakashima’s movie, however, it partakes in the critique of soulless modernity that is implicit in so many Japanese films. The commentary on change and tradition is double-edged: the village loses something because of its doctor’s less-than-sterling qualifications, but it also gains something from his old-fashioned personal touch and his willingness to listen. In some cases the idea of a doctor is more important to his patients’ peace of mind than the reality, but not in every case, and that dichotomy spurs Ms. Nishikawa’s low-key thriller plot.

Nostalgia, a subject of some debate in “Dear Doctor,” is unabashedly the ruling emotion in “Echoes of the Rainbow,” another Hong Kong hit. Alex Law’s sweeping family melodrama about the two sons of a poor shoemaker growing up in the 1960s is set to treacly pop songs, in both Cantonese and English (the Monkees’ “I Wanna Be Free,” Gordon Lightfoot’s “*****willows, Cat-tails”). It feels like a musical shot on a giant soundstage, even though its a drama shot on an actual Hong Kong street. Simon Yam, who has helped define the role of the quiet but simmering gangster, here plays the downtrodden father; his fans may be alarmed to see his undyed gray hair.

Taking Hong Kong nostalgia in a lighter direction is “Gallants,” which is a kung fu film but with a minimum of kung fu. In comedy from Clement Cheng and Derek Kwok a cast of onetime martial-arts stars, including Bruce Leung, Chen Kuan-tai and Teddy Robin, play onetime martial-arts heroes now slouching toward senility in a run-down teahouse. Challenged by the upstarts who want to take over the property for redevelopment, they leap to their feet in the traditional style to proclaim their identities: “I am the day shift doorman!” “I am the delivery person of ‘Curry in a Hurry’!”

China supplies a rougher style of comedy in “Crazy Racer,” a wildly complicated farce filmed in the coastal city of Xiamen that begins and ends with bicycle pursuits. Many of the gangsters, drug dealers, frauds and cheats who populate the film end up dead, but in every case accidentally: frozen in a refrigerator truck, impaled in a high-speed scooter chase. Yet another variety of Chinese comedy is on display in “Sophie’s Revenge,” an almost perfect knockoff of a so-so American romantic comedy (crossed with “Amélie”) starring Ziyi Zhang in the Jennifer Aniston-Jennifer Garner-Renee Zellwegger role.

A South Korean take on some of the issues of alienation and identity raised by “Confessions” and “Dear Doctor” can be seen in Lee Hae-jun’s “Castaway on the Moon,” whose Korean title translates literally as “Kim’s Island.” Responding to the humiliations of debt and being dumped by his girlfriend, a Seoul office worker tries to kill himself by jumping into the Han River, only to wash ashore on a deserted island in the middle of the city (an actual place, maintained as a nature preserve), where he takes up residence. This urban castaway magically goes unnoticed except by an agoraphobic woman in an apartment building on the shore, who begins communicating with him via messages in bottles.

Two of the more adventurous films in the festival are deceptively simple essays on the nature of movie magic. E J-yong’s “Actresses” is in the tired genre of the mock documentary, but it’s enlivened by the six South Korean women who play themselves, supposedly gathered on Christmas Eve for a Vogue magazine photo shoot. They bring charm and humor to the fairly predictable scenario (air kisses, catfights, obsessing about age and weight) and surprising frankness, especially Ko Hyun-jung, star of “Woman on the Beach,” who portrays herself — hilariously — as hard-drinking, insecure and rabidly competitive.

An entirely different segment of the film industry is the subject of the Japanese director Tetsuaki Matsue’s “Annyong Yumika” (“Hello Yumika” in Korean), an actual documentary that functions as a mash note to the porn star Yumika Hayashi, who died in 2005. Using an obscure Korean-Japanese soft-core film called “Junko: The Tokyo Housewife” as his starting point (and including a number of scenes from it, none of them particularly explicit), Mr. Matsue tracks down men who worked with, exploited and loved Ms. Hayashi, and even travels to South Korea to find the director of “Junko.” In a final coup he persuades the director and the film’s male stars to film a scene that was dropped from the original movie.

“Annyong Yumika,” made in a distinctly Japanese mode of jokey earnestness, is a lark of a film with a serious, and moving, undercurrent, one that builds as Mr. Matsue single-mindedly burrows into Ms. Hayashi’s life. It’s about Korean perceptions of Japanese women and about the price of being a free spirit in Japanese society, at the same time that it celebrates a profoundly Japanese idea: the rippling effects, through many lives, of something as ephemeral, and even perhaps ugly, as “Junko: The Tokyo Housewife.”

The New York Asian Film Festival runs from Friday through July 8 with screenings at the Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 875-5601, and the Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, Manhattan, (212) 715-1258; and midnight shows at the IFC Center, 323 Avenue of the Americas, at Third Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 924-7771. Information: subwaycinema.com.

[GeneChing]

FanAsia

More on Gallants. Now I’m interested…

Hong Kong kung fu “legend” wins award at Fantasia Film Festival

Hong Kong (HKSAR) - The “Legendary Kung Fu Star” Award was presented on Saturday (July 10, Montreal time) at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival to Hong Kong actor Bruce Leung Siu-lung in recognition of his contribution to martial art films in the past few decades. The presentation was held during the Canadian premiere of the retro-70s Hong Kong film “Gallants”, which was a highlight of the 14th Fantasia Festival. The film was screened at Concordia University’s Hall Theatre to a capacity audience.

Bruce Leung and the film’s director Clement Cheng attended a jam-packed autograph session after the screening. “Gallants” was screened earlier at the Marche du Film in Cannes and at the New York Asian Film Festival. It was described as “a kung fu comedy reminiscent of old Hong Kong martial arts cinema”, “fun, fun stuff” and “definitely one of the most entertaining films of the year.” The Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) in Canada, Ms Maureen Siu, said at the presentation ceremony that after the commercial and critical success of “Ip Man” - the story of Bruce Lee’s kung fu master - in 2008, the martial arts genre saw a resurgence.She thanked the organisers for presenting the Canadian premiere of “Gallants” and giving the award to a kung fu film “legend” of Hong Kong.

“The film ‘Gallants’ reflects the well-known spirit of Hong Kong people to never give up,” added Ms Siu. “The award to Bruce Leung is especially meaningful because this year marks the 70th birthday of Bruce Lee, one of the most influential icons in martial arts films, who left us with another legend in the movie world,” she said. Having appeared in many blockbusters, Leung at one time ranked close to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan in the hearts of Hong Kong film fans.

Born in 1948 in Hong Kong, Leung learned martial arts from his father at the Cantonese opera. He is a well-known action star and kung fu choreographer. Between the 1970s and 1980s, Leung performed in more than 70 movies.

The HKETO sponsored the Hong Kong Panorama section of this year’s Fantasia, which includes some of Hong Kong’s latest film productions - “Gallants”, “Ip Man 2”,“Bodyguards and Assassins”, “Dream Home”, “Little Big Soldier”, “Love in a Puff”, “Overheard”, “Written by” and “Accident”.Five of them are Canadian premieres. Begun in 1996, the Fantasia International Film Festival is a popular summer tradition in Montreal, Canada’s City of Culture.

[GeneChing]

A f f d

9th Annual Asian Film Festival of Dallas
July 23-29, 2010

Asian Film Festival of Dallas 2010 Trailer

IP MAN 2 is headlining.

9500 LIBERTY (2009), Dir: Eric Byler/Annabel Park
A FROZEN FLOWER (2009), Dir: Yoo Ha
A MILLION (2009), Dir: Cho Min-Ho (SOUTHWEST PREMIERE)
ACCIDENT (2009), Dir: Cheang Pou-Soi (SOUTHWEST PREMIERE)
AGRARIAN UTOPIA (2009), Dir: Uruphong Raksasad (SOUTHWEST PREMIERE)
AT THE END OF DAYBREAK (2009), Dir: Ho Yuhang (SOUTHWEST PREMIERE)
Opening Night Film: AU REVOIR TAIPEI (2010), Dir: Arvin Chen (SOUTHWEST PREMIERE)
BAY RONG (CLASH), (2009), Dir: Le Thanh Son (SOUTHWEST PREMIERE)
BEIJING TAXI (2010), Dir: Miao Wang
BREATHLESS (2009), Dir: Yang Ik-Joon
CHAW (2009), Dir: Shin Jeong-won (SOUTHWEST PREMIERE)
EMPIRE OF SILVER (2009), Dir: Christina Yao (SOUTHWEST PREMIERE)
I CORRUPT ALL COPS (2009), Dir: Jing Wong (NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE)
Centerpiece Presentation: IP MAN 2 (2010), Dir: Wilson Yip (SOUTHWEST PREMIERE)
IRON CROWS (2009), Dir: Bong-Nam Park
KAMUI (2009), Dir: Yoichi Sai (SOUTHWEST PREMIERE)
KUNG FU DUNK (2008), Dir: Yen Ping-Chu (NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE)
LET’S FALL IN LOVE (2009), Dir: Wuna Wu (NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE)
LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL (2009), Dir: Hong Sang-soo (SOUTHWEST PREMIERE)
MAO’S LAST DANCER, (2009), Dir: Bruce Beresford
NIGHT & FOG (2009), Dir: Ann Hui (NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE)
NO MORE CRY!!! (2009), Dir: Nobuo Mizuta (NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE)
PHOBIA 2 (2009), Dir: P.Purijitpanya/V.Poolvoralaks/S.Sugmakanan/P.Wongpoom/B.Pisanthanakun (U.S. PREMIERE)
ROBOGEISHA (2009), Dir: Noboru Iguchi
RUNNING TURTLE (2009), Dir: Lee Yeon-Woo (SOUTHWEST PREMIERE)
SEVEN 2 ONE (2009), Dir: Danny Pang (U.S. PREMIERE)
SPARROW (2008), Dir: Johnnie To
SUMMER WARS (2009), Dir: Mamoru Hosoda (SOUTHWEST PREMIERE)
SYMBOL (2009), Dir: Hitoshi Matsumoto
TALENTIME (2009), Dir: Yasmin Ahmad (SOUTHWEST PREMIERE)
Closing Night Fim: THE PEOPLE I’VE SLEPT WITH (2009), Dir: Quentin Lee (SOUTHWEST PREMIERE)
THE TALE OF ULULU’S WONDERFUL FOREST (2009), Dir: Makoto Naganuma (NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE)
TOAD’S OIL (2009), Dir: Koji Yakusho (U.S. PREMIERE)
VISAGE (2009), Dir: Tsai Ming-Liang (SOUTHWEST PREMIERE)

[GeneChing]

T i f f

Tokyo fest to feature Bruce Lee retrospective
TIFF to screen “Enter the Dragon,” others
By Gavin J. Blair
August 26, 2010, 12:06 AM ET

TOKYO – To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the birth of Hong Kong kung fu flick legend Bruce Lee, Tokyo International Film Festival will screen some of his classic films, including a rare Japanese print of “Game of Death” during the fest in October.

The “The 70th Anniversary: Bruce LEE to the Future” tribute will be part of the Winds of Asia Middle-East section and also include "Enter the Dragon” and Hong Kong kung-fu comedy “Gallants” (2010), as well as “The Legend is Alive” (2008) from Vietnam, to show Lee’s continuing influence on Asian cinema.

“We are now negotiating over the screening of two or three more Bruce Lee movies and hope to make an announcement in the next few weeks,” said Winds of Asia-Middle East programming director, Kenji Ishizaka.

Lee’s short film career – “Enter the Dragon” was released after his death in 1973 – helped spark a worldwide boom in martial arts.

The 23rd edition of TIFF will run October 23-31 at Roppongi Hills and other central Tokyo locations.

Another tribute to Lee’s 70th.