[2014.04.16] FOR THE WEEK ENDING APRIL 13 2014

For the week ending April 13 2014

Photos courtesy of Yahoo! Movies Hong Kong

10 DIVERGENT
    d. Neil Burger
    Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet

 9 NON-STOP
    d. Jaume Collet-Serra
    Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Scoot McNairy

 8 TWELVE NIGHTS
    d. Raye
    Documentary
  Rating : IIA
  Length : 99 mins.
  Opening March 27 2014 at the Hong Kong International Film Festival
  Opening April 3 2014
  Site : http://www.hkiff.org.hk/eng/film/detail/38159-twelve-nights.html

[ HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ]
  Raye’s devastating documentary follows the plight of some 450 dogs brought through a single animal shelter during the winter of 2013. Policy dictates that any animal not adopted within 12 nights will be destroyed. Only around 10% of residents will be so lucky as to survive. As they wait, their time in the shelter is fraught with anguish, disease, and only the slimmest possibility of a better life. Executive produced by novelist and filmmaker Giddens Ko (You Are The Apple Of My Eye).

 7 ENTHRALLED
  Can : Oi. Chum. Mai.
  Lit : Love. Seek. Mystery.
    d. Chip Tsao (To Kit)
    Tsui Tin Yau, Kelvin Kwan Chor Yiu, Mandy Lieu, Candy Law Lam,
      Joy Sing Long Hei, Christopher Goh (Ng Kwok Yiu),
  Rating : IIB
  Length : 109 mins.
  Opening March 28 2014 at the Hong Kong International Film Festival
  Opening April 10 2014
  Site : http://hkiff.org.hk/eng/film/detail/38248-enthralled.html

[ HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ]
  An enthralling directorial debut by the phenomenal, biting columnist and broadcaster Chip Tsao. Three elementary school pals, separated during the post-Tiananmen wave of emigration, reunite after 20 years, only to find themselves in totally different places. When each of them gets involved in an unlikely and at times illicit romance, their disparate lives intertwine and take a dire turn. The simmering ennui of post-handover Hong Kong is insightfully captured in this original and hardhitting drama about love, deceit and betrayal.

[ YAHOO! MOVIES HONG KONG ]
  Yin, Lok and Sing are very close friends since elementary school, but because Yin immigrated overseas when he was little they have not seen each other in years. 20 years later, three elementary school friends reunite after finding each other on facebook. After meting they discover not only their personalities are different but also their experiences. Lee Kwok Yin is a financial world elite who cannot help himself but fall for a lonely wife of a political candidate. Lok is a poor lecturer who has never met his father since he was born. His alcoholic mother passed away. As he actively looks for his father's whereabouts, he falls for a Mainland exchange student who finds his father. Sing comes from a poor family and is a hairstylist. With his hair cutting craft he meets a wealthy divorcee. He always wants to succeed but his background limits him. After they meet, they each have special encounters that change their lives.

 6 YVES SAINT LAURENT
    d. Jalil Lespert
    Pierre Niney,Guillaume Gallienne, Charlotte Le Bon, Laura Smet

 5 KANO
    d. Umin Boya (Ma Chih-hsiang)
    Masatoshi Nagase, Takao Osawa
    Rating : IIA
    Length : 185 mins.
    Opening March 27 2014

[ YAHOO! MOVIES HONG KONG ]
  In 1929 the Kano baseball team that consisted of Chinese, Japanese and aboriginal Taiwanese. Under the new coach's goal of "Koshien" and a Spartan style strict training, the originally sloppy team after over a year of hellish training and constant defeats gradually had the determination to win and head to Koshien. In 1931 the Kano baseball team went on a winning streak and defeated the perennial all Japanese champion Taipei Commercial team to become the first team south of the Chuoshui River to win the all island baseball championship. It also represented Taiwan in the Koshien tournament in Japan. On the endless grassy field of Koshien and in front of 55,000 viewers, the Kano team's determination and never quit spirit affected everyone......

 4 NOAH
    d. Darren Aronofsky
    Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins

 3 NAKED AMBITION 3D
  Can : Ho Ching 3D
  Lit : Bold Love 3D
  AKA : NAKED AMBITION 2
  AKA : HO CHING 2
  Lit : Bold Love 2
    d. Lee Kung Lok
    Chapman To Man Jat, Josie Ho Chiu Yi, Taka Kato,
      Anri Okita, Maiko Yuki, Kana Yume
      Nozomi Aso, Tsukasa Aoi, Yui Tatsumi,
      Derek Tsang Kwok Cheung,
  Rating : III
  Length : 106 mins.
  Opening March 25 2014 at the Hong Kong International Film Festival
  Opening April 3 2014
  Site : http://hkiff.org.hk/eng/film/detail/38239-3d-naked-ambition.html

[ HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ]
  Vulgaria star Chapman To challenges the boundaries of good taste again, this time alongside a platoon of Japanese AV stars in the raunchy and rudely satirical 3D Naked Ambition. An honors graduate in literature, Wayman (To) is stuck writing cheap erotic fiction, but somehow ends up starring in an AV film. Suddenly a porn superstar in Japan, he discovers a whole new world fraught with pleasure, pain and more twists and turns than he or the audience expects!

[ YAHOO! MOVIES HONG KONG ]
  Top literature department graduate Chan Wai Man falls to write sex stories in the newspaper for a living, while his live in girlfriend becomes a popular romantic novel queen whose novels are destined to be bestsellers. The woman on top situation does not just appear at work but also in bed.

  Chan Wai Man's disappointing career falls into the abyss with the newspaper ending its sex pages. A group of unemployed and disillusioned sex page writers meet with a friend who delivers new film for adult video film reviews at the adult video store. Chan suddenly gets an idea. Since they grew up on Japanese adult video, why do they not make one of their own and go from viewers to producers even if it is just for fun? Finally they receive overwhelming responses for investment from a group of shut in friends and even plan to form a tour group to visit the set......

 2 THE MIDNIGHT AFTER
  Can : Can : Na Yeh Ning Sun, Ngor Jor Seung Liu Wong Gok Hoi Wong Dai Bo Dik Hung Van
  AKA : LOST ON A RED MINIBUS TO TAIPO
    Wong Yau Nam, Tsui Tin Yau, Janice Man Wing Shan,
      Sam Lee Chan Sam, Simon Yam Tat Wa, Wai Ying Hung,
      Lam Suet, Jacqueline Chong Si Man
  Rating : III
  Length : 124 mins.
  Opening March 28 2014 at the Hong Kong International Film Festival
  Opening April 10 2014
  Site : https://www.berlinale.de/en/programm/berlinale_programm/datenblatt.php?film_id=20144221#tab=video25
  Site : http://www.hkiff.org.hk/eng/film/detail/38187-the-midnight-after.html

[ HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ]
  Fruit Chan’s very Hong Kong story is based on a local internet sci-fi novel with a title made up of 17 Chinese characters plus a comma. A mini-bus leaves beautiful Mongkok one evening for Tai Po. It exits the Lion Rock Tunnel, drops off three Chinese University students and arrives in a Tai Po totally void of people and traffic. Then the passengers start dying horrible disfiguring deaths, or are raped and murdered by fellow travellers. A streetwise apocalyptic vision with special Fruit Chan characteristics, ingeniously aided by local rocker Jan Curious strumming a broom guitar and lip synching “This is ground control to Major Tom...”

[ BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ]
  A night like any other in the streets of Hong Kong: in the midst of the tangle of night-owls, cars and vendors, a group of passengers climbs aboard a minibus that is to take them from Mongkok to Tai Po. The group is as diverse as the city: there’s a young man on drugs, an arguing couple, a woman with prayer beads and a girl who has just fallen in love. And behind the wheel sits the chatty driver. But as the bus emerges from a tunnel, everything is suddenly quite still: the streets and buildings are all empty and there’s not a soul to be seen; it’s as if everyone has suddenly been swallowed by the earth. Only the millions of neon lights continue to blink, as if nothing has happened. The eclectic group of passengers seek refuge in a deserted café and discuss what they should do. Then they make an horrific discovery … After his film Dumplings, which premiered in the 2005 Panorama, indie director Fruit Chan adapts the best-selling novel ‘Lost on a Minibus from Mongkok to Taipo’ and once again turns the horror genre upside down for his screen version, The Midnight After. A fast-paced and scary shocker which also happens to feature a David Bowie song.

 1 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER
    d. Anthony Russo, Jose Russo
    Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson,
      Robert Redford, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie