FilMart: Edko Films Nails Fruit Chan’s ‘Coffin Homes’

Patrick Frater
·2 min read
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Hong Kong director Fruit Chan, who somehow manages to be an industry veteran and an enfant terrible at the same time, is currently in post-production on “Coffin Homes.” The film is a satirical horror anthology, that probes the city’s eternal housing problem, especially its micro dwellings known as cubicle apartments or coffin homes.

Chan, who has long played in a social realist riff through titles including “Dumplings,” “The Midnight After” and Hollywood-Hong Kong,” takes the term literally and focuses his film on folks who are ready to live under the same roof as the dead. It stars Tai Bo (“Suk Suk”), Cheung Tat Ming (the Dragon Loaded film series), Loletta Lee (“Ordinary Heroes”) and Susan Shaw (“Gallants”).

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Edko Films, part of producer Bill Kong’s cinemas to distribution group, is handling rights, with all territories outside Greater China available at FilMart.

The firm is also proposing “Disconnect’d” a drama-thriller starring Aaron Kwok (“Port of Call,” “Cold War”). Currently in post-production, the titles is directed by Wong Hing Fan (“I’m Livin’ It”) and produced by Soi Cheang. The plot follows a cyber security engineer who develops a powerful AI program, realizes that it could do catastrophic harm, and struggles to keep it out of the wrong hands.

Two other previously announced titles are now completed: Lawrence Lau’s “Hand Rolled Cigarette,” about a relationship between a retired soldier and a South Asian within Hong Kong’s famously multi-cultural Chungking Mansions building; and “Soul Snatcher” a light fantasy about a fox spirit, an imperial scholar and a host of mythical creatures.

Other titles on Edko’s slate include Zhang Yimou’s Cultural Revolution drama “One Second,” which had a release in mainland China last year — Edko has Asian rights only – and “Love You Forever” a smash hit mainland Chinese romance film. It chronicles a relationship shared across dimensions.

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