Filming East Festival 2009 listings

On Saturday 3 October 2009, BAFTA will offer film lovers in London the opportunity to watch four UK premieres of the latest Chinese blockbusters at its headquarters on London’s Picadilly, as part of the 3rd Filming East Festival.

For the first time UK audiences will have the chance to watch a real Chinese comedy, If You Are The One, directed by FENG Xiaogang, someone who makes a billion people laugh. The film also features GE You, the best actor and SHU Qi, the sexiest actress in China. In this film, a middle-aged former loser who gets lucky in business advertises for The One. Replies from a cemetery saleswoman and a homosexual are not quite what he had in mind.

Since 1997, Hong Kong movie stars have played important roles in numerous mainland productions, such as the The Matrimony, starring Hong Kong actor Leon LAI, which will also be screened during the Filming East Festival at BAFTA. In this supernatural thriller – also starring Rene LIU and FAN Bingbing - a man’s dead fiancé inhabits the body of his current girlfriend for one last fling. But the consequences are not quite what she imagined.

Another film, The Longest Night in Shanghai, will appeal to lovers of Lost in Translation. In spite of all the controversies between China and Japan, The Longest Night in Shanghai  is a rare Sino-Japanese collaboration starring Zhao Wei, whose début TV series was watched by hundreds of millions in China.

Mutiple-award winner Wheat has only been seen at festivals in Toronto and Shanghai. Unreleased overseas, it has not even reached screens in China and, as yet, no DVD is available. Only the guests of the Filming East Festival at BAFTA will enjoy the privilege of watching this film – about the women left behind when men go to war. 

In addition to the excellent films, the annual industry panels of the Filming East Festival will also be held at this year’s BAFTA event (Co-productions with China is this year’s theme), and short films made by talented young filmmakers from China will have a chance to delight the audience.

Sponsored by the UK Film Council, the Filming East Festival is the largest annual event in the UK dedicated to bringing the best of Chinese films to the British audience. This year’s festival will run for 15 days from 3 October in various locations in southeast England, premiering at BAFTA in London on 3 October 2009.

Tickets for the films and events at BAFTA are on sale now at the BAFTA Box Office. For tickets visit www.bafta.org. For more information see the Bafta site and www.filmingeast.org.