Time          7pm – 10pm 

Venue       Richmond Cultural Centre (7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond BC) 

中文介紹

 

Double Bill by Vancouver-based production company Holiday Pictures.

About Holiday Pictures
Holiday Pictures Ltd. is an independent production company based in Canada. Its forte is its strong connection to the Asian film communities while also establishing strategic alliance with a variety of international producers and distributors.

Hong Kong Express – The Fast Track to Fame and Fortune
(Documentary/Cantonese, Mandarin, English / 47 min)

“The more you dare me, the more you define me, I’m just going to prove you wrong.” — Christy Chung

“I was this 24-year-old woman in a bikini, standing on stage, talking like a 6-year-old.” –Theresa Lee

In Hong Kong, beauty pageants are big business. Winners often become overnight sensations and are offered starring roles in film and television. Surprisingly, many winners of these pageants come from Canada… but why?

Hong Kong Express playfully explores the phenomenon of Chinese-Canadian women winning international Chinese beauty pageants and their subsequent meteoric rise to fame in the Asian entertainment world.

Featured subjects

Christy Chung

Voted Asia’s Sexiest Woman by readers of FHM in 2000, and “Most Beautiful Eyes” by Marie Claire Magazine, Christy Chung’s (Chung Lai- Tai’s) diverse talent as an actress is recognised not only in her home city of Hong Kong, but internationally. Her beauty, sensuality and personable nature have won her the hearts of fans around the world, young and old. To date, she has led in over 30 feature films, many of which have won numerous awards around the world.

Theresa Lee

After winning the 2nd runner up and The Media’s Favourite Award of the Miss Hong Kong Pageant in 1994, Alberta native Lee started her career in the entertainment industry. In 1997 Lee was nominated as one of the candidates for “Best New Performer” and “Best Supporting Actress” of The 16th Hong Kong Film Awards and “Best Supporting Actress” of The 2nd Golden Bauhinia Awards.

Linda Chung

Winner of the Miss Chinese Vancouver 2003 pageant, Linda Chung went on to compete in and win the Miss Chinese International 2004 pageant. A former UBC student, Linda has now moved to Hong Kong to pursue a career in entertainment. She has recently signed a performers contract with TVB and is starring in the network’s long running series “Virtues of Harmony”.

Lunch With Charles
(Comedy/ Cantonese & English with English subtitles)

Filmed at a various locations in Vancouver, Banff and Asia, Lunch with Charles is a co-production of Hong Kong and Canada.

Three years ago, April’s career allowed her to immigrate to Canada. She has been working happily ever since. Her personal life, however, is in turmoil. Her husband, Tong, remains in Hong Kong, where he struggles to make it as a singer/songwriter. Since marrying, he has had to eke out a living as a realtor. Unfulfilled, and increasingly insecure about his talents, he is terrified to immigrate to Canada. If he cannot succeed in his own country, in his own language…how can he possibly attain fulfillment in Canada? When Tong finally comes to Canada, hoping to appease his wife, he meets another woman…

 

 

 

 

LUNCH WITH CHARLES features Hong Kong star Lau Ching-Wan as Tong, the dreamer who is forced to choose between his wife and his dreams. Nicholas Lea stars as the resolutely idealistic Matthew, who has discarded his career for the love of a woman, only to find himself abandoned. Theresa Lee plays as Tong’s wife, April, a career-minded workaholic whose drive has alienated her from love. Bif Naked stars in her first feature film as Natasha, an uninhibited elfin creature who struggles with her dependency on male companionship.

About the filmmakers

  Michael Parker (writer / director)
  Michael Parker is an award-winning Vancouver-based writer/director/producer who has been    involved in the production of feature films and documentaries for the past 20 years. Michael’s films  have been celebrated in festivals and commercially released around the world.

 President of the independent production company, Holiday Pictures, Michael is writer and producer for   the first-ever Canada – Hong Kong co-production, Young Offenders. Michael then wrote, produced and directed Lunch with Charles. The Genie Award nominated film won 3 Leo Awards (Best Director, Best Screenwriter, Best Music) out of 7 nominations and was voted by Shanghai Daily as one of the 10 “must-see” films at the Shanghai International Film Festival and sold to numerous countries world-wide.

Michael is the executive producer of the Gemini-Award winning documentary, Made in China. Nationally broadcast in Canada the film was the recipient of The Canada Award; Best Feature Documentary in the San Diego Asian Film Festival; and was nominated for a Golden Sheaf Award. Michael is the producer and writer of the Whistler Film Festival Best Adventure Film winner and Leo Award nominee Call it Karma a documentary that recounts a monk’s remarkable pilgrimage from a remote village in Tibet, across the Himalayas, through Nepal and India to a world apart in Vancouver. He has also written and directed Hong Kong Express. Nominated for a Best Program Leo Award, the one-hour documentary is a playful look at the phenomenon of Canadian-born ethnically Chinese women winning international Chinese beauty pageants and their subsequent meteoric rise to fame in the Asian entertainment world.

In addition, Michael is co-owner of the service production company Maple Ridge Films whose line-producing credits include numerous feature films and television series including the Jackie Chan blockbuster Rumble in the Bronx and Andy Lau’s Saviour of the Soul II.

He has recently received the inaugural Daryl Duke Scholarship from the British Columbia Film Foundation to pursue his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Film Production at the University of British Columbia.

 

  Shan Tam (producer)
  Born in Hong Kong and living in Canada, producer Shan Tam has been active in film and television    on both sides of the Pacific for two decades. Her work has earned her multiple awards and numerous  nominations, including a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and a Claude Jutra Award    for director Julia Kwan on Eve & the Fire Horse as well as a Gemini and number of international and Canadian awards for other features and documentaries.

A solid working relationship with Asian producers afforded Tam the opportunity to produce two feature co-productions between Canada and Hong Kong, Young Offenders and Lunch with Charles. She has further expanded her production experience in China, one of the fastest growing film centers, where she has produced several mini-series for American television with a large international cast and crew. Over the years, Tam has line-produced dozens of international film productions. Her projects have taken her to numerous countries in Europe, Asia, North and Central America, working extensively with crew from the East and West.

Tam continues to promote film cultures across the Pacific. She has organized a number of film festivals showcasing Chinese language films in Canada and Canadian films in China with great success.

Ms. Tam is currently on the board of directors with BC Film. She is a past board member of Women in Film and Video Vancouver and the Vancouver Film and Television Artist Society. She is fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin and English.