Hong Kong Film Festival Sets Comeback in Summer, After COVID Delay

Walt Disney chief financial officer Christine McCarthy said the company could record a $350 million squeeze on operating income in the current quarter – it’s fiscal third — from its Hong Kong and Shanghai theme parks, tempering the parks division’s upbeat narrative a bit.

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong authorities arrested a Roman Catholic cardinal, a singer and at least two others on Wednesday on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces to endanger China's national security, reports said.Cardinal Joseph Zen, singer-actress Denise Ho, lawyer Margaret Ng and scholar Hui Po-keung were detained by Hong Kong’s National Security Police, the U.K.-based human rights group Hong Kong Watch said.The arrests were apparently related to their roles as trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which provided legal aid to people who took part in 2019 pro-democracy protests that were quashed by security forces, the group said. The fund closed in 2021, it said.Scores of pro-democracy activists have been arrested under a sweeping National Security Law imposed on the city by Beijing in 2020 following the demonstrations.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefIn the early years of the 21st century, bankers to the film industry set their eyes on East Asia and headed for Hong Kong and Beijing. They could see that mainland China’s decision to open the film business to the private sector had the potential to be a game-changer.

Legendary action director John Woo is making quite the Hollywood comeback. He’s currently working with actor Joel Kinnaman (“The Killing,” “The Suicide Squad“) for his new western pic “Silent Night” that is already in production, but another high-profile project will see the Hong Kong filmmaker take a crack at remaking one of his seminal movies from the 1980s.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Miracle: Letters to the President,” directed by Lee Jang-hoon, was Saturday named as the best film winner at the Far East Film Festival in Italy’s Udine, following an audience poll. The South Korean-made film was described by festival organizers as “a sweet-natured hymn to the power of dreams.” Second and third places belonged to Chinese-produced pictures Li Ruijun’s “Return to Dust” and Xing Wenxiong’s “To Cool to Kill,” respectively.

Addie Morfoot ContributorFor the first time in two years the Hot Docs Canadian Intl. Documentary Festival is hosting in-person premieres and screenings, after COVID-19 forced the 2020 and 2021 editions of the annual event to unfold virtually.

BEIJING -- Veteran Hong Kong actor Kenneth Tsang has died at age 86 while in a COVID-19 quarantine hotel in the southern Chinese city, local media reported.Tsang was best known internationally for his action roles in the 2002 James Bond film “Die Another Day,” John Woo’s “The Killer” in 1989, “Rush Hour 2” in 2001 starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, and 1998′s “The Replacement Killers” alongside Chow Yun-Fat and Mira Sorvino.Tsang had been undergoing seven days of quarantine after returning from Singapore on Monday and was found collapsed on the floor of his hotel room by staff on Wednesday, according to the South China Morning Post newspaper and other media.No cause of death was given and the paper said he had tested negative for the virus and had no underlying medical conditions.In all, Tsang had some 237 acting credits, mainly in Hong Kong film and television productions, and especially in detective and martial arts movies, according to his IMDb page.Born in Shanghai on Sept. 2, 1935, Tsang began acting after obtaining an architecture degree at the University of California, Berkeley, making his debut in 1955.

Rush Hour 2 and Die Another Day, has died at the age of 86.Tsang was reportedly found unconscious in a quarantine hotel in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui district on Wednesday (April 27) after returning from a trip to Singapore. Tsang was later pronounced dead at the scene.According to the South China Morning Post, Tsang took a COVID-19 rapid antigen test on Tuesday and tested negative.

Kenneth Tsang, who made his mark in Hong Kong’s golden age of film before coming to the US and scoring roles in several prominent movies, died at age 87 today. He was found after quarantining in a Hong Kong hotel after entering China from Singapore, per that country’s Covid-19 protocols.

A Greenock -born martial arts stuntman is doubling as Tom Hardy in an upcoming Netflix film.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKenneth Tsang, a veteran Hong Kong actor who starred in pioneering martial arts movies, has died. He was 86.Tsang (aka Tsang Kong) was staying in the Kowloon Hotel on Nathan Road, a venue used for passenger quarantine after overseas travel, and was found dead in the room on Wednesday. No immediate cause of death has been given by Hong Kong authorities.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNew York-headquartered documentary distributor Icarus Films has picked up all North American rights to Hong Kong protest film “Blue Island.” The film plays this week at the HotDocs Documentary Festival in Toronto, Canada.Directed by Chan Tze Woon (“Yellowing”), the film confronts the large-scale protests in Hong Kong, describing events through a mix of documentary footage and filmed reenactments. The distributor has not yet elaborated release plans, but says that it is taking booking requests from museums, arts organizations, film festivals and theaters across North America.“A new wave of young people took back the streets, as one generation after another has done throughout Hong Kong’s history.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaA consortium of investors led by Najafi Companies has closed its deal to purchase STX Entertainment, the beleaguered film and television company behind “Bad Moms” and “My Spy.” The sale ends STX’s unhappy union with Eros, the Indian media company that it merged with in 2020. The goal was to go public, which STXEros did, but to little investor fanfare. STX had previously tried and abandoned an effort to go public on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2018, citing unfavorable market conditions.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChinese TV producer Linmon Media has filed an application for an initial public offering in Hong Kong. It is the third time that the eight-year-old company has sought a stock market flotation.The heavily-redacted draft prospectus, sponsored by Morgan Stanley and CICC, does not reveal how much fresh capital the company aims to raise, nor the company’s anticipated valuation.

Canadian actress Franchesca Wong came under fire for her role in the Hong Kong series “Barrack O’Karma 1968”.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefYouTube, the Google-owned video streaming platform, has removed the account of John Lee Ka-chiu, the policeman-turned-politician who is poised to take over as Hong Kong’s next leader.All content on Lee’s YouTube page has been removed. In its place is a message that reads: “This account has been terminated for violating Google’s Terms of Service.”Lee’s campaign office said on Wednesday that it had been informed by Google that the removal of the account was in accordance with the company’s compliance with U.S. sanctions.“We find this very regrettable and completely unreasonable, but we think they can’t stop us from spreading our candidate’s message – our campaign’s message – to the public,” said Tam Yiu-chung, head of Lee’s campaign office.

EXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed Korean filmmaker Kim Yong-hwa, one of the most important figures in the Korean screen industry.

Horror network Shudder has acquired the rights to The Sadness, directed by Rob Jabbaz and shot on location in Taiwan. The film is produced by David Barker and executive produced by Li-Cheng Huang, while Eunice Cheng associate produced for Machi Xcelsior Studios.