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Ho tries a new shock tactic
Josie Ho Chiu-yee wears many hats: she's a casino heiress, rocker and actress. Now she has added another to the collection that of film producer and her first project is set to shock. “I'm good at shocking people.” she says, “but in a good way, of course”.
In 2007, Ho set up Hong Kong based film production company, 852 Films, with her rapper-entrepreneur husband Conroy Chan Chi-chung and talent agent Andrew Ooi. The production outfit plans to release at least five films over the next few years.
The first film is a dark horror story titled Dream Home directed by Isabella's cult director Edmond Pang Ho-cheung, starring Ho,, Eason Chan Yik-shun, Paw Hee-ching and Juno Mak Chun-lung.
The project began Jun 2008 when Ho's good friend Mak approached her with Pang's new script that the actress immediately fell in love with.
Inspired by the financial downtum, the story is about an ordinary office worker Cheung (played by Ho) who does whatever it takes - including murder - to own her dream home. Filming wrapped up in Hong Kong recently and post-production work will take place in Thailand. It is expected to open in October.
The film contains sexual and violent elements, including some explicit scenes such as the dismembering of human bodies. It is classified as category III. But has the first-time producer taken it too far? “We are not shooting a pomo. I don't think we should hold back on such a great concept because of certain audiences and markets. We need more unique films like this here. The director and I both think there are too many glossy Cinderella-like stories at local cinemas, and to me they are surreal. We want to shoot something that is real, and to show hw far people will go to get what they want.”
The project's budget is believed to be more than HK$20 million and Ho, 34, managed to secure funding from her casino mogul father Stanley Ho Hung-sun. But she said having her billionaire father behind her did not mean she was irresponsible.
“It is still a business after all,” she says. “I listed out what I was going to do with his money, how many films I was going to make and how I was going to do it. He listened to me, understood my vision, bought into the idea and gave me one chance. If I fail, I don't think I will be given a second one.”
In the past, Ho has resisted her father's involvement in her showbiz career but now she has a different mind-set. “I'm his daughter and that's the fact, so why not ride along with it? If I do well enough with this project, perhaps I can start a film branch under his big umbrella.”
Ho is not sure what her next project will be but she is thinking big. She says it may not be another horror movie but hopes her films will preserve an original Hong Kong film style such as that captured by John Woo Yu-sum's classic crime thriller A Better Tomorrow in 1986.
That film is a very unique, almost comical, gangster story capturing our special style of shooting two guns with two hands... I think in recent years, local filmmakers have been trying to develop new ideas in their films but they have almost forgotten about our own Hong Kong style which I know many foreigners admire us for.
“Nobody quite knows how to preserve it, but we, 852 Films, will be one of the teams to give it a try”
Let's go to see..........................
