Our loyal readers would know that we love blogging about the Hong Kong International Film Festival, and we did so in 2002, 04, 05, 06 and 08. I am not aware of any of us being there this year, and so I have had to satisfy my cravings for the HKIFF through reading some of the great articles posted on other blogs. You will find below the links to the most awesome articles I have read (so far) about the 35th HKIFF, which is currently running:
Professor David Bordwell shared on his blog some thoughts on Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (pictured above), one of HKIFF 2011’s opening films. It is the latest cinematic collaboration by two of Heroic Cinema’s favourite directors: Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai. Why should you be excited? Well, together they brought us Needing You, Help!, Love on a Diet, Fat Choi Spirit, Running on Karma and Mad Detective.
Twitchfilm has got detailed reviews on Milocrorze, A Love Story (which sounds like crazy fun), Hi Fidelity (a welcome return to the screen by Pat Ha of An Amorous Woman of Tang Dynasty fame), Sacrifice (pictured above – the latest from Chinese director Chen Kaige) and Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.
Our friend YTSL at Webs of Significance has already written 5 fantastic film reviews in her annual HKIFF Report, including reviews of Love Letter (one of my all-time favourite Japanese films – pictured above) and the other festival opening film Quattro Hong Kong 2, which is jointly directed by four award-winning filmmakers – Stanley Kwan from Hong Kong, Ho Yuhang from Malaysia, Brillante Mendoza from the Philippines and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives) from Thailand.
I certainly look forward to reading more about the great films showing at HKIFF 2011, and hope that we will get to see many of the featured films at our own film festivals. And who knows, one day I may even get to travel to Hong Kong to attend their largest film festival…