Project title: Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Red Rose and White Rose
Director: Mabel Cheung

“I’ve been approached by many so called investors here and there throughout years, with the assistance of the HAF as a matchmaker, improper investors will be crossed out without difficulty and I’ll get to meet the right people only.” Mabel Cheung who had been our reading committee for 2 years in previous editions, she has always been aware of her presence in HAF, as a core the HAF member, she submitted her first HAF entry last year, her theme is once again, a woman point of view to discovering the masculine world of fable.

“The most well known Chinese novel Three Kingdoms conceived countless adaptations over the years, but they were all about male, apparently lack of perspective on the female involved, therefore I think it’s time to write about the feminine side of its story, based on the Chinese best known battle ever” Mabel interprets her story with an entirely original character whom collide with another female role in the novel, and eventually comes up a long title called Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Red rose and White rose.

“I pretty like the idea of co-productions, which splits the production cost with more investors and share the pie in small proportion equally, rather than overpowered by a single controlled freak mogul, the director gets more freedom and decision of final cut, I think that’s the beauty of the whole system.”

Project title: Now Showing
Director: Pang Ho-Cheung

“It’s your perfect chance to open the door to overseas distributors!!” one of our CAA directors Pang Ho-Cheung describes HAF as an important portal to international trade industry, the two times HAF selected director admits that he submits projects to HAF every year and succeeded again in this 2nd tryout in five official years of HAF. His latest entry is an offbeat comedy entitled Now Showing, a domestic affair involving a Pilipino housemaid and a celebrity couple, inspired by the reality TV show prism, the story tells of one regular man makes one bad decision and a mistake made to another until it leads to something uncontrollable then fall apart, “the maid in the story is probably the only target audience”, he laughs out at the film set of his latest production.

Project title: The Journal of Moonlight and Morning
Director: Yan Yan Mak

“My first Rotterdam experience is still vivid today” recalls Yan Yan MAK, who took her highly acclaimed feature film Ge Ge to the festival few years ago, where she learnt of the meticulous system to get funding for independent productions. Impressed by the proper procedure handled by sophisticated people that she thought it would only deploy in commercial films at studio.

“HAF offers the same opportunity and platform for new scriptwriters or aspiring filmmakers, which lead them the right way to get financing their projects.” Unlike anything we’d seen in her before, Yan Yan tries to tackle a different genre with her eligible HAF project, The Journal of Moonlight and Morning, a suspense thriller adapted from a bestseller by paperback writer Zita.

Nevertheless, Yan Yan claims it as her most ambitious and most commercial friendly project up to date, while the story commences with a murder case, followed by flash back images to tell the story in reverse way, audience will soon discover it’s basically a love story about plastic surgery or how to imitate the face of your once beloved one.

Project title: Bema's Tears
Director: Francis Ng

“This is the story I want to tell in my own way” probably the most hardworking actor today, Francis Ng will soon return to director’s chair after years of departure, “this is a story about tears”, introduces his own original creation with his trademark quirky smile. In Bema's Tears, Bema stands for Lotus in Tibet and it’s also the name of its protagonist, an innocent nun, who will experience “the crying” through happiness, sadness, anguish, fear and suffering, literally in all emotions that will lead to bursting tears. “Am I going to take a role in this movie? Probably not, it’s a nun’s tale and I am hardly a monk!”