Hong Kong International Film Festival in August

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The Hong Kong International Film Festival will run from August 13th through the 27th. Received information about it today. Has some good films. Take a look if you think you might be interested.

http://www.hkiff.org...oking_guide.php

http://www.hkiff.org...mme-Booklet.pdf

[skylee]

It is the summer programme. The real festival is held in March-April each year spanning the Easter and Ching Ming holidays. It seems that the 3-week annual event is not enough either for the viewers or the organisers or both. So there is this spinoff.

I used to be a fan of the HKIFF and could watch over 30 films during the festival. Somehow I don't do this any more.

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I didn't realize there was another one in the Spring. Was thinking of going down for maybe three days of this one in August.

If I see any more imported "blockbusters" here in Kunming, I think I will implode. No more Tom Cruise, Bruce Willis and Vin Diesel please. No more grotesque space aliens and flying supermen for a while.

[gato]

I see that they are doing a special on the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami. I especially liked his "Taste of Cherry".

http://www.hkiff.org...n/programme.php

Cine Fan Programme - August

Abbas Kiarostami

Abbas Kiarostami was born in 1940 in Tehran, Iran. He first began making short films in 1970 and was known to be part of the early Iranian New Wave of directors. International recognition started in the 1980s with feature films that focused on the lives of children, especially his unofficial trilogy of Where Is the Friend's Home?, And Life Goes On... and Through the Olive Trees. Later, he developed an increasingly complex technique of blurring fiction and reality, with each film attempting to reveal the illusory structure of the last. This culminated in '90s masterpieces such as Close-Up and Taste of Cherry. The next decade brought the most radical phase of experimentations for Kiarostami with formalist works such as Ten, Five and Shirin. Ever the intellectual, Kiarostami continues to challenge us with every new feature. Early on, he had been called the humanist heir of Satyajit Ray. But after four decades, he is the one and only, inimitable Abbas Kiarostami.

Kiarostami made his first visit to Hong Kong this May to attend the Cine Fan Master Class Programme, giving audience an insight into his filmmaking practices. The five films in August revisit the director’s road to the international stage.

[skylee]

As we are talking about films, I recommend the awards winning Romanian film Beyond the Hills. It is currently being shown in cinemas in HK, but you can also just watch it online -> http://www.funshion.com/subject/play/102558/1

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"Beyond the Hills" looks interesting once they get to the girl's mountain home, but it's pretty tough going since they speak Romanian and there are only Chinese subtitles. I can manage a film in which the characters speak Chinese and it has Chinese subtitles, but I can't read fast enough to understand the dialogue via reading alone.

Maybe I'll try it again later when I'm in a more patient mood and willing to stop it and start it a lot. This recent steady diet of imported American blockbusters must have rotted my brain. (smile face)

You're right, however, that it's challenging films like this one and the Iranian film mentioned above by @Gato that I've been missing here in the wilds of mainland China.

[skylee]

I understand the difficulties in reading Chinese subtitles.

Can I recommend another awards winning film? This one (A Royal Affair) is from Denmark and the version at the link below (viewable in Mainland China) has both English and Chinese subtitles. I think the film is beautifully filmed and acted and the script very well written. I first watched it on flights (twice) and liked it immensely.

http://tv.sohu.com/2...361072888.shtml

Another highly enjoyable film is an Indian movie called Barfi! It is 150 mins long (as an Indian film I suppose it is not that long). It is a very beautiful film although the originality is questionable. The version linked below has both English and Chinese subtitles -

http://v.youku.com/v...c1ODgxMjY0.html

As to English language films, you must not miss "Searching for Sugar Man" (a documentary) and "Detachment" (viewable in Mainland China). Highly recommended. Neither are American blockbusters. Hope they whet your appetite for seeing non-blockbusters.

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Thank you very much for those recommendations. I look forward to watching them this coming week. When I lived in the US, I spent about 80 % of my movie money on foreign and Indie films that required me to think. I appreciate spontaneity and ambiguity, quirkiness is OK, I don't mind being puzzled or even disturbed by a work of art.

Since coming to China, I have seen some good domestic and Hong Kong productions, but not all that many that I would like to see twice. Must confess to not using my computer downloaded films all that much, simply because I like to go the cinema house for showings if possible.

Thanks again.

[abcdefg]

Can I recommend another awards winning film? This one (A Royal Affair) is from Denmark and the version at the link below (viewable in Mainland China) has both English and Chinese subtitles. I think the film is beautifully filmed and acted and the script very well written.

Watched it today, a rainy Sunday afternoon. Agree that it was a very well done, if a rather sad, film. At least they didn't tack on some kind of phony Hollywood happy ending.