Wild Bunch to distribute Ho’s flick ‘Cities of Last Things’
HONG KONG: Sales agency, Wild Bunch has boarded Cities of Last Things, a mindbending Asian drama that has its premiere next month at the Toronto Film Festival.
Written and directed by Malaysian-born, Taiwan-based Ho Wi Ding (Pinoy Sunday,) the film opens with the images of a man hurling himself to his death off a multi-storey apartment building.
It goes on to reveal the man’s experience of three eras, three seasons, three nights, compacted into one night in the same city, and told in reverse chronological order. TIFF director and CEO Piers Handling described the film as “a very twisting interior tale of a man trying to exorcise his demons.”
The film stars Lu Huang (aka Lulu Huang) (Blind Mountain) rising Chinese actor and Golden Horse winner Hong-Chi Lee (Thanatos Drunk, Long Day’s Journey Into Night), seasoned Taiwanese actor Jack Kao (Millennium Mambo, Time and Tide) and French actress Louise Grinberg.
Taiwan-based Changhe Films co-produced the film with China-based Hymn Pictures, Singapore’s MM2 Entertainment, Ivanhoe Pictures (Crazy Rich Asians) and France’s Rumble Fish. Producers are Ho, Hu ChihHsin, Winnie Lau, Alexis Perrin and Ronan Wong.
Wild Bunch’s sales remit includes North America, Japan and most of Europe, but excludes France, Taiwan, China and some Asian territories. The Taiwan cinematic release is scheduled for Oct 26. A mainland China release is expected in early November.