As a novice filmmaker, Michael Gleissner is aiming high. Having finished his debut - an English-language psychological thriller called Irreversi set in Hong Kong - he had the script translated into Putonghua and made a Chinese version with different actors. You expect investors to feel uneasy about such an ambitious project, but Gleissner completed both films without much hassle from nervous executives.
Of course, it helps that he owns Cebu-based Bigfoot Entertainment, the company that financed the films.
Gleissner admits that making Irreversi and Hui Lu (the Putonghua version) is 'a unique thing which is experimental, and we took the risk'.
'The idea of novelty is certainly an attraction - and entertainment as a whole is a constant fight against boredom,' he says. 'You always try to do something that's unique. And all the stories that you can possibly come up with, half have been done already.
'What you're asking is in the execution: bigger budgets, more CGI and bigger monsters, whether you set the story in space or in the desert in the 12th century. Or you go for an interesting style, which [Quentin Tarantino's] Kill Bill did. [You have to] do something new and let people decide whether they enjoy it or not.'
It remains to be seen whether Gleissner's blase attitude about artistry and popularity holds water, because the films haven't been released yet. Distribution deals in Hong Kong (where both films are set) and across Southeast Asia are being drawn up. The lack of star power might create some difficulties for the Bigfoot marketing crew. Unlike the company's previous film, 3 Needles, which starred Lucy Liu, Chloe Sevigny and Sandra Oh, the new movies can boast the talents only of former model Estella Warren (for Irreversi) and former Canto-pop singer Hawick Lau Hoi-wai (for Hui Lu, left of photo).
