Film and TV picks: Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung and XO, Kitty
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Anita Mui (left) and Leslie Cheung in a still from Rouge (1987), which will screen at The Projector this month.
PHOTO: FORTUNE STAR
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Loving Leslie
This year marks the 20th year since enigmatic Hong Kong screen legend Leslie Cheung’s death.
To commemorate him, The Projector has organised limited screenings of three of his films – the erotic comedy Viva Erotica (1996), famed auteur Wong Kar-wai’s Days Of Being Wild (1990) and director Stanley Kwan’s tragic romance Rouge (1987).
The films will screen at Projector X: Picturehouse and will feature dialogue in its original Cantonese dialect.
Days Of Being Wild (PG, 95 minutes) is about a playboy (Cheung) who seeks solace after discovering that the woman who raised him is not his mother, while Rouge (NC16, 97 minutes) is about a wandering ghost (Anita Mui) searching for her lover played by Cheung. They will be presented in 4K.
Viva Erotica (rating to be confirmed, 99 minutes) will be presented in 2K. It stars Cheung as a struggling director who is given a chance to make a pornographic movie.
Days Of Being Wild has two screenings – on Sunday at 5.30pm and May 13 at 8.30pm. Rouge screens on May 14 at 5.30pm and May 20 at 8.30pm, while Viva Erotica will play on May 21 at 5.30pm and May 27 at 8.30pm.
Where: Projector X: Picturehouse, 05-01 The Cathay, 2 Handy Road str.sg/io7E
MRT: Dhoby Ghaut/Bencoolen/Bras Basah
When: Sunday to May 27, various times
Admission: $15 (standard), $11 to $13 (concessions)
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Vividly Maggie
Maggie Cheung in Ashes Of Time Redux. The ArtScience Cinema will screen a retrospective of seven of her works from May 13.
PHOTO: JET TONE CONTENTS
The ArtScience Cinema, which celebrates its first anniversary in May, has curated a selection of seven Maggie Cheung films to chronicle the iconic Hong Kong actress’ vibrant movie career that led to a Cannes Film Festival win for Best Actress for Clean (2004).
The seven films include those from the early 1990s, such as director Ann Hui’s Song Of The Exile (1990), about a Chinese-Japanese student who returns to her native Hong Kong after studying in London; and Center Stage (1991), a biopic of Chinese silent film star Ruan Lingyu. There is also Comrades: Almost A Love Story (1996), in which she stars opposite Leon Lai.
It also features her former husband Olivier Assayas’ film-within-a-film Irma Vep (1996) and Clean, in which Cheung plays a mother trying to kick her drug habit and connect with her son. Director Wong Kar-wai’s works – the achingly romantic In The Mood For Love (2000) and period drama Ashes Of Time Redux (a 2008 re-edited version of 1994’s Ashes Of Time) – round out the retrospective.
Where: ArtScience Cinema, ArtScience Museum, 6 Bayfront Avenue str.sg/io7R
MRT: Bayfront
When: May 13 to June 25, various times
Admission: $12 (standard), $7.80 to $10.70 (concessions)
Info:
XO, Kitty
Premieres on May 18 on Netflix
Anna Cathcart stars as Kitty Song Covey in teenage romantic-comedy XO, Kitty, a spin-off of the To All The Boys film series (2018 to 2021).
PHOTO: NETFLIX
Fans of the popular teenage romance film series To All The Boys (2018 to 2021) should not miss this spin-off series.
XO, Kitty – a 10-part coming-of-age romantic comedy – follows Kitty Song Covey (Anna Cathcart), the little sister of Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor), who was the protagonist of the To All The Boys series.
In the last film To All The Boys: Always And Forever (2021), Kitty meets her South Korean boyfriend Dae. The spin-off focuses on Kitty’s romance, as she moves halfway across the world from the United States, where she was raised, to the boarding school in South Korea her late mother once attended to reunite with Dae.
