Above: Felix Wong and his daughter, Adrian Wong, star in Ricky Wong’s HKTV drama. The 2013 Hong Kong International Film and Television Market (FILMART) will kick off on March 18. Included as part of the Entertainment Expo Hong Kong, a leading entertainment gathering in Asia, FILMART will include a large lineup of major television and motion pictures to attract overseas exhibitors, distributors, and sponsors. TVB Continues to Dominate This year, TVB will once again dominate exhibitors’ interests by offering exclusive clips from their high-budget television dramas, and like previous years, the station will feature special live interviews from major television stars. According to TVB’s Assistant General Manager Au Wai Lam (區偉林), TVB will be renting two booths for this year’s event, expanding the space of their vendor. TVB will display the previews of over ten of their blockbuster television dramas, including Beauty at War <金枝慾孽 (貳)>, Triumph in the Skies 2 <衝上雲宵II>, Will Power <傳愛事務所>, and The Hippocratic Crush 2 <On Call 36小時II>. TVB will release exclusive 60-second teaser trailers of each drama at the event. TVB will also be doing exclusive interviews with the cast of their dramas at their booths. The interviews will be broadcast live. Interviews will be taken from March 18 to 20. HKTV Favors Critical Reviews Ricky Wong’s (王維基) new television channel, HKTV, will be participating in this year’s FILMART for the first time. Although the Hong Kong government has yet to grant a free-to-air television license to HKTV, the station’s representatives expressed that they intend to give their dramas an early screening to overseas sponsors before formally bringing the dramas over to the Hong Kong audiences. The HKTV booth at FILMART will display an 80-inch TV screen, which will be designed to resemble a private theater. The theater will broadcast the first episodes of each HKTV production. These dramas will include Felix Wong’s (黃日華) detective serial Brain Detective <開腦儆探>, Maggie Cheung Ho Yee’s (張可頤) drama Hakka Women <客家女人>, Frankie Lam’s (林文龍) medical drama The Three-Faced Doctor <三面形醫>, Dominic Lam’s (林嘉華) horror serial Marvel Century <驚異世紀>, Danson Tang’s (唐禹哲) vampire drama Not Too Late to Love You Again <還來得及再愛你>, and Bondy Chiu’s (趙學而) Second Life <第二人生>. As Liu Kai Chi’s (廖啟智) Police Boundaries <警界線> is still in post-production, the editors will only be able to prepare a 10-minute preview. Unlike TVB, who has decided to invite their artists to support the event, HKTV currently has no plans to do the same. Representative Jessie explained, “This year is our first year with a booth at FILMART. We are currently not planning to invite our artists to attend the event. [Ricky Wong] wants all of our energy to be focused on earning the broadcast license. Although we really want our dramas to air in Hong Kong first before we release it to overseas distributors, we really want to see the exhibitors’ reactions of our productions.” TVB Is Not Threatened by HKTV For the past few years, TVB has maintained their superpower presence at FILMART with just one display booth. Now with HKTV coming into the picture, the media is speculating that TVB is intimidated by HKTV and is willing to invest more money to rent a second booth, expanding their presence at the event. Au Wai Lam shot down this speculation and stated, “The second booth is not to enhance our presence, but they will be combined into one large vendor. TVB has too many platforms now, such as TVB International and TVB Cable. As we will be introducing over ten dramas this year, we will also have to invite many artists to appear at the event. We are not pressured [by HKTV]. TVB has been in the business for many years.” Au Wai Lam explained that inviting artists to FILMART has been a tradition of theirs. “As for renting a larger vendor, it is a lesson learned from last year. Last year’s booth was way too packed for all of our artists and crew, so this year we’ve decided to expand the space.” Creds: Ming Pao
