HK Party Planning Like a Native
I may have overestimated our ability to overindulge in movies for the Hong Kong International Film Festival. Plane tickets and hotel room were booked during the sale period nearly a month before the programme was available, and so we have to work with the films that will be shown during the days when we're there. We can prolly squeeze in a Macau day tour as well during a day when none of the films are promising.
The programme was released on 27 Feb, and tickets were available for sale online on 1 March, 10 am. So I downloaded the programme and picked out my main events ahead of time, coordinated with kantogirl, and was online very early this morning to make sure to get tickets na. Stupid naman if we fly in and end up like sad puppets in a queue outside the venue hoping for tickets. I had a stressful moment when I realized the online ticket system required me to input arcane codes instead of movie titles, but a brief review of the programme gave me the codes I needed. Then I ended up refreshing the site for about 45 minutes because everybody prolly had the same idea as I did, and we overloaded the system.
Still, I am a winner as well as a party planner! Got tickets to three evening screenings all nights that we're there, and a token Andy Lau matinee. Now we have anchor events, we can spend the day serendipitying the other shows. Tickets range from HKD45 to HKD75 so, not that bad. One of the films we're watching is Jun Lana's Barbers' Tales, which means we will fly four hours to watch a local movie and hobnob with people whom we see here anyway. If it gets a wide screening, we'll be able to say we knew about it first.
Another thing I'm totes proud of: Managed to get a hotel right near most of the venues, and before prices went up for the HKIFF. No surprise Lucky Hostel for us this time. We're getting a hotel which occupies the entire building it's in, not one that's sharing the building with 30 other hotels.
List of films available at http://www.hkiff.org.hk/asset/files/download/38th_HKIFF_Booking_Folder.pdf
The programme was released on 27 Feb, and tickets were available for sale online on 1 March, 10 am. So I downloaded the programme and picked out my main events ahead of time, coordinated with kantogirl, and was online very early this morning to make sure to get tickets na. Stupid naman if we fly in and end up like sad puppets in a queue outside the venue hoping for tickets. I had a stressful moment when I realized the online ticket system required me to input arcane codes instead of movie titles, but a brief review of the programme gave me the codes I needed. Then I ended up refreshing the site for about 45 minutes because everybody prolly had the same idea as I did, and we overloaded the system.
Still, I am a winner as well as a party planner! Got tickets to three evening screenings all nights that we're there, and a token Andy Lau matinee. Now we have anchor events, we can spend the day serendipitying the other shows. Tickets range from HKD45 to HKD75 so, not that bad. One of the films we're watching is Jun Lana's Barbers' Tales, which means we will fly four hours to watch a local movie and hobnob with people whom we see here anyway. If it gets a wide screening, we'll be able to say we knew about it first.
Another thing I'm totes proud of: Managed to get a hotel right near most of the venues, and before prices went up for the HKIFF. No surprise Lucky Hostel for us this time. We're getting a hotel which occupies the entire building it's in, not one that's sharing the building with 30 other hotels.
List of films available at http://www.hkiff.org.hk/asset/files/download/38th_HKIFF_Booking_Folder.pdf