(seen here at a post screening Q&A with a presenter) were all female! :D
Fresh Wave Award Winners Highlight (17th Fresh Wave) (Hong Kong, 2023)
-> Al Niente
Lam Lo, director and scriptwriter; starring Law Kar-ying, Kate Yeung, Rachel Leung
-> Lykke Til
Bobby Yu Shuk-pui, director, scriptwriter and star
-> Before the Box Gets Emptied
Ho Sze-wai, director and scriptwriter; starring Tang Siu-kit, Ling Ching-kin
The Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival is an annual event which aaims to promote and encourage local short film production, and to discover and nurture young talents. This year, its 17th edition, saw 38 films being screened and three very different offerings -- which, to my surprise, turned out to all be helmed by female filmmakers -- emerge as the winners and get extra screenings in the form of a special selection.
The winner of the Audience Choice and Best Screenplay Awards, Al Niente was the most star-studded of the trio that I viewed; with veteran actor Law Kar-ying portraying a dementia-stricken father who lives in the same apartment -- and is looked after by -- his two adult daughters (played by Kate Yeung and Rachel Leung). Like the film's director-scriptwriter, Lam Lo, younger daughter Ling has spent time in the USA (from which she's recently returned) as well as Hong Kong; whereas the more traditional -- and, it's implied, more close-minded and controlling -- elder sister Munn has not.
The two sisters obviously care for their father but they clash over how to deal with him. Ling seeks to make use of music therapy to help her former music professor father and indulges him when he mistakes her for an ex-lover. She feels he responds well to the music therapy but Munn is unconvinced, at least initially. How she comes to feel otherwise is shown in a moving scene in this work that manages to contain quite a bit of drama and emotion in some 30 minutes or so that just flew by for this viewer!
The helmer of Lykke Til came away with the fest's Best Director award. Bobby Yu Shuk-pui is also its star and scriptwriter -- and, at one point in the film, sings and plays a second role along with the main one she has as Ann, a young Hong Kong woman who now lives in Norway. She's in a relationship with a Norwegian woman but her future in the country is still not certain since: for one thing, the relationship appears to be on the rocky side; and for another, she has not yet been able to get a work visa.
Despite the latter, Ann goes off to another town a few hours by train away from where she lives to interview for a job at a Chinese restaurant whose boss is also originally from Hong Kong (and with whom she speaks in Cantonese -- which the film is primarily in though it also has Norwegian and English dialogue). One wonders how much of this short film is drawn from Bobby Yu's life; this not least it turns out that she is yet another bi-national filmmaker (in her case, based in Hong Kong and Oslo). In any event, her effort is an intimate feeling film that explores a number of issues that are simultaneously universal but also personal.
Even if one were to not know it beforehand (as actually was the case for me), it's easy enough to guess upon viewing the first few minutes alone of Before the Box Gets Emptied that it's the winner of the Best Cinematography award. Put another way: cinematographer Ho Sze-wai's award is well deserved. And director-scriptwriter Ho Sze-wai also deserves the accolades that come from being the helmer of this year's Fresh Wave Award (top prize) winner.
Before the Box Gets Emptied tells the story of two young boys who are best friends. Marco and Chris hang out together in playgrounds taking part in Beyblade battles, ride together on the light rail and on the waterfront of their home town of Tuen Mun. Bemasked when outdoors, this is a film clearly set -- as well as shot -- during the pandemic. And although politics is not explicitly discussed in the work, it also quite obviously has affected their lives; including by way of Chris' family deciding that it would be better for them to migrate to Australia.
Before Chris departs, the boys make (more) memories; with seemingly mundane sights and activities taking on more value and meaning when it's realised they'll soon not be something that can be done in each other's company. Watching them together, knowing that they soon will be parted, tears at the heart. As does a melancholy Cantopop song with the kind of lyrics commenting on an uncertain future that can seem to speak to the audience (like was the case with Vital Sign, which I viewed earlier this year at the Hong Kong International Film Festival).
In many ways, Before the Box Gets Emptied feels the most local of the three films in this selection. And yet, it also involves a major character leaving Hong Kong. This tells you so much of the contemporary state of Hong Kong. Long looked upon as a "borrowed place" with "borrowed time", it really can feel like this these days; even while the majority of its residents actually still remain and feel rooted to the admittedly imperfect place they call home, sometimes reluctantly.
My ratings for the film: 9 for Al Niente + 8 for Lykke Til + 8.5 for Before the Box Gets Emptied = an 8.5 average
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