Hong Kong director Mabel CHEUNG's Romance of The Three Kingdoms: Red Rose and White Rose has confirmed its investing company as Mega Harmonic Entertainment Ltd of Taiwan. Investors from China, Japan, France and Korea are in the final stage of closing deals.

Clara LAW's Hong Kong - Australian project The Messenger secured 60% of production budget from Australian Film Finance Group and is in discussion with a local distributor and a foreign sales agent. Lead casts will also be confirmed soon.

Hong Kong director PANG Ho-cheung's Now Showing secured the entire budget of US$1.4 million during HAF 2007. Hong Kong's Sundream Pictures and the Chinese mainland's Huayi Brothers were named co-financiers of the project.

Korean director KIM Jee-woon's The Good, the Bad, the Weird has finished shooting and is scheduled to be released in South Korea in June 2008. Lead cast are JUNG Woo-sung, LEE Byung-hun and SONG Kang-ho.

Japanese director KUROSAWA Kiyoshi's Tokyo Sonata (tentative title) started shooting in November 2007. Hong Kong director Brian TSE's animated project Wee-wee the Poop is also in production.

Rome Film Festival's New Cinema Network (NCN) has invited the HAF 2007 project filmmakers such as E J-yong, Nghiem-Minh NGUYEN-VO and Yan Yan MAK to participate in their event. By presenting their HAF 2007 projects at NCN, it gives them an opportunity to showcase their projects to more international financiers and buyers.

Vietnamese director Nghiem-Minh NGUYEN-VO's Point of Reference and Hong Kong director Francis NG's Bema's Tear has been selected to CineAltaTM Workshop. Malaysian project At the End of Daybreak, directed by HO Yuhang has also been invited to Paris Project of Paris Cinema.

More than 20 HAF projects are completed.

Hong Kong director YU Lik-wai's Plastic City, a 2006 HAF Project, will start shooting in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in February 2008. The film is co-produced by Xstream Pictures, Brazil's Gullane Filmes, Hong Kong's Sundream Pictures and Japan's Bitters End. Lead cast include Japan's ODAGIRI Joe and Chinese mainland's HUANG Yi.

Chinese mainland director NING Hao's Silver Medalist (previous titled Red Bicycle, 2005 HAF) is in post-production. The film is co-produced by China Film Group, Warner Brothers and Hengdian Group.

Two HAF 2005 projects are also close to completion. They are Nanking! Nanking!, directed by LU Chuan and The Coffin directed by Ekachai UEKRONGTHAM.

Other projects completed in 2007 also earned acclaims in the festival circuit. LEE Kang-sheng's Help Me, Eros (a.k.a. Help Me) was selected in competition at the Venice Film Festival 2007 while LIN Chin-je's The Most Distant Course (a.k.a. The Longest Distance) was awarded the Critics' Week Award. Both LI Yu's Lost in Beijing and ZHANG Yang's Getting Home (a.k.a. Air) were selected at the Berlin International Film Festival 2007. Japanese director KUMAKIRI Kazuyoshi's Freesia (a.k.a. Freesia - Icy Tears) was also screened at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam 2007.