PARKING, a Taiwanese black comedy by Mong-Hong Chung, premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section and followed with Montreal’s World Film Festival. It was just recently part of the Tigers and Dragons section of the Vancouver International Film Festival and the A Window on Asian Cinema section of the Pusan International Film Festival. It is also part of the programming of the upcoming Thessaloniki International Film Festival and Stockholm International Film Festival. The film stars Chang Chen (BREATH, SILK, 2046, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, HAPPY TOGETHER), as well as Lu-Mei Kwai (SECRET, THE MOST DISTANT COURSE), Leon Dai (THE PASSAGE), Chapman To (ISABELLA), Jack Kao (A CHANCE TO DIE) and the model Peggy Tseng in her first movie role. The deal was made with Rita Chuang from Good Films Workshop.

On Mother’s Day in Taipei, Chen-Mo makes a dinner date with his wife, hoping to improve their estranged relationship. While buying a cake on his way home, a car double-parks next to his, preventing his exit. For the entire night, Chen-Mo searches for the owner of the car and encounters a succession of strange events and eccentric characters: an old couple living with their precocious granddaughter who have lost their only son; a one-armed barbershop owner cooking fish-head soup; a mainland Chinese prostitute trying to escape her pimp’s cruel clutches; and a Hong-Kong tailor embroiled in debt and captured by underground loan sharks. With the rich flavours of comedy, melodrama and noir film, PARKING interweaves stories to create a moving and darkly funny film.

HAZARD, an anarchic adventure in pre-Giuliani New-York told from the eyes of a naive Japanese student, was filmed by Sion Sono in 2002 on small budget, was released in Japan in 2005 and was programmed in a few festivals, such as the Fantasia International Film Festival, in 2007. Filmed with the then little-known but now Japanese star Jô Odagiri (DREAMS, ADRIFT IN TOKYO, SHINOBI), HAZARD also stars Jai West (BIG BANG LOVE, JUVENILE A) and Motoki Fukami (CROWS: EPISODE 0). The deal was made with Ko Mori and Kana Aida from Eleven Arts.

Shin is a Japanese university student living a boring and meaningless life. One day, he spots a book titled Dangerous Ways to Walk the World, in which he finds a page written about hazards in New-York. Eager to get out, he jets off to New-York to find this inspiration. He quickly does find out the hazards of the city when he is mugged and left with no money or clothes. By chance, he meets Lee and Takeda, two Japanese-American punks who take him in. With Lee and Takeda, Shin’s days in New-York are now full of excitement and danger. When they need a ride, they threaten people and take their cars. When they are hungry, they rob the deli for food. But their trouble-seeking ways eventually gets them chased by the police, which kills a friend and imprisons the other. Shin ultimately goes back to Japan with a new thirst for life.

HAZARD will be released directly to video in the spring of 2009, whilst PARKING will benefit from a limited theatrical release across major Canadian cities, followed by a DVD release in the summer of 2009.

Founded a few months ago, Evokative Films is a new genre of film distribution company that will bring clever, entertaining and original international genre features to film enthusiasts across Canada. The enterprise will concentrate its activities in the home entertainment market but will also release most of its titles theatrically through limited releases. Its first titles include THE KILLER (LE TUEUR) (France), ADRIFT IN TOKYO (Japan), BLACK (France) and HANSEL AND GRETEL (South-Korea). Evokative Films was the only Canadian distribution company present at this year’s Asian Film Market, a testament of its involvement towards Asian Cinema. More acquisition news shall follow shortly.