East Asian Films at the BFI London Film Festival Oct 2011

I've had a quick scan of the World Cinema section of the BFI London Film Festival programme and am excited to see the following films will be shown:


AnDa Union: From the Steppes to the City
A documentary about Mongolian folk music and the way of life in this remote region.
I can recommend this excellent CD: Mongolia - Living Music Of The Steppes).
For more information on the film see: www.andafilm.com



Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below
Makoto Shinkai's magical anime feature film, read a review here. Sounds heavily Ghibli-influenced.


Cross-talk comedy action caper Let the Bullets Fly starring Chow Yun (I really love you Fatty Fatty) Fat. Directed by Jiang Wen, who also stars along with Ge You, this was a big box office success in East Asia. Set in 1920s mainland China so expect some great mis-en scene and period style dress. Zhou Yun from Bodyguards and Assassins is the female lead (see pic below, great outfit). The film is also supposed to contain some brilliant political satire, heavily veiled in cross-talk and humour. A great opportunity to see this on the big screen, hoping to get tickets for this one.



Also showing are films by HK veteran director Ann Hui, art-house master Jia Zhangke (who produced this award winning movie by Han Jie), a film by Yuya Ishii who recently had a hit here in the UK with Third Windows distributed Sawako Decides and a Tibetan film by Pema Tseden.

For all the London Fim Festival info see: www.bfi.org.uk/lff/
Runs 12th - 27th October 2011 in London.

Happy Mid Autumn Moon Festival

Some moon based music for ya:





Check out these extravagant Hong Kong mooncakes.

Also this lantern sculpture in HK is amazing (World Record Breaking in fact!): http://youtu.be/-YNtbf1WmUU

I know I'm a little late but the moon still looks spectacular tonight, Happy Autumn everyone.

Regular DJ Spot @ Mango Landin'

I'll be Djing the third Friday of every month at Mango Landin' in Brixton now. I tend to start off with a more eclectic and East Asian vibe and get into some heavy Reggae later on in the evening. Hope to see you there this Friday 16th Sept, my brother will join me and play a little Hip Hop and Funk.

For directions: www.mangolandin.net

I'm Back Again! Lucky Cat Series 6

I will be back on Resonance 104.4FM for Lucky Cat Series 6 next month. The first show will air on Saturday 15th October at 3.30pm and I will be on every week up until Chinese New Year in 2012. I'm editing all of my China audio for the new series and was just listening to the recording I made in Paul Au's wonderful record shop - this track by Paula Tsui was playing.


(Photo shows Cha Cha and I @ Shelter Club, Shanghai 2011)

I am very excited to announce I will broadcast an exclusive interview with China's premier Reggae & Soul singer, the hugely talented Cha Cha. Big congratulations to Cha Cha who is the first ever Chinese mainland national to be accepted into the Red Bull Music Academy. Cha Cha will be at the Academy this October, where she will have the opportunity to work with fellow talented musicians, producers and DJs from ll over the world. Maximum Respect to Cha Cha!

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.