New York-based distributor Cheng Cheng releases a new poster of “My Prince Edward“, the directorial debut from Hong Kong's acclaimed scriptwriter Norris Wong (“The Gutter”, “Margaret & David: Green Bean”). Since premiering at last year's Taiwan Golden Horse Film Festival, the “Chinese Oscars”, the dramedy about a newly engaged Hong Kong woman trying to nullify her secret sham marriage with a mainlander has been bagging awards from the most reputed film festivals in Chinese-speaking world, including Hong Kong Film Awards, China's Cinephile Prize and Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award. “My Prince Edward” is now one of the highest grossing and best reviewed films of the year in Hong Kong where theatrical exhibition has resumed. Cheng Cheng is planning to show this brand new title to North American audience in reopening cinemas and via virtual formats through the rest of 2020.
Norris Wong is one of the just-announced recipients of the Hong Kong Film Revival Plan Development Fund. According to Norris' Facebook account and Hong Kong media's coverage, Mabel Cheung and Alex Law (Duo behind An Autumn's Tale) will execute produce her second directorial feature.
Translated from Norris Wong's Facebook Post:
“I took director Cheung's class in my sophomore year (2010) at Hong Kong Baptist University. I made a musical called “Death of Cantonese Lyrics” for my final assignment adapting “The Last Message” to “Gucci and Dior” about mainlanders selling labels on Canton Road…Its production value was poor. I'm so happy she still remembers it.”
Translated from Mabel Cheung's statement on ON CC:
“I found my own student Norris Wong to collaborate (for this initiative). I remember among many students submitting assignments only she delivered a musical and I was deeply impressed. She has been looking to work with me throughout the years, but our availabilities never matched. Recently I watched her directorial debut from a story she wrote, I feel she's full of potential. Hope my experience and passion for film can bring chemistry to our work together.”
New York-based Cheng Cheng founded in 2015 specializes in distributing award-winning Chinese language films in North America. The company's previous releases include Teng Congcong's acclaimed debut Send Me to the Clouds, Taiwan's Oscars entry The Great Buddha+ by Huang Hsin-Yao and Yang Chao's Berlinale Silver Bear winner Crosscurrent.
The distributor states: “Before “My Prince Edward”, Norris Wong had won wide admiration for her writing in some of most groundbreaking Cantonese TV series recent years. Challenging macroscale gender and social economic pressures her worldwide peers face with this directorial debut, she poured real individual experience into a microscale story set in her neighborhood in her home city. Her humane and multidimensional filmmaking soothes the disorientation and anger we consume from sensational headlines on related issues. It's a notable cinematic contribution from a Hong Kong's homegrown woman to the city's global discourse. Witnessing legendary veterans William Chang (The Grandmaster, In the Mood for Love), Paw Hee-ching (The Way We Are) and multi-talented star Stephy Tang (The Empty Hands) collectively lifting the gem also renews our faith in the close-knit industry as lovers of Hong Kong cinema.”
Release updates can be found at MyPrinceEdward.com
