Eager as ever to attend Tiff, a festival I have missed only once in the last 29 years, because a cat bite sent me to the hospital, I am looking forward to discoveries and have booked my calendar tight with films!
I am lucky to have seen three films already, two in Cannes, both wonderful, memorable funny and absurd films, Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, So. Korea’s submission for Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, and a likely winner, as well as So. Korea’s first-ever Palm d’Or winner in Cannes this year; and Elia Suleiman’s This Must Be Heaven, sweetly surreal, as funny as a Jacques Tati film, wryly observing our human race and with a funny little cameo with Gael Garcia Bernal introducing Suleiman to his agent. The third, Synonyms, won this year’s Berlinale Golden Bear. A coproduction of France, Israel and Germany, it...
I am lucky to have seen three films already, two in Cannes, both wonderful, memorable funny and absurd films, Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, So. Korea’s submission for Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, and a likely winner, as well as So. Korea’s first-ever Palm d’Or winner in Cannes this year; and Elia Suleiman’s This Must Be Heaven, sweetly surreal, as funny as a Jacques Tati film, wryly observing our human race and with a funny little cameo with Gael Garcia Bernal introducing Suleiman to his agent. The third, Synonyms, won this year’s Berlinale Golden Bear. A coproduction of France, Israel and Germany, it...
- 9/3/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Exclusive: French producer Sylvain Bursztejn’s Ambre Films is joining forces with Celine Loop and Q’s Kolkata-based Oddjoint to produce a feature version of Alka Raghuram’s documentary Burqa Boxers.
Entitled Houma, the Hindi and Bengali-language film tells the story of a teenage girl in a poor Muslim community in Kolkata who takes up boxing. She is determined to fight her poverty, but a girl who looks exactly like her starts raising uncomfortable questions about her past.
Raghuram [pictured] is working on the script and the producers aim to start shooting in the third quarter of 2016.
“India is one of the most interesting places in Asia in terms of new talent and dynamic young directors,” said Bursztejn who co-produced Lou Ye’s Summer Palace and Wang Chao’s Luxury Car.
Burqa Boxers, about four Muslim girls who learn boxing, is screening in this year’s Work-in-Progress Lab at Film Bazaar. The project...
Entitled Houma, the Hindi and Bengali-language film tells the story of a teenage girl in a poor Muslim community in Kolkata who takes up boxing. She is determined to fight her poverty, but a girl who looks exactly like her starts raising uncomfortable questions about her past.
Raghuram [pictured] is working on the script and the producers aim to start shooting in the third quarter of 2016.
“India is one of the most interesting places in Asia in terms of new talent and dynamic young directors,” said Bursztejn who co-produced Lou Ye’s Summer Palace and Wang Chao’s Luxury Car.
Burqa Boxers, about four Muslim girls who learn boxing, is screening in this year’s Work-in-Progress Lab at Film Bazaar. The project...
- 11/21/2015
- by lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
- ScreenDaily
The Roundup (La Rafle)
by Rose Bosch (Isa: Legende). U.S. Menemsha. France: Gaumont, TF1, Canal +, France Television
Until the 1990s when then-Prime Minister Jacques Chirac officially accepted the idea of French complicity for the Vichy regime of France, all Frenchmen seem to have claimed to have been part of DeGaulle’s Resistance Movement. Recently, the new Prime Minister Hollande apologized again for France’s role in rounding up the Jews, especially 13,000 in Paris who were herded into the Vel’ Hive (The Winter Velodrome). Because of the acknowledgement, filmmaker and former journalist Rose Bosch could raise private equity to make the feature The Roundup (La Rafle) on the same subject. With a 47% increase in Anti-Semitism in France, when the film aired on TV, Twitter was inundated with Anti-Semitic remarks and jokes which is frightening today to those whose ideals remain on the side of democratic multi-culturalism.
No Place On Earth (The Cave)
by Emmy Award winning director Janet Tobias (Isa: Global Screen GMBh). U.S. contact Submarine
The longest recorded underground survival story in human history was 511 days. This record was set when 5 Jewish families in the Ukraine who descended into a pitch black cave to escape the Nazis.
The Third Half
by Darko Mitrevski, Macedonia's submission for Oscar Nomination for est Foreign Language Film (Isa: The Little Film Co.).
Determined to build the best football club in the country, Dimitry hires the German coach, Rudolph Spitz, to galvanize his rag tag team but when the first Nazi tanks roll through the city in 1939. When Rebecca, the beautiful Jewish daughter of a local banker, elopes with his star player, all Dimitry’s plans must change. The Third Half was born twelve years ago, while the director Darko Metrevski was digging up forgotten stories for a historical TV series. "I remember that, while I was seeking witnesses of various historic periods, someone mentioned the old Mrs. Neta Koen, recently interviewed by the Shoah Visual History Foundation. Soon I found myself in her apartment listening to her stories: She was one of the few Holocaust survivors in Macedonia, a country in which 98% of the Jewish population was brutally wiped out during the WW2. I remember I couldn’t resist asking: “Pardon my curiosity, but how did you survive?” She answered with equal sincerity: “Well, I eloped with a poor football player, and my family renounced me, so my name was not on the lists for deportation. My forbidden love saved my life and the continuity of my family tree as well.” And of course, as in every big, important, monumental event – there is a woman behind all of that.
"Finally, it is a story of my grandfather Vlastimir, a soccer referee and a Holocaust survivor whose written remembrances were the first horrible experience of my childhood.This movie is dedicated to the loving memory of my father, who taught me that creating art is like playing sports – one should never give up as long as his feet stand on the pitch."
Upcoming: Sylvain Bursztejn of Sequoia Films in Paris is now shooting The Last Man in Cologne directed by Pierre-Henry Salfati.
by Rose Bosch (Isa: Legende). U.S. Menemsha. France: Gaumont, TF1, Canal +, France Television
Until the 1990s when then-Prime Minister Jacques Chirac officially accepted the idea of French complicity for the Vichy regime of France, all Frenchmen seem to have claimed to have been part of DeGaulle’s Resistance Movement. Recently, the new Prime Minister Hollande apologized again for France’s role in rounding up the Jews, especially 13,000 in Paris who were herded into the Vel’ Hive (The Winter Velodrome). Because of the acknowledgement, filmmaker and former journalist Rose Bosch could raise private equity to make the feature The Roundup (La Rafle) on the same subject. With a 47% increase in Anti-Semitism in France, when the film aired on TV, Twitter was inundated with Anti-Semitic remarks and jokes which is frightening today to those whose ideals remain on the side of democratic multi-culturalism.
No Place On Earth (The Cave)
by Emmy Award winning director Janet Tobias (Isa: Global Screen GMBh). U.S. contact Submarine
The longest recorded underground survival story in human history was 511 days. This record was set when 5 Jewish families in the Ukraine who descended into a pitch black cave to escape the Nazis.
The Third Half
by Darko Mitrevski, Macedonia's submission for Oscar Nomination for est Foreign Language Film (Isa: The Little Film Co.).
Determined to build the best football club in the country, Dimitry hires the German coach, Rudolph Spitz, to galvanize his rag tag team but when the first Nazi tanks roll through the city in 1939. When Rebecca, the beautiful Jewish daughter of a local banker, elopes with his star player, all Dimitry’s plans must change. The Third Half was born twelve years ago, while the director Darko Metrevski was digging up forgotten stories for a historical TV series. "I remember that, while I was seeking witnesses of various historic periods, someone mentioned the old Mrs. Neta Koen, recently interviewed by the Shoah Visual History Foundation. Soon I found myself in her apartment listening to her stories: She was one of the few Holocaust survivors in Macedonia, a country in which 98% of the Jewish population was brutally wiped out during the WW2. I remember I couldn’t resist asking: “Pardon my curiosity, but how did you survive?” She answered with equal sincerity: “Well, I eloped with a poor football player, and my family renounced me, so my name was not on the lists for deportation. My forbidden love saved my life and the continuity of my family tree as well.” And of course, as in every big, important, monumental event – there is a woman behind all of that.
"Finally, it is a story of my grandfather Vlastimir, a soccer referee and a Holocaust survivor whose written remembrances were the first horrible experience of my childhood.This movie is dedicated to the loving memory of my father, who taught me that creating art is like playing sports – one should never give up as long as his feet stand on the pitch."
Upcoming: Sylvain Bursztejn of Sequoia Films in Paris is now shooting The Last Man in Cologne directed by Pierre-Henry Salfati.
- 11/9/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Sylvain Bursztejn, producer of 24 films since 1989, is best known for his French-Chinese films such as the Cannes Festival winners Spring Fever, Luxury Car, and the recent Locarno Golden Leopard winner She, a Chinese, and some of my favorites, The Cry of the Silk and The Perfect Circle which opened Directors Fortnight in 1996. He has forsaken China as his place of production due to the intolerance there for original thinking. When he began producing in 1989, his film from Tunisia, Asfour Stah, opened Directors Fortnight that same year. The Oak Tree was in Cannes Competition in 1991. He…...
- 6/10/2010
- Sydney's Buzz
Strand Releasing has acquired all U.S. rights to Lou Ye's "Spring Fever," which screens at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 17.
The film, about a wife who discovers her husband is having an affair with another man, took the best screenplay award at the Festival de Cannes.
Strand, which also released Ye's "Summer Palace," will launch "Spring" theatrically in the spring.
The film was produced by Nai An, Sylvain Bursztejn, Dream Factory Hk and Rosem Films.
The acquisition was negotiated by Wild Bunch's nm2431961 autoCarole Baraton[/link] and Strand's Marcus Hu and Jon Gerrans.
The film, about a wife who discovers her husband is having an affair with another man, took the best screenplay award at the Festival de Cannes.
Strand, which also released Ye's "Summer Palace," will launch "Spring" theatrically in the spring.
The film was produced by Nai An, Sylvain Bursztejn, Dream Factory Hk and Rosem Films.
The acquisition was negotiated by Wild Bunch's nm2431961 autoCarole Baraton[/link] and Strand's Marcus Hu and Jon Gerrans.
- 9/9/2009
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
No sooner does Berlin begin than the sales agents begin tipping their titles for Cannes. Fortiissimo is touting Taiwan director Tsai Ming-Liang's Face. Helen Loveridge, a founder of Fortissimo has set up her new company and has Cannes hopeful Altiplano directed by Peter Bosens and Jessica Woodworth and starring Jasmine Tabatabi, Olivier Gourmet and Magaly Solier. Her sales on Yes Madam, Sir are going well. TF1 has Love Reclaimed (Aka Starting Over, Tout Peut Recommencer) directed by CHAO Wang and produced by Sylvain Bursztein. A complete Tipped for Cannes Report is available to subscribing clients and will be updated until the final report comes out after the press announcemnt April 23.
- 2/9/2009
- Sydney's Buzz
- Nothing helps start out a budding relationship between producer and director like a nice festival prize – especially those coming from Cannes. Variety reports that French producer Sylvain Bursztejn (Summer Palace) is setting up Wang Chao’s next project. This time out the art-house director may actually receive some support from his homeland.Winner of the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section with last year’s Luxury Car, the $2 million budget is coming from a combination of Chinese and European sources. It will be a co-production between Bursztejn's Rosem Films and Hangzhou-based Zhejiang Golden Globe Pictures. Golden Globe's Chen Jinhai will take producer credits alongside Bursztejn. Scripted by Wang, Starting Over is set in Hangzhou, two hours' drive from Shanghai, "Starting Over" is a contempo love story about a cheating wife and her husband. Following a car crash, the wife suffers from amnesia forgetting the last several years
- 6/22/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
SHANGHAI -- Producer Sylvain Bursztejn is teaming with Wang Chao for the director's third film, he said Thursday at the 10th annual Shanghai International Film Festival. Their last collaboration, "Luxury Car", made a splash at the Festival de Cannes in 2006, taking Un Certain Regard prize.
The new film, "Starting Over", is a French-Chinese co-production made in cooperation with Zhejiang Golden Globe Picture Co. Ltd., and will be helmed by Chen Jinhai, Bursztejn said in an interview.
The contemporary feature will be filmed in Hangzhou, the capital of eastern China's Zhejiang Province, and is scheduled to film for 50 days beginning Sept. 1.
After his recent success at Cannes, Wang has developed a reputation in Europe, Bursztejn said. He hopes this movie can be a bridge between the art house films for which his Paris-based Rosem Films is known and for the broader market.
"I am happy to be working again with Wang Chao. We know each other by heart and have a great working relationship," Bursztejn said.
The new film, "Starting Over", is a French-Chinese co-production made in cooperation with Zhejiang Golden Globe Picture Co. Ltd., and will be helmed by Chen Jinhai, Bursztejn said in an interview.
The contemporary feature will be filmed in Hangzhou, the capital of eastern China's Zhejiang Province, and is scheduled to film for 50 days beginning Sept. 1.
After his recent success at Cannes, Wang has developed a reputation in Europe, Bursztejn said. He hopes this movie can be a bridge between the art house films for which his Paris-based Rosem Films is known and for the broader market.
"I am happy to be working again with Wang Chao. We know each other by heart and have a great working relationship," Bursztejn said.
- 6/22/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BEIJING -- China has banned acclaimed director Lou Ye from making movies for five years as punishment for sending his Summer Palace to the Cannes Film Festival without government approval in May, official media reported Monday. Lou, who previously suffered a two-year blacklisting in 2000 for his Rotterdam Film Festival winner Suzhou River (HR 7/18), could not be reached for comment. In a telephone interview, the film's French co-producer called the decision by the State Administration of Radio Film and Television "shameful." "I am very sad that the Chinese public will not be allowed to see the fantastic love story," Sylvain Bursztejn, the head of Paris-based Rosem Films, said. Love story, sure, but it was the film's backdrop which caused trouble with the censors who refused to review it for approval for Cannes, claiming the print submitted was of poor quality. In May, the director and producers said this was a groundless excuse by the state, used to avoid addressing the film's content.
BEIJING -- China has banned acclaimed director Lou Ye from making movies for five years as punishment for sending his Summer Palace to the Cannes Film Festival without government approval in May, official media reported Monday. Lou, who previously suffered a two-year blacklisting in 2000 for his Rotterdam Film Festival winner Suzhou River (HR 7/18), could not be reached for comment. In a telephone interview, the film's French co-producer called the decision by the State Administration of Radio Film and Television "shameful." "I am very sad that the Chinese public will not be allowed to see the fantastic love story," Sylvain Bursztejn, the head of Paris-based Rosem Films, said. Love story, sure, but it was the film's backdrop which caused trouble with the censors who refused to review it for approval for Cannes, claiming the print submitted was of poor quality. In May, the director and producers said this was a groundless excuse by the state, used to avoid addressing the film's content.
Opened Oct. 16 (Hong Kong)
HONG KONG -- "The Floating Landscape" is a finely modulated feature by rising local filmmaker Carol Lai Mui-suet. But what has sparked audience interest in Asia is the participation of Taiwanese illustrator Jimmy Liao. Non-Chinese audiences likely are not familiar with the popular artist's work, but his colorful books capture the lonely-heart melancholy and fragile constitution of human emotions in vivid colors and dreamy vibrant images.
For "Landscape", the animator has contributed some drawings that are used in the film as well as created a heart-tugging 30-second animated epilogue that packs a devastating emotional wallop. In addition, the story with its honest empathy captures the ethereal spirit of Liao's work. It's an influence Lai -- a triple threat as writer-director-editor -- is not afraid to admit.
The question is: Will this movie, Hong Kong's sole selection for this year's Festival de Cannes, generate interest for illustrator Liao's work overseas? Just as significantly: Will this mark the birth of a new Hong Kong directing star?
A young woman (Karena Lam) recently lost her boyfriend to a fatal disease. In his dying days, he was consumed with the vision of a tree-lined landscape and sketched it. With the drawing, she travels to his hometownto find this specific location. While there, she meets a postman (Mainland actor Liu Ye) who notices her grief and agrees to help her in the search for the landscape.
The two acquaintances start to develop mutual feelings but keep a respectful emotional distance. She still clings to an attachment for her late boyfriend. He is too timid to impress his feelings on her.
Admittedly slow in places, "Landscape" still presents the kind of natural emotion you rarely see in Hong Kong movies. Lai understands how hard real happiness is to achieve and can articulate the rich melancholy of the effort. She balances sadness with a stoic sensitivity and nurtures the woman and the postman's attraction with a natural and organic stillness.On whole, this is a lovely, tender effort.
THE FLOATING LANDSCAPE
Filmko Entertainment Ltd., Sil-Metropole Organization, NHK and Rosem Films present a co-production with China Film Co-production Corp. with the participation of Fonds Sud Cinema, Ministere de la Culture et de la Communication CNC, Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres
Credits:
Screenwriter-director-editor: Carol Lai Miu-suet
Producers: Stanley Kwan, Arthur Wong
Executive producer: Alex Wong
Director of photography: Arthur Wong
Production designer: Ben Luk
Co-producers: Sylvain Bursztejn, Christine Ravet, Makoto Ueda
Music: Shigeru Umebayashi
Costume designer: William Chang
Editing design: Danny Pang
Cast:
Maan: Karena Lam
Lit: Liu Ye
Sam: Ekin Cheng
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
HONG KONG -- "The Floating Landscape" is a finely modulated feature by rising local filmmaker Carol Lai Mui-suet. But what has sparked audience interest in Asia is the participation of Taiwanese illustrator Jimmy Liao. Non-Chinese audiences likely are not familiar with the popular artist's work, but his colorful books capture the lonely-heart melancholy and fragile constitution of human emotions in vivid colors and dreamy vibrant images.
For "Landscape", the animator has contributed some drawings that are used in the film as well as created a heart-tugging 30-second animated epilogue that packs a devastating emotional wallop. In addition, the story with its honest empathy captures the ethereal spirit of Liao's work. It's an influence Lai -- a triple threat as writer-director-editor -- is not afraid to admit.
The question is: Will this movie, Hong Kong's sole selection for this year's Festival de Cannes, generate interest for illustrator Liao's work overseas? Just as significantly: Will this mark the birth of a new Hong Kong directing star?
A young woman (Karena Lam) recently lost her boyfriend to a fatal disease. In his dying days, he was consumed with the vision of a tree-lined landscape and sketched it. With the drawing, she travels to his hometownto find this specific location. While there, she meets a postman (Mainland actor Liu Ye) who notices her grief and agrees to help her in the search for the landscape.
The two acquaintances start to develop mutual feelings but keep a respectful emotional distance. She still clings to an attachment for her late boyfriend. He is too timid to impress his feelings on her.
Admittedly slow in places, "Landscape" still presents the kind of natural emotion you rarely see in Hong Kong movies. Lai understands how hard real happiness is to achieve and can articulate the rich melancholy of the effort. She balances sadness with a stoic sensitivity and nurtures the woman and the postman's attraction with a natural and organic stillness.On whole, this is a lovely, tender effort.
THE FLOATING LANDSCAPE
Filmko Entertainment Ltd., Sil-Metropole Organization, NHK and Rosem Films present a co-production with China Film Co-production Corp. with the participation of Fonds Sud Cinema, Ministere de la Culture et de la Communication CNC, Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres
Credits:
Screenwriter-director-editor: Carol Lai Miu-suet
Producers: Stanley Kwan, Arthur Wong
Executive producer: Alex Wong
Director of photography: Arthur Wong
Production designer: Ben Luk
Co-producers: Sylvain Bursztejn, Christine Ravet, Makoto Ueda
Music: Shigeru Umebayashi
Costume designer: William Chang
Editing design: Danny Pang
Cast:
Maan: Karena Lam
Lit: Liu Ye
Sam: Ekin Cheng
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
This second installment in Hong Kong director Fruit Chan's "prostitute trilogy" -- the first was "Durian Durian", which played at Venice last year -- is lucid and free-flowing. The story, scripted by Chan, shows the havoc a girlish prostitute from mainland China wreaks on an overweight family in Hong Kong. It's a sharp, deceptively casual look at how immigrants from China are influencing Hong Kong daily life four years after the territory's return to Chinese rule. "Hollywood Hong Kong" screened recently in the main competition at Venice.
The film's neorealist approach, coupled with the current fascination for all things Asian, should interest art house distributors in the West. Chan's name, meanwhile, should guarantee sales in such upscale Asian markets as Japan and South Korea.
The story unfolds in Hong Kong's last shantytown, a rough-and-tumble place in the shadow of a newish development called Hollywood Plaza. Chu (Glen Chin) and his two sons run a small business roasting pork. Their life is humdrum, with their prize pig Mama -- whom they resemble in size -- providing the only entertainment. The family is befriended unexpectedly by a happy-go-lucky Shanghai prostitute, Tong Tong ("Suzhou River"'s Zhou Xun), whose girlish innocence brings joy into their lives.
The first hour sees Tong Tong ingratiate herself effortlessly into Chu's clan. She befriends the father and youngest son and sleeps with the older brother -- as well as their neighbor Wong, a would-be pimp. Then things turn much nastier. Tong Tong reveals that she is underage and hires a crooked lawyer to blackmail the two boys with a claim of statutory rape.
Performances are nicely understated. Although sex comes into the picture, Tong Tong mainly brings excitement and affection into the family's life. Even when it's clear that she's blackmailing them, they are slow to anger and prefer to let the situation ride. In fact, the three very fat, almost immobile lads seem impervious to anything.
The point of the film is to show how immigrants from China are bringing small-scale chaos to the lives of Hong Kongers. Pre-1997, modern Hong Kong was an influence on developing China. But now the vast, economically powerful motherland is changing Hong Kong. As the film makes clear, people rather than politics are influencing the territory. Economic migrants are bringing disorder from China and upsetting the balance of Hong Kong life.
The film is shot through with Chan's customary black humor. The comedy is more integrated than in previous works, though a body-disposal scene seems out of place. Bearing in mind the amount of comment that previous tampon-hurling and shit-throwing scenes aroused, it's tempting to conclude that Chan cheekily included this scene to irritate conservative viewers.
HOLLYWOOD HONG KONG
Capitol Films
Nicetop Independent Ltd. and Hakuhodo
A Movement Pictures Media Suits
and Nicetop Independent Ltd. production
in association with Golden Network Asia
Producers: Christine Ravet, Doris Yang, Kei Haruna, Sylvain Bursztejn, Fruit Chan
Director-screenwriter: Fruit Chan
Executive producers: Carrie Wong, Kimi Kobata, Sharon Harel
Director of photography: O Sing-Pui
Art director: Oliver Wong
Music: Lam Wah-chuen, Chu Hing-cheung
Costume designer: Jessie Dai
Editor: Tim Sang-fat
Color/stereo
Cast:
Tong Tong: Zhou Xun
Boss Chu: Glen Chin
Wong: Wong You-nam
Ming: Ho Sai-man
Running time -- 108 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The film's neorealist approach, coupled with the current fascination for all things Asian, should interest art house distributors in the West. Chan's name, meanwhile, should guarantee sales in such upscale Asian markets as Japan and South Korea.
The story unfolds in Hong Kong's last shantytown, a rough-and-tumble place in the shadow of a newish development called Hollywood Plaza. Chu (Glen Chin) and his two sons run a small business roasting pork. Their life is humdrum, with their prize pig Mama -- whom they resemble in size -- providing the only entertainment. The family is befriended unexpectedly by a happy-go-lucky Shanghai prostitute, Tong Tong ("Suzhou River"'s Zhou Xun), whose girlish innocence brings joy into their lives.
The first hour sees Tong Tong ingratiate herself effortlessly into Chu's clan. She befriends the father and youngest son and sleeps with the older brother -- as well as their neighbor Wong, a would-be pimp. Then things turn much nastier. Tong Tong reveals that she is underage and hires a crooked lawyer to blackmail the two boys with a claim of statutory rape.
Performances are nicely understated. Although sex comes into the picture, Tong Tong mainly brings excitement and affection into the family's life. Even when it's clear that she's blackmailing them, they are slow to anger and prefer to let the situation ride. In fact, the three very fat, almost immobile lads seem impervious to anything.
The point of the film is to show how immigrants from China are bringing small-scale chaos to the lives of Hong Kongers. Pre-1997, modern Hong Kong was an influence on developing China. But now the vast, economically powerful motherland is changing Hong Kong. As the film makes clear, people rather than politics are influencing the territory. Economic migrants are bringing disorder from China and upsetting the balance of Hong Kong life.
The film is shot through with Chan's customary black humor. The comedy is more integrated than in previous works, though a body-disposal scene seems out of place. Bearing in mind the amount of comment that previous tampon-hurling and shit-throwing scenes aroused, it's tempting to conclude that Chan cheekily included this scene to irritate conservative viewers.
HOLLYWOOD HONG KONG
Capitol Films
Nicetop Independent Ltd. and Hakuhodo
A Movement Pictures Media Suits
and Nicetop Independent Ltd. production
in association with Golden Network Asia
Producers: Christine Ravet, Doris Yang, Kei Haruna, Sylvain Bursztejn, Fruit Chan
Director-screenwriter: Fruit Chan
Executive producers: Carrie Wong, Kimi Kobata, Sharon Harel
Director of photography: O Sing-Pui
Art director: Oliver Wong
Music: Lam Wah-chuen, Chu Hing-cheung
Costume designer: Jessie Dai
Editor: Tim Sang-fat
Color/stereo
Cast:
Tong Tong: Zhou Xun
Boss Chu: Glen Chin
Wong: Wong You-nam
Ming: Ho Sai-man
Running time -- 108 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Opened Oct. 16 (Hong Kong)
HONG KONG -- "The Floating Landscape" is a finely modulated feature by rising local filmmaker Carol Lai Mui-suet. But what has sparked audience interest in Asia is the participation of Taiwanese illustrator Jimmy Liao. Non-Chinese audiences likely are not familiar with the popular artist's work, but his colorful books capture the lonely-heart melancholy and fragile constitution of human emotions in vivid colors and dreamy vibrant images.
For "Landscape", the animator has contributed some drawings that are used in the film as well as created a heart-tugging 30-second animated epilogue that packs a devastating emotional wallop. In addition, the story with its honest empathy captures the ethereal spirit of Liao's work. It's an influence Lai -- a triple threat as writer-director-editor -- is not afraid to admit.
The question is: Will this movie, Hong Kong's sole selection for this year's Festival de Cannes, generate interest for illustrator Liao's work overseas? Just as significantly: Will this mark the birth of a new Hong Kong directing star?
A young woman (Karena Lam) recently lost her boyfriend to a fatal disease. In his dying days, he was consumed with the vision of a tree-lined landscape and sketched it. With the drawing, she travels to his hometownto find this specific location. While there, she meets a postman (Mainland actor Liu Ye) who notices her grief and agrees to help her in the search for the landscape.
The two acquaintances start to develop mutual feelings but keep a respectful emotional distance. She still clings to an attachment for her late boyfriend. He is too timid to impress his feelings on her.
Admittedly slow in places, "Landscape" still presents the kind of natural emotion you rarely see in Hong Kong movies. Lai understands how hard real happiness is to achieve and can articulate the rich melancholy of the effort. She balances sadness with a stoic sensitivity and nurtures the woman and the postman's attraction with a natural and organic stillness.On whole, this is a lovely, tender effort.
THE FLOATING LANDSCAPE
Filmko Entertainment Ltd., Sil-Metropole Organization, NHK and Rosem Films present a co-production with China Film Co-production Corp. with the participation of Fonds Sud Cinema, Ministere de la Culture et de la Communication CNC, Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres
Credits:
Screenwriter-director-editor: Carol Lai Miu-suet
Producers: Stanley Kwan, Arthur Wong
Executive producer: Alex Wong
Director of photography: Arthur Wong
Production designer: Ben Luk
Co-producers: Sylvain Bursztejn, Christine Ravet, Makoto Ueda
Music: Shigeru Umebayashi
Costume designer: William Chang
Editing design: Danny Pang
Cast:
Maan: Karena Lam
Lit: Liu Ye
Sam: Ekin Cheng
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
HONG KONG -- "The Floating Landscape" is a finely modulated feature by rising local filmmaker Carol Lai Mui-suet. But what has sparked audience interest in Asia is the participation of Taiwanese illustrator Jimmy Liao. Non-Chinese audiences likely are not familiar with the popular artist's work, but his colorful books capture the lonely-heart melancholy and fragile constitution of human emotions in vivid colors and dreamy vibrant images.
For "Landscape", the animator has contributed some drawings that are used in the film as well as created a heart-tugging 30-second animated epilogue that packs a devastating emotional wallop. In addition, the story with its honest empathy captures the ethereal spirit of Liao's work. It's an influence Lai -- a triple threat as writer-director-editor -- is not afraid to admit.
The question is: Will this movie, Hong Kong's sole selection for this year's Festival de Cannes, generate interest for illustrator Liao's work overseas? Just as significantly: Will this mark the birth of a new Hong Kong directing star?
A young woman (Karena Lam) recently lost her boyfriend to a fatal disease. In his dying days, he was consumed with the vision of a tree-lined landscape and sketched it. With the drawing, she travels to his hometownto find this specific location. While there, she meets a postman (Mainland actor Liu Ye) who notices her grief and agrees to help her in the search for the landscape.
The two acquaintances start to develop mutual feelings but keep a respectful emotional distance. She still clings to an attachment for her late boyfriend. He is too timid to impress his feelings on her.
Admittedly slow in places, "Landscape" still presents the kind of natural emotion you rarely see in Hong Kong movies. Lai understands how hard real happiness is to achieve and can articulate the rich melancholy of the effort. She balances sadness with a stoic sensitivity and nurtures the woman and the postman's attraction with a natural and organic stillness.On whole, this is a lovely, tender effort.
THE FLOATING LANDSCAPE
Filmko Entertainment Ltd., Sil-Metropole Organization, NHK and Rosem Films present a co-production with China Film Co-production Corp. with the participation of Fonds Sud Cinema, Ministere de la Culture et de la Communication CNC, Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres
Credits:
Screenwriter-director-editor: Carol Lai Miu-suet
Producers: Stanley Kwan, Arthur Wong
Executive producer: Alex Wong
Director of photography: Arthur Wong
Production designer: Ben Luk
Co-producers: Sylvain Bursztejn, Christine Ravet, Makoto Ueda
Music: Shigeru Umebayashi
Costume designer: William Chang
Editing design: Danny Pang
Cast:
Maan: Karena Lam
Lit: Liu Ye
Sam: Ekin Cheng
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 12/1/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This second installment in Hong Kong director Fruit Chan's "prostitute trilogy" -- the first was "Durian Durian", which played at Venice last year -- is lucid and free-flowing. The story, scripted by Chan, shows the havoc a girlish prostitute from mainland China wreaks on an overweight family in Hong Kong. It's a sharp, deceptively casual look at how immigrants from China are influencing Hong Kong daily life four years after the territory's return to Chinese rule. "Hollywood Hong Kong" screened recently in the main competition at Venice.
The film's neorealist approach, coupled with the current fascination for all things Asian, should interest art house distributors in the West. Chan's name, meanwhile, should guarantee sales in such upscale Asian markets as Japan and South Korea.
The story unfolds in Hong Kong's last shantytown, a rough-and-tumble place in the shadow of a newish development called Hollywood Plaza. Chu (Glen Chin) and his two sons run a small business roasting pork. Their life is humdrum, with their prize pig Mama -- whom they resemble in size -- providing the only entertainment. The family is befriended unexpectedly by a happy-go-lucky Shanghai prostitute, Tong Tong ("Suzhou River"'s Zhou Xun), whose girlish innocence brings joy into their lives.
The first hour sees Tong Tong ingratiate herself effortlessly into Chu's clan. She befriends the father and youngest son and sleeps with the older brother -- as well as their neighbor Wong, a would-be pimp. Then things turn much nastier. Tong Tong reveals that she is underage and hires a crooked lawyer to blackmail the two boys with a claim of statutory rape.
Performances are nicely understated. Although sex comes into the picture, Tong Tong mainly brings excitement and affection into the family's life. Even when it's clear that she's blackmailing them, they are slow to anger and prefer to let the situation ride. In fact, the three very fat, almost immobile lads seem impervious to anything.
The point of the film is to show how immigrants from China are bringing small-scale chaos to the lives of Hong Kongers. Pre-1997, modern Hong Kong was an influence on developing China. But now the vast, economically powerful motherland is changing Hong Kong. As the film makes clear, people rather than politics are influencing the territory. Economic migrants are bringing disorder from China and upsetting the balance of Hong Kong life.
The film is shot through with Chan's customary black humor. The comedy is more integrated than in previous works, though a body-disposal scene seems out of place. Bearing in mind the amount of comment that previous tampon-hurling and shit-throwing scenes aroused, it's tempting to conclude that Chan cheekily included this scene to irritate conservative viewers.
HOLLYWOOD HONG KONG
Capitol Films
Nicetop Independent Ltd. and Hakuhodo
A Movement Pictures Media Suits
and Nicetop Independent Ltd. production
in association with Golden Network Asia
Producers: Christine Ravet, Doris Yang, Kei Haruna, Sylvain Bursztejn, Fruit Chan
Director-screenwriter: Fruit Chan
Executive producers: Carrie Wong, Kimi Kobata, Sharon Harel
Director of photography: O Sing-Pui
Art director: Oliver Wong
Music: Lam Wah-chuen, Chu Hing-cheung
Costume designer: Jessie Dai
Editor: Tim Sang-fat
Color/stereo
Cast:
Tong Tong: Zhou Xun
Boss Chu: Glen Chin
Wong: Wong You-nam
Ming: Ho Sai-man
Running time -- 108 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The film's neorealist approach, coupled with the current fascination for all things Asian, should interest art house distributors in the West. Chan's name, meanwhile, should guarantee sales in such upscale Asian markets as Japan and South Korea.
The story unfolds in Hong Kong's last shantytown, a rough-and-tumble place in the shadow of a newish development called Hollywood Plaza. Chu (Glen Chin) and his two sons run a small business roasting pork. Their life is humdrum, with their prize pig Mama -- whom they resemble in size -- providing the only entertainment. The family is befriended unexpectedly by a happy-go-lucky Shanghai prostitute, Tong Tong ("Suzhou River"'s Zhou Xun), whose girlish innocence brings joy into their lives.
The first hour sees Tong Tong ingratiate herself effortlessly into Chu's clan. She befriends the father and youngest son and sleeps with the older brother -- as well as their neighbor Wong, a would-be pimp. Then things turn much nastier. Tong Tong reveals that she is underage and hires a crooked lawyer to blackmail the two boys with a claim of statutory rape.
Performances are nicely understated. Although sex comes into the picture, Tong Tong mainly brings excitement and affection into the family's life. Even when it's clear that she's blackmailing them, they are slow to anger and prefer to let the situation ride. In fact, the three very fat, almost immobile lads seem impervious to anything.
The point of the film is to show how immigrants from China are bringing small-scale chaos to the lives of Hong Kongers. Pre-1997, modern Hong Kong was an influence on developing China. But now the vast, economically powerful motherland is changing Hong Kong. As the film makes clear, people rather than politics are influencing the territory. Economic migrants are bringing disorder from China and upsetting the balance of Hong Kong life.
The film is shot through with Chan's customary black humor. The comedy is more integrated than in previous works, though a body-disposal scene seems out of place. Bearing in mind the amount of comment that previous tampon-hurling and shit-throwing scenes aroused, it's tempting to conclude that Chan cheekily included this scene to irritate conservative viewers.
HOLLYWOOD HONG KONG
Capitol Films
Nicetop Independent Ltd. and Hakuhodo
A Movement Pictures Media Suits
and Nicetop Independent Ltd. production
in association with Golden Network Asia
Producers: Christine Ravet, Doris Yang, Kei Haruna, Sylvain Bursztejn, Fruit Chan
Director-screenwriter: Fruit Chan
Executive producers: Carrie Wong, Kimi Kobata, Sharon Harel
Director of photography: O Sing-Pui
Art director: Oliver Wong
Music: Lam Wah-chuen, Chu Hing-cheung
Costume designer: Jessie Dai
Editor: Tim Sang-fat
Color/stereo
Cast:
Tong Tong: Zhou Xun
Boss Chu: Glen Chin
Wong: Wong You-nam
Ming: Ho Sai-man
Running time -- 108 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/4/2001
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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