I wasn't going to chime in until some time next week, but I'm relaxing at my favourite hotel in Tokyo and the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) has announced their list of 2008 projects, so I can now mention that Sabu is participating with a project entitled Dancing Mary. The official HAF site hasn't been updated to include synopses yet, but I can say that Dancing Mary is a fun story that will define what might just be a new subgenre that we've dubbed "tearjerker horror." It's been quiet on the Sabu front for a couple years, but with Dancing Mary, and Arrested Memories / High in Heaven (see my related entries here), Sabu now has three projects set for foreign production. There's also a domestic film that goes before cameras this year (more on that later). Sabu is a popular guy in the HK film world, so we're hoping it'll go down well!
Nakata Hideo (see my Nakata interview here) also has a project at HAF entitled Gensenkan, which is possibly a new adaptation of Tsuge Yoshiharu's 1968 manga Gensenkan Shujin (『ゲンセンカン主人』), which Ishii Teruo adapated in 1993 (his return to the big screen, and which I didn't realize screened at the Toronto film fest), but I have to confirm that. On a side note, check out Midnight Eye's excellent interview with Ishii, which I believe was one of his last before he died. For trivia buffs, in Sabu's days as an actor he appeared in Nakata's Don't Look Up (Joyû-rei,『女優霊』), which is now being remade by Fruit Chain.
The other Japanese project at HAF is Tsûtenkaku (『通天閣』), which is a famous tower in Osaka. Maybe Osaka is looking for its own Tokyo Tower-styled contents boom. Director Ôtani Kentarô, who made a little film called Nana, is at the helm.
3 comments:
i'm a little confused by the HKIFF news, particularly which saby project is which - as in, which is the english language one(s)! - and what bong joon-ho has up his sleeve other than his vampire movie project, said to be shooting sometime in march or so... and what's that nakata film gensenkan?
anyway, happy new year etc.
HAF facilitates investment in selected projects by interested producers, distributors etc. regardless of country, but Dancing Mary has a good chance of being an HK production.
As I mentioned previously, Arrested Memories is with a well-known German outfit and looks to be shot in German (not confirmed yet) and High in Heaven probably in English.
Whatever the eventual language, English scripts are always a necessity.
Looking forward to Bong Joon-ho's (and Gondry's and Carax's) segment in 『TOKYO!』
interesting.
not that keen on the potential for influence in certain areas of financing, though i'll admit that it's probably the last thing on a theoretical long list of stuff i've concerns for, a list that sits alongside a much longer one of things i am keen on or not at all bothered by.
it's interesting to see sabu working in this way, i hope that many people in this way get to share this work too, someday.
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