TUESDAY, MARCH 20 2012
TODAY Review: Roadside Fugitive AT FILMART
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Iran’s A Separation leads the Asian Film Awards
Tai Chi 0 travels to US, UK, France for Huayi Bros
BY SEN-LUN YU China’s Huayi Brothers Media has pre-sold its steam-punk action drama Tai Chi 0 to Well Go USA for North America, Showbox for the UK and Wild Side for France. The company is close to deals in
other territories including Aus- tralia and New Zealand, South- East Asia and the rest of Europe. Shooting has started in China
and the film is scheduled to be released there at the end of the year.
BY LIZ SHACKLETON Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation was the big winner at the Asian Film Awards last night, scooping best fi lm, best director, best screenwriter and best editor. The Iranian drama, which was named best foreign- language fi lm at this year’s Acad- emy Awards, was written and directed by Farhadi, while Hayedeh Safi yari took best editor honours. Best actress went to Hong Kong
veteran Deanie Ip for her role in Ann Hui’s A Simple Life, echoing her win at last year’s Venice fi lm fes- tival. Hui was the recipient this year of the Lifetime Achievement Award. Donny Damara beat out a strong category to take best actor for his role as a transvestite prostitute in Indonesian drama Lovely Man. Taiwan’s Lawrence Ko took best
supporting actor for his role in Jump Ashin!, while Shamaine Buencamino won the best actress prize for award-winning Filipino drama Nino. Best newcomer went
to Ni Ni for her role in Zhang Yimou’s Flowers Of War. Peter Ho-sun Chan’s Wu Xia tri-
umphed in the technical categories scooping best production design, best composer and best cinematog- rapher. Tsui Hark’s Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate won best visual effects and best costume design. The People’s Choice Awards went to Andy Lau, Ip’s co-star in A
Simple Life, who was voted Favour- ite Actor, while Eugene Domingo from the Philippines was voted Favourite Actress for her role in Woman In A Septic Tank. Among previously announced
prizes, Indonesian film-maker Edwin took the Edward Yang New Talent Award, while the 2011 Top Grossing Asian Film Award went to Let The Bullets Fly.
NEWS Malaysian incentives Malaysia introduces 30% production rebate » Page 4
REVIEW Roadside Fugitive The third in Yu Irie’s 8,000 Miles series will strike a chord with young Japanese audiences » Page 6
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Panel explores online access to China
BY JEAN NOH How to monetise expensive TV and fi lm content online was the main topic in the opening Filmart/Screen International panel yesterday, ‘New Prospects for Online Distribution of Entertainment Content’, which featured speakers from Chinese web platforms Youku and Qiyi. Though users — especially in
Award winner Deanie Ip arrives at the Asian Film Awards last night Written by Taiwanese film- Wong Ching Po to direct Shanghai actioner for MVP
maker Cheng Hsiao-tse (Miao Miao) and directed by Stephen Fung (House Of Fury, Jump), the film will feature the unique Chi- nese martial-arts style Tai Chi, tell- ing about a young man’s long journey to fi nd his Tai Chi mentor and become a master himself. Eventually he faces a challenge to fight an army of steam-punk invaders in order to protect his vil- lagers. The cast of the fi lm is being kept
under wraps but it is understood Huayi is introducing a young Chi- nese actor to play the character of the Tai Chi hero, while Jet Li will also play a key role in the fi lm. Huayi Brothers is planning to
make Tai Chi 0 the fi rst of a trilogy and it is understood the writing of the second and third film has started. The film’s set and steam-punk
adventures will also be featured in the Huayi Brothers Theme Park, scheduled to begin construction in Suzhou City in May.
BY LIZ SHACKLETON Wong Ching Po has been lined up to direct $10m martial-arts action fi lm Once Upon A Time In Shanghai for Wong Jing’s Mega Vision Pic- tures (MVP). Scheduled to start shooting at the end of April, the film will star Philip Ng (Body- guards And Assassins) and Sammo Hung. Yuen Woo Ping (The Matrix) is on board as action director. Ng will play a poor labourer from
Shandong who moves to 1920s Shanghai to make his fortune but ends up using his powerful fists.
Hung plays his kung-fu master. “I asked Wong Ching Po to direct this fi lm because his visual style is very unique and I want him to bring a new visual element to kung-fu fi ghting,” Wong Jing told Screen. Wong Ching Po is one of Hong
Kong’s hottest young directors with credits such as Revenge: A Love Story which has sold widely and won best director at last year’s Mos- cow International Film Festival. His new project will be sold
internationally by MVP’s interna- tional sales label Mega Vision
Project Distribution, headed by Gordon Cheung, which is also sell- ing Marco Mak’s Naked Soldier, starring Hung and Jennifer Tse. MVP’s busy production slate
also includes Patrick Kong’s motorbike chase drama Ride With The Wind and Wong Jing-directed Princess And the Seven Kung-fu Masters, which Bona Film Group will release in China this summer. Wong Jing is also directing The
Last Tycoon, starring Chow Yun- fat, for Bona which is also sched- uled to shoot from April.
Pegasus lines up Kok comedy, 3D horror
Raymond Wong’s Pegasus Motion Pictures is gearing up to shoot two projects in the second quarter of 2012: Vincent Kok’s Guys Are Like Clothes and a 3D horror film from Po Chih Leong. Scheduled to start shooting at
the end of April, Guys Are Like Clothes is a romantic comedy about women turning the tables on men. Po’s as-yet-untitled 3D horror
film will be co-directed by Raymond Wong and star Raymond Lam, Karena Ng and Yan Ni. Production
is scheduled to start in June. Meanwhile, Pegasus will host a
press conference at Filmart today for Ronny Yu’s $26m Saving General Yang, a co-production with Henan Film Group and Huayi Brothers. Liz Shackleton
China — are accustomed to getting content for free, the two panelists agreed consumers could be per- suaded to purchase legitimately if provided with high quality or tai- lored content. “At Youku, we have TVOD users
who pay for each viewing sepa- rately and then we have those who pay on a monthly basis and these are long-term users. We’re fi nding that once it becomes a habit, they don’t mind paying $5 for content,” said Zhu Hui Long, vice-president, film operations and corporate development,
Youku.com. With its quota restrictions on for-
eign fi lms’ theatrical releases, there are fears the Chinese authorities will clamp down on the number of foreign fi lms made available on new media, and, though he would not specifi cally address that possibility, Zhu said that “when the govern- ment closes one gate, there are still other gates to go through”. » For more, see
ScreenDaily.com
Zhu Hui Long on the Filmart panel
DAY 2
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