The 10th London East Asia Film Festival got off to an action-packed start last night with a brand-new print of John Woo’s 1992 undercover cop drama Hard Boiled, starring Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung. Present at the event — to receive an Honorary Award from festival director Hyejung Jeon — was Korean star Ha Jung-woo, originally known for his charismatic performances in such modern genre classics as Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden and Na Hong-jin’s The Yellow Sea but now making his way as a writer-director.

Accepting the award at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, Ha paid his respects to one of the host city’s most famous sons. “London is a very meaningful place to me,” he said. “When I was a kid, I watched Modern Times featuring Charlie Chaplin and as I was watching it, I was thinking, ‘Hey, I want to be someone like that.’ Films, or cinema, have always been something very special to me. So while watching [Charlie Chaplin] in my teens, I thought about my future, and that path has led me here.”

Ha also noted that his attendance at LEAFF year was a milestone for him. “I’ve been to a lot of film festivals — thanks to some great directors — as an actor,” he recalled, “but this is the first time I’m at a film festival as a director. So, it’s very meaningful to me, and my time spent here will definitely be memorable. I hope that I’ll be able to see you again at the London East Asia Film Festival, either as an actor or a director.”

Also accepting an Honorary Award was the flamboyant Hong Kong auteur Yonfan, now 78. Yonfan was immediately smitten with Ha, joking, “Truly, you are so poised and handsome – you should be in my next movie, but I am retired.”

Yonfan revealed that he had been in the venue once before: “In 1973 for the world premiere of Lady Caroline Lamb [by Robert Bolt] in 1972. And I think that many of you were not born then, but I was still making movies.” The director also acknowledged that after his prolific heyday, making a film a year, he had slowed down drastically since 1995, before stopping in 2019 with No. 7 Cherry Lane. But if Yonfan misses the business, he didn’t show it. “I appreciate very much the people and the stars that helped me to make films,” he said. “Actually, I think that I just love to play and have fun. And making movies is always fun.”

Actor Ha’s new film, The People Upstairs, a remake of the 2020 Spanish comedy by Cesc Gay, will compete in LEAFF’S main competition strand, which features eight titles from filmmakers who have directed four feature films or fewer.

LEAFF Competition

96 Minutes (Hung Tzu-Hsuan)
Behind the Shadows (Jonathan Li, Chow Man-yu)
Family Matters (Pan Ke-Yin)
Girl (Dir. Shu Qi)
Green Wave (Lei Xu)
Pavane for an Infant (Chong Keat Aun)
Project Y (Lee Hwan)
The People Upstairs (Ha Jung-woo)

LEAFF closes on 2 November with a screening of the Japanese Oscar submission Kokuho.