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Mathew Scott SCMP 9 May, 2002 Economist May, 2002 Copyright

Asian babe Sex, stars and small pigs Extract from Economist May 2nd 2002 The film's appeal lies in its reflection of a child's view of the world, filtered through the more sophisticated eyes of adults. The film that tickled most viewers' fancy in Udine was a Hong Kong cartoon called "My Life as McDull". McDull is a piglet whose mother had planned to call him McNificent until second thoughts prevailed. She still has high hopes for him, though, especially as a sportsman, and writes to the president of the international Olympic committee, urging the IOC to accept a new discipline at which McDull excels -- bun-snatching. A traditional yearly event on Hong Kong's Cheung Chau island, with buns piled high and the winner the climber who could snatch the one at the top, bun-snatching has some pedigree. But the practice is banned when the pile collapses, injuring many competitors, and McDull never gets to demonstrate his Olympic prowess. "My Life as McDull" uses a wide range of animation techniques -- the two-dimensional style familiar from "South Park", mobile pencil drawings, computer-generated effects and moments of live action. The film's appeal lies in its reflection of a child's view of the world, filtered through the more sophisticated eyes of adults. For a cartoon, the characterisation is unusually strong. McDull himself is a pug-nosed little porker with a big brown eye, a feature inherited from his mother, and he sounds rather like a Cantonese version of Babe, the movie pig who thought he was a sheep-dog. Born out of a popular Hong Kong comic strip, McDull may be about to become as well known as the horrible Eric Cartman. Screen Studies - A Taste Of Asia Extract from SCMP 9 May, 2002 The Italian city of Udine is in many ways the antithesis of Hong Kong. Marvellous historic buildings and sights abound. The air is fresh and clean. And people live life at a pace so laid-back it verges on the horizontal. Once a year, however, the place goes all "Hong Kong" when the Far East Film Festival arrives. Held at the end of each April, the festival is a nine-day gathering of commercial - as opposed to art-house - Asian films, Asian film stars and Asian film fans. For the first 11 years it focused on movies from a different part of the world each festival. But when Hong Kong's turn came around five years ago, the programme was such a hit that organisers decided to turn their attention to Asian cinema exclusively. McDull posters, bags and coffee cups were scooped up by movie-goers, were sighted around town from the festival's first night and had run out by about day three. Since then, there has been a constant stream of Hong Kong films and stars making the journey to this city of about 100,000 people, which is situated in northeast Italy about a two-hour train ride from Venice. And this year's edition had an added Hong Kong touch to it as well, with director Joe Ma's Love Undercover capturing the featured Audience Award; its star Hong Kong actress Miriam Yeung Chin-wah drawing the audiences' eye in her role as the festival's guest "Diva" and Hong Kong's favourite piece of pork, that little pig called McDull, winning audiences' hearts during the international premiere of his own animated feature, My Life As McDull. The main programme featured 10 Hong Kong films, while there was also a retrospective on the work of director Patrick Leung that showcased his five films. For Yeung, the festival presented a unique chance to see how her work would be appreciated by an overseas audience. "I was flattered by their invitation and it's good to be able to see what other people think of your work, and to see how a different audience reacts to it," she says. "We were overwhelmed by the response." While Love Undercover won the top award, McDull was the hit of the festival - at least in terms of merchandising. McDull posters, bags and coffee cups were scooped up by movie-goers, were sighted around town from the festival's first night and had run out by about day three. An SOS call was put through to Hong Kong and fresh supplies were in place by the time of the film's international premiere on day five.

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