SUMMERIFF!!!!!

Just received word about the Summer International Film Festival...

Opening film: JOHNNIE TO'S VENGEANCE. Anthony Wong. Lam Suet. Simon Yam. And "The Elvis of France".

Closing film: 500 DAYS OF SUMMER, aka the film I wrote about earlier and thought it would never make it to Hong Kong.

Other films to be screened at the Summer IFF

SUNSHINE CLEANING--another indie gem I've been waiting for (Amy Adams is just... wow)

VAMPIRE GIRL VS FRANKENSTEIN GIRL-- THE NAME SAYS IT ALL. (Japanese gorefest...)

AWAY WE GO!

Trailer for Vengeance

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kHndrsfGZA

Y'all gonna disagree with this but I think Johnnie To is the single greatest filmmaker in HK cinema history. John Woo and WKW get more notice and are more influential but Johnnie To has been releasing above average to great films for a solid TWO DECADES now; John Woo can't claim that--his last 5 films have been crap and his last true relevant film was Hard Boiled from NINETEEN NINETY TWO. (Bullet in the Head is an insanely underrated gem though) To also pumps out 2-3 films a year while WKW takes five years for one.

And then there's range--every John Woo movie is a sasage fest with flower vase female characters and every WKW movie is about the yearning for love and Tony Leung smoking in slowmo. Johnnie To gives us gangster flicks, cop drams, the best HK romantic comedy this decade (Needing You), ANDY LAU IN A FAT/MUSCLE SUIT, Lam Suet as a central character (PTU) and a hippie Chow Yun Fat who foolishly gets on the motorcycle when he has a loving wife waiting for him (seriously, WTF was Ah Long thinking? You have a loving wife and a kid and you get in a freaking motorcycle contest? I woulda hopped off the bike and taken the wife and kids to Mickey Ds)

I saw Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist finally. Crusing through NYC with hipster music at night must be a wonderful way to spend a Friday night. I've never tried it...but everytime I hear The Stroke's Barely Legal I picture the music video to be of the NYC nightscene as seen from inside a car...dunno how that image came about.

Anyway, the comparisons to American Graffiti are dead on. It's not on the level obviously, but the parallels are there.

American Graffiti... I always considered the movie to be this coming of age flick about rock and roll with Harrison Ford, but then you check the pedigree and man what a lineup. Directed by George Lucas and produced by Francis Ford Coppola!

When I think 60s US life, I think soda pops, cruising to rock and roll and ice cream floats. That was the life, eh? I'm basing all this off Archie comics and Weezer's Buddy Holly video BTW.

Speaking of Archie, I heard he's choosing Veronica over Betty in an upcoming issue? Bad choice, my man. Betty's the way to go.

WHERE WERE YOU IN 62?