2009 HK Filmart is drawing to a close and it has been an odd one. It started out very optimistically. Every one who is here is usually here, so there was a refocussing as a Asia event rather than a international film market. Then by the end of the first day, optimistism appeared to have completely dissipated as reality set in that money for projects other than HAF was thin on the ground. For about a day gloom seemed to roll in with the Bladerunner styled thunderstorms. Then for no apparent reason, the atmosphere changed. Resigned to the fact that no one was going to make a lot of money, they networked like crazy and spent a lot of spadework putting faces to names. “We’re all here anyway right? So let’s have a good time!” seemed to be the philosophy.

In fact as I write, I recall that the market on the 4th day last year was like a ghost town. People had packed on the 3rd day. This year on the 4th day, sure the crowd has thinned out, but people are still chatting and are preparing for the day when the economy picks up.

THERE SHE IS AGAIN…

At most of the parties that I’ve been too while I’ve been at Filmart, there is a Chinese woman who rapidly approaches anyone she hasn’t already met, with no ado whatsoever asks for your name card and then is gone quicker than Miike Takashi can churn out a feature film.

You might think it is just merely odd, until you start getting those anti-Chinese government spam messages in your in-box. I’m all for freedom of speech, particularly for oppressed spiritual groups etc, but I’m not sure that cyber harassment is any one’s path to either enlightenment or liberation. Gives me something to think about when I do my next Metta Bhavana I suppose.

LE PREMIERE ANNOUNCEMENT

It won’t be officially announced until May (probably held off until Cannes), but I can tell you that one of Asia’s finest is due to receive France’s esteemed Chevalier order of artes and letters for his years of service to cinema. I’d tell you more, but I’m sworn to secrecy.

JAPAN NIGHT POSTSCRIPT

While I was having a fabulous time inside on the third floor of The Pawn, it seems that lots of other market attendees were having a lot less fun standing in the Hong Kong rain as their invitations got soggy. Include Nansun Shi and Timothy Kwok were amongst the major players who were barred from entry due to over-crowding. Venice Film Festival honcho Marco Muller and Fortissimo Film’s Wouter Barendrecht were waved straight in however.

Still, you can’t say hello to a website at a festival market and rapport can take years to build. UNIJAPAN have been gradually building a younger crew who are also helpful but I do hate to see reliable people leave the scene.

PLAY BALL!

For about an hour there was an intensity surrounding the Korean and Japanese pavilions at the market. A sudden surge in sales? A sudden drop in sales? No it was the 2009 World Baseball Classic at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles where the South Korea V Japan final play-off was taking place.

Completely oblivious, I tried talking to people in both booths and they apologized gracefully and suggested I came back later. I happened to come back just as the game finished and the Japanese team claimed victory, 5-3 over the South Koreans. Pictured below is a collection of triumphant baseball fans from the Japan pavilion.

Do the respectful thing and avoid mentioning baseball to Koreans until 2013 when the next WBC takes place.

YOU WANT ME TO WATCH A MOVIE?

Unless the film is a pre-established hot ticket (in which case there is usually a pre-arranged screening, or a locked in for a top festival slot) market screenings can be a lonely affair. Usual suspects at market screenings are rotations of a cast like me, Udine Far East Film Festival’s obayun Stephen Cremin, Michael Campi representing the Melbourne Film Festival and Maggie Lee from “The Hollywood Reporter” and the ubiquitous Jouni Hokkanen from Finland as well as a few others. However empty seats predominate.

Whether it be Hong Kong, Pusan or even Berlin so few market players actually go to the movies at markets. If you’re not willing to watch the movies yourselves, (you know projected through a movie camera from a projection booth, not on a laptop while taking phone calls), then how can you expect other people to do the same?

At the Japan night party held at Wan Chai’s upmarket The Pawn restaurant (jokes about pawn movies were a staple of the night), Tokyo Film Festival head Tom Yoda concentrated on his festival’s emphasis on climate change issues and the green carpet which was initiated last year and will be replicated this year. Toasting the Hong Kong Filmart to great success, the party was such a hit that guests showed a distinct disinclination to leave when the function was due to finish at 11pm.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE…

Wandering the market corridors I bumped into my fellow APSA Nominations Council member Philip Cheah. Philip refused to buy me lunch on the flimsy excuse that he had already eaten. Despite that we teamed up and interrupted a meeting Bangkok Post critic and Variety reporter Kong Rithdee was having with a Thai production company to see if they had any new screeners (me for review, Philip for Dubai International Film Festival, and both of us for APSA). Neither of us went away empty handed, and I was promised some more in the mail early next week. Of all the pavilions the Thai seems to be the most consistently busy. Melodrama and horror makes the Asian markets go around.

The Hong Kong Trade and Development Corporation set up some interviews for contenders in the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum known as HAF. (while I wouldn’t want to inflict the acronym HKAF on anyone as it sounds like a plutonium strength coffee, I do like the look and the sound of HAFFF. It might be finicky to pick on invalid or contorted abbreviations, but missing initials do bother me). There are 27 entries in this year’s co-producing market. No time to speak to everyone (a point proved when one of my interviewees didn’t turn up) but chatting with Australians Murali K. Thalluri (“2.37″) and his co-writer/co-producer Nick Selth about their Indian adventure film project “Jewel” which could foreseeably ride on the back of the dream run of  “Slumdog Millionaire” one is impressed by their enthusiasm. Some Australian funds are unofficially in place, but film-making can notoriously be like a house of cards.

Similarly talking over the chances of “The Dancer” a political romance about the quote/unquote “darkest period of Indonesian history” with director Ifa Isfansyah, scriptwriter Salman Aristo (who wrote the current Indonesian box office hit “Laskar Pelangi“) and their producer Shanty Harmayn, they feel confident that they can acquire the extra money they need to add to the French money that is already in place.

Funnily enough one of the most successful producers, Hong Kong-based Alexandra Sun whose films have taken her to Cannes red carpet (“Blind Mountain“) is the most philosophical about the process. When I talk to her about her chances of scoring funding for her latest project “Help” she offers a seasoned and sageful  “we’ll see” that speaks of the many disappointments that inevitably occur on the way to success.

FEI’S WAY

While I was standing blocking a passageway shooting the breeze with Cannes Director’s Fortnight Programmer Jeremy Segay and Singapore journo turned film producer Sylvia Wong, my fellow APSA Nominations Council
member Professor Xei Fei of the Beijing Film Academy appears by my side. He’s happy to see me, but then he is always happy, which is a quality in anyone that always astounds me.

SAVING FACE

Already signs of decling market activity are becoming apparent. One producer literally drags Jeremy and I to his booth for a chat about nothing in particular. We hoped for tea even as we wondered what we were doing there. Eventually it dawns on me that we are being used as human props to disguise the fact that no one has been coming to his booth to discuss business. Unless something dramatic happens there will be no shame in doing this as soon most booths will probably doing likewise.

LEAST SAID, QUICKEST MENDED

Attended the Asian Film Awards last night and the opening party allowed me to chat more extensively with people than time has previously permitted. A long wait for the ceremony to begin particularly allowed a long chat with Asako Fujioka of Yamagata’s documentary film festival which allows me to fill her in on what I’ve been doing. The awards themselves? Well A+ for showmanship although the awards presentation is too long (but aren’t they all?).

It might seem weird to kick off a blog about Hong Kong’s Filmart (March 23-26) with a wrap-up of the opening of the Hong Kong International Film Festival (March 22), but given that they are all part of the city’s month-long Entertainment Expo it shouldn’t be that surpising. Most festivals find it hard enough to find one opening night film that will appease film buffs, politicians, sponsors and the local industry.

Traditionally, though HKIFF has TWO opening night films.

First up was Jackie Chan’s return to “serious” acting (as opposed to the stuff that has made him an international household name) “Shinjuku Incident”. Jackie turned up of course as did director Derek Yee and several co-stars including Daniel Wu.

Then no sooner did the Dolby Digital credit roll by and it was another set of speeches for the HKIFF’s second opening film, Ann Hui’s “Night and & Fog”. I’ll be reviewing both of these films for Variety as soon as I get a moment to scratch myself, but suffice to say that Hui’s film is a companion piece to her film “The Way We Are” which played the festival circuit last year. A dignified Hui introduced her film and cast (Simon Yam looking particularly cheerful about his turn as a wife-beating brute) to an appreciative home crowd, Most of the international attendees who were at the first film are nowhere in sight now. There’s probably a party somewhere, but I have to get those reviews out…

IF YOU’RE TALKING TO ME YOUR CAREER (OR THE ECONOMY) MUST BE IN TROUBLE

Standard Operation Procedure for me at any film market is to walk around the place, not really talking to anybody (though I do wave to a lot of people, I’m not a complete sociopath). Firstly, this allows me to get a feeling of who is here and where their “office” will be for the next 4 days. More importantly on the first day of a market the business of the day is business. Accordingly, film critics shouldn’t be at the top of anyone’s agenda. While people were happy to chat at last night’s HKIFF drinks soiree come press conference before the opening films, today should be different. Sales agents, production companies are hungry and are looking to meet people who have money to spend or at least claim to know someone with money to spend. To save either potential embarrassment or confusion I won’t be doing any name dropping today. The Good News is that the market has a good turn out and everyone who is anyone in Asian film seems to be here and certainly I haven’t had any conversations about who isn’t here. Stay tuned…

IT’S CALLED ACTING

I sat in the press conference for the new Peter Ho-sun Chan $23 million production “Bodyguards and Assassins” listening to the Mandarin commentary for about five minutes before I thought about getting a simultaneous translation radio from the press counter. For about 20 minutes I regretted my decision. At least when I couldn’t understand what was being said the press conference sort of appeared to be interesting. The film will be better I’m sure, but some projections of computer drafted building for Chan’s recreation of 1905 Hong Kong were like a teaser for a teaser for a teaser.

Fortunately when Peter Chan and director Teddy Chan lined up with their stellar cast as rousing music dominated the room (Nicholas Tse, Simon Yam, Leon Lai, Fan Bing Bing, Eric Tsang and Donnie Yen all in a row!) I was able to understand as each went through their character role and why it was important. Outlining how they would approach their generically named characters the best quote went to the taciturn Donnie Yen who will be  playing The Gambler in this story of violence dryly said. “I don’t gamble. I don’t like it. I will have to learn how to gamble from Eric”. The rotund and completely unabashed Tsang sharing the sofa with Yen roared with  laughter.

FILMART 2009 (HONG KONG)

Russell Edwards gives APSA the inside story on FILMART 2009 via daily updates from Hong Kong. Stay up to date as Russell surveys the news and tracks the buzz from one of Asia’s leading international film & tv markets. From the Opening Night of the 33rd Hong Kong International Film Festival through the four day fair (March 23 – March 26), our man on the ground in Hong Kong will bring you the news as it happens.

SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2009

Join us as APSA Nominations Council member and Variety critic, Russell Edwards guest blogs SFF exclusively for APSA. Russell will focus on the significant Asia-Pacific line up at SFF including several A-P titles in Official Competition, reporting back with the news and inside scoop from the event that kicks off Australia’s film festival season.

Other Festivals

PIFAN – PUCHEON INTERNATIONAL FANTASTIC FILM FESTIVAL

“PACIFIC MERIDIAN” VLADIVOSTOK INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

14th PUSAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

TOKYO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL COMMERCIAL MARKET