Film Hong Kong — Director’s blog on making movies in Hong Kong

Still waiting for the Hong Kong release of Public Enemies on 23rd July, 2009 (three weeks behind!). We went to the Biograph Theater two months ago in Chicago, where John Dillinger was killed in a nearby alley.

Top photo: May 09; middle photo: circa 1934; bottom: this is the alleyway where Dillinger was killed

These are some of the international posters we have collected so far. We'll be adding more to the collection in the near future.

World-renowned cello soloist for my film The Drummer, Trey Lee, will be performing at the 1st Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival. June 25-28. Get your tickets now. www.urbtix.hk

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Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival (www.pphk.org)

A selection of tangos from Finland and Argentina and other world music, performed by world renowned artists – violinist Pekka Kuusisto, cellist Trey Lee, and pianist Jarkko Riihimaki, and other festival musicians!

The concert is in collaboration with the Consulate General of Finland, Hong Kong & Macau.
Tickets are on sale at all URBTIX counters.
URBTIX Ticketing Enquiries & Reservations:  call 2734 9009

Internet Ticketing:  www.urbtix.hk

Telephone Credit Card Booking:  call 2111 5999

The Drummer will be released in Russia on June 25th, 2009. Here's the poster.

The Drummer will be released in Spain in August 2009. Here's the poster.

Coming out in Fall 2009.

Frédéric Ambroisine from Paris, France, a filmmaker and aficionado of Hong Kong cinema, has made a three-part documentary on me. The three parts are available on his own or website http://fredambroisine.com/ or on dailymotion.com

The first time I met him, he impressed me with how much he knew about Hong Kong cinema, especially about my mother’s films from Shaw. They were very specific Chinese musicals and he knew them all.

Over the years, I would run into him in Paris, Pusan, Deauville, Hong Kong, just all over the world where there’s film. Good job Fred...and thanks.

Part 1

KENNETH BI INTERVIEW PART 1 - THEATER EXPERIENCE
Uploaded by FredAmbroisine. - Check out other Film & TV videos.">

Part 2

KENNETH BI INTERVIEW PART 2 - SMALL MIRACLE + RICE RHAPSODY
Uploaded by FredAmbroisine. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.">

Part 3

KENNETH BI INTERVIEW PART 3 - MAKING THE DRUMMER
Uploaded by FredAmbroisine. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.">

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It is great to see Mélanie rising to the top and getting amazing recognition in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. I met Quentin at Sundance just before he was casting for Basterds, I wish I could say I recommended Mélanie to him but I didn’t know he was prepping the film then.

Quentin Tarantino, Mélanie Laurent, Brad Pitt and Diane Kruger at Cannes for Inglourious Basterds

Me and Quentin Tarantino at Sundance Film Festival’s Director’s Brunch 2008

Mélanie Laurent as Sabine in Rice Rhapsody

Video on Mélanie and her character in Rice Rhapsody

She was fantastic to work with. Professional, lively, attentive, instinctive. One funny thing is whenever she had some cake or sweets on the set, it would really show. She would start dancing, singing and become very animated. That helped her character actually.

QT and Mélanie dancing on the Red Carpet

We wish Mélanie continued success.

I also happened to meet Zoe Bell from Tarantino’s Death Proof last week in L.A. She was the kick-ass heroine in the film that took on the psychopath Kurt Russell at the end. She had everyone cheering for her in the cinema.

QT cast Zoe in Death Proof after they had done Kill Bill together. She was Uma Thurman’s stunt double. She was great in the film and equally charming in real life. She also attended the Cannes premiere of Inglourious Basterds.

The Drummer, Kenneth Bi and Rosa Li were invited to The Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago as part of the Hong Kong comes to Chicago program by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Organization.

Gene Siskel Film Center on the left


Gene Siskel on the left and Roger Ebert on the right; a small poster of the Hong Kong: New Action poster featuring 33 new directors

It was a great thrill to show my film at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Gene Siskel who passed away in 1999, was a great and respected film critic along with Roger Ebert.


Barbara Scharres (Director of Programming at the Art Institute of Chicago — Gene Siskel Film Center), Kenneth Bi and Rosa Li

The screening was on May 9th. The Film Center’s director Ms. Barbara Scharres introduced the film.
The new Millienium Park which featured the Frank Gehry building, Cloud Gate (aka the Bean) by Anish Kapoor, among others.





This was Rosa's favorite attraction in the city.“Cloud Gate” (aka The Bean)


Frank Gehry’s building in the middle of the Millenium Park
The whole city had Tulips on display. It’s an amazing sight.

Rosa standing where Kevin Costner waited for the accountant in The Untouchables

Union Station across from The Sears Tower where The Untouchables’s
famous staircase scene was shot. Like people who meet actors in person,
“He’s much shorter than I expected.” The staircase looked much longer
in the film.

Me at the bottom of the staircase

We also visited the famous The Second City and saw a matinee show entitled The Best of The Second City. A great chance to see up and coming comic actors cutting their chops with a real audience.



Some famous Alumni are John Candy, Eugene Levy, Bill Murray and the more recent ones are Tina Fey and her costar on 30 Rock, (Jack McBrayer who plays Kenneth).

Tina Fey (bottom left corner), Steve Carell (bottom right corner), Dan Ackroyd (top lef corner), Nia Vardalos, can’t make out who the middle person is, Stephen Colbert and Bill Murray


Jack McBrayer (bottom left corner), John Belushi (top left corner) and Mike Myers (bottom center)

Also in anticipation of Michael Mann’s new film Public Enemies, we took a look at the Biograph Theatre where John Dillinger was shot to death outside the theatre. It’s actually a beautiful theatre.

The Drummer will be screening at Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center on Saturday, May 9th at 8 p.m. and Tuesday, 12th at 6 p.m. Writer/director Kenneth Bi and producer Rosa Li will be present on the 9th for a Q & A session after the screening. (The Gene Siskel Film Center website will be updating the May calendar in a few days.)

Read the Chicago Tribune article dated May 1st by Robert Elder.

This is a presentation of the Hong Kong comes to Chicago 2009 Festival.

Rice Rhapsody just opened the Toronto Singapore Film Festival on 3rd April at the Revue Theatre in Toronto.

After the screening, we had an online Q & A with the audience in Toronto and me at home in Hong Kong.

Photo by Irene Feeney

It was my first time doing an online Q & A. The audience could see me but I couldn't see them. I did hear the whole cinema laugh when I made a joke.

It was interesting that Rice Rhapsody was selected to open this festival. Festival activities for this film had ended at the beginning of 2006. I was honored to have more people see the film on a big screen but too bad I could not make it to Toronto this time.

THE DRUMMER will be released in cinemas in Israel on April 9, 2009, during the Passover holiday.
The distributor chose a very different image for the poster:

Hong Kong's new directors being introduced to the audience

After traveling around the region, the “Hong Kong Film New Action” campaign was finally launched at home, during last week’s Filmart (film and TV market). I attended most of the events, including a seminar on “The Outlook of Chinese Language Films” with directors John Woo, Andrew Lau, Feng Xiaogang and Oliver Stone.

Andrew Lau, Feng Xiaogang, Philip Chan (Moderator), Oliver Stone and John Woo. Each director was presented with a box set of films by emerging directors. The Drummer was one of the films chosen

John Woo started off by reiterating what a huge success “Red Cliff” was and how it has helped Chinese films attract the attention of foreign markets like US, Japan, Korea in addition to the traditional Chinese speaking territories. Andrew Lau and Feng Xiaogang talked about their recent achievements and how the China market is divided into Northern and Southern territories. Oliver Stone was here to promote “W,” which was partially financed by Hong Kong’s Emperor Motion Pictures. He talked about his love of shooting films in Asia.  

At lunch with Oliver Stone

A couple of the seminars focused on China offered valuable information. For example, we learned that very soon films made in Cantonese would be able to get released in Southern China without having to be dubbed into Mandarin first (Mandarin dubbing is still required for the rest of China).

This is good news for Hong Kong films that are more focused on the local audience, as culturally, Guangdong province is a big extension of Hong Kong and being able to see films in their original language will undoubtedly attract an even bigger audience.