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This section contains reports on the festival from across Australia. Here's the official post mortem from the AFI Newsletter: BOX OFFICE BOOMS FOR HONG KONG FILMS An explosion of interest in the second Hong Kong Film Festival resulted in a 200% increase in box office revenue, and increased audiences in Melbourne and Sydney. The festival attracted strong audiences in Brisbane, where it toured for the first time. Presented by the AFI in collaboration with the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, if featured nine contemporary films from Hong Kong's leading filmmakers. The Honourable Mrs Anson Chan, Chief Secretary for the Special Administrative Region launched the gala nights, introducing the Australian premiere of The Kid, with martial arts legend Ti Lung (aka Shaun Tam) and director Jacob Cheung in attendance. Sylvia Chang's new romance Tempting Heart, starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Gigi Leung, was festival favourite. "The audience numbers are a clear sign that seasons such as this fill a real gap in the local exhibition circuit, which in 1998/99 screened less than 5% of first release foreign language films. The festival is now a regular event in the AFI calendar, and will be back with a swag of new HK fare in October 2000", said AFI Screen Events Co-ordinator Clare Stewart. Now read on for what our contributors had to say! Be warned that, as is perhaps appropriate for a post mortem, these reports sometimes contain spoilers for the movies shown at the festival. Our reviewers are reflecting on how they felt after each film - and that often intrinsically requires a discussion of the ending. |
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| BRISBANE Deni had a blast. Sarah wanted more. |
MELBOURNE Coming soon! |
SYDNEY Joyleen enjoyed it. Eugene had issues. |
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