Press Release - November 4, 2003

Hong Kong will share with the Toronto community some of its creative works designed to revitalize the spirit of its citizens to battle against SARS when the disease hit Asia’s world city and Toronto earlier this year.

The creative works are Hong Kong’s popular “1:99 Short Film Series” which the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (Canada) (HKETO) will present to this year’s Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, scheduled to be held from November 26 to 30.

Announcing this at the press launch of the film festival held today (November 5), the Director of the HKETO, Mr Bassanio So, said the “1:99 Short Film Series” comprises 11 short films produced by some of Hong Kong’s most outstanding and talented film directors to boost the spirit of the Hong Kong people when they were facing the SARS challenge.

In addition, HKETO will also be staging a photo exhibition throughout the festival period to promote the short film series as part of the “Relaunch Hong Kong” activities.

“To make our participation more meaningful,” Mr So said, “we are inviting one of the series’ film directors, an internationally-renowned film professional, Mr Peter Chan, to come to attend the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival.”

Designed to better inform the Canadian film industry about the ‘Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement’ (CEPA) that Hong Kong recently signed with Mainland China, HKETO is also planning with Reel Asian to organize an industry seminar on “Hong Kong: Gateway to China’s 1.3 Billion Audience” on November 27.

“Subject to his final confirmation, Mr Peter Chan will attend the industry seminar to discuss ways for Canadian companies to access the huge China market through co-productions with Hong Kong-based film companies to capitalize on CEPA,” Mr So added.

As a special feature at the 7th Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival to be held from November 26 to 30, the “1:99 Short Film Series” consists of the eleven one-minute shorts directed by some of the leading and world-renowned film directors, including Peter Chan (‘Comrades, Almost a Love Story’, ‘Three’, ‘Golden Chicken’ and ‘Jan Dara’), Fruit Chan (‘Made in Hong Kong’ and ‘Durian Durian’), Tsui Hark (‘A Better Tomorrow’, ‘Double Team’), Johnnie To (‘Fulltime Killer’), and Stephen Chow (‘Shaolin Soccer’).

The 11 films are:
"Memories of Spring 2003" (「2003春天…的回憶」) by Peter Chan
"My Piglet is not feeling well" (「(「小豬不舒服」) by Fruit Chan
"Believe it or not" (「信不信由你」) by Tsui Hark
"Rhapsody" (「狂想曲」) by Johnnie To, Wai Ka-fai
"Hong Kong -- A Winner" (「香港必勝」) by Stephen Chow
"Always look on the bright side" (「向好看」) by Teddy Chen
"Who is Miss Hong Kong?" (「誰是香港小姐？」) by Joe Ma
“My Flying Family"(「我的飛行家族」) by Mabel Cheung, Alex Law
"Until Then" (「等運到」) by Dante Lam, Gordon Chan
"Mudull 1:99" (「麥兜1:99」) by Brian Tse
"A Glorious Future" (前程錦繡) by Andrew Lau, Alan Mak

Screenings of the Film Festival will be held at the Bloor Cinema, the Royal Cinema,
Innis College at the University of Toronto and the National Film Board Mediatheque.

Tickets of the 7th Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival are available 30 minutes before each screening. Advance tickets are available from November 10 at Pages bookstores and the Reel Asian office (401 Richmond Street West, Studio 361, Toronto. Tel: 416-703-9333) or visit www.reelasian.com


For information on the “1:99 Short Film Series”, please contact John Tam, Chief
Information Officer of HKETO, at (416)924-5544 or email [email protected] or Elison Chu, Senior Information Officer, email: [email protected]