“Escaping Man,” a Chinese drama feature about a man dragged into a kidnap plot, heads the FilMart slate of Hong Kong-based sales agency Autumn Sun Company.
The protagonist is a man who spent 20 years in jail after being falsely accused of rape. After his release, he intends to confront the woman, but instead falls for her again — to the point that she is able to manipulate him into kidnapping the child for which she is the nanny. But a simple crime soon spirals out of control.
The film is the second feature by Wang Yichun, whose 2015 debut, “What’s in the Darkness,” played in the Berlin and London festivals and unspooled at the Shanghai and Beijing Student Film festivals. He also won the best director award at the First Youth International Film Festival.
“The Escaping Man” stars Chloe Maayan (Fruit Chan’s “Three Husbands”) alongside Jiang Wu and Yan Ni. “The Escaping Man” is in the final stages of post and aiming for a release later this year.
In a different register, Autumn Sun is also launching Asian horror film “Elite of Devils” from Thailand’s Tham 19 Studio, as well as “The Last Hide and Seek” from Thailand’s Showmedia. Presales on both titles have been completed with Taiwan’s Moviecloud, ahead of the Hong Kong market.
It is also pitching Malaysian teenage thriller “Curse Island” (aka “Pulau”), which represents the movie debut of Ms. PuiYi, one of Asia’s biggest social media influencers, who has more than 20 million Instagram followers. It is the highest-grossing Malaysian film in Vietnam and Cambodia.
It is also pitching “Jailbreak,” an action film from Cambodia, featuring the Bokator form of martial arts. The film enjoyed a solid run on Netflix and is now back on offer.
“We are seeing a very exciting rise in quality in newer Asian production markets such as Cambodia and Mongolia. We want to be there early and introduce more good movies to buyers for a fresh taste in productions,” said Elliot Tong of Autumn Sun.
The shop recently enjoyed sales success with 3D animation “I am T-Rex,” which it licensed to Youplanet in Spain, Wonder Studio in Korea, Cinecolor for Colombia and Plan A for Peru, following an initial sale to Well Go USA for North America. The film’s producer, Beijing Dream Planting Studios, is unveiling a sequel, “T-Rex 2,” which Autumn Sun will also sell during Filmart.
