Wilson Yip's much-anticipated action thriller Paradox will have its world premiere on 15 August as the Opening Film of this year's Cine Fan Summer International Film Festival, organised by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society.
Paradox is the third installment is the hugely successful SPL franchise, and stars Louis Koo, Tony Jaa, Gordon Lam, Wu Yue and Chris Collins. Koo plays a Hong Kong police officer who heads to Thailand in search of his missing daughter, where he is assisted by local law enforcers Tony Jaa and Wu Yue.
Koo and Jaa both appeared in SPL2, directed by Soi Cheang, but here play new characters. Yip returns to the director's chair after making a splash with the original SPL in 2005, seen as bringing the filmmaker to international attention and also kickstarting Donnie Yen's struggling career.
The festival's Closing Film will be 24 Frames, the final posthumous work from Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami. There will also be a Master Class from fellow Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, accompanied by screenings of his films The Nights of Zayandeh-rood and Salaam Cinema.
Other highlights at this year’s festival, which runs from 15-29 August, include Cannes favourites The Day After and Claire’s Camera from Hong Sang-soo, Redoubtable from Michel Hazanavicius and the Safdie brothers’ Good Time, starring Robert Pattinson. Cate Blanchett takes on 13 different roles in Julain Rosefeldt’s experimental Manifesto, while Anne Hathaway struggles with alcoholism while terrorising Seoul as a giant kaiju in Nacho Vigalondo’s hilarious Colossal. Léa Mysius' Ava and Jakob Lass' Tiger Girl will also be making their local debuts.
The Summer IFF always devotes ample screen space to restored classics, with this year proving no exception. A sextet of vintage Hollywood comedies will be shown, including The Freshman, Night at the Opera, Steamboat Bill, Jr, City Lights, Some Like it Hot and The Nutty Professor. British comedy fans will also get the chance to see Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python’s Meaning of Life on the big screen, alongside Woody Allen’s Love and Death and Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy.