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    With the support of the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office (HKETO) in Sydney, the 2005 Sydney Film Festival is again screening a number of Hong Kong's recent hit movies.

    Speaking at the reception for the "Hong Kong Cinema" segment of the Sydney Film Festival this evening (June 14, Sydney time), Director of the HKETO Mrs Jenny Wallis touched upon Hong Kong's prolific and creative film industry, which had a long and exciting history.  

    "This year we are celebrating 100 years of cinema in Hong Kong.  This makes our contribution to this year's Sydney Film Festival so special for us and, I hope, for Australia, too," Mrs Wallis said.

    She said Hong Kong was a vibrant, thrusting place and a place of restless energy, and spirited, entrepreneurial and hard working people.

    "We have a colourful history which has endowed us with a sophisticated international outlook, and administrative and legal systems based on the rule of law which makes Westerners feel very much at home.  I guess that helps account for the fact that there are some 50,000 Australian residents in Hong Kong," Mrs Wallis said.

    She said that like Hong Kong itself, the Hong Kong film industry was rich in its diversity of subjects and moods and the four Hong Kong movies on offer at the Festival exemplified that.

    "These offerings, not to mention the many other Hong Kong films screened in Australia in recent years, paint a vivid picture of the place of my birth.  I am glad we can share our story with you, because we think it is an exciting one with a rosy future," she said.

    "Certainly, our four festival movies will not be short of action - that's typical Hong Kong.  But there is plenty of drama and suspense as well.  Certainly enough to whet the appetites of the growing number of Hong Kong film buffs in our midst."

    This year is the second time the HKETO has sponsored a Hong Kong segment in the Sydney Film Festival.  The four films featured in the festival this year include "New Police Story" directed by Benny Chan and starring Jackie Chan, Nicholas Tse, Charlie Yeung, Charlene Choi and Daniel Wu; "One Nite in Mongkok" directed by Derek Yee and starring Daniel Wu, Cecilia Cheung and Alex Fong; "Beyond Our Ken" directed by Edmond Pang and starring Gillian Chung, Tao Hong and Daniel Wu; and "b420" directed by Mathew Tang and starring Miki Yeung, Sam Lee Chan-sum and Ben Hung.

Ends/Tuesday, June 14, 2005

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