ENTERTAINMENT EXPO 2009 PART 2: HAF INTERVIEWS

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This year, the 7 th edition of the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum / HAF (March 23 rd to March 25 th) had 27 Film Projects selected. Originally, I asked 14 HAF interviews, but I was asked to give my first priority/preferences for the directors I wanted to meet, because I could only have two hours on March 23 rd (from 10.00 am to noon) for the HAFinterviews.

I expected to do 10 interviews in two hours, but finally the PR people gave me only 5. Also, something uncool happened: the schedules that I had the day before were changed at the last minute for a mysterious reason, and two of the interviews were planned at the same time. Finally I could have 4 interviews on the five 5 planned, not because of the schedules, but because one of the director was sick actually.   

So, my first HAFinterview was with the Japanese director Naomi Kawaze 河瀬 直美, who’ll shoot during ten months a documentary named “ And Protect, Protected” (tentative working title), about a doctor who has delivered more than 20000 babies in 48 years, using natural birth with no medical intervention.

The 2 nd interview was with Hong Kong director/producer – and
Alive Not Dead artist –    Barbara Wong 黃真真and producer Gus Liem, concerning the project “ BJ$300” (BJ=Blow Job; $300 means 300HK$), the Lolita-esque story of a 12 years old Enko girl (teenager offering sexual services) who tells her customers she’s 15 and who’ll have a love affair with her 52 years old teacher.

For this movie, which will be for sure classified Category III, the main character will be played by a newcomer (who’ll have at least 16 years obviously).

The3 rdinterview, with Chinese director Li Ying is about his project “ Help”, a story about maternal love, taking place in a relief station for homeless and delinquent kids.The4 thinterview was with Korean director Yim Phil-sung 임필성, who previously directed “ Antartic Journal 남극일기” and “ Hansel and Gretel 헨젤과 그레텔”. His new project “ The Flower of Evil” is about the nightmarish journey of a 35 years old racist American businessman, based in Seoul, who’ll fall for an attractive Korean “demon girl”.

Also, even if I didn’t get any interview with her, I wanted absolutely to see Charlie Young 楊采妮, who had also a project at HAF – It’ll be her first movie as a writer/director -  called “ Christmas Rose” (a surnatural drama produced by Oxide Pang 彭順).

So I joigned the China press for a 30-minute group interview with her at noon. It was all in Mandarin and I didn’t get a single word, but I shot everything, so I’ll make it translate sooner or later…

On March 24 th, I luckily met Teddy Chen 陳德森 (who's on Alive Not Dead as well) at the French Party which was following the screening of “ I’ve Loved You So Long” (presented by T he Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau,

Unifrance and the HKIFF).

So we took an interview appointment for the next day, concerning his HAF project “ Punitive Homicide”, a serial killer story in the line of “ Seven”, wrote by Su Chao-pin (writer of “ Double Vision” and director of “ Silk”) about some crappy murders happening in 2010, but done in the ancient torture Ching dynasty style.  

I also interview Teddy Chen about his very exiting project produced by Peter Chan, “ Bodyguards and Assassins” formely known as “ Dark October”, that he presented at the Hong Kong Film Filmart during an impressive press conference, along with the amazing cast of the movie: Donnie Yen 甄子丹, Tony Leung Ka-fai 梁家輝, Eric Tsang 曾志偉, Leon Lai 黎明, Fan Bing-bing 范冰冰, Nicholas Tse 謝霆鋒 etc… (more details about this movie later).

Frédéric Ambroisine (March 28 th, 2009)

Coming soon: FILMART interviews, HKIFF Opening (“ The Shinjuku Incident新宿事件” + “ Night & Fog天水圍的夜與霧” Premieres), Asian Film Awards ceremony, HKIFF “ Sniper神鎗手” Premiere, FILMART “ Bodyguards and Assassins十月圍城” press conference, Hong Kong New Action discussion ( John Woo吳宇森, Oliver Stone, Andrew Lau劉偉強, Feng Xiaogang馮小剛), Film Workshop exhibition + retrospective and more…