"SHINDO"Director: Koji Hagiyuda (Japan)
Int'l sales: Bitters End
Hot: Specially selected by the Tokyo Festival for the kind of market boost that Filmart can provide, pic will world preem in the market and not the festival. It features rising star Riko Narumi as a high school piano genius who bonds with an older boy, played by Ken'ichi Matsuyama, star of the hits "Death Note" and "Death Note 2."
"WARLORDS"Director: Peter Chan Ho-sun (Hong Kong/China)
Int'l sales: Media Asia and Morgan Chan
Hot: Not far from wrapping a four-month shoot, $40 million pic boasts trio of Asia's leading men: Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Jet Li plus Xu Jinglei as femme interest. Trio of brothers heroically fight off oppression in Qing Dynasty era. Based on ancient novel "The Assassination of General Ma" and previously filmed as "Ci Ma" or "Blood Brothers" by Zhang Che in 1973.
"PALACE DAYS"Director: Xu Jinglei (China)
Int'l sales: Kaila Picture Co.
Hot: HAF project "Palace" sees a concubine, a prince and a princess become best friends as youngsters. With one of them later China's only female emperor, the three are embroiled in court intrigue. Talented multihypenate Xu will star and from the directing chair promises that, despite the period setting, pic will come to be recognized as a gangster movie.
"THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD" Director: Kim Jee-woon (Korea)
Int'l sales: Cineclick Asia
Hot: Three of Korea's top male stars will join hands in Korean-style Western, helmed by one of Asia's most sought-after directors. Lee Byung-heon ("A Bittersweet Life") plays "the good"; Jung Woo-sung ("The Restless") "the bad" and Song Kang-ho ("The Host") "the weird." Ambitious $10 million production is set in Manchuria during the early 1900s, building off a string of Korean genre films from the 1970s that combined the aesthetics of the Western with outlaw movements aligned against Japanese colonial forces. Skedded to shoot starting this April in China.
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