Straight from Cannes? What to Watch at Summer International Film Festival

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Contemporary Korean auteurs Na Hong-jin and Hong Sang-soo take centrestage at Hong Kong’s Summer International Film Festival (Summer IFF). Na will visit the city to present his new thriller Hope — on record as the most expensive Korean film ever made. The sprawling, 160-minute thriller opens the festival following a critically divisive premiere at Cannes Film Festival in May. The 52-year-old filmmaker will also host the festival’s sole masterclass, appearing in-person for an extended talk (in Korean and Cantonese) following a screening of his modern horror smash The Wailing.

Hong operates at the other end of the filmmaking spectrum, crafting intimate, low-budget arthouse works — 10 of which will be screened as part of a special retrospective at Summer IFF. 

Veteran Hong Kong filmmaker Frankie Tam Kwong-yuen will also appear in person to present the festival’s closing film, Secret in the Box, a true-crime dramatisation of The Happy Valley cardboard box murder in 1974.

A low-key cousin of the city’s flagship Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), the two-week celebration showcases 12 new arthouse releases in its main spotlight section, including six Asian premieres. More than half of this choice dozen arrive following the prestige of premiering at Cannes in May. Joining Na’s Hope in the main competition were Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s movie-about-moviemaking The Beloved, Ira Sachs portrait of 80s New York,The Man I Love, and Asghar Farhadi’s second French-language film, Parallel Tales. 

Also fresh from the riviera is Pierre Salvadori’s elegant Cannes opener The Electric Kiss and Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s period murder mystery, The Samurai and the Prisoner — both screened out of competition — and two selections from the parallel Director’s Fortnight, Bruno Dumont’s giddy coming-of-age docu-drama Red Rocks and Once Upon a Time in Harlem, a documentary chronicling the classic 1972 Harlem Renaissance group photo of the same name (premiered, poignantly, in the year its final participant passed away — jazz legend Sonny Rollins). Rounding out this critically faultless main selection is two Sundance winners, Josephine and Shame and Money, plus YO (Love is a Rebellious Bird), winner of the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution in Berlin.

For something lighter, there’s also a selection of seven colourful crowd-pleasing new release presented as part of the youth-centric Fantastic Beats programme. Looking backwards as well as ahead, at Summer IFF there’s also a reliable roster of restored classics to experience on the big screen. From Hollywood, highlights include Billy Wilder’s all-time favourite summer favourite The Seven Year Itch and John Huston’s classic western The Misfits. From Hong Kong? Tsui Hark’s bloody revenge thriller The Blade, and a 4k restoration of Wong Kar-wai’s steamy Days of Being Wild that’s sure to sell out quick.