Star flops and slowing investment dent China's festival presence

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorVariety reports that star-driven flops at the Chinese box office are one reason China has a thin presence at festivals this year.

2. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorTokyo festival programming director Ichiyama Shozo says casting a star used to guarantee a certain degree of success. You are a star.

3. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorIs that still true?

4. TM

   Torvald Mbeki-RaoYes. Absolutely. A famous face guarantees something. A table, by the window, and a waiter who says my name wrong.

5. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorA table.

6. TM

   Torvald Mbeki-RaoOff the record, I get a very good table. Everyone knows my name at the table.

7. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorVariety also cites slowing investment and a reportedly more complicated censorship process. So tell us about the new project.

8. TM

   Torvald Mbeki-RaoIt's called Even If Hell Came. I play a young Italian partisan holding out in the Alps in the winter of nineteen forty-four.

9. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorAlone?

10. TM

    Torvald Mbeki-RaoMostly with this shovel. I used it in every scene, and I will not be told it was a prop.

11. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorYour last three films did not do well. Why should a festival programmer expect this one to?

12. TM

    Torvald Mbeki-RaoThose were different times, and different snow. Off the record, one of them was a talking boat.

13. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorI asked why this one will do better.

14. TM

    Torvald Mbeki-RaoBecause nobody else would make it. I called every studio. Even the ones that make cereal commercials.

15. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThank you for that. Now a lightning round. Favorite festival city?

16. TM

    Torvald Mbeki-RaoTokyo. Please invite me. Off the record, I already packed.

17. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorIchiyama says the Japanese competition filmmakers lack an international reputation so far. Is that you, too?

18. TM

    Torvald Mbeki-RaoNo. I have a reputation. It travels ahead of me, and then it waits outside.

19. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorLast question. A star, a flop, or a guarantee?

20. TM

    Torvald Mbeki-RaoStar, I'd say, but ask me again after Tokyo, and the shovel gets a vote too.

21. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorFinal plug, Mr. Mbeki-Rao.

22. TM

    Torvald Mbeki-RaoEven If Hell Came, coming soon to a festival that hasn't heard of me yet.

23. TM

    Torvald Mbeki-RaoOff the record, I'd like to be a guarantee of anything. A refund, even. I'd take a refund.