TONYLEUNG.INFO
Discuss Tony Leung with fellow fans!
 
Welcome to the Discussion Board

 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist    ProfileProfile    Log inLog in   RegisterRegister 
  Log in to check your private messages Log in to check your private messages   
Click here to go to Archival Tony Board (2003-2012)

Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait
Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    www.tonyleung.info Forum Index -> The Latest Tony News
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 2172
Location: United States

PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2016 7:34 pm    Post subject: Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait Reply with quote

From "Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait" Facebook

July 13th 2016
Hema Hema's world premiere will be at the 69th Festival del film Locarno! The film has been selected as part of the festival's Open Doors section. The prestigious film festival takes place annually in the lake side city of Locarno, Southern Switzerland. This year's edition is scheduled to take place between the 3rd- 13th of August. ‪#‎hemahema‬ ‪#‎locarno69‬

July 22dn 2016
The Busan International Film Festival is one of the most significant film festivals in the world. It has always shared a close and personal connection with Khyentse Norbu. This close connection was highlighted in 2013 when the Busan International Film Festival selected 'Vara: A Blessing' as its opening film. It was the first time that a film by a Bhutanese Director had been chosen to open a major film festival.

So, it is with great joy that we announce Hema Hema's selection into the 21st Busan International Film Festival! We are excited to rekindle our connection with BIFF. The screening of Hema Hema at this year's BIFF (October 6-15th, 2016) will be the Asian premiere for Hema Hema.

Official Poster


Last edited by yitian on Fri Aug 05, 2016 7:43 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile
yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 2172
Location: United States

PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2016 7:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

From 69th Festival del film Locarno
http://www.pardolive.ch/pardo/program/film.html?fid=895541&eid=69

Open Doors
Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait
Bhutan, Hong Kong · 2016 · DCP · Color · 96' · o.v. Dzongkha

Somewhere deep in a forest of Bhutan, there is a gathering every twelve years of men and women chosen by the Old Man to enjoy a few days of anonymity. Masked silhouettes participate in rituals, performances and dances. Faceless, the men and the women allow themselves to be lascivious, playful and daring. One man attends this event for the first time and enters the experience like a new born. He stumbles clumsily through the first days, but quickly adapts, and when he spots Red Wrathful, he becomes totally intoxicated with her. But his desire will lead him down a dangerous path.

Screenings
Wednesday 10 | 8 | 2016 · 16.00 · La Sala · Sub. English
Thursday 11 | 8 | 2016 · 11.00 · Cinema Rialto 1 · Sub. English

Director
Khyentse Norbu
Cast
Tshering Dorji , Sadon Lhamo , Thinley Dorji , Tony Chiu-Wai LEUNG , ZHOU Xun
Cinematography
Jigmè T. Tenzing
Costumes
Jamyang Choden
Set Design
Ugyen Tshomo
Sound
TU Duu-Chih
Editing
TIAN Zhuangzhuang
Art Director
Emily Avery Yoshiko Crow
Production
Tsong Tsong Ma Productions
pawo.choying@qq.com
Coproduction
Dewathang Talkie
chensarah@vip.sina.com
Back to top
View user's profile
Safran



Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 2612
Location: Austria

PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2016 11:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Many THANKS flower yitian
...for posting the pleasant Locarno news sunny

This world premier will be presented at the Open Doors section:

http://www.pardolive.ch/pardo/professionals/press/Press-release/hema-hema-di-khyentse-norbu-una-prima-mondiale-agli-open-doors-screenings.html
Back to top
View user's profile
Tin-Yau



Joined: 19 Aug 2012
Posts: 1165
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Sat Aug 06, 2016 9:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This looks more and more like a very interesing film. I love those masks.
Thanks for sharing yitian!
_________________
Water which is too pure has no fish.
Back to top
View user's profile
Safran



Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 2612
Location: Austria

PostPosted: Sat Aug 13, 2016 6:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

"Hema Hema ...Sing Me a Song While I Wait " Locarno Review
http://m.screendaily.com/5107417.article
Back to top
View user's profile
yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 2172
Location: United States

PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2016 8:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Safran wrote:
"Hema Hema ...Sing Me a Song While I Wait " Locarno Review
http://m.screendaily.com/5107417.article


Thanks for sharing!!!

Somehow I couldn't open your link, however, I found one review on the web (wonder whether it is the same one or not Question )

‘Hema Hema (Sing Me A Song While I Wait)’: Locarno Review
http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/hema-hema-sing-me-a-song-while-i-wait-locarno-review/5107417.article
11 August, 2016 | By Dan Fainaru



Dir/scr. Khyentse Norbu. Bhutan, Hong Kong, 2016. 96 min.

Colorful, exotic and mysterious enough to keep audiences on their spiritual toes, the handsomely produced fourth feature by Buddhist preacher Khyentse Norbu (The Cup, Travelers and Magicians, Vara: A Blessing) looks sufficiently outlandish to draw the attention of every festival programmer and appeal to all those who have already enjoyed a taste of Norbu’s native Bhutan in his earlier pictures. Jeremy Thomas once again executive produces (he has been a supporter since the days of Little Buddha on which Norbu was an adviser).

A philosophical fairytale (the title means “once upon a time”) steeped in the ceremonial traditions of Bhutan and shot in a remote village whose inhabitants actively participated in the cast, the picture has a modern prologue and epilogue suggesting its intentions to be both timeless and universal.

Hema Hema’s thin plot is there only as an excuse to discuss such topics as identity and anonymity, illusion and reality, and most particularly the transition from life to death and back to life, following the existential cycle of rebirth which is a cornerstone of the Buddhist faith.

The brief introduction, which takes place in a modern disco bar, shows one of the hostesses (Zhou Xun) checking her evening’s tips, which she hides high up in her net stockings. An abrupt cut takes the picture into the Himalayan mountains, at an unspecified time and place. There, a strange two-week ritual takes place every 12 years, during which all participants must abandon their own identities, cover themselves in identical attire which hides their gender and don weirdly suggestive masks which they are strictly forbidden to take off.

For the entire fortnight, they are required to attend a ceremony celebrating that “intermediary state” between death and rebirth, when the past fades away until it is completely erased and the future is yet to begin.

Most of Hema Hema is taken up by these enthusiastically performed rites, played on an improvised stage, around the corpse of the deceased which is gradually transformed into the embryo that will take it back to life in a different shape and form. However, in the audience watching the show, a different drama is taking place: a secret temptation draws together a man and a woman (a hint that anonymity has its limits) while a mistaken identity leads to a crime that will forever haunt the guilty party.

Norbu himself, supposedly the reincarnation of a great Tibetan master Jamyan Khyentse Wangpo, has studied extensively with the greatest living Buddhist scholars of the day and is considered a spiritual authority, holding seat in an East Tibetan monastery, teaching in India and Bhutan and supervising meditation centers all over the world. All of which would make the film an integral part of his courses. The story he adds, bereft of any dialogue, is cleverly told with the help of more or less subtle hints, although one nude bathing scene in the river seems out of place, given the secretive conditions imposed by the rules of the ritual.

Needless to say, there are plenty of interpretations to fit these images, ambivalence being one of the main assets of such an enterprise. It can be a reflection on humans defined by the masks they always wear and on anonymity offering a temporary refuge from responsibility. It can also deal with illusions that are taken for the real thing and vice-versa. And of course, Norbu’s picture suggests that rituals, be they ancient and exotic performed in the middle of the forest, or modern and drenched in alcohol, as they unfold in crowded, noisy disco bars, are basically similar – used to hide one’s identity, which may work but only up to a certain point.

There is little point in discussing performances which are hidden by masks, though full credit should be given to the villagers who energetically populate the crowd scenes. Jigme Temzing’s camera fully exploits the visual potential of the location, certainly one of the film’s best features, and the masks, as expressionless as they pretend to be, naturally imply a relation with the person who has chosen to put them on, whether it is the Expressionless face of the protagonist or the Red Wrathful visage of the female temptress.

The High Priest in charge of the proceedings is the only one who has a name and whose face is uncovered, but in the spirit of the film, this does not mean he is not masked as well.

In a world that seems bent on going back to religion at any price and advocating faith as the solution for every type of evil around, there is much in Norbu’s film to ponder on, and even if no definite answer is provided, at least it will occupy the mind for quite a while.

Production company: Tsong Tsong Ma Productions

International sales: Hanway Films (info@hanwayfilms.com

Producers: Pawo Choyning Dorji, Jeremy Thomas, Sarah Chen

Cinematography: Jigme Tenzing

Editing: Tian Zhuangzhjuang, Li Gen

Production design: Emily Avery, Yoshiko Crow

Sound design: Duu-Chih Tu, Wu Shu-Yao

Cast: Tshering Dorji (Expressionless), Sadon Lhamo (Red Wrathful), Thinley Dorji (High Priest), Zhou Xun
Back to top
View user's profile
yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 2172
Location: United States

PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2016 8:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Toronto International Film Festival Announces 2016 Platform Lineup
http://variety.com/2016/film/news/toronto-international-film-festival-platform-lineup-2016-1201835459/
August 11, 2016

An international lineup of films starring Mahershala Ali, Mathieu Amalric, Jacki Weaver — and Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy — are on the Toronto International Film Festival’s 2016 platform slate, in the second year of the festival’s juried programming focused on auteur cinema from all over the globe.

Portman plays the title character in “Jackie,” director Pablo Larrain’s look at Jacqueline Kennedy in the immediate wake of her husband’s assassination. The film, which also stars Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup and Peter Sarsgaard, will play Toronto after its bow at the Venice Film Festival.

Titles are drawn from countries including Australia (“Goldstone,” Ivan Sen’s detective story featuring Weaver), the U.S. (Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight,” starring Ali in a three-part look at a young man’s life), Bhutan (“Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait,” Khyentse Norbu’s story of a jungle ritual), and France (“Daguerrotype,” the Kiyoshi Kurosawa romantic fantasy previously announced as a special presentation at TIFF). The 2016 lineup of Platform programming will open with “Nocturama,” Bertrand Bonello’s film about terrorists attacks in Paris and the manhunt that follows.

The Platform series will run Sept. 8-Sept. 15, with a prize for the best film in the lineup to be handed out at the Sept. 18 awards ceremony. The 41st annual Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 8-18.

The full list of 2016 Platform titles follow:

Daguerrotype (Le Secret de la chambre noire)
Kiyoshi Kurosawa, France/Japan/Belgium (world premiere)

Goldstone
Ivan Sen, Australia (international premiere)

Heal the Living (Réparer les vivants)
Katell Quillévéré, France/Belgium (North American premiere)

Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait (he-mà he-mà)
Khyentse Norbu, Bhutan/Hong Kong (North American premiere)

Home
Fien Troch, Belgium (North American premiere)

Jackie
Pablo Larraín, United Kingdom (North American premiere)

Lady Macbeth
William Oldroyd, United Kingdom (world premiere)

Layla M.
Mijke de Jong, Netherlands/Belgium/Germany/Jordan (world premiere)

Maliglutit (Searchers)
Zacharias Kunuk, Canada (world premiere)

Moonlight
Barry Jenkins, USA (international premiere)

Nocturama
Bertrand Bonello, France/Germany/Belgium (international premiere)

Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves
(Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié n’ont fait que se creuser un tombeau)
Mathieu Denis and Simon Lavoie, Canada (world premiere)
Back to top
View user's profile
yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 2172
Location: United States

PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 7:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Exclusive Teaser for Kyentse Norbu’s Toronto Film Festival Movie ‘Hema Hema’ [VIDEO]
http://variety.com/2016/film/festivals/exclusive-clip-toronto-film-festival-movie-hema-hema-video-1201851772/

Variety has been given exclusive access to a teaser for Bhutanese director Kyentse Norbu’s “Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait,” which will play in Toronto Film Festival’s competitive Platform section.

“The Last Emperor” producer Jeremy Thomas executive produces and Thomas’ Hanway Films is handling international sales. Norbu first foray into filmmaking started when he was a consultant on Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Little Buddha,” which Thomas produced.

The action in “Hema Hema” takes place deep in a forest, where a secret gathering “celebrates anonymity.” “Masked, the men and women participate in ancient rituals and dances from the full moon to the new moon. The large group has been specifically chosen by old leader Agay, but his reasons remain mysterious. Having given up their identities, the chosen are playful and lascivious in the lush mountain nature,” according to a statement from the filmmaker.

“But not all here is fun and games. There is harsh punishment for those who break the rules, those who succumb to the temptation of letting others know who they are or those who are too curious about others. Cliques form and invite deception, seduction and jealousy.”

The director’s inspirations for the film were both ancient and modern. His interest in anonymity came from a fascination in “the world and culture of chat rooms, and how scary, rewarding, blissful, and depressing they can be.”

In a statement he explains: “Chat rooms reveal how we human beings sometimes do and say things we wouldn’t dare do or say if people knew who was doing it, and also how – when our identity is concealed – we wouldn’t do what we’re conventionally expected to do. So in chat rooms, people often adopt characters and images that hide their identity, sometimes just for fun, sometimes trying very seriously to express who they think they really are, sometime to idealize someone else, or for any variety of reasons.”

Thomas comments: “It’s been a great experience to work with Khyentse Norbu since our first time working together on ‘Little Buddha’ in 1993 when he was Bertolucci’s technical advisor. He showed his great knowledge of cinema history and technique, and I think he caught a cinema virus on that set.

“I was excited to support his future work as a writer/director, starting with the worldwide hit ‘The Cup’ to his latest film ‘Hema Hema’. I feel Khyentse Rinpoche’s cinema has truly evolved. ‘Hema Hema’ is compelling filmmaking, both sophisticated and primitive. It’s a unique invitation to a secret world.”
Back to top
View user's profile
yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 2172
Location: United States

PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 7:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The video link on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw7uVGf_VVw
Back to top
View user's profile
yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 2172
Location: United States

PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 7:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Information on IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5890038/

Cast

Credited cast:
Tshering Dorji ... Expressionless / The Bard
Sadon Lhamo ... Red Wrathful / Hideous
Thinley Dorji ... Agay
Tony Chiu Wai Leung ... Deer / Serene Mask
Xun Zhou ... Daughter

Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tshewang Dendup ... Dragon
Tenzin Dolma ... Lhakarpo
Jamyang Dorji ... Dead Man
Jigme Drukpa ... Gold Face Musician
Xin Liang ... Modern Dancer
Rinchen Namgayel ... Goose
Pema Namtruel ... Yamaraj
Gomchen Pema ... Peacock
Tandin Sonam ... Atsara
Kelsang Tobgay ... Guard Leader
Back to top
View user's profile
yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 2172
Location: United States

PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 7:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

TIFF 2016. Correspondences #8
https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/tiff-2016-correspondences-8
From the film festival, documentaries about Justin Timberlake, Auschwitz tourism, and Austrian safari hunters, as well as a Bhutanese fable.
Daniel Kasman 17 Sep 2016

............
Out of the documentary world and back in the Platform competition is Bhutanese director Khyentse Norbu's instantly engrossing fourth feature, the gorgeous, effortless forest-set fable Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait. In a throbbing, neon swaddled prelude, a bar hostess in Hong Kong delivers drinks and considers herself in the mirror, counting the cash kept in her fishnet stockings. A jump cut sweeps us away to find a silent, anonymous man pushing through resplendent Bhutanese hills. Upon spying a marked cross hidden in the foliage, he dons a blank wooden mask, pulls out a flute, and calls out a gang of masked tribesmen who take him to their village. From here, Hema Hema reveals itself as a greatly (and pleasingly) simplified, fantastical telling of a man tested by anonymity. Masked along with a number of others gathered at the village, the group is told they are in a state in-between death and rebirth. There, they are entertained by plays of choreographed dance narrated by the songs of a leader who offers warnings for and guidance for their moral actions.
Those in charge claim the masks eliminate gender and remove identity, but quickly we follow a few of the masks and import desire and indeed gender from them. Our own masked man, despite his naive face originally of thoughtful intentions, is drawn towards a woman with a three-eyed mask, eventually following her into the woods where identities are mistaken and mistakes are made. While Hema Hema may seem like an adaptation of an ancient Bhutanese ritual, in fact it is an original story by Norbu, who is the third incarnated lama of a strand of Tibetan Buddhism. Under his immaculate cinematic guidance—the film’s jungle colors are vibrant, its camera lucid and mobile, the masks a delight, the editing by 5th Generation Chinese director Tian Zhuangzhuang, and even Tony Leung Chiu-wai is hidden behind one of the masks—it does indeed narrate with the vivid, timeless, pared clarity of an old legend. The lessons we know but are nonetheless pleasurable for their (re-)telling. With the pro- and epilogue set in a modern club, Norbu clearly and without a heavy hand brings into an open-ended present his tale of a limbo state. There, here, the possibilities and promises of anonymity are thwarted by a curiosity and desire undeniably human and personal.
............
Back to top
View user's profile
yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 2172
Location: United States

PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 7:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

TIFF 2016: and the winners are...
https://nowtoronto.com/movies/tiff-2016/tiff-2016-and-the-winners-are/
La La Land takes People's Choice Award, and we're dancing for joy over that
by Norman Wilner
September 18, 2016 5:37 PM

Well, I called it weeks ago: La La Land, Damien Chazelle’s giddy/melancholic musical starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as mismatched lovers in contemporary Los Angeles, won the Grolsch People’s Choice award at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

Fest directors Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey announced the winners at the festival’s closing ceremony earlier this afternoon, held in the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Runners-up for the top public prize were Garth Davis’s Lion and Mira Nair’s Queen Of Katwe.

The People’s Choice for Documentary was awarded to Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro, which realizes author James Baldwin’s uncompleted exploration of race; runners-up for that prize were Steve James’s Abacus: Small Enough To Jail and Fisher Stevens’s Before The Flood.

The People’s Choice for the Midnight Madness program went to this year’s opener, Ben Wheatley’s epic shootout Free Fire; runners-up were André Øvredal’s The Autopsy Of Jane Doe and Julia Ducournau’s Raw. Wheatley accepted the award via a stream of texts from the UK, relayed to the audience by Midnight Madness programmer Colin Geddes. (Wheatley apologized for being unreachable until the last minute, but he’d taken his son to see Hunt For The Wilderpeople and “turned my phone off like a proper cineaste.”)

The $30,000 Canada Goose award for Best Canadian Feature Film went to the three-hour experimental drama Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves, from Quebec filmmakers Mathieu Denis and Simon Lavoie.

Denis and Lavoie’s film was also competing in the Platform section, but lost that $25,000 prize to Pablo Larrain’s Jackie, which stars Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy. Larrain sent an inventive video acceptance that will hopefully be up on YouTube before too long.

Representing the Platform jury on the stage, actor Zhang Ziyi (who deliberated alongside filmmakers Brian De Palma and Mahamat-Saleh Haroun) also awarded an Honourable Mention to Khyentse Norbu’s Hema Hema: Sing Me A Song While I Wait.

The City Of Toronto prize for Best Canadian First Feature, which carries a cash prize of $15,000, went to Johnny Ma’s Old Stone. The Short Cuts prizes, each with a $10,000 purse, went to Alexandre Dostie’s Mutants (Best Canadian Short) and Raymund Ruay Gutierrez’s Imago (Best Short Film). Dostie and his crew took the stage joyfully if blearily, having returned to Toronto from Trois-Rivieres – a six-hour drive – earlier in the day after leaving the festival Saturday morning.

The prizes of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) were awarded to Mbithi Masya’s Kati Kati in the Discovery program, and to Feng Xiaogang’s I Am Not Madam Bovary in the Special Presentations program. And the NETPAC award for world or international Asian film premiere went to Maysaloun Hamoud’s In Between, a drama about Palestinian women living in Tel Aviv.

TIFF is holding a free screening of La La Land tonight at 6 pm at the Ryerson Theatre; tickets were handed out at 4 pm on a first-come first-served basis. If you weren’t among the lucky hundreds who got in, take comfort; you’ll be able to see Chazelle’s film in December when it begins its commercial run, and uses the People’s Choice prize as a lever in its Oscar campaign.
Back to top
View user's profile
Safran



Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 2612
Location: Austria

PostPosted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 1:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Many thanks for posting these most interesting Tiff - and praised "Hema Hema:Sing Me A Song While I Wait "- articles and links, yitian salute flower
Back to top
View user's profile
Safran



Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 2612
Location: Austria

PostPosted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 10:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://www.facebook.com/hemahemafilm/

Going to be screened in Hongkong on Oct.23rd
See Tony's friendly message sunny

Btw: See on youtube: "Introducing the cast of Hema Hema :....
by Bhutan Broadcasting Service ....in Engl. 46:05 min
Back to top
View user's profile
yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 2172
Location: United States

PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2016 7:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is nice. Thanks for sharing Giving a kiss
I wish I was in HK Crying or Very sad . But surely, there will be plenty of lucky fans who will be able to watch the movie; and try to see through those masks Very Happy .
Back to top
View user's profile
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    www.tonyleung.info Forum Index -> The Latest Tony News All times are GMT - 8 Hours
Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next
Page 1 of 3

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group