Hong Kong Film Week @ Prince Charles

Apologies for the long absence in posting, I have been en vacance. I'm back now and gearing up for my new radio series (details to follow in my next post). I was alerted to a series of Hong Kong movies showing at the cult Prince Charles cinema in London next week.

First up is Ip Man on 13th September. Donnie Yen is the legendary Ip Man, Bruce Lee's martial arts mentor (though the film is set way before Bruce becomes a pupil and charts the early years in mainland China and the Sino-Japanese war). This is fast becoming a kung fu classic and Ip Man 1 & 2 have raised Donnie Yen's status immensely. If you haven't seen this it would be nice to catch the action (Sammo is action director) on the big screen.



The next film showing is Echoes of the Rainbow (14th September). I actually watched this on my flight to China back in March. I was keen to watch this mainly because of the era it is set - 1969 - cue beehive-style hair dos, transistor radios, cool fabric prints and wonderful vintage mis-en-scene. The cast are not too shabby either: the wonderful Simon Yam and Sandra Ng star as the parents of two very different boys, played by Buzz Chung and Aarif Lee. It's a thoughtful film which has art house tendencies and reminded me a little of the work of Tawianese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien. I'm really glad it will be screened here in the UK as it is not normally the type of Hong Kong film that gets shown here (i.e. it's not martial arts, Triad or cop action). There is a nice reference to HK cinema of the 1960's as the young lad (Big Ears played brilliantly by Buzz Chung) sells photos of Connie Chan Pao Chu and Josephine Siao Fong Fong with faked signatures to raise pocket money cash!
The film's director Alex Law will be giving a Q&A after the film.

Showing on 15th September is Love in a Puff which I don't know too much about but it seems like a fairly silly rom com set in a post-smoking ban HK.


Finally on Friday 16th you have the cops in action in Beast Stalker and my favourite HK heart throb Nicholas Tse 谢霆锋stars! Directed by Dante Lam this is, by all accounts, a very entertaining thriller. Not to be confused with 1998 Dante Lam & Gordon Chan directed classic Beast Cops.


The Festival has been curated by thinkasiathinkhk.com - The Hong Kong Trade Development Council.