Terracotta Far East Film Festival
We asked our good friend of Asian cinema, writer / producer Ben Trebilcook (upcoming martial arts movie Knockout and currently associated to Die Hard 6) to attend the press launch of The Terracotta Far East Film Festival this past week. Here’s his brief run-down.
On Tuesday, I weaved in and out of the crowds of locals and tourists combined, round the backstreets of London’s Chinatown in the main street of Gerard and headed to the upstairs of the brilliantly ace Dumplings Legend restaurant. Welcomed immediately with a smile and a bottle of Tiger, I was introduced to the Terracotta team, there to announce the official press launch for the 2013 Terracotta Far East Film Festival.
Dozens of web-journos who are fans of far east cinema, like myself, were in attendance and keep to learn what was going to be revealed. Due to embargoes, we can’t really say a great deal at this time. Typical! However, with that said, we can reveal bites – and I’m not talking about the duck pancakes and spring rolls that were in my clutches as I shook the organiser’s hand!
I’ve always adored Asian cinema. John Woo and Tsui Hark have influenced me no-end. Tony Leung has to be my favourite Asian actor and when I accidentally trod on the dress of somebody close to Jackie Chan once at the Cannes Film Festival and he delivered a smile instead of a swift kick to the head, it merely cemented my love for it all and left me with one word to describe Asian cinema: Gracious.
Good food and beer aside (thanks guys and girls), the #TFEFF13 team (that’s the hashtag Twitter whatsit);OK, so no more brackets (I promise), the full line up of movies will be listed soon, however the central key theme for this year’s festival is held in memory of the late great Hong Kong talents Leslie Cheung and Antia Mui, both of whom I grew up watching and admiring, with Anita in ‘A Better Tomorrow III’ and ‘Heroic Trio, as well as Jackie Chan’s ‘Rumble in the Bronx’ and Leslie Cheung in ‘A Better Tomorrow 1 & 2’ and of course ‘Fair Well My Concubine’. With both actors dying tragically young in the career, the festival will be paying tribute to them both equally and playing out some of their movies in various venues in London.
Stand-out films for me this year are a few independents. ‘When a Wolf falls in Love with a Sheep’, directed by Hou Chi-Jan. A Taiwanese movie coming in at 86 minutes it’s a nice feel-good and quirky movie, showing signs of Wes Anderson and Jason Reitman.
Also, ‘See You Tomorrow, Everyone’, directed by Yoshiro Nakamura, another indie, this time from Japan, starring Gaku Hamada and Kana Kurashina, telling the tale of a guy who has lived his entire life on a council estate and never having ventured outside of it. He lives and breath the estate and knows exactly what he wants in life, which is to never leave the place. He wants to work there and remain there for the rest of his days and why not? It has everything!
Next up on MY list of look-out-for is ‘Young Gun in The Time’, a time-travelling sci-fi film noir. It’s a low-budget affair from Korea, complete with Hawaiian shirts and guns for hands, dotted with the occasional sex store.
For action fans, the must-see for them are certainly ‘Cold War’, the Hong Kong huge box-office smash starring Tony Leung and Aaron Kwok, featuring police corruption and the rivalry between two police chiefs in a race-against time thriller.
More information will be up on the official ‘Terracotta’ web site this coming Tuesday 7th May, where they will be releasing the guest stars and specialist workshops for what seems like a fantastic year for Eastern cinema.
So with that. I leave my thanks to Phil and the Eastern Films team, the Terracotta staff and of course to Asian cinema. Bring on the festival!
Check out the FULL LINE UP AND TICKETS HERE
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Thanks to Ben Trebilcook
