Hong Kong International Film Festival

The Hong Kong film industry may be hurting hurting these days, but for the few weeks of the 29th HK International Film Festival (March 22-April 6), movie magic was back in town. I was helping out on the red carpet for two of the opening gala nights, the premiere of A Very Long Engagement (co-sponsored by the French Consulate of Hong Kong) and the digitally remastered director's cut of Centre Stage. For the "French night" (as everybody in the HKIFF office was calling it), I just had to stand at the mouth of the red carpet gauntlet, putting sticker-passes on all the lesser-important VIPs in attendance, and do a schizophrenic flip-flop between greeting guests in French and Cantonese. (That's me below, looking bored as some French diplomat schmoozes with the festival director.) Jean-Pierre Jeunet showed up and was champagne-toasted by a random mix of HK B-listers and le gouvernement (that's him third from left on the dais), and then we all went inside to watch the film (it was, well, very long. Pretty underwhelming. But then again I didn't care for Amelie-- I think it was all downhill after Marc Caro split). Night numero deux was much more exciting, what with a whole platoon of HK cinema royalty passing within arm's-reach: TONY LEUNG KA-FAI, MAGGIE CHEUNG MAN-YUK, AND JACKIE (everybody in Hong Kong actually hates him) CHAN. The first two were radiant, awesome--Leung Ka-Fai (not Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, in case you were confused) still looking pretty hot even though it's been over a decade since L'Amant (and my preteen crush on him); Maggie Cheung was positively glowing, as movie stars are said to do. Jackie Chan, well, he looks like Jackie Chan. Towards the end of the ceremony, one of the other volunteers whispered aggressively into my ear: "Jackie Chan is RIGHT BEHIND YOU." I turned around to see him eating something over by a trash-can, surrounded by his entourage. This image would probably please many Hong Kongers, who generally consider him an ass these days because of all his "wild-child" (illegitimate child) and womanizing scandals. I take more issue with his recent track record of unbearable American movies.