Hong Kong star Andy Lau's Focus Films had a fruitful time at the recent American Film Market (AFM) where it sold all six films in its FOCUS: First Cuts series to Japanese distributor and talent management company IMX.

The Tokyo-based company had previously acquired the first title to emerge from the series - Taiwanese director Robin Lee's The Shoe Fairy - but has now come on board as project partner and Japanese distributor for the entire slate.

Produced in association with Star Chinese Movies, FOCUS: First Cuts is a collection of six high definition (HD) movies from up-and-coming filmmakers based in five Chinese-speaking territories.

The second and third films in the series - Lam Tze Chung's romantic comedy I' ll Call You and Malaysian director Ho Yuhang's Rain Dogs - are currently in post-production. Singaporean director Kelvin Tong's romantic drama Love Story is in pre-production. Rounding out the series are Chinese director Ning Hao's Crazy Stone and Lee Kung Lok's PG (Parental Guidance).

Also at the AFM, Focus sold romantic drama All About Love, starring Lau, Charlie Young and Charlene Choi, to Japan's Movie Eye Entertainment and ShowTime in Korea. Movie Eye will release the film in Japan in summer 2006 while ShowTime has scheduled a Valentine's Day release.

(hkfilmart November 24, 2005)