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Alain Delon influenced Asian actors and directors, including Hong Kong directors John Woo (The Killer) and Johnnie To. These filmmakers admired Alain Delon when he played gangsters in Melville’s films.

Johnnie To wanted to work with Alain Delon. He offered him the lead role of Vengeance, that of Francis Costello in 1967, as an allusion to Jeff Costello in Le Samouraï, which was played by Alain Delon. After Alain Delon refused, Johnny Hallyday was chosen by Johnnie To. Vengeance made its international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2009. It is screened at the Festival International des Cinémas d’Asie in Vesoul as part of a retrospective devoted to Asian films.

In the comedy You Shoot, I Shoot by Hong Kong director Pang Ho-Cheung, actor Eric Kot plays a hired gun who identified himself as Jef Costello. He dresses like him and talks to him through a poster of...

In “Amphetamine”, Scud's most visually polished drama about a toxic and intoxicated love between a young Australian financial executive Daniel (Thomas Price) and a straight Hong Kong jack of all trades Kafka (Byron Pang), hope is the only thing permanently absent.

Amphetamine is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam

The melancholic Kafka is caught between working three jobs to help provide for his sick mother and a not so functional relationship with his girlfriend, who is struggling to understand his broken psyche. When she decides to break off in broad daylight in a posh bar, the boy with the sword has already caught Daniel's eye. Just to make sure we'll understand this instant crush, Scud shows us Kafka's beauty from all sides. Right at the beginning of the film, we observe him giving swimming lessons and being pestered by an elderly man who tells him “he has a body like Michelangelo's”. Soon after,...

Cheuk Wan-chi is an eclectic Hong Kong public personality; a radio host, a stand-up comedian, a writer, and a screenwriter for the likes of Sylvia Chang and Pang Ho-cheung, she is now at her third feature film as a director. After the girly action-comedy “Kick Ass Girls” in 2013 and “Temporary Family” in 2014, another comedy with a stellar cast addressing speculation on property in Hong Kong, her third film is yet again dealing with some very local issues. This time, though, the comedy tone gives way to a compelling drama where family and work tightly entwine.

Vital Sign is screening at New York Asian Film Festival

Protagonist Ma Chi-yip (Louis Koo) is a veteran Hong Kong paramedic working “on field” on ambulances, whose stubborn reluctance to follow protocols at all costs and to play along with the workplace bureaucracy has taken him nowhere. In fact, despite his experience and dedication, his...

Remake of Pang Ho-Cheung's 2004 movie “Beyond Our Ken”, “Thorns of Beauty” is a story about an unlikely erotic triangle, which has been adapted in a Japanese setting by Hideo Jojo, who is in charge of both the direction and the script (along Kaori Sawai). The movie opened in Japan in January and now finds its place in Nippon Connection.

Thorns of Beauty is screening at Nippon Connection

24-year-old Momo is a timid young woman who works in a public library. She was recently dumped by her fashion photographer boyfriend Kentaro, but is still worried about some explicit photos he took of her and never returned. One day, she has a chance encounter with his new girlfriend Riko, and decides to approach her and ask her help to delete the photos. Riko, an aspiring dancer who doubles as a barwoman, is initially suspicious of the “nerdy” girl that essentially stalked her,...

Gothic castles and faraway cabins are classic genre fare, but there’s something to be said for scary movies that tell stories about claustrophobic urban environments and the horrors of being isolated despite being surrounded by densely packed neighbors. Not only are these stories more relatable for big-city folks like myself, but they’re also uniquely positioned to deliver down-to-earth scares with a social twist.

And in honor of Evil Dead Rise brilliantly relocating the action to an LA apartment building, we’ve decided to come up with a list celebrating six of the best Apartment Horror movies. After all, there’s nothing scarier than finding yourself trapped in a high rise with nowhere to go but down!

In the interest of keeping the list varied, we’ll be leaving out a few obvious entries like Candyman and Rosemary’s Baby, as I think we can assume that most of our readers have already seen these.

A city enjoying a spectacular growth spur and a metropolis dying out as we speak. A star looking for a way out from a deadly trap and a teenager determined to have a say in her own future. Japanese feel-good movies and terrifying horrors. As always, Five Flavours offers a full spectrum of moods, emotions, and themes. We announce the complete program of the Festival and kick off tickets sales!

Five Flavours Asian Film Festival is the annual review of the best cinema from East, Southeast, and South Asia organized in Poland. Since 2006, it presents the premieres of the newest, carefully selected films from the region, the classics from Asian archives, retrospectives of selected filmmakers, and reviews of national cinemas.

This year’s selection includes 39 meticulously chosen films, 30 of which will be available online, on the territory of Poland only. After the success of last year’s hybrid edition, Five...

Japan’s ColorBird Inc., is launching a trio of new titles at Tiffcom, the rights market that accompanies the Tokyo International Film Festival, and which is this year held online only.

Newest is “Winny,” a fact-based drama film that takes place in the early days of the Internet and sees a software developer wrongfully arrested by the police. The story follows the people who fight the authorities for justice and seek to protect the rights of engineers. The film is directed by the talented young Matsumoto Yusaku with the lead character played by Higashide Masahiro, star of Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s “Asako I&ii.” It is set for a March 2023 release in Japan.

Releasing slightly earlier, in January, is “Thorns of Beauty.” The revenge thriller is a remake of Hong Kong director Pang Ho-cheung’s “Beyond our Ken in which two girls fall in love with the same man and forge a secret friendship.

Dashed hopes lead to a kind of desperation without equal in Pang Ho-cheung’s movie Dream Home. This unmatched story satirizes Hong Kong’s housing bubble as well as imagines the undue sacrifices of one potential homebuyer. Not only does this character reject the red tape and systems standing in the way of her goal, she does so in the most grisly way imaginable.

The uninitiated will balk at the motive behind Cheng Lai-sheung’s (Josie Ho) murder spree in this splattery 2010 movie, but as the story unfolds, audiences do the unthinkable — they sympathize with a cold-blooded killer. Compassion doesn’t come easy in a movie as nonlinear and twisted as Dream Home, however, for every life Lai-sheung takes, a little more of her interiority is revealed. The tones start to clash as viewers are shuffled between the past and present, yet the tradeoff is a full-clad character.

As overwhelming...

Some narratives can have resonance much beyond their original release. Take in point “Dream Home” from 2010. A blackly comic horror that satirizes the property market in Hong Kong. Fast forward a decade and there are housing crises across the globe and the prices of properties are on the increase. People struggle to get on the property ladder, something that “Dream Home” takes a darker look at as its “heroine” Cheng resorts to drastic measures to get hers. Pang Ho-cheung alongside producer and star Josie Ho create an alternative way to make a killing on the property market. One that might entertain and offend in equal measure.

Dream Home is screening on New York Asian Film Festival

Cheng Lai (Josie Ho) works two jobs in an effort to earn enough money to procure an apartment with a view of the Victoria Harbour. Her actions stem from a childhood in poverty that...

Tickets go on sale July 1 for the fully in-theater 20th anniversary edition of the New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff), presented by the New York Asian Film Foundation and Film at Lincoln Center (Flc), running from July 15–28, 2022 at Flc, as well as on July 23 and July 28–31 at Asia Society, which will be co-presenting a selection of key films and a Hong Kong marathon day. International stars and acclaimed filmmakers will return in-person to grace the Nyaff red carpet at Flc, receive awards, speak at Q&a sessions, and impart wisdom during masterclasses and special talks.

Hong Kong cultural icon Josie Ho will headline Nyaff 2022 with her latest project as producer of the inspiring musical documentary Finding Bliss: Fire and Ice—The Director’s Cut, in which she travels with musicians and students from Hong Kong to Iceland for a transcendent collaboration. As a tribute to the acting superstar, the festival...

Contemporary Chinese Cinema is a column devoted to exploring contemporary Chinese-language cinema primarily as it is revealed to us at North American multiplexes.Over the last few years it has become increasingly easy to see mainstream Asian films in North America at the same time they are released in their home countries. Thanks to partnerships with small, international distributors, the major multiplex chains (AMC, Cinemark, Regal) have devoted a handful of screens in major markets to showing new releases from India, Korea, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Most of these titles fall under the radar of both critics and audiences outside the diasporic communities to which they are targeted. They play for a week or two and then disappear, outside of a handful of breakout titles. Last year Stephen Chow’s The Mermaid made headlines for its high per-screen averages in North America as it shattered domestic box office records in China.

“n 55!w !” this string of characters is the first thing that fills the cinema screen. It is an especially important moment, as only fans of this rom-com trilogy will feel a knowing nostalgic flutter stemming from those random letters, the seemingly unrelated horror story preceding the credits, and the in-depth intricacies and fleeting yet entirely memorable moments two fated lovers share, but, for the uninitiated, let’s go back. In 2009, Hong Kong auteur Pang Ho-Cheung introduced audiences to a quintessential Hong Kong couple Jimmy (Shawn Yue) and Cherie (Miriam Yeung). In the first film Love in a Puff, Pang uses a tool he has mastered already from previous directorial efforts (Men Suddenly in Black, Dream Home); critiquing Hk society, only this time for the...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Two women on the cusp of the dreaded 3-0 see their two very different lives and worldviews intersect in Kearan Pang’s adaptation of her own one-woman 2005 stage play, 29+1. Pang, a theatrical performer (she had a role in Pang Ho-cheung’s Vulgaria) and writer (again, penning Pang’s Isabella), brings a much-needed female voice to the Hong Kong industry—Ann Hui, Heiward Mak and Mable Cheung being the only others regularly working who spring to mind—and though she has yet to get a handle on film as a form, her debut feature shows promise, and is a welcome departure from the martial...

Writer-director Pang Ho-cheung perhaps didn’t set out to make Hong Kong’s own version of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy, but he’s done just that with the third and (soft maybe) last installment of his own film series, following two young professionals struggling with romance. Starting with the social reorganization brought on by the city’s smoking ban in 2010’s Love in a Puff, and then economic realignment in Love in the Buff (set in Beijing) in 2012, Love Off the Cuff picks up five years later, with a new set of hurdles for the central lovers to clear. Based on the enthusiastic...

Fans of Pang Ho-cheung are poised to get a double dose in Italy as the Udine Far East Film Festival have just announced the first titles for the 2017 edition and included among them are one directing effort and one producing effort from the prolific favorite. What all is coming? Check out the announcement below! Feff 19 Expect the unexpected!   First preview of the 2017 line-up: from the bizarre comedy - produced by Pang Ho-cheung - Nail Clipper Romance about a red-haired girl who lives off nail clippers through the amazing trans costumes of Die Beautiful to the splatter-horror-gore of The Sleep Curse;   from 52Hz, I Love You, the Taiwanese La La Land, to the International Premiere of Love Off The Cuff and...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Event will programme a section of Hong Kong films from the last 20 years, including Infernal Affairs, Election and Shaolin Soccer.

This year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff) will mark the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China with a special focus on major Hong Kong movies of the past 20 years.

The section, ‘Paradigm Shift: Post-97 Hong Kong Cinema’, kicks off with films such as Fruit Chan’s Made In Hong Kong and Ringo Lam’s Full Alert from the period immediately after the handover, when local cinema was under pressure with box office declining and the mainland market starting to grow.

It then moves on to landmark titles such as Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer (2001), Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs [pictured] (2002) and Johnnie To’s Election (2005), which all defined Hong Kong cinema in their own way.

The series of 20 titles ends with Pang Ho-cheung’s Love In A Puff...

Event will programme a section of Hong Kong films from the last 20 years, including Infernal Affairs, Election and Shaolin Soccer.

This year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff) will mark the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China with a special focus on major Hong Kong movies of the past 20 years.

The section, ‘Paradigm Shift: Post-97 Hong Kong Cinema’, kicks off with films such as Fruit Chan’s Made In Hong Kong and Ringo Lam’s Full Alert from the period immediately after the handover, when local cinema was under pressure with box office declining and the mainland market starting to grow.

It then moves on to landmark titles such as Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer (2001), Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs [pictured] (2002) and Johnnie To’s Election (2005), which all defined Hong Kong cinema in their own way.

The series of 20 titles ends with Pang Ho-cheung’s Love In A Puff...

Pang Ho-cheung is one of the leading Hong Kong auteurs to emerge in the 2000s, despite the local film industry experiencing a downturn. Hardworking and prolific, he is a true multi-hyphenate – with writer, novelist, director, producer, columnist and actor credits to his name.

Pang's latest directorial effort, Love Off the Cuff, the third installment of the acclaimed series, will open the 41st Hong Kong International Film Festival in April. He talked to The Hollywood Reporter about making sequels, his desire to act and the benefits of his “dissociative identity disorder.”

Congratulations on Love Off the...

There is a thrilling selection of Chinese-language titles at Filmart this year. Liz Shackleton picks out some of the most promising.

With very few Hong Kong or mainland Chinese sellers making the journey to this year’s European Film Market in Berlin, Filmart offers a chance for buyers to catch up with the Chinese-language titles that will be rolled out in the region for the rest of the year.

After serving up the biggest film of the Chinese New Year holiday — Kung Fu Yoga, starring Jackie Chan and directed by Stanley Tong — China’s Sparkle Roll Media has launched a Hong Kong-based sales arm that is selling Ding Sheng’s reboot of the A Better Tomorrow series.

Other high-profile action titles new to market include Distribution Workshop’s Extraordinary Mission, from the creative teams behind the Infernal Affairs and Overheard series, and Huayi Brothers’ crime drama Explosion, starring Duan Yihong.

Previously announced...

Hong Kong auteur Pang Ho-cheung will make his first directing foray into English-language filmmaking with an adaptation of Lieland from Israeli novelist Etgar Keret’s 2012 short story collection Suddenly, A Knock on the Door.

Pang, who has signed to CAA for all non-Chinese-language directing and screenwriting work, has acquired the story’s film adaptation rights through his Making Film Productions banner. The project is now in development, and Pang intends to write the first draft of the script himself before finding an native English-speaking screenwriter from the U.S. for further script development. The project will be shot in the U.S., with...

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

Lineup Announcements

– The Wisconsin Film Festival returns to Madison, running March 30 – April 6. Highlights of the program include James Gray’s “The Lost City of Z,” Terence Davies’ “A Quiet Passion,” Alex Ross Perry’s “Golden Exits,” Olivier Assayas’ “Personal Shopper,” Geremy Jasper’s “Patti Cake$” and a section dedicated to new women directors. Find out more information at their official site.

– The Denver Film Society has announced its full festival program and schedule for the 7th Women+Film Festival on International Women’s Day. The Festival will take place at the Sie FilmCenter April 4 – 9 and individual tickets and all-access passes are on sale now. The Women+Film Festival shines a spotlight on stories by and about women with a high profile, female-centric mix of documentaries, feature presentations and short films.

Pang Ho-cheung’s romantic comedy will have its world premiere at the event.

Pang Ho-cheung’s Love Off The Cuff, the third installment in the Hong Kong filmmaker’s romantic comedy series, will receive its world premiere as the opening film of this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff).

Miriam Yeung and Shawn Yue are resuming their roles as star-crossed lovers Cherie and Jimmy in the film, which follows Love In A Puff (2010) and Love In The Buff (2012). In this third episode, set in Hong Kong and Taipei, the couple’s relationship is tested when Jimmy’s childhood friend asks him to donate sperm for her artificial insemination.

Hkiff also recently announced that it will screen all seven of late Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang’s films in a section entitled ‘Edward Yang, 10-year Commemoration’.

The festival will also present digitally restored versions of four classics directed by French auteur Robert Bresson and three from Filipino...

Love off the Cuff, the third installment of Media Asia's popular romantic comedy series directed by Pang Ho-cheung, will open the 41st Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff) on April 11.

Love off the Cuff follows in the footsteps of Love in a Puff (2010), and Love in the Buff (2012), and tells the story about a couple who met when indoor smoking was banned in Hong Kong.

While the first film took place in Hong Kong, the second film relocated to Beijing, China, and now the third film is set in Taipei, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The second film of...

Directed by Ho-Cheung Pang , Love In A Puff is a romantic comedy set in the back alleys of Hong Kong, with the changes in the smoking law all of the smokers congregate in small back alley areas to grab a few puffs during work. The plot is pretty bland, the two main characters meet each other, have a few problems and the predictable story conclusion follows.

It’s nothing really new or surprising but the social appeal of the movie is undeniable as it connects with many everyday situations and anyone that has ever had a crush can relate.

The movie features a group of smokers that meet up at their nearby smoking alley and share tales and stories about their respective jobs.

The group is involved in a number of scenes and does deliver some comedy but the main focus is on the relationship between “Cherie” and “Jimmy” played by Miriam Yeung Chin Wah,...

Miriam Yeung and Shawn Yue star in third entry in Pang Ho-cheung’s film series.

Hong Kong stars Miriam Yeung and Shawn Yue are reuniting for Love Off The Cuff, the third installment in Pang Ho-cheung’s hit series about a star-crossed couple.

Pang and Subi Liang’s Making Film Productions is again producing for Media Asia, which is launching sales on the film here at Afm.

The first two films in the series won awards and were hits across Asia. Love In A Puff (2010) introduced the couple Cherie and Jimmy who meet over a cigarette in the street after Hong Kong has banned indoor smoking. The follow-up, Love In The Buff (2012, pictured), sees the couple break up and reunite in Beijing.

The third installment follows the couple to Taiwan and sees their relationship tested when Jimmy’s childhood friend asks him to donate sperm for her artificial insemination. Paul Chun Pui also stars as Cherie’s estranged...

.Fast & Furious 7 cinematographer Stephen Windon will make his directorial debut on DragonSlate.s motorcycle action-thriller Full Throttle, produced by Andrew Mason and set to shoot in the first quarter of 2016. Mason, executive producer of The Matrix trilogy and producer on Russell Crowe.s The Water Diviner, will lead the Full Throttle production team.

DragonSlate Media CEO LeonTan will also serve as a producer, while Sukee Chew, Andrew Ooi, Harriet Spalding and Robert Lundberg will executive produce. Full Throttle follows a motorcycle racer who, after a career-ending crash during a race in Singapore, plies his skills as a courier in Kuala Lumpur. After his girlfriend is abducted, he is forced to crisscross the city against the clock, avoiding capture by relentless authorities while being blackmailed to perform escalating acts of crime by a twisted criminal mastermind. Windon is an Emmy-nominated cinematographer whose 35 years of working behind the movie camera include numerous international accolades and awards.

The festival’s 25th edition will feature a contribution from Ai Weiwei and competition titles including Whiplash, Nightcrawler and Foxcatcher.

The Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 5-16) is to present its Achievement Award to Us actress Uma Thurman.

The Kill Bill star will will visit Stockholm to receive the prestigious Bronze Horse and meet the audience during an exclusive “Face2Face”.

Thurman will also take part in the inauguration ceremony, which will include the unveiling of an ice sculpture by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

Weiwei was a Stockholm jury member last year but since he wasn’t allowed to leave China, he sent an empty chair named ”The Chair for Non-attendance” as symbol of his absence.

He is still not allowed to leave China so will send a design that will be portrayed in the form of a large ice sculpture symbolising this years’ Spotlight theme - Hope.

Brazil

The festival will focus this year on Brazil...

Written by Brandy Bunce

Look back at your childhood and how you imagined yourself as an adult, did you come even close to that expectation in reality? Sometimes in life we place our bar of expectation too high and thanks to the help of the economy, lack of the proper skills or our own bad choices in life those goals are impossible to meet.

Dream Home is all about one woman’s childhood goal of owning her dream home in a time when housing prices in Hong Kong are astronomical, the daily struggles she has to endure and the morbid measures she is willing to go to, to make her dream come true. If you like the typical blood, sex, occasional drug use with a humorous undertone at times in your slasher films, then this one is definitely for you.

Directed by Ho-Cheung Pang and starring Cheng Lai –Sheung, this...

Wai dor lei ah yut ho (Dream Home)

Screenplay by Ho-Cheung Pang, Kwok Cheung Tsang, & Chi-Man Wan

Directed by Ho-Cheung Pang

Hong Kong, 2010

Wai dor lei ah yut ho comes out of the gates with its guns blazing. The film impressively sets up its premise and spends its first twenty minutes establishing how strong of a premise the film is working with. The camera has a lot to do with how impressive the first twenty minutes of the film are. The high rises look especially high, and the people look especially little. There’s one impressive shot where we see a gaggle of office workers huddled together on a typical outside break. The camera films them from underneath, accentuating how tiny they are in comparison to the high rises that dominate their lives. The office workers are talking as if what they do in life will matter, but against the...

I don’t have a whole lot of information about the upcoming Chinese horror flick “Terror Hotel” at the moment, but I’m hoping that will change in the next few days. The film, which, from what I can gather, is about terror which occurs at a very peculiar hotel, opens in theaters this August. I’m honestly not too well-versed in modern Chinese horror — I did thoroughly enjoy director Ho-Cheung Pang’s 2010 “Dream Home” — but I’m definitely curious to see what the country is putting out. I think this is one you should keep your eye on. “Terror Hotel” opens in China on August 17, 2012. The trailer is below...

Well, when you’re hot, you’re hot. Shartlo Copley week continues with news that the actor’s other new project (aside from playing the villain in Spike Lee’s Oldboy remake) Open Grave, has a new cast member. Her name is Josie Ho.

If you haven’t heard of Ms Ho, don’t fret too much, just go check out director Ho-Cheung Pang’s 2010 film Dream Home in which she stars. You won’t regret it.

Dream Home sees Ho play Cheng Li-Sheung, a young professional woman out to secure her dream riverside apartment in Hong Kong. Problem is she can’t afford it. What follows is an insanely bloody high-rise killfest with some nice social commentary stitched in-between the bloodshed and some fairly inventive murders. Ho proves herself as intense as she is beautiful and obsessed as she is lethal. She’s perfect casting for the gruesome...

★★★☆☆ Ho-Cheung Pang's Vulgaria (2012), which had its European Premiere during a packed midnight screening at the 14th Udine Far East Film Festival, stars Chapman To as fictional film producer Wai-Cheung To. From his blunt and coarse comparison of the role of a film producer to the function of pubic hair, to his phenomenal story of self-sacrifice in an attempt to secure funding for his hit film Confessions of Two Concubines, To conceals nothing and often drifts into crude, offensive detail regarding his streak of misfortunes.

Read more »...

Ho-Cheung Pang (Love In A Puff, Exodus) is definitely one of the most interesting directors working in the Hong Kong movie industry today. With two new films coming up, it felt like a good time to revisit my favorite Pang film, his somewhat atypical and surprisingly arthouse-inspired Isabella. It's been five years already when I watched it for the first time, but it still stands strong as one of Hong Kong's best films to date.Ho-Cheung Pang is probably the director that got me interested in Hong Kong cinema in the first place. Before I discovered his films the Hk industry felt like a stale collection of genre films and derivatives. Even though I've come to appreciate their appeal over the years, I was looking for...

The return of Stifler, Jim, Finch and Oz in American Pie: Reunion was enough to bump The Hunger Games off top spot in the Easter Weekend’s box office.

The not-so-teen comedy took $4.8m across 330 screens for a respectable $14,551 per screen.

The Hunger Games continued with strong results however, taking second place with $3.2m in its third week across 467 screens for an average of $6,871 per screen. The film has now taken $21.3m in its three weeks at the Australian box office.

Easter is always a big weekend for the box office. This year saw eight films open.

Titanic 3D opened in 5th place taking $1.7m across 169 screens for a screen average of $10,225.

The animation Pirates! Band of Misfits by Aardman Animation, the studio behind Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit, opened widely with 425 screens, but only managed a screen average of $2,033 to take $864,000 in ninth spot.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,...

Genre buddy and fellow root canal survivor Rob Hunter came to my aid this week when it was time for title selection. I was stupidly about to put in The Wild Hunt, which has something to do with LARPing and virgins or something, when the Foreign Objects author suggested I try something a little more sub-titled. Dream Home is the story about the American dream taking place in Hong Kong. Young Cheng Lai-sheung (Josie Ho) is a phone representative for a bank in Hong Kong and all she wants out of life is a nice flat with a view of the ocean for her ailing grandfather to live in. She’ll stop at nothing to get that home, from scraping together every penny and working two extra jobs. After raising enough capital to buy into the flat, the sellers decide to ask for more money and Cheng reacts completely reasonably. For...

By Lianne Spiderbaby

Last February I wrote a controversial article entitled I Spit On Your Movie that was published on Fangoria’s website. I have strong opinions about the 2010 I Spit On Your Grave remake, and I wasn’t afraid to share them publicly, figuring I was entitled to my opinion, but a few readers did not enjoy my idea of free speech (especially when cutting up their precious and pathetic remake). I prepared myself for praise and the death threats, both of which I still receive in plenty as a result. I concluded my article (now housed on my own site) by stating that I hoped to see some nondiscriminatory portrayals of women in the future – an equal playing field for women in horror on the big screen. I had no idea that my dream would come true just one year later, in 2011.

Give yourself a pat on the back,...

Wong Ching-Po's salacious little thriller Revenge: A Love Story is the second film from production company 852 - who previously gave us Edmond Pang's Dream Home, an ultraviolent slasher (emphasis on ultra) where Pang's trademark sly social commentary sat somewhat uneasily with stomach-churning (if blackly hilarious) effects work. In contrast, Revenge drops the breaking news approach almost entirely. It's not without pretensions of a sort, but this is a Category III production, damn it, a grim, bloody-minded action flick where horrible people do horrible things to each other, no-one gets out unscathed and we don't particularly care why as long as we get to see some sweet, sweet gore - nudity would be a bonus, too.Wong's script, from an original story by lead actor Juno...

Rank the week of August 9th’s Blu-ray and DVD new releases against the best films of all-time: New Releases Paul

(DVD & Blu-ray | R | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #764

Win Percentage: 55%

Times Ranked: 7626

Top-20 Rankings: 22

Directed By: Greg Mottola

Starring: Simon Pegg • Nick Frost • Seth Rogen • Jane Lynch • Sigourney Weaver

Genres: Adventure • Comedy • Road Movie • Science Fiction • Sci-Fi Comedy • Adventure Comedy

Rank This Movie

Super

(DVD & Blu-ray | R | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #2200

Win Percentage: 54%

Times Ranked: 2471

Top-20 Rankings: 11

Directed By: James Gunn

Starring: Rainn Wilson • Ellen Page • Liv Tyler • Kevin Bacon • Michael Rooker

Genres: Action • Action Comedy • Black Comedy • Comedy • Comedy Drama • Comic-Book Superhero Film • Drama • Satire • Based-on-Comics

Rank This Movie

Jumping The Broom

(DVD & Blu-ray | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #16475

Win Percentage: 32%

Times Ranked: 46

Top-20 Rankings: 2

Directed By: Salim Akil

Starring: Angela Bassett • Paula Patton • Meagan Good • Laz Alonso • Julie Bowen

Genres: Comedy • Comedy Drama • Domestic Comedy • Drama

Rank This Movie

Your Highness

(DVD & Blu-ray | R...

Dream Home

Stars: Josie Ho, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Eason Chan, Michelle Ye, Norman Chu | Written by Ho-Cheung Pang, Kwok Cheung Tsang | Directed by Ho-Cheung Pang

Darker than Satan’s pencil case, Dream Home serves up a healthy hammock full of blood, guts and gore. All of which had me laughing, wincing and most importantly, enjoying for the full 96 minute duration.

If you aren’t familiar with Asian cinema then know this. I love it and Dream Home further exacerbated my enthusiasm for it. Directed by Pang Ho-cheung, Dream Home is the story of Cheng Li-sheung who is a young, upwardly mobile professional that is finally ready to invest in her first home. However, when the deal falls through and after years of saving and searching for her ‘dream home’ she is forced to keep her dream alive, even if it means utilising some household products in the most malicious fashion imaginable…...

Recently we had the opportunity to sit down with director Ho-Cheung Pang to talk about his latest film, Dream Home (review here), which is available now on VOD courtesy of IFC Midnight. Dig it!

DC: The events of Dream Home take place in a very non-linear fashion. What were the challenges involved with making sure everything came together while avoiding confusion?

Hcp: It is because I have considered the view of slasher fans; those audiences will be impatient and anxious to wait for killing scenes. This is always a typical dilemma in slasher films. So I cannot handle this film like any other drama patterns. I want audiences to enjoy watching the whole journey with me. Therefore, I decided to tell the story in a non-linear narrative fashion when I start writing the script. I tried to weave the killing and violent scenes in almost every ten minutes in the film.

We at Mubi think that celebrating the films of 2010 should be a celebration of film viewing in 2010. Since all film and video is "old" one way or another, we present Out of a Past, a small (re-) collection of some of our favorite of 2010's retrospective viewings.

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Bouteille cassée (Father Piet Verstegen M. Afr., 1952)

One morning, TO1..., comrade Möller's phone rang and a young woman with a refreshingly spunky voice said something like, Hi!, I'm that student your friend told you about—the one who's working on a documentary about the White Fathers retirement home. Today I'll have a look at the order's film collection—do you have time to come along? I could need your advise and the monk who takes care of it as well. Of course he had time—and finally the opportunity to see some of the works discussed in a hefty tome he'd bought almost...

Ho-Cheung Pang (Isabella, Exodus) is building himself quite a cult following. He's somewhat of an oddity in Hong Kong, working in genres that are not among the most popular over there, but the man has a unique and detailed style that grants his films a broader appeal. With Dream Home he takes on the American slasher and turns it upside down, keeping all the good stuff and enriching it with his own particularities. The result is once again more than enjoyable.

You don't see much slasher films in Hong Kong. Apparently people running around with knives gruesomely killing others isn't much of a spectacle over there. Those expecting a true genre flick might end up a little disappointed though. While all the necessary ingredients are here, the filler is quite different indeed. In between all the killings, Pang's style and themes rise to the surface to turn Dream Home into a true Ho-Cheung Pang film.

IFC announced that the network has acquired the rights to air Dream House, or Wai dor lei ah yut ho, a film by director Ho-Cheung Pang. Dream House will air as a part of the IFC Midnight lineup. Official Synopsis: “Cheng Li-sheung is a young, upwardly mobile professional finally ready to invest in her first home. But when the deal falls through, she is forced to keep her dream alive – even if it means keeping her would-be neighbors dead.” IFC Midnight is billed as “a film festival at the touch of a remote button” and viewers can pick and choose between films like The Human Centipede and Beneath The Dark that are currently showing in film festivals around the world. Source: http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/ Related Posts:Film Review: Dream Home (2010)Indie Horror Movie In Memorium Now StreamingThe Man in the Maze: world premiere and trailer8213: Gacy House – Sept...

Dream Home (Wai dor lei ah yut ho)

Stars: Josie Ho, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Eason Chan, Michelle Ye, Norman Chu | Written by Ho-Cheung Pang, Kwok Cheung Tsang | Directed by Ho-Cheung Pang

Darker than Satan’s pencil case, Dream Home serves up a healthy hammock full of blood, guts and gore. All of which had me laughing, wincing and most importantly, enjoying for the full 96 minute duration.

If you aren’t familiar with Asian cinema then know this. I love it and Dream Home further exacerbated my enthusiasm for it. Directed by Pang Ho-cheung, Dream Home is the story of Cheng Li-sheung who is a young, upwardly mobile professional that is finally ready to invest in her first home. However, when the deal falls through and after years of saving and searching for her ‘dream home’ she is forced to keep her dream alive, even if it means utilising some...

Year: 2010

Directors: Ho-Cheung Pang

Writers: Ho-Cheung Pang

IMDb: link

Trailer: link

Review by:

Rating: 5 out of 10

[Editor's note: so begins projectcyclops' exhaustive coverage of the GrimmUpNorth Film Festival]

The premise of Dream Home is quite inspired. A woman in Hong Kong works two mind numbing jobs, one in a call centre where she has to deal with abusive recipients to cold calls and another in a high class boutique where the wealthy come to spend oodles of cash. Despite her working hours she still cannot find a decent apartment, and recalls a time when her family lived in a pleasant area long since torn down and replaced with luxury high rise blocks the likes of which she can only dream of affording. Her plan is simple, she’ll murder her way to the top. Kill the residents and the price will fall, free space will become available and she can realise her ambition of getting that ocean view. Unfortunately the inspiration ends...

Criticising Edmond Pang's ultraviolent slasher Dream Home feels like delivering a petty kicking, but one the man's been due a long time. Pang is still without doubt one of the most talented, consistently interesting directors left in Hong Kong's ailing film industry, and Dream Home has moments of absolute world-class cinematic brilliance with few equals in 2010. But it suffers worst of all his output from his trademark weaknesses - style over substance, dubiously relevant social commentary, lack of depth - to the point you actually start to question how much mileage his signature techniques have left.

Pang's cause celebre this time around is Hong Kong's bloodthirsty property market, the toll it demands in human misery and the lengths people are prepared to go to to secure a pricey apartment with a harbour view. Josie Ho plays Sheung, a young woman who grows up in a dirt-poor neighbourhood, clawing and...

Grimmupnorth 2010 is coming to Manchester for a second time this Halloween! Readers may remember last year’s coverage from the first Grimmfest last October ‘09. Well, we’re going back for more this year too. Festival director Simeon Halligan and his crew have spent all year finding some amazing new titles to screen at Manchester’s biggest horror film festival, including Evil: In The Time Of Heroes, which I missed at Eiff so am well up for seeing. There’s also the inventively named Canadian shocker, Dead Hooker In A Trunk, the Japanese genre mash-up Alien Vs Ninja, Thai thriller Slice, Zombie mock-u-mentary Reel Zombies and a horror doc featuring all kinds of industry insiders, The Splat Pack. There’s also a ton of activities and seminars for festival goers to participate in too. Personally I’m looking forward to the special screening for my favourite Argento film, Deep Red.

Dream Home opens with statistics about property prices in Hong Kong and a statement about how crazy the city is and that you have you have to be crazy to survive. One such crazy resident of Hong Kong is Cheng Li-sheung (Josie Ho) who wants to buy her dream home but is thwarted at every corner.

In order to secure the flat of her dreams Cheng turns into a murderess and begins dispatching the current occupants of the building in various gruesome ways. These kills are incredibly graphic and also often very inventive. The violence is shocking at times but also filled with black humour and it is a testament to the excellent writing that this works so well within the film as these Grand Guignol elements could so easily unbalance the film and take something away from the complex emotional and socio-cultural themes that help make the film so rewarding.

Ho-Cheung Pang, the man that introduced me to another side of Hk cinema. Not hindered by the limitations of genre cinema or the pretensions of arthouse, his films are quirky and lovable author pieces. Love In A Puff is no exception to the rule. A fun, little romantic comedy set in the hidden back alleys where smokers gather to share a cigarette, possibly even more. Even for non-smokers there is plenty to enjoy.

Love In A Puff feels like a continuation of Pang's previous film, Trivial Matters. A semi-realistic snippet of modern day society. Still very stylized and cinematic, but not as staged or acted as his previous work (Isabella or Exodus). Those not too taken with this new style need not fear, Pang will return with the crafty-looking horror flick Dream Home later this year.

In 2007 Hong Kong followed many other countries by prohibiting smoking on the work floor.

This year’s FrightFest horror festival has revealed its full line-up and it should have horror fans very excited. A special appearance by Tobe Hooper and a screening of his little seen Eggshells is a must for film lovers.

And of course they’ll be showing his masterpiece The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It’s special because Hooper hasn’t visited the UK for almost twenty years!

Check out the main titles playing at the festival below. It’s a good mix of world horror cinema.

Thursday Aug 27

6.30pm Hatchet II (World Premiere) – 90 mins Director: Adam Green USA 2010

9.15pm Primal (World Premiere) – 85 mins Director: Josh Reed Australia 2010

11.30pm Dead Cert (World Premiere) – 90 mins Director: Steve Lawson UK 2010

Friday Aug 28

10.45am Eggshells – 90 mins Director: Tobe Hooper USA 1969

1.00pm The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – 83 mins Director: Tobe Hooper USA 1974

3.15pm Interview With Tobe Hooper.

5.30pm Isle Of Dogs (World Premiere) – 90 mins Director:...