| The Hong Kong International Film Festival starts two weeks of performances from 55 countries, 250 films will be shown in 11 different venues around Hong Kong Iceland.
Highlights this year include the world premiere of Derek Lee's "Shinjuku Incident," a drama with Jackie Chan, about illegal Chinese immigrants in Japan. The opening gala night on 22 March is sold out, but it can be left tickets for the 30th March screening.
There were reports that the film is not shown in mainland China because it is "too violent." The piece is a piece, as tastes for Chinese Kung-Fu Flicks, but the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper, was recently in a blunt headline: "Banned films shown at Film Festival." 
The other film, the paper cited as having problems were "The Sniper", probably because its star, Edison Chan, has recently been located in an embarrassing sex scandal.
While the attention given to its tabloid appeal, critics are more interested in "Night and Fog", an Ann Hui movie about one of the more repressed corners of Hong Kong. This is another world premiere. The first ad is sold out, but there are still tickets for its 31st March screening.
In his typical way of business, Hong Kong has the festival with an onslaught of statistics: 58 percent of filmmakers, celebrities and guests and a 66 percent increase in the "meet-the-public sessions, including interviews with Oliver Stone, Kiefer Sutherland and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
While there are some fanatics the three weeks of work each year, walking from Hong Kong cinema cinema to try to reverse any significant screening, for us less committed folk, there are many lesser known, off-beat offerings, which it never create to the local multiplex.
The Hong Kong International Film Festival runs from 22 March to 13 April. Dates and online ticket sales to www.hkiff.org.hk.
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