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The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO), Sydney, tonight (June 9, Sydney time) celebrated the premiere screening of Red Cliff, as part of the Sydney Film Festival sponsored by the office, and welcomed the visit of one of Hong Kong¡¯s greatest film masters, Mr John Woo.
Speaking at a reception before some 250 guests, the Director of HKETO, Ms Lorna Wong said tonight¡¯s screening of Red Cliff would bring the best of Hong Kong cinema to the audience in Sydney.
¡°I am sure people from Hong Kong, like me, are particularly delighted to watch Red Cliff as it marks John¡¯s return to his Asian filmmaking roots. Indeed, great film masters like John Woo epitomize Hong Kong¡¯s dynamic film industry.¡±
¡°The movie has been a huge success not just in Hong Kong and China, but also in Japan, S Korea as well as in Europe.¡±
¡°Through Red Cliff, cinema audience were able not only to appreciate an important chapter of Chinese history, but also to learn about many aspects of Chinese culture. Like Red Cliff which brings Hong Kong to the world, our movies have always been one of Hong Kong¡¯s most successful ambassadors.¡±
She said as the biggest-budget Chinese-language movie ever made, Red Cliff was an excellent example of the success of Hong Kong-Mainland co-productions.
Ms Wong said Hong Kong movies were among the city¡¯s most effective ambassadors, adding that people from all over the world came to experience Hong Kong¡¯s culture and flavour on the silver screen long before they made their first visit there.
She said that the Hong Kong Government remained strongly committed to developing the Hong Kong film industry.
¡°Apart from allocating more than HK$300 million (about A$50 million) into the Film Development Fund to support the movie industry, we continue to leverage on our strong ties and our free trade agreement with Mainland China to facilitate our movie industry to explore the fast-growing China market.
¡°Last year, of the top 10 domestic films at the box office in the Mainland, seven are HK-China co-productions. By extension, Hong Kong offers an unrivalled partnership opportunity for overseas production houses to explore the Mainland market.¡±
Ends/Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Issued at HKT 20:48
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