The Hong Kong International Film Festival is back with its most diverse lineup yet.  John Robertson picks seven of the most promising films.

Hong Kong’s biggest annual film festival is back. From March 22 to April 13, celebrities including director Oliver Stone and actor William Hurt will be pouring into town for the 33rd Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF).

Stone’s “W” will finally make it’s overdue debut on our shores, while Asian films such as “The Shijuku Incident” starring Jackie Chan and Ann Hui’s “Night and Fog” will make their global debut. Artistic director Mr. Li Cheuk-to says a new addition this year is an “Archival Tresures” section, featuring silent classics such as “Wings” (1927) which will be screened with live musical accompaniments.

He also says to look out for local premieres of “Yang Yang” from Taiwan, produced by Ang Lee under his “Pushing Hands” program to nurture new directorial talent, and “Crazy Racer” from the mainland’s Ning Hao, the oddball director responsible for the surprise hit “Crazy Stone.” Here are some of our picks.

1. 24 City
Mainland director Jia Zhangke has already made a name for himself in the arthouse world, known for documenting actual upheavals faced by ordinary workers in modern China and blending them with art and fiction. Thus his most famous film “Still Life” (2006) spotlighted a small town about to be swept away to allow for the construction of the Three Gorges Dam.

“24 City” (2008) captures one generation giving way to another through the story of a state-owned munitions factory in Chengdu being replaced by an upscale apartment complex. Shot in an actual apartment complex located in an old factory space, the film features real-life interviews intercut with mockumentary scenes starring Joan Chen, Lu Liping and Zhao Tao.

2. Confucius
While he was one of the most famous directors in pre-Communist China, many of Fei Mu’s films were lost after his death in Hong Kong in 1951, due to both neglect and outright opposition from supporters of the new order. “Confucius” was long thought to be one of those films, but it resurfaced here over half a century later.

Lacking nine minutes of footage and parts of the soundtrack, the film is nonetheless a stellar example of the best of mainland film from its era. An exceptionally expensive film at the time, it nonetheless keeps itself free from the emotional extravagances found in most of its contemporaneous costume dramas.

3. J.C.V.D.
The Van Damminator is back and kicking ass. But he saves the hardest beating for himself in this experimental film by French arthouse director Mabrouk el Mechri. Part-serious, part-satire, the film stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as Jean-Claude Van Damme, a washed up movie star trapped in a child custody battle with his most recent ex-wife.

On his way to the post office in his hometown of Brussels, he soon finds himself trapped in a more immediate predicament—a violent hostage situation after a heist gone wrong. The circumstances prompt Van Damme to take up his shelved role of action hero, but also force him to confront the wrong turns in his career and his own self-worth as a human being. Die-hard fans should bring a box of Kleenex.

4. The Shinjuku Incident
Word has it that Jackie Chan’s latest film is supposed to be a serious one. Yes, the same guy who’s spent the past decade frolicking with Chris Tucker and mincing around in a magical tuxedo is doing a straight-faced, deadpan drama.

Making its world premiere at the festival, “The Shinjuku Incident” stars Chan as a working-class mainlander who heads to Japan in search of a missing girlfriend. The film captures the poverty-ridden world of illegal Chinese workers in Japan, and some believe its seriousness may signal a shift in direction for Chan’s entire career. That said, do brace yourselves for his coming role as Mr. Miyagi in the next “Karate Kid.”

5. Night and Fog
Ann Hui’s “The Way We Are” won critics over at last year’s festival for piercing beneath the media sensationalism surrounding Tin Shui Wai and presenting a humble story about ordinary people just trying to get by.

But before we sit back in the assurance that residents of the “City of Sadness” have it just like the rest of us, along comes Hui’s follow-up film delving into the neighborhood’s “darker side.” Set around an unemployed middle-aged local, played by Simon Yam, and his mainland wife (Zhang Jingchu), the film promises to be a disturbing and even shocking counterpart to last year’s quiet slice-of-life drama.

6. Monsters vs. Aliens
Who wouldn’t want to live in a world where Stephen Colbert was President of the United States? Even better, a world where the US was enlisting the help of monsters with names such as Dr. Cockroach and The Missing Link to battle attackers from outer space.
That’s the setup of DreamWorks Animation’s first proper 3-D release. Sci-fi geeks both young and old will enjoy tributes to classics such as “Attacks of the 50 Foot Woman,” “The Fly” and “The Blob.” The film features an all-star cast (Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Seth Rogen), but look out in particular for Kiefer Sutherland as the all-too-real General W.R. Monger.

7. Imburnal
Billed as an antidote to “Slumdog Millionaire” and its perceived schmaltziness (see p. 26), this hard-hitting Filipino film takes an unflinching look at growing up in the slums of Davao City.
Filmed much of the time in the city’s sewers, “Imburnal” (“Sewer”) follows two young boys through sexually explicit rites of passage and a surrounding climate of violence. Director Sherad Anthony Sanchez employs some dizzying experimental techniques and puts in more than enough shocktastic footage to make your tight ass squirm.

Online and postal tickets for the HKIFF go on sale on March 1, counter tickets on March 12. See www.hkiff.org.hk