This tale of two sisters from China was a story of class separation where one of the sisters was born legitimately into a wealthy family, and the other, illegitimately. The film had its dramatic moments as characters realized their fates and moved beyond their initial misgivings about each other, but they were too few and far between. The screening was sparsely attended, at least by comparison to the evening's headliner.

One Night In Mongkok is what a Hong Kong action film should look like. The film had gotten some advanced press in the local paper on this day, so the screening was much better attended than Beauty Remains, and deservedly so. Derek Yee's story combines action, fabulous camera work and chase scenes with actual, honest-to-goodness drama. By the end we end up sympathising with virtually everyone, from the ostensible villain, Lai Fu, the country bumpkin turned killer-for-hire, to Milo, the generally calm-headed leader of the police in pursuit of Lai Fu. It was fantastic, it kept the audience on its toes, and by the end everyone was a bit stunned and not sure to cheer or not. The audience loved it, though, as did I.

Wednesday was a killer evening, at least after the first film ended. Typhoon was the opener, and the flyers for this film kept noting how expensive it was to make, and really kept the praise for its quality to a minimum, and I can see why. I nearly dozed off several times in the first 30 minutes as the action doesn't really kick in till the two main characters meet. It is a pretty swift ride from there on out, though the premise is Armaggeddon-esque in its preposterousness. Not a bad piece of mindless action for the last hour, but it was a pathetic warm up to the evening's double dose of ass-kicking that followed.

Second was Cromartie High School: The Movie, from the director of Battlefield Baseball. I wasn't a fan initially of "BB", but seeing this film in a theater with an audience was a really eye-opening experience! The crowd was big, and I get the feeling there were a lot of people who were fans of the anime and manga. We weren't disappointed. The first 30 minutes or so were a lot of nonsensical exposition, introducing ludicrous but hilarious characters. Then the Global Defense Force kicked it, and the hilarity didn't stop till the credits rolled! Big laughs, great reaction, this is the type of film these festivals thrive on, something you'll never see on a big screen anywhere else in town! But it was nothing as the night just kept getting better.

I tried to find reviews and descriptions of the evening's closer but no one could accurately provide them to me, and having now seen Funky Forest: The First Contact I understand why. The crowd was even bigger for this, I think this was the third or fourth biggest crowd of the festival. Starring Tadanobu Asano in a decent-sized cast, this film starts weird and gets weirder for two and a half hours. It didn't feel long to me, especially since the film provides a side change, that's right, at the end of Side A, we got a three-minute intermission before Side B started. Best audience reaction of the festival, dozens of people laughing out loud at stuff that made absolutely no logical sense, but was funny. If you have any opportunity to see this with an audience, take it! I don't know that it will translate well to home viewing, in fact, it probably won't. Great way to end Wednesday.

The festival closed on Thursday with a 7:30 screening of Eric Khoo's Be With Me. I loved it. I've read Todd's review and most of the comments on it, I appreciate his position regarding a shift in the pacing of the film at the hour mark, but I must respectfully disagree. It is a movie with intertwining story lines that resolve themselves in the closing moments; the common theme is love. The questions asked are: who finds love and how, and is it better to find love in your heart than to have your hopes dashed? We find out that those who think they've found love with others don't always get what they want, while one character who pines away for a woman who he doesn't think knows he exists actually finds his happiest moment before letting the object of his desire know. The crowd was big, but I don't think they quite understood the director's point, because I heard a lot of people going on about how depressing the film was, when I actually found it uplifting. Anyway, it was a great close, even if the audience didn't get it for the most part.

The festival went very well with only a couple of minor hitches. One encore showing was cancelled because the director wanted to take the print of his film with him after the first show, and the festival was forced to project a DVD of another film when the print never arrived in the mail. But, out of 40-50 screenings, I think that is a pretty good average for a smallish festival like this one. It definitely bodes well for next year, which I can't wait to see!

I certainly got my money's worth.