Aaaaaaaad, we’re back. These toys in my living room say “Hi”:

Clearly, my toy collection kicks ass

Anyway, the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival is now over. During that 17-day period I consumed 18 movies, 5 short films, 2 regular theatrical releases and plenty of bad food. Amazingly, I did not get sick, though I do recall nodding off during my screening of 881.

 
Hokkien musicals put this cat to sleep, too

This year’s movies at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival ranged from underwhelming to pretty damn good, with the overall quality tipping towards the “good” portion of the scale. As always, reviews of some (though not all) of the films will be forthcoming on LoveHKFilm.com. Since I’m actually managing to stick to my “800 words or less” mandate on the new reviews, I may be able to increase my output. The gun to my head also ensures that I follow the rules.

Anthony Wong disapproves of lengthy reviews

Here’s a list of films that I saw - not that the titles themselves necessarily mean anything to anyone. If there’s a review on LoveHKFilm.com, I’ve linked to it. If the review is well-written and fair, then it was written by either Kevin Ma or Sanjuro. If you wish for extra info on any of the films, please feel free to check out the official website. I helped with a couple of the catalog blurbs this year, so this notice also qualifies as minor self-promotion.

Movies I saw at the fest:

Miao Miao
True Women For Sale
Claustrophobia
Dada’s Dance
Some Like It Hot
Ticket
Parking
The Sky Crawlers
Tokyo!
Dream
881
12 Lotus
The Magic Hour
Cape No. 7
What on Earth Have I Done Wrong?!
Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit
After School
The Equation of Love & Death

Plus some Short Films:

Mr. Right
Family Viewing
Summer Afternoon
Young Blood
Mine

In between all the screenings, I saw two regular Hong Kong films, THE VAMPIRE WHO ADMIRES ME and WUSHU, both of which will see reviews on the site soon. WUSHU is supposed to be a Hong Kong film, but plays more like a China film, in that it uses China-centric actors, sets, locations, language, and probably undergarments. The line between HK and China cinema is so incredibly blurred nowadays that it is impossible for me to classify anything on this website, much less for LoveHKFilm.com’s yearly important-to-only-four-people LoveHKFilm Awards. I figure when we run them again this year, I’ll simply draw up a list and thumb my nose at any film that doesn’t make the cut.

I think this year, Donnie Yen should be up for a few awards. Besides his “acting” in EMPRESS AND THE WARRIORS and PAINTED SKIN, he could win something for his cool parenting skills:

Donnie Yen and his daughter were caught
off guard by Po, who proceeded to maul them indiscriminately

Looking forward, November brings the theatrical release of many of the fest’s featured titles. Hong Kong films will be rather sparse, though. Maybe we’ll finally see the release of Media Asia’s big gun, the Sammi Cheng-Eason Chan starrer LADY COP AND PAPA CROOK, but who knows if that’ll actually happen. The film looks like a pop thriller, and not like much of a comedy, but it’s directed by the duo of Alan Mak and Felix Chong, so anticipation is high.

Sammi + Eason should equal box office.
If not then Hong Kong Cinema really is in hell.

Also in November, we’ll be getting BALLISTIC, the Taiwan-set political thriller from director Lawrence Lau and CHAMPIONS, the Tsui Siu-Ming-directed action film starring Dicky Cheung. The trailer for CHAMPIONS looks action-heavy, and yet it also features the line of dialogue, “I must compete in the Olympic games!”, which is shouted by someone while they’re righteously shaking their fist. I predict laughs all around in the theater.

If you can name 2 people on this poster,
you deserve a prize

Finally, on the 27th, we’ll be getting THE BEAST STALKER, directed by Dante Lam of the lost-in-limbo Edison Chen film SNIPER. Nicholas Tse, Nick Cheung, and Zhang Jingchu star. I have seen neither a trailer nor heard any buzz, so I have no irresponsible, off-the-cuff comments to make.

Sorry, this photo is small

There’s probably another Hong Kong film or two heading our way in November, and if so I’ll try to mention it here. I will leave the monthly blog post with some photos taken at the fest. Please note that I was standing next to the person taking this photo, meaning I was only four feet from the subject in question:

“My spider-sense is tingling…like someone horrible
and absolutely evil is standing four feet from me…”

A suggestion was made that I actually attempt to “photo stalk”, meaning insert myself somewhere nearby in an attempt to go for an impromptu “Me and Ekin Cheng” photo opportunity. I declined, however, because my HKAFF Festival Pass was a privilege, and not an excuse to behave like some sort of annoying groupie.

Besides, if I had to photo stalk someone at the fest, it would be this person instead.

Who doesn’t love Karena Lam?
Not so sure about the dress, though

Also, if I had really found a way to take a photo wth Ekin Cheng, I probably would have discovered first-hand what a swell and wonderful human being he is, thereby causing waves of guilt for all the crap he receives on LoveHKFilm.com. Afterwards, I would probably be honor-bound to close down this site once and for all because of the disservice it does to Ekin and humanity in general.

By the way, next week is the 2008 Presidential Election, so please go out and vote next Tuesday. If you can’t vote, you can at least root for the candidate most suitable to lead the free world. You all know who that is:

Anpanman Prime says, “Bye”.

“Damn you, Megatron!”

Damn You, Kozo briefly returns from the dead. In celebration, Yotsuba says “Hi.”

“You’re still reading this blog? Poor saps.”

It’s a new month, but I doubt I’ll be able to spend much time on Damn You, Kozo. That’s because the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival is occurring in just one week’s time, and before then I still have to write a review for PAINTED SKIN and maybe BUTTERFLY LOVERS. We’ll see how it goes. If I can I’ll squeeze in one or two entries between screenings.

Hong Kong movies will actually be pretty sparse for October. After the one-two punch of PAINTED SKIN and BUTTERFLY LOVERS, the only large theatrical releases will be Jacob Cheung’s new drama TICKET, which bows at the HKAFF before getting a 10-23 theatrical release, and Wong Jing’s THE VAMPIRE WHO ADMIRES ME, which is probably self explanatory. Here’s a photo to give you a general idea:

Yeah, this looks like quality

In case you don’t know, the above photo is meant to spoof the poster for LA LINGERIE, and actually features two actresses (J.J. Jia and Maggie Li) who were also in that film. Here’s the comparison:

I’m already guessing that this movie is better.

The other people in THE VAMPIRE WHO ADMIRES ME are TVB star Roger Kwok, Wong Jing “It” Girl Natalie Meng Yao, model Ankie Beilke, eternal B-list actress Winnie Leung, and model Tanya, who may be known better as Chang Chen’s girlfriend. The guy playing the vampire is former Anita Mui protege and mired-in-mediocrity B-list actor Samuel Pang. This is the part where I start talking about how some of these people would have greater careers if not for Hong Kong Entertainment’s dire straits. I’m sure at least one or two could have achieved better things. You can figure out who yourself.

Clearly this girl has great talents…uh, talent.

THE VAMPIRE WHO ADMIRES ME opens September 16th, which means it’ll compete with the HKAFF for my valuable cinema time. I’m considering letting it slide to DVD, but if that happens it may fall into the same trap as THE SPARKLE IN THE DARK, FATE, and CHAOS, a.k.a. three Hong Kong films that got DVD berths that I have yet to watch. They just sit on my end table, right next to DVDs of A DIRTY CARNIVAL, MY SISTER MY LOVE, and GOD MAN DOG. Yeah, like I’ll ever get around to watching those DVDs.

Anyway, the main point of this post is simply to talk about Batman again. I said in an earlier post that Batman would get a LoveHKFilm Embargo^TM since he’s not Asian Film related. The exceptions would be if I bought any Batman-related toys or if the subject was Edison Chen-related. Sorry to disappoint, but there will be no Edison Chen dish this time. Even that subject has gotten somewhat old around here. We won’t talk about Gillian Chung, either.

“SHHH! They’ve almost forgotten about the photos!”

Nope, we’re breaking our LoveHKFilm Embargo^TM because I did happen to get a new Batman toy. In this case, it’s from Bandai’s Movie Realization line, and features a very, very cool Batman figure along with a replica of his signature new vehicle, the Bat-Pod. Here it is, sitting on my desk at work.

So far, this toy has not hurt my productivity

This figure is not a straight-on likeness of Christian Bale and his Bat-Pod, but has been reimagined by manga artist Masakazu Katsura to be slightly edgier and obviously a tad anime-influenced. It’s also smaller than the best Batman and Bat-Pod combo around, which was made by Hong Kong company Hot Toys. That’s right, some of the toys discussed in this blog are developed and made right here in Hong Kong, thereby providing rationale for why I can continue to  be so off topic.

Here’s a picture of the Hot Toys Batman and Bat-Pod, neither of which I own. Yet.

The above toy is 1/6 scale, meaning the figure is about 12 inches tall and the Bat-Pod is scaled to match. I don’t have the exact measurements, but that is one BIG toy. They have it on display here in Mongkok and it’s massive. Not as massive as the 1/6 scale Batmobile (a.k.a. the Tumbler from BATMAN BEGINS), but it’s still far too large for my dinky Hong Kong apartment. Plus, if I kept that at work I’m sure I would be fired.

Another glimpse of the Bandai version I bought:

Not as amazing as the Hot Toys Bat-Pod,
but still pretty damn great.

The thing that’s awesome about this toy is that it’s smaller and fits on my work desk, and still has an inordinate measure of detail and coolness. It’s also is the perfect size to interact with my Revoltech Yotsuba action figure:

In this photo, Yotsuba is Robin

Here’s a picture of them speeding on the highway:

“Hang on, Yotsuba! We have to go save the sister
of that other cowboy from Brokeback Mountain!”

After their highway trip, the two decided to catch insects together:

He lived to become the babysitter

And here’s the full complement of Yotsuba schwag from Kaiyodo, minus all the pesky variants that I don’t have money for:

Really, there’s also work-related stuff on my desk, too.

I feel a bit guilty talking about toys on this blog because really, this is supposed to be an Asian Cinema site and not some repository for all my personal crap. I have not yet devolved to talking about my daily lunch activities or *gasp* politics just yet, though who knows, maybe I’ll start if I get more and more disenchanted with the main LoveHKFilm.com site. As the site nears the end of its seventh(!) year online, I have to admit that it’s getting a bit worse for the wear. Writing reviews has become more difficult recently and traffic is down 20% (no!). However, thanks to the bloggers, there is a little more life left in the site. Also, we have yet to meet Ekin Cheng, which is the one thing that must happen before the site closes down.

 
“I can’t believe LoveHKFilm.com has been around
for seven years! When will my nightmare end?”

Sorry Ekin, I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere anytime soon.

If something interesting comes up in the next couple of weeks, I’ll post about it then on Damn You, Kozo. I still have one or two more post ideas kicking around, plus there may be a couple new blogs on the site too. If that happens, you’ll be the 37th person to know.

In the meantime, I’ll see you at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival. I’ll be the sleeping person in Row J.

Batman and Yotsuba will see you to the door.

“Bye!”