(March 4, 2003) Hong Kong's premier annual movie event is making an eagerly-awaited return this year. The 27th Hong Kong International Film Festival will take place from April 8 to 23. Presented by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, the 16-day event will showcase nearly 300 movies from more than 40 countries. Buoyed by the resounding success from last year, the festival in 2003 not only continues to offer a delightful programme, but will, for the first time in the Festival's 27-year-old history, feature three new Competition events.....The two Opening Films are respectively, PTU, the latest production by Hong Kong director Johnnie To, and Twilight Samurai directed by Japan's Yamada Yoji. PTU tells the story of a police patrol trying to recover a lost gun in the course of one long evening. Two years in the making, it is one of To's more personal projects, whose noirish mood and style bring to mind the director's award-winning The Mission.

(03 Apr 2003)