You should already know this, but I don’t mind restating the awesome – the Gold Coast is, this month, the place to be. Why? Well, if you’re an Asian cinephile living in our (usually) sunny state and you don’t have tickets to the Gold Coast Film Festival already in your inbox, you’re going to kick yourself, because you’ll be missing out on some seriously fantastic films.
The GCFF program is featuring a wide range of films for all tastes. For kung fu fans, there’s the classic Enter the Dragon. Horror officiandos will appreciate the screening of Tomie Unlimited and thriller lovers may want to check out the chilling Cold Fish as well as Johnny To’s Life Without Principle. For the dramatists, there’s Ann Hui’s A Simple Life and for the comic in everyone, the slightly strange Dayyan Eng film Inseparable, staring Daniel Wu and Kevin Spacey. Action junkies (yep, that’s me) might want front row seats for Dante Lam’s The Viral Factor, Tak Sakaguchi’s Yakuza Weapon (come on, Tak Sakaguchi directing and starring) and Hong-jin Na’s The Yellow Sea. And the – well, I’m not sure what to say about this one but apparently Shinji Imaoka’s Underwater Love is both a pink film and a musical. Or a musical pink film. That involves a girl and a kappa falling in love, is lensed by Christopher Doyle and was shot in 5 and a half days in just one take.
And don’t forget the anime representation, in the form of both the most recent Bleach feature films Fade to Black and Hell Verse, and a Masterclass and Q&A with the director Noriyuki Abe and the seiyuu for Ichigo Kurosaki, Masakazu Morita.
With all that going on, you might even get time to rock along to the inaugural Gold Coast Supanova, where there’s everything from cosplay competitions and masterclasses to talkback sessions with your favourite anime voice actors. After all, you’re in the neighbourhood, right?
And when you’re done with all that excitement, well, the beach is a great place to recharge. If you’re lucky you might even be able to grab catch a warm enough day to work on your tan and go for a swim. Which, sounds to me like the perfect end to a perfect week.
The GCFF is on 19-29 and tickets can be purchased through Event Cinemas via the GCFF website. GC Supanova is on 21-22 and tickets can be purchased through Foxtix.