TRIANGLE 

Monday, October 15--------No sooner has the New York Film Festival wrapped (screening its Closing Night film PERSEPOLIS yesterday evening) that the busy beavers at the Film Society of Lincoln Center are pulling more cinema treats out of their hats. No rest for the weary, either at the Society or among Festival audiences. Starting this Wednesday, in honor of the tenth anniversary of Hong Kong's incorporation into the Peoples Republic of China (a date either revered or loathed by the local population), the Film Soceity is offering a week-long look at the contemporary Hong Kong film scene. 10 YEARS AND RUNNING: Recent Hong Kong Cinema will showcase 13 titles from the past decade. Screenings will be held at the Walter Reade Theater, the flagship theater of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, from October 17 to 25.

INFERNAL AFFAIRSThe series begins on Wednesday, October 17, with an Opening Night selection: the New York premiere of TRIANGLE. Directed by three of Hong Kong ’s leading directors—Johnnie To, Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam—this 2007 Cannes Film Festival selection follows three drinking buddies who, in desperate need of cash, decide to believe a mysterious stranger’s tale of a treasure hidden beneath a government building. As they carry out the heist, they uncover more secrets and complications than any one of them could have guessed. Johnnie To is also represented in the series by his landmark films ELECTION and its sequel TRIAD ELECTION, which explore the politics behind one of Hong Kong's notorious mafia families. Also screening are three explosive titles from Andy Lau and Alan Mak, including their groundbreaking 2002 thriller INFERNAL AFFAIRS (remade last year by Martin Scorsese as the Oscar-winning THE DEPARTED), the follow-up INITIAL D, starring pop star Jay Chou, and their most recent film, CONFESSION OF PAIN.

2046It would be impossible to note the artistic attributes of Hong Kong cinema without a nod to its most prestigious and respected auteur, Wong Kar Wai. The director is represented by two shining examples of his unique film aesthetic. HAPPY TOGETHER (1997) tells the emotional story of two gay lovers (played by Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung) adrift in contemporary Buenos Aires. The haunting film of exile and longing won Wong the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival.  Also screening in the series is the expressionistic 2046 (2004), a claustrophobic drama set in a series of rooms and corridors, where memory and imagination, reality and fiction become inextricably intertwined. The flm features dynamic acting from such Chinese acting talents as Tony Leung, Gong Li, Maggie Cheung and Ziyi Zhang. 10 YEARS AND RUNNING is sponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York . For more information on the films and their screening schedules, please visit the website of the Film Society of Lincoln Center at:  www.filmlinc.com.

Sandy Mandelberger, Film New York Editor