亲密敌人 | Dear Enemy

With the lithium market in a dip, UA Capital Investment Banking, led by hotshot managing director Derek Lee, brokers a merger offer to Brandon Mining, one of the world’s big three lithium producers along with Anchor Exploration and Clayton Global. Investigative journalist Henry Ma, who runs financial blog Golden Touch, gets wind of the plan and makes it public. UA’s client is believed to be Anchor, and Brandon’s CEO Owenconsiders it a hostile takeover. His financial advisor is Derek’s onetime lover, Amy Liang, associate managing director of Global Alliance Investment Banking, who finally split up with Derek while on holiday together in Australia 10 months ago, frustrated by his workaholism. Amy’s old friend Rebecca, who works on Derek’s team, advises her not to do battle with Derek, for her own good, but Amy ignores her advice. The cat-and-mouse game starts with Amy and Derek finding themselves both on the same flight to London; Derek claims he is visiting his elder sister, clothes designer Lucy Lee , but both are trying to meet the elusive Chen Jiandong, Brandon’s biggest shareholder, to gauge where he stands. Amy finally tracks Chen down in South Africa but, as with Derek in London, he’s non-committal. Amy next chases a white knight but the move is stymied by Derek. Suspecting he has a mole on her team, she discovers who it is and plants false information. Realising he’s been outsmarted, Derek has a frank talk with Amy but they end up quarreling again, despite their residual feelings for each other. In a bid to rescue his position, Derek hires Henry to do some investigating for him.

Directed by Jinglei Xu | Starring : Jinglei Xu, Stanley Huang, Gigi Leung, Aarif Rahman, Christy Chung | Presented at N/A

一个好爸爸 | Run Papa Run

Run Papa Run is a bit of a different take on the usual Hong Kong gangster movie shenanigans. In the film, Louis Koo plays Lee, a young man who finds father figures in the Triads his mother takes care of in her underground clinic. Despite his mother’s objections, Lee joins the local gang, and soon becomes one of the most powerful gangsters in Hong Kong. However, things are turned upside down for Lee soon after her meets a pretty lawyer named Mabel. After getting Mabel pregnant and marrying her in a shotgun wedding, Lee finds himself wanting to be a “good” Triad for the sake of his daughter, Heiyi. Of course, it isn’t so easy for a hardened gangster to be a nice guy, and Lee must try to balance the needs of both of his “families”.

Directed by Sylvia Chang | Starring : Louis Koo, Rene Liu, Nora Miao, Siu Chung Mok, Suet Lam | Presented at Hong Kong Film Festival

男人四十 | July Rhapsody

Jacky Cheung plays Lam Yiu Kwok, a Hong Kong secondary school teacher who is facing a mid-life crisis. While he has only his pride and Chinese poetry to fall back on, his peers are successful businessmen and professionals who flaunt their extravagant lifestyles at reunion dinners. After all these years, Lam is still living in a modest apartment with his wife, Man Ching and two teenage sons. However financial stagnancy is not his only problem. An old flame of Man Ching (who was the couple’s former schoolteacher) returns to Hong Kong and uncovers old wounds. Man Ching feels obliged to help her ex-lover. Meanwhile Yiu Kwok faces another dilemma: Choy Lam, a precocious student, has a crush on him and the ‘forbidden fruit’ looks more and more tempting in the light of his wife’s ‘infidelity’. Will he succumb to young charms and let history repeat itself?

Directed by Ann Hui | Starring : Jacky Cheung, Anita Mui, Kar Yan Lam, Eric Kot, Shaun Tam | Presented at Changchun Film Festival, Ghent Film Festival, Philadelphia Film Festival