City Without Baseball - Production Notes|無野之城 - 藝行者作品

City Without Baseball

Hong Kong   2008   35mm   100mins

An Artwalker Production

Directed by        Lawrence Lau

Scud

Written by   Scud

Produced by        Scud

Associate Producer       David Wong

Heman Peng

Art Director         Wong Yan Kwai

Costume Designer        Cheung Kai Sun

Original Music         Eugene Pao

Director of Photography       Zhang Ying

Editor           Jacky Leung (HKSE)

Introduction – short

The actual members of the Hong Kong Baseball Team all prove themselves to be natural actors by playing themselves in this fictional youth drama set in 2004. In a city where baseball culture is non-existent, these baseball players are a minority by choice. The experience teaches them to be free-thinkers in dealing with love, friendship and their own sexuality. It also enables them to find the will to live in the face of death and the strength to conquer losing in a spectatorless sport.

Introduction – long

City Without Baseball is a youth drama with gay undertones that explores the lives of the Hong Kong Baseball Team members in a city where baseball culture is non-existent. The actual players, coach and manager of the Hong Kong Baseball Team all play themselves in the film and the story is based on true events in their lives.

Baseball is huge in Japan and Taiwan due to American influence in their history. Hong Kong plays soccer due to its ties to Britain while baseball is both an extremely minor and non-elitist sport. For the few who choose to play baseball in Hong Kong, they find themselves with little facility backup and zero spectatorship.

Being a minority by choice, in a modern city that could have offered them much more, this group of young baseball players surprisingly holds no anger towards society. Instead, the experience taught them to be free-thinkers in dealing with their sexuality and in contemplating on the meaning of life and death.

Possibly for the same reason, they all prove themselves to be natural actors, baring their souls in front of the camera most naturally and realistically. Locker-room camaraderie can also be staged effortlessly and beautifully because the actors are simply re-enacting their own little world where everyone knows everyone.

Through their calm acceptance of being a spectatorless minority and the constant use of Cantopop by recently deceased singers including Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui, one can sense that the film, set in 2004, is also about a sense of loss and isolation felt by a city on its downturn.

Synopsis

This film is based on the stories provide by the Hong Kong Baseball Team players, and performed by themselves.

Hong Kong is a glamourous city with everything but baseball, almost.  A brand new diamond and a charismatic new coach bring hope to the underrated delegation.  Yet their passionate lives are no less intriguing.

The coach from Taipei meets a beautiful beachfront girl.  The masculine pitcher attracts more fans than he like while he desperately attempts to save a suicidal girl.  The artistic rookie who is also into punk music and fashion is so attached to the pitcher that it aroused suspicion to his sexuality, from his teammates as well as himself.

In the fateful Asian Cup, they defeat Indonesia and Thailand, the two strongest teams in the group they have never conquered.  Amid the ecstasy of achieving the greatest victory ever, they lost to Sri Lanka, the weakest link, in the final match and were sent straight to the hell from heaven.

Biography – Lawrence Lau

Lawrence Lau (also known as Lawrence Ah Mon) was born in South Africa in 1949. He grew up in Hong Kong and later studied film production in California, USA. He was an assistant director for Tsui Hark and went on to become one of the major directors of the 2nd New Wave of Hong Kong Cinema in the late 1980s. He is renowned for his on-location realism and a sensitivity for humanistic drama, always motivated to root his characters into the social context of an era. His first majorly acclaimed film Gangs (1988) deals with triad youths. His continuing interest in exploring the young generation as they confront social problems in modern Hong Kong was demonstrated in Queen of Temple Street (1990), A Boxer's Story (1991) and Spacked Out (2000).

City Without Baseball 2007

My Name Is Fame 2006

Gimme Gimme 2001

Spacked Out 2000

One And A Half 1995

Even Mountains Meet 1993

Three Summers 1993

Arrest The Restless 1992

A Boxer's Story 1991

Lee Rock 2 1991

Lee Rock 1991

Queen Of Temple Street 1990

Gangs 1988

Biography  - Scud

Born in mainland China amid the Great Culture Revolution, Scud was raised by the hands of his beloved grandmother, before moving to Hong Kong with parents and a younger brother at 13. In spite of excellent results from the secondary school, he had to devote the next 20 years to a career of IT, worked for multi-national companies, founded a public listed company, and acquired a bachelor degree thru part-time study. He moved to Australia for a permanent residence and to reflect on his life.  Realizing that he has fulfilled the dream of others but not his own --- music and literature, he returned to Hong Kong to start an indie film company, Artwalker, wrote and made his first film, City Without Baseball.

Release Date : Mid-April

Category  : tbc

Runtime  : 100mins

Official Website :   www.goldenscene.com (HK)

Cinemas  : tbc

Distributor  :  Golden Scene Co Ltd.

無野之城

藝行者作品

導演   劉國昌、雲翔

編劇         雲翔

監製   雲翔

策劃         黃大維、彭幼芳

美術總監         黃仁逵

服裝指導         張啟新

原作音樂         包以正

攝影指導         張穎

剪接師          梁國榮

演員   角色

戴于程  戴于程，香港棒球隊總教練，來自台灣

梁宇聰  梁宇聰，港隊首席投手

香子俊  香子俊，港隊投手

曾健忠    曾健忠，港隊捕手

區穎良  區穎良，港隊內野手，隊長，女子隊教練

嚴維莎  袁愛平，阿平，戴教練女友

董敏莉  阿Kim

林苑   梅子，阿俊女友

Kevin   鬼仔，阿俊理工室友

簡介

劉國昌視香港棒球代表隊為童黨？某程度是，他們夠邊緣，縮於一角，亦也典型，一代男兒心緒見證著愛情、欲望、理想、勝利。男友的隊友、隊友亦好友；再而是死亡、生命；性情取向各不同，交叉追求，逐壘去奮鬥。請不要說港男不濟，或香港題材再無吸引力；棒球男身體裸露，心靈流露，成就一部「棒得很」的香港電影。

本片由香港棒球隊成員演回自己，講述他們04年發生的故事，兼具生活感和紀實性。阿聰是港隊的首席投手，卻遇上了沉迷死亡的少女。連番失戀的阿俊對阿聰卻越來越有好感，甚至懷疑自己的性取向。

故事大綱

這是關於香港棒球代表隊的故事，取材於香港棒球隊成員提供的事跡，并由他們演回自己。

棒球在香港是一項幾乎不存在的運動，一個嶄新的球場和一位具魅力的新教練為一群精力充沛的小伙子帶來希望，而他們在球場外的感情生活和激烈的球賽一樣出人意表，耐人尋味。

從台北隻身而來，被隊員們稱作"大帥哥"的戴教練，很快就邂逅和戀上聰明而美麗的離島少女阿平。

阿聰是港隊的首席投手，和捕手阿忠是天衣無縫的拍檔，共同進退的好友。比阿聰年少幾年的阿俊有意挑戰先發投手的位置，令阿忠非常不滿。

阿俊除了打棒球外，還醉心時裝設計和熱愛"夾Band"，缺乏專注的態度令他在隊中很孤立，但他的天份成功說服教練讓他一試。

胸襟廣闊的阿聰毫無保留地幫助阿俊練球，不但令阿俊佩服，還吸引了他的女友移情別戀。 連番失戀的阿俊對阿聰有越來越強烈的好感，甚至懷疑自己的性取向。 他不願暴露弱點，獨自在痛苦中徘徊，只有成熟穩重的隊長阿良予以開解。

兩年一度的”亞洲盃”棒球大賽，從未有過好成績的港隊，頭場大敗於巴基斯坦後，吸收教訓擊敗新加坡，再接再勵破天荒打敗強敵印尼後，更淘汰上屆冠軍泰國，只要在最後一場輕取最弱的斯里闌卡，就可以奪得冠軍，升上和日本，韓國，中國和中華台北同組的亞洲A組，寫入香港體育史冊。

勝利在望，全隊陷入如夢的狂喜，但美夢沒有成真，創造歷史的是斯里闌卡，打敗了他們從未嬴過的香港隊。

雲翔簡介

雲翔生於中國大陸，在文革的搖籃里，祖母的慈愛中長大。13歲與弟弟隨雙親移居香港，因家貧開始半工讀生涯，雖有優異的會考成績亦無法繼續升學，展開20年的全職IT工作。其間從公開大學獲得電腦學位，在跨國公司工作多年後創辦軟件實驗室並成為上市公司。退下前線移居澳洲思考人生，東望太平洋之際醒覺到自己完成的只是周圍大多數人的夢想，而本身的心願:音樂和文學，卻未曾發揮。40歲前回港成立獨立電影公司:藝行者，編寫及製作第一部電影:無野之城。

上映日期 : 4月中公映

級別 : tbc

片長 : 100 mins

官方網址 :   www.goldenscene.com (香港)

戲院 : tbc

發行 :  Golden Scene Co Ltd.