Screen Time: Asian Film Awards & Alice Arrives in BJ

Dan Edwards | Mar 26, 2010 10:00 am | Add a comment | 2076 reads

The Asian Film Awards took place in conjunction with the Hong Kong International Film Festival earlier this week (Monday, March 22). South Korean Film Mother by Bong Joon-ho took "Best Film," but Chinese movies also claimed a couple of major gongs.

Lu Chuan picked up “Best Director” for his controversial take on the Nanjing massacre, City of Life and Death, while Wang Xueqi picked up the “Best Actor” award for his role in Bodyguards and Assassins.

You can see a complete list of the winners here.

The Hong Kong International Film Festival kicked off on Sunday, March 21 with the premier of Crossing Hennessy, marking Chinese actress Tang Wei’s return to the screen following her mainland blacklisting for her role in Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution. The mainland’s loss has been Hong Kong’s gain, with the talented actress moving to the SAR to continue working. Crossing Hennessy is her first work since making the move.

You can read HK Magazine's review of Crossing Hennessy here.

Closer to home, as we noted last week, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland hits Beijing today – actually it was unveiled at midnight last night. As well as many normal screens around town, it will also screen in an IMAX version at Wanda Cinemas in Shijingshan, the China National Film Museum and UME in Shuangan.

Broadway Cinematheque has two more screenings of Knitting, the second feature by local filmmaker Yin Lichuan, whose debut feature was the The Park. I haven’t had a chance to see Knitting yet, but I heard very good things from people who attended last weekend’s screenings. The last two showings are on Saturday, March 27 at 4pm (includes Q&A with the director) and Sunday, March 28, also at 4pm.

Also this weekend, CNEX has two screenings of Let's Fall in Love, a documentary by Taiwanese director Wuna Wu. The film has shown at a slew of festivals around the world, and delves into the seemingly mundane subject of marriage - in all "draggy, agonizing and messy" glory. You can read more in this Taipei Times article. The screenings are at 3pm on Saturday and Sunday (March 27 and 28), and the director will be on hand to take questions.

Meanwhile, the retrospective of key sixth generation filmmaker Zhang Yuan continues up at UCCA – see here for the full program.

Finally, those dedicated folks of the Electric Shadows short film group are celebrating their one-year anniversary over the Tomb Sweeping holiday weekend, with a screening and birthday cake at the Penghao Theater on Sunday, April 4. See here for a full program.