Pang’s ‘Love Off the Cuff’ to open Hong Kong Festival
HONG KONG: Pang HoCheung’s Love Off The Cuff has been set as the opening film of the 41st edition of the Hong Kong International Film Festival.
The film is the third instalment in an offbeat romantic comedy series that began with Love in a Puff in 2010 and continued in 2012 with Love in the Buff.
The central couple, played by returning stars Miriam Yeung and Shawn Yue, find their relationship further strained by external circumstances.
After previous episodes were located in Hong Kong and then Beijing, the setting this time is transposed to Taiwan.
“I always thing a good relationship can cross borders and stand the test of time,” said Pang in a statement.
The festival will this year be held from Apr 11-25. It has already revealed that programming strands include: a section of restored classics by Mike de Leon and Robert Bresson; a 10th anniversary tribute to the late Edward Yang; and several winners from the recent Berlinale.
Pang’s films are technically polished, but often too raw for audiences to be entirely comfortable with them. They are peppered with Cantonese profanities and sometimes ludicrous situations — like filmmakers who must have sex with a mule to get their movie financed in Vulgaria; or a quartet of deadbeat Hong Kong cops who travel in disguise to Macau to obtain intelligence on hookers in the Sex Duties Unit.
While Pang is justifiably held up as one of the brightest nextgen talents in Hong Kong, it’s a low-margin industry that hasn’t seen many fresh faces since Wong Kar Wai, Johnnie To and Stephen Chow.
Like To, Raymond Wong or Wong Jing, Pang is essentially a local voice, fond of the idiosyncrasies that come with the Cantonese culture.
I always thing a good relationship can cross borders and stand the test of time. Pang Ho-Cheung, director