HONG KONG FILM FEST ONLINE

Hong Kong's film festival has good years and it has bad years and recently I've felt like it had more bad years than good. That said, 2006 is undeniably a good year. They just announced their line-up and this is the sharpest programming I've seen from these guys in a while.

There's an eight film tribute to Milkyway Image which will include its best films: TOO MANY WAYS TO BE NO. 1, THE LONGEST NITE, RUNNING OUT OF TIME, THE MISSION, PTU, THROWDOWN, ELECTION, and ELECTION 2. ELECTION 2 opens the festival, along with ISABELLA from Pang Ho-cheung.

A slamming tribute to action choreographers featuring screenings of (among others) DIRTY HO, THE BLADE, A TOUCH OF ZEN, THE MAGIC BLADE, THE YOUNG MASTER, MARTIAL CLUB, ZU: WARRIORS FROM THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN, FONG SAI YUK and ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA 2.

The rest of the line-up includes INVISIBLE WAVES, a tell-all about the Hong Kong celebrity machine featuring documentary footage as well as a parody of the industry called FILM SURPRISE, a preview of the first movie by Patrick Tam since MY HEART IS THAT ETERNAL ROSE called AFTER THIS, OUR EXILE (starring Aaron Kwok and Charlie Young; Tam also edited ELECTION), and outdoor screenings of MASKED RIDER THE FIRST (the new Kamen Rider movie), I NOT STUPID TOO (Jack Neo's sequel to I NOT STUPID) and ALWAYS - SUNSET ON THIRD STREET.

Interestingly, although Shochiku claims that SHINOBI is in the festival, I couldn't find it anywhere.

My hat's off to the festival this year. This is a pretty amazing line-up by anyone's standards. Go check it out.