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The playwright, avant-garde movie director and modern poet Chiu Kang-chien, who is also known by the pseudonym Chiu-Dai An-ping, is a three-time winner of Best Screenplay at the Hong Kong Film Awards. The film classics "Boat People" (1982), "Love Unto Wastes" (1986), "Rouge" (1988) and "Centre Stage" (1992), as well as the attention-grabbing films "Dead End" (1969), "Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan" (1972) and "An Amorous Woman of the Tang Dynasty" (1984), all had screenplays by Chiu. Curated and hosted by veteran film researcher Law Kar, the Hong Kong Film Archive (HKFA)'s "Movie Talk" series will focus on Chiu in July, after having director Ivy Ho as the series' first guest. Three films selected by Chiu, comprising one of his favourite movies plus two of his own works, will be shown and audiences will be able to attend an in-depth discussion on Chiu's work.
"Movie Talk II: Chiu Kang-chien" will be held at 4pm on July 14 at the HKFA's Cinema. It will be conducted in Cantonese and admission is free. A film selected by Chiu, "The End of The Affair" (1999), and his well-known screenplay work "Love Unto Wastes" will be shown at 2pm and 4.30pm respectively on July 13. "Tong Chee Yi Li Nan" (1985), written and directed by Chiu, will be shown at 2pm on July 14 before the talk.
Each instalment of the "Movie Talk" series will focus on a filmmaker who will select three films either made by themselves or filmmaking counterparts for screening. Audiences in the discussion sessions will join the host in watching clips of the selected films and gain a better understanding of the featured guests' experiences and art during the sharing of the inspirations and processes behind each filmmaker's creative work.
Director Neil Jordan's English movie "The End of The Affair" was much neglected in Hong Kong when it was first shown. The film features the love between man and the world and between man and god - giving and taking, love and jealousy, possession and concession. "The major flaw with realist and humanistic movies is that they only deal with situations; they rarely mesmerise with poetry or the mysteries of the soul," Chiu wrote on the film. "I'm moved by and long for the miracles that take place beyond lover and affair, the protagonist's sacrifice, suffering and faith."
Chiu's favourite screenplay, "Love Unto Wastes" (co-scripted with Lai Kit), won Best Screenplay at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 1987. Directed by Stanley Kwan, the black romantic thriller opens with Tsai Chin's sudden death. During the investigation, Tsai's boyfriend Tony Leung and his girlfriend Irene Wan begin an ambivalent relationship and Leung's secret affair with Elaine Jin is also uncovered. The case remains unsolved and the film ends with detective Chow Yun-fat waiting for his own death. With creative helmsmanship, the film deftly mixes detective thriller and romance, and explores the dark side of human nature with inspiring introspection.
Written and directed by Chiu, "Tong Chee Yi Li Nan" is a "sequel" to "An Amorous Woman of the Tang Dynasty" written and directed by Chiu. The subject is still romance and eroticism, but instead of displaying the curves of Pat Ha, the film shows beautiful young men, gay love and even fetishism and necrophilia, as well as customs of the Tang dynasty. The film features a combination of the ancient and the modern in its setting and character styling. The young men are portrayed as wild and rebellious, while the era is presented with righteousness and a richness of culture that puts modern times to shame. Much meticulous thought went into the stylised characterisation, theatrical mise-en-scène and use of Buddhist scriptures.
"The End of The Affair", in English without subtitles, is a Category III film and only ticket holders aged 18 and above will be admitted. "Love Unto Wastes" is in Cantonese and "Tong Chee Yi Li Nan" is in Mandarin; both films have Chinese and English subtitles.
Tickets priced at $40 are available at URBTIX. Half-price tickets are available for senior citizens aged 60 and above, people with disabilities and their minders, full-time students and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients. Credit card bookings can be made at 2111 5999 or on the Internet at www.urbtix.hk.
Detailed programme information can be obtained in the "ProFolio 68" leaflet, which is distributed at all performance venues of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. For enquiries, please call 2739 2139 or 2734 2900 or browse the website at www.lcsd.gov.hk/ce/CulturalService/filmprog/english/2013mt2/2013mt2_index.html .
Ends/Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Issued at HKT 11:43
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