The 2011 HKIFF coverage continues with two more movie reviews!

The stars and director of Punished at
the film's HKIFF screening and world premiere

A more close-up shot of the trio of (from left to right)
Janice Man, Anthony Wong Chau San and Lo Wing Cheong

Although Part I (i.e., the main part) of the 35th Hong Kong International Film Festival concluded this past Tuesday, the HKIFF reportage continues on this blog! Before I commence writing about another two movies I viewed between March 20th and April 5th, however, here's letting interested readers know that Part II begins this Friday -- and that I've already got tickets to a few of this upcoming programme's screenings... ;b

La Dolce Vita (Italy, 1960)
- From the Restored Classics programme
- Federico Fellini, director
- Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimee, Yvonne Furneaus, Alain Cuny, Annibale Ninchi, etc.

When I lived in Dar es Salaam back in the mid 1990s, I used to go to an Italian restaurant there named La Dolce Vita. And here in Hong Kong, there's another Italian eatery with the same name. Although the phrase is a really nice one (seeing as it translates into English as either "the sweet life" or "the good life"), I can't help but think that one factor behind those dining establishments being named as such is because Federico Fellini's famous film made La Dolce Vita such a well known catchphrase.

So imagine my surprise to find -- upon my viewing this 1960 movie for the first time ever just a few days ago -- that it actually is not the cheerful, uplifting film that its title can make it seem to be. For even while its protagonist, a dashing gossip columnist named Marcello (played with no small degree of charm by the very watchable Marcello Mastroianni) leads a life that allows him to rub shoulders with the wealthy, famous and/or noble titled (and thus may seem glamorous and fun to outsiders), his actual lot is one that seems to lead a thinking man like him to frustration, if not outright or psychological ruin.

Granted that early on in this richly detailed work, especially in those segments where he's seen having an apparently fine old time with two attractive women in the form of a rich society beauty (portrayed by Anouk Aimee) and a sexy actress (essayed by Anita Ekberg), Marcello does indeed appear to have a pretty sweet and good life. Alternatively, the sections of La Dolce Vita in which the main character's jealous girlfriend, intellectual friend Steiner and father prominently figure do cast doubts and shadows over proceedings and the protagonist's life.

One problem is that even while Marcello battles hard against his girlfriend to not be stifled in the kind of domesticity she seeks but he reckons would be boring, he has allowed himself to venture along a professional path that is far from the intellectual world that he wishes he could permanently be a part of. At the same time, however, when the film's viewers are shown into that world, Fellini looked to have shown it to be ultimately as emotionally empty and unsatisfying as the other milieux that Marcello is obliged to venture into and spend time in over the course of his work.

Consequently, the further one goes into what can come across as a cautionary life tale, the more the protagonist's lot changes from one that seems to be the stuff of fantasy to one that could be described to be a hollow shell, and maybe even a living nightmare. If truth be told, I'd have preferred for a 167 minute work to have ended on a higher note than La Dolce Vita did. However, this is more a personal opinion than genuine criticism of this an undeniably enthralling masterwork of cinema -- one which is filled with lots of striking images and creatively conceived segments that will undoubtedly linger long in this viewer's memory.

My rating of this film: 9

Punished (Hong Kong, 2011)
- From the Galas programme
- Lo Wing Cheong, director
- Starring Anthony Wong Chau San, Richie Jen, Janice Man, Maggie Cheung Ho Yee, Candy Lo, Charlie Cho, etc.

First it was Carrie Ng and Pat Ha. This Monday evening, it was Anthony Wong Chau San and co. So I have to say that this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival has most definitely delivered in terms of celebrity appearances that please a Hong Kong film fangirl like myself!

Ironically, however, the 2011 HKIFF turns out to not have been that great for Hong Kong cinema as a whole. For one thing, this year's Hong Kong Panorama may have been its smallest ever -- with only six films in the programme. For another, none of the Hong Kong movies I have seen at this film fest have greatly enthralled -- and yes, alas, I include here this Milkyway Image production whose tale of vengeance sorely lacks the nihilistic intensity and emotional depth of, say, South Korea's I Saw the Devil.

Lest it be thought otherwise, this crime drama's star definitely doesn't deserve any blame for this -- and, in fact, Anthony Wong turns in an admirable performance as a man who is used to controlling circumstances and other people, so is liable to snap when situations spiral out of his control and/or people don't (re)act in the way he wants them to. Additionally, while he has his detractors, I thought that Richie Jen put in a good performance as the man that Anthony Wong's tycoon character turns to for help after his daughter is kidnapped and to do the dirty work demanded by the tycoon after his dealings with his daughter's kidnappers don't go as hoped and planned.

Where I will point a finger though is at the script, and its characterizations of two key individuals in the story. The first of these is the daughter (played as a young adult by Janice Man) who comes across as so devoid of virtues that it's hard to believe that even her father could actually still truly love her. The second of these is the chief kidnapper whose motive for wanting the woman he kidnapped dead comes across as just not strong enough to risk the expected wrath and furious repercussions that would follow from committing such an act.

Put another way: Since the script didn't give me enough reason to care for the kidnap victim and sufficient understanding of the main villain's thinking, I just didn't feel that emotionally invested in the movie's proceedings. Consequently, when I saw people being punished in the film, I generally did not feel much empathy for them and what they were going through.

The one exception came, however, in the movie's climactic scene -- and involved a character that had hitherto not appeared to be someone who was all that important to the story. All in all, I consider it to be Punished's redemptive as well as strongest section. And, looking on the bright side, at least it allowed the work to end on a high rather than low note!

My rating for the film: 6.5

Two 2011 HKIFF offerings with just one word each in their title :)

As one of the HKIFF offerings I recently took in
served to fully remind me, vast swathes
of planet Earth are covered by salt water

Part 1 of the 35th Hong Kong International Film Festival comes to an end today, April 5th. Since March 20th, I've taken in 21 of its offerings -- with 6 of those coming in the last 3 days alone. And yes, I've got tickets for Part 2 which begins this Friday, April 8th. But since there are far fewer films on offer in the far more modest second part of the fest, I won't be viewing films so regularly as I have these past two and a half weeks or so...

...which really is just as well as I have to admit to feeling a bit movie-ed out and now thinking that one function of my blogging about the films I've seen at the HKIFF is to get me recording down my thoughts of the works before they fade away or get meshed together with other films and experiences! So, without further ado, here's continuing with my reportage!!

Family (Hong Kong, 1953)
- From the All for One and One for All: Union Film programme
- Ng Wui, director
- Starring Ng Cho Fan, Cheung Ying, Cheung Wood Yau, Tsi Lo Lin, Lo Duen, Mui Yi, etc.

As long term fans of Hong Kong cinema know full well, these are not good times for that which used to be the third largest film industry in the world not all that long ago. Thus it is that these days, one has to wait for years, even decades, before one can see a certain actor or actress's visage reappearing on the big screen.

Contrast these to the times when the likes of Andy Lau appeared in more than 10 movies in a single year. But even Mr Hardworking Lau's film numbers cannot compare with the stars of Family, the first box office hit that Union Film had; what with the likes of Ng Cho Fan having appeared in a whopping 318 movies in total and Cheung Ying having been in 402 movies!

Considering their numbers, I suppose that it is to be expected that Ng Cho Fan, Cheung Ying and others (including Tsi Lo Lin and Mui Yi) would be in both the Union Films I've seen at the HKIFF (and, actually, to date). Alternatively, I have to admit to being surprised at that versatility and ability -- in that, rather than essaying stock characters, their characters in Family generally have vastly different personalities from those that they played in In the Face of Demolition, another Union Film released in 1953.

For example, while Ng Cho Fan's In the Face of Demolition character had an admirable "can do" spirit, the man he plays in Family is one of the most passive movie person I've ever encountered -- especially given his position as the eldest grandson of a respected patriarch of a wealthy feudalistic family. And while Cheung Ying and Tsi Lo Lin's characters are romantically paired in Family like they were in In the Face of Demolition, this time around, their love is fated to not be due to his character's status as another of the patriarch's grandsons whereas she is a lowly maid in the family household.

In addition, if In the Face of Demolition's main characters embodied the "All for One and All for One" ethos espoused by the Union Film company, that of Family shows how a nominally unified group actually is full of people with opposing goals, dreams, wants and needs -- with different generations of unbiologically related folks appearing to have more in common than their family members of another generation.

A film adaptation of Ba Jin's novel showing how a Chinese feudalistic family came to destroy itself, this Ng Wui-helmed and -scripted work is rich in detail and in the 146 minutes that one views it, one feels like one has been immersed into this other world -- one that, alas, is not at all pleasant to be in. More specifically, the world of Family is full of such passivity and suppression that it caused a strong sense of frustration to well up in this viewer. At the same time, I do value the experience -- not least for giving me a good idea as to why some people would have so welcomed the Communist-led Chinese revolution and also the Cultural Revolution that we now know caused untold damage on Chinese culture and society and also the Chinese psyche.

My rating for this film: 7.5

Oceans (France-Spain-Switzerland, 2009)
- From the Dear Earth programme
- Jacques Perrin and Jacques Clauzard, directors

Decades ago in Malaysia, I spent a number of years having to wake up at 6.30am to go to school (which began at 7.30am). Perhaps in reaction to those days, I am one of these people who most emphatically is not an early riser. Consequently, I eschewed attended those HKIFF screenings that began at 10.30am in favor of the later ones -- with one exception: that of the ecological documentary about oceans and the life in it that Jacques Perrin, Jacques Clauzard and Co took 4 years to make.

Seeing that Oceans was accorded a screening in the prime venue that is the Hong Kong Cultural Centre's 1,734-seat Grand Theatre, one knew that it was a movie with a large anticipated audience -- and so it was. But after viewing it, I also like to think that the France-Spain-Switzerland co-production's awesome visual beauty also played a part in the fest organisers' decision to have it play on the largest screen of the HKIFF's venues.

As those of us who love nature and being the great outdoors know, the earth has many incredible natural wonders and is full of sublime natural beauty -- and suffice to say that this documentary's team of cinematographers have successfully captured on film whole segments and scenes that give great visual testimony of this. In addition, they also have done a great job in showing the world -- and its oceans in particular -- to contain a far larger and wider variety of biological life than many of us can imagine, never mind realize.

Credit also to the film's makers for not shying away from showing us the uglier sides of nature -- including the destructive animals that human beings can be and, in fact, too often are. (In particular, the sight of a bloodied, de-finned shark fighting a losing struggle to survive after being thrown back into the ocean threatened to make me cry and despair.)

Kudos and thanks, meanwhile, go to the HKIFF's programmers for opting for the original French language version of the documentary rather than the Disney-fied version that sports a much criticized English voice-over by Pierce Brosnan. And on the aural front: here's also letting it be known that Oceans' sound mixers also did a superb job with the natural (and natural-sounding) sounds. (On the other hand, the music selection was not as inspiring as it could have been and, in fact, could be said to be pretty unmemorable.)

About the only misstep that the makers made -- and this is something that is particularly noticeable in light of the tsunamis that recently hit Japan -- was in a particular sequencing whereby after the narrator talks about how the oceans need to be protected, viewers get shown scenes of powerful waves doing such as splashing against weather-beaten rock faces and rising high to momentarily top a lighthouse seemingly precariously installed atop a lonely rock. But in the grand scheme of things, this surely is but a very small criticism of this largely amazing work indeed.

My rating for the film: 8.5

Two films viewed at the HKIFF this past Wednesday

Puppet Ponyo this past Wednesday evening
with a film prof friend in town for the
Hong Kong International Film Festival :)

This past Wednesday, I took a day off from work to take in two afternoon screenings at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. And before the fest comes to a close, I'll have taken another day off work to watch films screened at times when I otherwise would be in the office. For while visitors from overseas lament that they usually can't afford to be in Hong Kong for the entire festival, those of us who work here tend to gripe about the many screenings we can't attend because they take place during office hours.

All of our complaints notwithstanding though, the committed film fans among us still do end up catching quite a few HKIFF offerings -- and the truth of the matter is that however much we moan, it often is the case that the Hong Kong International Film Festival is the highlight of our annual film-going -- and sometimes even social! -- calendar...

Good Morning to the World!! (Japan, 2010)
-From the Asian Digital Competition programme
- Satoru Hirohara, director
- Starring Yoichiro Koizumi, Mio Arai and Mutsunori Izumi

How does one go about deciding on what films to watch at a mega film festival featuring over 500 films from all over the world? Often, I rely on what I've read and/or heard about a work. At other times, I look at the names of their directors and/or stars and trust that those with a good track record will have come up with another gem. Another factor that can convince me to give a film a chance -- in terms of plonking money for a ticket to check it out -- is if it's won a prize at a significant film festival or awards competition.

Seeing as Good Morning to the World!! won the prestigious Dragons and Tigers Award for Young Cinema at the Vancouver International Film Festival last year, I figured that 23-year-old Satoru Hirohara's first feature film would be a notable work to view. And this digital work revolving around an alienated schoolboy on the cusp of adulthood looked to have also impressed some worthy members of its audience here in Hong Kong as it went on to be given a Special Mention in the Fipresci Prize competition at the HKIFF.

If truth be told, however, I actually was distinctly unimpressed by this movie whose own director seemed somewhat apologetic with regards to his work at the post-screening Q&A session -- to the extent of making it a point to inform the audience that the film had been shot at a different number of frames per second ratio from what he actually thinks is preferable!

In any case, there's no hiding that visually, the film just didn't look very good -- bar for its final extended scene which looked nice but seemed to leave the story's conclusion far too open-ended for my liking. And while I am inclined to be less negative about the sound than a fellow audience member who told the director that he thought the chosen music often seemed too ill-fitting (and consequently distracted from the story that was unfolding on screen), I also was not particularly impressed by this facet of the work.

All this I would overlook if the offering's story and/or protagonist had sufficiently intrigued. But the life of a withdrawn teenager who tends to over-internalize his thoughts and feelings, even after he discovers that a homeless person he regularly passes by on his way to and from school has died and decides to take it upon himself to look for people related to the deceased man, just wasn't made out to be all that involving in this movie whose most interesting bit might well be its title having not one but two exclamation marks.

In short: I found Good Morning to the World!!'s proceedings and film style to be disappointingly dull and mediocre, even if not outright terrible. And while its youthful director may have shown some promise with his debut feature work (notably in his choice of lead actor in the form of the even more youthful Yoichiro Koizumi), my own feeling is that he needs to mature quite a bit more before he'll make a work that I will come away from a viewing feeling really satisfied, let alone wowed by.

My rating for the film: 5

Buenos Aires Zero Degree (Hong Kong, 1998)
- From the 20th Anniversary of Fortissimo Films programme
- Kwan Pun Leung and Amos Lee, directors
- With Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Wong Kar Wai, Chang Chen, Shirley Kwan, etc.

For some reason or other, this year's HKIFF has shaped out to be one in which I've viewed a number of films that have been lengthier than the 90-120 minute lengths that tends to be the norm for feature films (with the 5 1/2 hour long Carlos taking the prize in this regard). In addition, there have been a couple of offerings that I wished would have ended earlier than they ended up doing.

On the other hand, Kwan Pun Leung and Amos Lee's "making of" documentary of Wong Kar Wai's Happy Together is a work that I wished hadn't been so short -- clocking in, as it did, at a mere 59 minutes -- though, to be fair, it does manage to jam in quite a lot of information as well as evoke its share of memories and moods into its less than hour long package.

An authorized documentary, it contains interviews with Wong Kar Wai (who reveals he suffered a stroke while filming in Argentina!) and Tony Leung Chiu Wai (who talks about being so homesick for Hong Kong while in South America that he dreamnt of his mother!!) as well as elects to get the viewpoints of two ethnic Chinese who seem more comfortable in Argentina than anywhere else in the world in Happy Together's production secretary (Leticia Yeh) and person in charge of continuity (Aili Chen). It also contains footage from the finished film -- and seeing Leslie Cheung on screen made me remember with a start and sigh how handsome and charismatic he was.

Undoubtedly the highlights of the work though are the opportunity to view footage that didn't make the final cut of Happy Together -- including brief segments showing Tony Leung Chiu Wai in a crowd that Argentinian football great Diego Maradona walks by and Leslie Cheung in drag and longer and more substantive sections featuring Shirley Kwan (whose character was infamously completely excised from the finalized version the film). There also are minutes of footage showing Leslie and Little Tony taking tango lessons -- and here I have to state that a tangoing Leslie (be it by himself, partnered by Little Tony or somebody else altogether) makes for quite the mesmerizing sight.

In addition, this documentary provides reminders of how wonderful are the music selections in Wong Kar Wai's movies -- and how big a part they play in establishing and evoking moods. The standout song in this work is a song sung by Shirley Kwan (who also contributed to Fallen Angels' soundtrack with Mong Gei Tak (trans. Forget Him)) entitled Cucurrucucu Paloma. (N.B. I've found a version of Cucurrucucu Paloma sung by a male voice on Youtube but actually think Shirley Kwan's version is superior to it.)

Part of me wants to re-watch the 1997 Wong Kar Wai film just to see if her version of the song made it final cut -- yes, I confess it's been so long ago since I last viewed it that I can't remember this -- but another part of me thinks nothing can beat seeing as well as hearing Shirley Kwan singing that song as the 1998 documentary allowed one to do. At the same time though, Buenos Aires Zero Degree also makes me understand why Shirley Kwan's character ended up being cut out of Happy Together. Put another way: the work is great both for showing the interesting bits there were left out of the final version of Happy Together but also confirming that Wong Kar Wai made the right choice after all by having not included them, however good they are in of themselves!

My rating for this film: 8

Yet another 2011 HKIFF Report (The dark edition)

Some of the colorful banners that can be seen about
Asia's World City around this time of the year

I'm listening to music from a Leslie Cheung CD as I write this entry. And yes, this time of the year, it's hard to not be aware -- especially if you're a fan of Leslie and/or living in Hong Kong -- that April 1st (which fell yesterday this year) is his death anniversary. As it so happens, this year, among the memorial events the folks of Red Mission have organized are two screenings of Days of Being Wild. So it feels really ironic as well as sad to learn that the film's producer, Alan Tang, passed away earlier this week.

Even while their premature deaths are mourned, however, their work -- and the appreciation of them -- remain very much alive -- in large part via the magic of movies (as well as, in Leslie's case, through his music). And it's also true enough that events such as the Hong Kong International Film Festival provide ample proof that films really have the power to connect people and make them think and feel as well as "just" entertain...

Inside Job (U.S.A., 2010)
- From the Reality Bites programme
- Charles Ferguson, director

The only offering from the U.S.A. on my 2011 HKIFF viewing list is an Oscar winner -- albeit in one of the Academy Awards' less glamorous category: that of feature-length documentary. And the last time I looked, there were close to two hundred reviews in the Charles Ferguson's film on the Internet Movie Data Base including by the likes of the Chicago Sun-Times' Roger Ebert, New York Times' A. O. Scott and Village Voice's J. Hoberman.

In all honesty, a very big part of me very much doubts that I'll be able to add all that much (especially quality wise) to their thoughts about this work whose viewing had been described in the HKIFF programme booklet as guaranteed to leave one angry and upset -- presumably with the people and companies that were supposed to be pillars of the establishment but turn out to have been disreputable gits who have ruined many innocent people's lives.

As it turns out though, I actually wasn't left boiling with rage by my viewing of Inside Job -- but, then, maybe it's because I've long not had much trust nor respect for those individuals out there who really do seem to believe Gordon Gekko's assertion that "Greed... is good. Greed is right. Greed works".

Alternatively, the documentary did leave me feeling really sad -- not least about the great economic disparity that exists in the world; one that the film well illustrated by showing one of the disgraced financial companies whose "work" helped trigger the 2008 world financial crisis having had several private planes (including a 767) at its disposal and quite a few of the senior executives having made several millions of (American) dollars despite losing their companies and their clients several hundred millions more (US) dollars... and then having a segment in which a Chinese migrant worker spoke about how she had moved to the city because there, she could find higher paying jobs -- jobs that paid her US$60 a month.

But while I felt that this work was excellent in its coverage and analysis of what had transpired, it is disappointingly short of solutions for remedying a situation that it clearly has shown should not go on. Put another way: what we seem to be left with are people to blame but few, if any, people who have been identified as being able to clean up the mess and lead the world to a better, healthier economic plain and/or set up -- least of all the man who campaigned on a "Yes we can" promise that is looking more and more to be mere slogan rather than something real and substantive.

My rating for the film: 7.5

I Saw the Devil (South Korea, 2010)
- From the Midnight Heat programme
- Kim Jee Woon, director
- Starring Lee Byung Hun, Choi Min Sik and Jeon Gook Hwan

What is it with Koreans and revenge movies? To be sure, I do know that South Korean cinema has excellent films in many other genres -- and I've seen a number of them (including Peppermint Candy, Joint Security Area and My Sassy Girl) -- but there's also no denying that some of the most high profile movies out of South Korea in recent years have been revenge movies... and that Kim Jee Won's masterful I Saw the Devil may actually have topped Park Chan Wook's Vengeance trilogy in terms of violence and villainy!

I Saw the Devil begins innocously with mellow music that one soon realizes is being played in a car being driven one snowy winter's evening by a woman celebrating her birthday that day. At some point in her journey though, her vehicle develops car trouble and she has to wait for a tow truck to help her out of what she envisages as but a temporary predicament. While waiting for help to arrive, she chats on a mobile phone with her husband (who the audience soon learns is a special agent heading a detail that guards a senior government official -- possibly the country's president).

While she's on the phone with her husband, another man approaches her car. He offers her help but she rejects him, saying she prefers to wait for the tow truck to arrive. Quickly, it is established that her inclination to be wary of him is the right instinct to have vis a vis him. Unfortunately, however, it still does not save her from a terrible fate -- one that both her retired policeman father as well as her husband discover along with hundreds of others by a river not long afterwards.

After his beloved wife's death, the secret agent determines to discover his wife's murderer and make him pay for his not having killed her but inflicted a horrendous amount of agony and pain on her along the way. The former he manages to do very quickly. With regards to the latter: That is something that is left in doubt for much of the movie -- that turns out to have a lot more plot twists (some more unpredictable than others) along with overall quality than your garden variety revenge film.

The way I see it, I Saw the Devil would have been better served if it had had one or two fewer twists. (And it does seem to be a recurring complaint on my part re South Korean films that they don't seem to know when it's time to end. In particular, they regularly appear to have unnecessary post scripts attached to the main story in the form of one needless final twist to the often already quite complex, if not convoluted, tale.)

At the same time, however, the added twists meant extra screen time for Lee Byung Hun and Choi Min Sik, the film's two stars who both turn in bravura performances that confirm their acting chops and powerful screen presence. Lee Byung Hun is particularly exceptional in a couple of scenes during which the sound is muted and his expressive face is the visual focus. And it's actually a great testimony of Choi Min Sik as a thespian that his performance in the film left me thoroughly chilled as well as horrified by his character's general lack of remorse along with his immorality and sheer despicability.

My rating for this film: 8.5

Closed (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

"I don't want to go to China," a friend of mine declared to me. "But you're already in China!" I retorted -- since our conversation was taking place in Hong Kong. "Oh, you know what I mean," she said -- and in fact, I do. Because even while the Big Lychee was handed (back) over to China by its British colonial masters on 1st July, 1997, it still doesn't feel completely like or part of China by virtue of officially being a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.

Among the indicators that Hong Kong and Mainland China continue to be distinct entities is the continued existence of a designated border between the two territories and, over on the Hong Kong side, an official Frontier Closed Area running along much of it. And while much of this Frontier Closed Area refers to sections of land, there's a part of it -- Sha Tau Kok Hoi (AKA Starling Inlet) -- that covers a body of water.

Consequently, one has the interesting experience when walking on the edge of Sha Tau Kok Hoi of being legally entitled to do that but not dip one's toes into the nearby water. Adding to the interesting experience is the fact that the Hong Kong side of this borderland is far quieter and less developed than that of the Mainland. Put another way, the closed nature of this frontier area has turned this part of Asia's World City into sleepy -- some might even say generally dead -- space as far as most of the territory's human residents are concerned.

For hikers, birdwatchers and shutterbugs though, this part of Hong Kong can be quite the idyllic delight to visit. Just remember if you head over to not step into the water since, if you're caught doing so by the authorities, the maximum punishment is HK$5,000 and two years in prison! And should you forget, there are signs (like the one at the top of this Photo Hunt entry) reminding you of precisely that!! ;O

Two more movies viewed at the 2011 HKIFF last Sunday

The Blue House -- an Wan Chai tenement building
that has been in danger of demolition but now
has been classified as a Grade I heritage building

Not so long ago, I'd have tried to not let a day go by without a film screening when the Hong Kong International Film Festival was on. These days, however, I'm of the mind that it ca be good to have a short break in the middle of the festival -- and today was such a day. So in lieu of taking in a HKIFF screening this evening, I instead had drinks and dinner with friends -- and now am back home writing this catch-up entry... what with my having already viewed six movies between now and viewing When Hainan Meets Teochew earlier this past Sunday, including the following two...!

Pina (Germany, 2011)
- From the Master Class programme
- Wim Wenders, director
- Starring members of the Tanztheatre Wuppertal Pina Bausch

For those who didn't already know this: I am not a fan of 3D movies -- and, in fact, contrived to only view one 3D movie the whole of last year. Nonetheless, when I found out that Wim Wenders (whose Buena Vista Social Club I loved -- even while having been left cold by his earlier acclaimed Wings of Desire) had made about a 3D film about legendary dance choreographer Pina Bausch (1940-2009) and her Tanztheatre Wuppertal Pina Bausch company (whose astounding Vollmond (trans. Full Moon) I had seen being performed at the Hong Kong Cultural Center a few years back), I just had to see this movie when it was screened as part of the 2011 Hong Kong International Film Festival...

...and let me state outright that Pina did not disappoint and made for quite the viewing experience. Interestingly, although I was acutely aware at the start of this visually sumptious movie that it was in 3D (not least because I had to wear a pair of 3D glasses on top of my regular spectacles), this technological state of affairs got so natural that I ended up not noticing the work's 3D effects all that much. Instead, what left much more of an impression on me were the dance sequences that Wim Wenders creatively filmed outside of the usual stage space -- with the performances that took place in a quarry, on public transportation and by a busy road side coming across as particularly innovative and exhilarating.

In a conversation with a friend who had attended the same Sunday afternoon screening as me, he vouchsafed that Pina was not a particularly good introduction to Pina Bausch since the film didn't provide much background to Pina Bausch the person as well as professional and also her dance troupe and dance style/choreographic innovations.

Alternatively, he took my point that one possible measure of the offering's effectiveness and success would come from whether it made its audience more inclined to check out a Pina Bausch-choreographed dance work -- and I will personally say that this movie did leave me kicking myself for not having got a ticket to a Tanztheatre Wuppertal Pina Bausch show at the recent Hong Kong Arts Festival and vowing to go see another of its shows the next time the troupe comes over to perform over here in the Big Lychee.

Something else that I took from this beautiful looking movie is that even while Pina Bausch's premature death is a major tragedy for the artistic world, it really does look like the Tanztheatre Wuppertal Pina Bausch can go on without its founder and major, influential inspiration. In addition, this film helped me to see members of the troupe as interesting individuals in their own right -- and when I next view a performance by this company, I know I will be watching and looking out for certain individuals in it even while still appreciating the performance of the troupe as an often quite breathtakingly amazing unit.

My rating for the film: 8.5

In the Face of Demolition (Hong Kong, 1953)
- From the All for One and One for All: Union Film programme
- Lee Tit, director
- Starring Ng Cho Fan, Cheung Yin, Tsi Lo Lin, Bruce Lee, etc.

Early on in my born again Hong Kong movie-hood, I realized that Hong Kong movie makers often reference the works of their predecessors (cf. Stephen Chow's entertaining Kung Fu Hustle (2004) and Eric Tsang's family-friendly 72 Tenants of Prosperity (2010) vis a vis Chor Yuen's seminal The House of 72 Tenants (1973)). So when I viewed Peter Chan Ho Sun and Lee Chi Ngai (AKA Chi Lee) He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father (1993), I figured that those who made it were inspired by past movies too -- and not just Hollywood's Back to the Future at that.

Still, it wasn't until I viewed In the Face of Demolition that I realized that Tony Leung Kar Fai's He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father's character's motto and ethos of "All for one and one for all" -- one which was initially rejected by his son, only for the younger man to later see the error of his ways -- came from that 1953 Union Film that has been defined by the Hong Kong Film Archive publicist as having been "a film that defined a generation".

A drama largely set in a tenement that is home to many families as well as individuals, In the Face of Demolition richly depicts how these groups and people variously deal with living in poverty and on the brink of disaster -- with some coping quite a bit more nobly and better than others. In particular, one can't help but come away from a viewing of the movie wishing that one could be as admirable in trying circumstances as the character essayed by Ng Cho Fan who, even when unemployed and in debt, is looked up to by many others and lives up to their trust in his humanity but also strong sense of communal responsibility.

At the risk of sounding callous, however, I found myself unable to empathize with all of the occupants of the tenement that was in not particularly good physical condition -- and thus wasn't the safest of places to be in when such as a typhoon comes near Hong Kong. In particular, too many of the characters seemed to be too fiscally careless -- or at least overly generous in sharing out whatever cash and commodities they came into possession of.

Consequently, even while I applaud many of the characters' communal spirit and ethos, I also thought that they sometimes deserved some of the problems that came their way. So if this Union Film production was actually trying to preach the nobility as well as virtues of altruism and sacrificing for a larger whole, it seemed that it didn't completely go the right way in propagating its message -- which is a pity since there nonetheless is little doubt that its well meaning makers most definitely had their heart in the right place.

My rating for the film: 7

Another HKIFF 2011 Report (this one written in less than an hour!)

Singaporean director Han Yew Khang (left) speaks
in Mandarin and the HKIFF's Bede Cheng
does the translation (into English) duties

As I begin writing this entry, I'm aware that it's just about two hours before another HKIFF screening that I've got a ticket for begins -- and also that I'm five films behind in my reportage. Still, before I get into writing about another movie I viewed at the ongoing Hong Kong International Film Festival, here's going on the record and stating how pleased I have been to find quite a few filmmakers (and, in the case of Hi, Fidelity -- cast members) have been present at the screenings I attended.

Adding to the pleasure has been the presence of people to interpret remarks made in Cantonese or Mandarin into English (or, when applicable, English into Cantonese) -- something which hasn't always been the case (as was so a few years ago at the HKIFF screening of High Noon). So thank you, HKIFF -- and especially Bede Cheng and Joanna Lee for their sterling efforts thus far. :)

But now on to the reviewing:-

When Hainan Meets Teochew (Singapore, 2010)
- From the Global Vision programme
- Han Yew Khang, director
- Starring Lee Chau Min, Tan Hong Chye, Yeo Yann Yann

In an e-mail exchange with a friend shortly after watching The Ditch, I told her that I rued not having more comedies on my HKIFF viewing list. At the same time though, it wasn't exactly as though I was spoiled for choice with regards to offerings in that genre -- something that a film prof acquaintance over here for this year's HKIFF from Australia noted just last night. And thinking about it some more, it really can seem to be so that comedies don't often get screened at film festivals -- and, as Peter Chan Ho Sun has observed (in Miles Wood's Cine East: Hong Kong Cinema Through the Looking Glass (Fab Press, 1998)), don't seem to get much respect from critics -- nor come awards time.

Perhaps it's because humor can seem to be more culture specific than other human emotions. (I still recall the authors of Sex & Zen & A Bullet in the Head: The Essential Guide to Hong Kong's Mind-bending Films (Fireside, 1996) issuing a cautionary warning against checking out the comedies of Stephen Chow and those movies whose video covers had people with big heads on them!) And the Australian film prof I spoke to last night told me that he had been left cold by a comedy from Singapore that he and I had viewed a few days back.

On the other hand, to judge from the audience reaction, the humor of When Hainan Meets Teochew appeared to be much appreciated by the mainly Hong Kong (with a smattering of Singaporeans and others) audience I viewed the movie with. And I definitely feel that I owe A Nutshell Review's Stefan S at least one drink for bringing this title to my attention. (So Stefan, next time you come over to Hong Kong... ;b)

A feel-good gender-bender of a movie, When Hainan Meets Teochew's main characters are a Hainanese woman who could easily be mistaken for a male based on her physical appearance and a Teochew man who believes he is a woman who just happens to have a male body. After a kerfuffle over a prized bra (which turns out to belong to the Hainanese woman's beloved ex) leads to the Teochew man being ejected out of his apartment, the Hainanese woman takes him in as a lodger -- and become good friends.

As to whether they can become more than good friends: interestingly, while the Hainanese woman does appear to be an out and out lesbian, the Teochew man appears more ambivalent with regards to which gender his life partner should be from. Alternatively put, what he really would like is someone with whom he can be happy with -- and sex as well as gender may not be a factor in the equation at all.

In a similar way, When Hainan Meets Teochew appears content to be a fun movie without being an outright comedy (since it does have some dramatic sections as well) and also appears in two minds as to whether it wants to insert actual romance into the proceedings. Rather, it seems content to throw what could be described as conventional romantic comedic elements into the proceedings (including a mother who wants her daughter to have someone to look after her rather have her daughter have the role of the looker-after, and an ex-lover who returns to the apartment to add twists, friction and spice to the Hainan woman and Teochew man's sex-less apartment sharing arrangement) and then play around with them in unconventional ways.

All in all, I found this offering to be entertaining -- as well as often surprising, especially given that it actually received funding from a Singaporean government body! Also pretty funny -- but also poignant in part, given the relationship depicted in the movie between the Teochew protagonist and his father -- was the writer-director Han Yew Khang's revelation during the post-screening Q&A session that Lau Chau Min (the female whose character is known as Hainan Boy) is actually his film company's production manager and Tan Hong Chye (the man whose character is referred to as Ms. Teochew) actually is a wardrobe stylist and costume designer -- with the implication being that their characters' reel lives are based on the two individual's reality!!

My rating for the film: 7.5