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Toronto's Reel Asian International Film Festival attracted a capacity crowd of 830 people on Wednesday (November 11, Toronto Time) to its opening premiere of the heart-stopping drama Overheard, a film from the team that created the Hong Kong crime thriller Infernal Affairs.
Infernal Affairs was later adapted by Martin Scorsese as The Departed.
The Hong Kong film from Alan Mak and Felix Chong, writers of the Infernal Affairs trilogy, pulls together three of Hong Kong's best-known actors, Lau Ching-Wan, Daniel Wu and Louis Koo.
The Reel Asian Festival, which is celebrating its 13th anniversary this year, is presenting 49 East and Southeast Asian films over the next five days, including 12 world premieres. The opening premiere was sponsored by the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office (HKETO) in Canada.
Speaking at the festival's opening ceremony, HKETO Director Ms Maureen Siu, said she was excited that a Hong Kong film was picked to open this year's festival.
"Hong Kong has produced many movies that were not only popular in Asia, but were well received in other parts of the world," she said.
Ms Siu said Hong Kong films had gained international recognition, citing Infernal Affairs as an example. "As a measure of this, in the past 10 years alone, Hong Kong film talent has won more than 300 international awards," she said.
Ends/Friday, November 13, 2009
Issued at HKT 11:40
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