Press Lounge

The Jury and the winners of Asian Digital Award.

James Lee's Call if You Need Me won silver digital prize in the Asian Digital Competition at the 33rd Hong Kong International Film Festival. There are eight digital feature films from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and South Korea this year. The jury is formed by famous filmmakers Fruit Chan, Xie Fei, and also the German film festival programmer Erika Gregor.

Call if You Need Me is a classic gangster tale about brotherhood, it was commented by the jury that it is testimony to the strength of the Malaysian new wave. "For creating a harmonious blend of the gangster genre, the affections for one's native lands, and a clinical analysis of human nature, and for exercising digital technology in such a masterly manner."

In fact, this is not James' first gangster film; his second feature film "Ah Beng Return" is of the same genre as well. "As a teen I grew up watching a lot of American and HK gangster films, I think it's natural that most filmmakers come in contact with this genre in their early days because of the dark underdog subject matter and violence involving the characters. Also gangster genre sometimes do portray quite near accurate condition of the society", James says.

James and Pete Teo were in Hong Kong for the festival. The film is well appreciated by the audience there. Pete was surprised to hear sniffles during the screenings. "I thought that this was a strong film as soon as I saw the rough cut. I was quietly confident that the film will do well after that - and I am not really surprised the film won something. I am happy and proud for James that it did."
Sunny Pang, the Singaporean actor is one of the main casts along with Pete. It was the first time for Sunny to work in a Malaysian independent film as a leading role. "The experience working with James and Pete was wonderful. I really enjoyed working with all the cast and crews and I've learnt things from James and Pete".

From left: James Lee, Lau Cheng Wan, Teresa Kwong (director of the
14th Hong Kong Independent short film & video award), Clare Stewart
(Sydney Film Fest Director) at Freshwave shortfilm award gala.

James is also in this festival as jury for the Freshwave short film award. Da Huang Pictures will start the traveling screening of this award winning film in Malaysia from May. Dates and venues will be announced in April.