All My Sisters focuses for the most part of on two young women who happen to be the director's nieces (Film review)

  

Advertising for the 50th Hong Kong International 

Film Festival hanging on the railings of an overhead bridge  

 

All My Sisters (Austria-France-Germany-Iran, 2025) 

- Massoud Bakshi, director and co-producer (with five others)

- Part of the HKIFF's Documentary Competition program 

 

The first film of the 50th Hong Kong International Film Festival that I viewed 18 films ago was Woman and Child, an Iranian cinematic offering.  The final film of those I chose to watch was also hails from Iran.  (All My Sisters is officially listed as four country co-production but is very recognizably an Iranian work.)  

 

To some extent, this is not something that's extraordinary as the Hong Kong International Festival has long programmed from that Middle Eastern country (and, in fact, I'd go so far as to say that it's been a big champion of Jafar Panahi over the years.)  At the same time though, I figure this is also a reflection of Iran having been in the news in recent months (even before the Iran-USA War commenced); and the focus on Iranian women in the films (I think also of Past Future Continuous) selected for this edition of the HKIFF reflecting this.

 

Of course this is not to say that the likes of All My Sisters got selected by the Hong Kong International Film Festival as a "pity vote".  Because it genuinely is an interesting documentary work; one that is the result of filmmaker Massoud Bakshi training his camera on his two nieces for a couple of decades or so and then putting together home videos that, individually, can seem rather ordinary but collectively make for an interesting portrait of two sisters growing up and coming of age in Tehran under the rule of the Mullahs.

 

When we first see Mahya and Zahra in All My Sisters, they are sans hijab as they are still young -- and, as Massoud Bakshi stresses, in the company of family.  Even while it's clear that they are living in Iran, they still can seem like generic carefree preteens similar to girls in their age group in various other parts of the world as they happily listen to what's emanating from cassette players, playing with Barbies at home, and swinging on equipment in public playgrounds.

 

But at the first sign of puberty, the headscarfs get put on.  Also, their religious grandmother starts trying to get them more interested in the Quran and Islam in general.  And there is a distinct and growing sense that their lives will be more restricted and less carefree.  (It would have been interesting for there to have been a parallel coverage of Mahya and Zahra's male contemporaries.  But the glimpses we see of the men as well as boys, who can go about their lives with much less covering, already says quite a bit.)

 

Something that is stressed more than once in All My Sisters is that what's shown in the film is shown with the consent of Mahya and Zahra.  Which makes it really surprising, then, that we see them being among the Iranians who take part in the "Women, Life, Freedom" protests.

 

At the same time, this helps makes the title of the film make sense.  In that, for a good part of it, I thought it would have been more appropriately entitled "My Two Nieces".  But when Mahya and Zahra are depicted and looked upon as representative Iranian women, than the chosen title of All My Sisters makes quite the political statement about Iranian women and society as a while indeed.

 

My rating for this film: 7.         

Whispers in the Woods shows how precious and beautiful sightings of truly wildlife can be (Film review)

  

The kind of poster that makes me want to watch 

the documentary film it's for! :)

 

Whispers in the Woods (France, 2025) 

- Vincent Mournier, director, cinematographer (with Laurent Joffrion and Antoine Lavorel) and co-producer (with four others) 

- Part of the HKIFF's Documentary Competition program 

 

When I saw the poster for Whispers in the Woods, I got to thinking of Ildikó Enyedi's On Body and Soul (2017), a magical film with beautiful imagery involving a stag and a doe.  Ironically, I viewed Vincent Mournier's documentary less than 24 hours after viewing Enyedi's latest offering and found myself comparing it very favorably against Silent Friend! 

 

In fairness, Whispers in the Woods and Silent Friend are two very different works; not least since the former is a wildlife documentary and the latter a fictional work with flora as well as human characters.  This being said, I must say that I found myself far more mesmerised by Mournier's work than Enyedi's and also came away with a far greater appreciation of the wonders of nature too.

 

A personal offering that has him both in front of and behind the camera as well as directing and co-producing, Whispers in the Woods shows three generations of his family -- celebrated wildlife photographer Vincent himself, his father, Michel, and his teen-aged son, Simon -- sharing their love of nature, particularly the creatures, great and small, that dwell in the verdant forests of the Vosges in France, and how to look and listen for these wild things.          

 

At home out in the woods like the wildlife whose presence they very much appreciate catching precious sightings and sounds of, the Mourniers' respect for nature is a great contrast to such as the cruel shooters of elephants seen in Werner Herzog's Ghost Elephants (another nature documentary viewed at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival).  Recalling Herzog's offering once more: the Mourniers' uncanny ability to track down the wildlife that captivate them seems comparable to that of the expert trackers enlisted to look for the elusive eponymous elephants of that set-in-Africa documentary.

 

One evening in their cabin in the woods, Simon asks his grandfather what's his favourite wildlife spotting he's made.  Understandably, Michel has to pause to think before answering that it was when he a capercaillie spotted in the mist and appearing to him like a ghostly apparition.  Later, when it is revealed that this member of the grouse tribe is now extinct in France, the (re)viewer realizes how rare and precious this sighting this was; hence it being more treasured than sublime sights such as a doe, its young and a stag tranquilly crossing a silver-tinged river are that the Mourniers share with the viewers of Whispers in the Woods.  

 

Deciding that he would like his grandson to also have the experience of catching sight of a capercaillie, Simon decides to take Simon -- with Vincent going along too -- on a winter journey to Norway, where these non-migratory sedentary birds still are to be found.  It is a measure of how much they value their nature experiences that they are prepared to journey that far away from home and spend time out in snowy cold conditions to glimpse these rare birds.  And it is a measure of how successful the people behind Whispers in the Woods are at communicating how priceless such experiences are that it viewers will find it is perfectly understandable that the Mourniers would want to do so.

 

My rating for this film: 9. 

The alternative Silent Friend gets one looking at plants in different ways! (Film review)

 

The Hong Kong International Film Festival screening of 

Silent Friend that I attended had a post-screening Q&A

with its Hungarian director and Hong Kong star 

 

A more close-up shot of Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Ildikó Enyedi
 

Silent Friend (Germany-Hungary-France, 2025)

- Ildikó Enyedi, director and co-scriptwriter (with Tina Kaiser and Corinne Le Hong)

- Starring: Tony Leung Chiu-wai,  Luna Wedler, Enzo Brumm

- Part of the HKIFF's Galas program 

 

My paternal grandmother was a vegetarian while her husband was not. At a family dinner one day, after she tut-tutted over my grandfather enjoying eating meat, he asked her: "How do you know plants don't have feelings too?  They are living things too, after all!"    

 

For some reason, that conversation stuck with me all these years.  And I got to thinking about it again while viewing Silent Friend, Ildikó Enyedi's mystical-leaning film in which various plants prominently feature and (even) get mentioned in the end credits alongside the cinematic offering's human cast and crew.  This not least because I could imagine this alternative movie's director or at least one of the main human characters in this rather fanciful movie sharing my grandfather's views about flora!

 

Set on a Germany university's leafy campus, Silent Friend tells the story of a trio of individuals who share the same space at various points in time -- not with each other but a giant gingko tree that is lovingly lensed (and turns out to even have some "stunt doubles"!).  Tony Leung Chiu-wai (in his first ever European film appearance) plays his namesake, a Hong Kong neuroscientist who finds himself locked down on a near empty campus in the lockdown days of the Covid pandemic. Unable to work with his usual research subjects (human babies), he decides to conduct his research on brainwaves on a gingko tree -- and, in the process, attracts the attention and suspicion of a stranger (played by Sylvester Groth) who literally as well as metaphorically doesn't speak his language.

 

Although Tony does talk (including via video calls) to other humans (including a fellow scientist essayed by Léa Seydoux) from time to time, he seems on the introverted side.  This also is the case with Hannes (played by Enzo Brumm), a student at the same university in the segment of Silent Friend that is set in 1972.  And while he, too, encounters the gingko tree that Tony conducts experiments on, the plant that Hannes actually spends more time with -- and conducts his own experiments on, with truly startling results! -- is a potted geranium that belongs to his housemate-crush.

 

If truth be told, the section of Silent Friend that was set in 2020 seemed over indulgent at times while Hannes came across as rather weedy and was the least compelling to me of the film's three main human characters.  In contrast, I was consistently absorbed by the section of the movie that was set in 1908 and is centered on the first female student accepted into the university's biology department. 

 

Grete (portrayed by Luna Wedler, whose performance won the Marcello Mastrioanno award for Best Young Actor or Actress at the 2025 Venice Film Festival) impresses in an early scene when she is questioned by a sexist old male professor intent on humiliating her.  But it is after she takes on a job (in return for room and board) with a photographer and learns to use a camera that she truly blooms.  (I wouldn't be surprised if the decision to have this section of Silent Friend be in black and white came out of the photographs she shoots looking more arresting in black and white than colour.)

 

I don't think it'll surprise when I state that the best, downright exhilarating scenes in Silent Friend involve the humans in the presence of plants.  What may be a bit more unexpected though is my thinking that there actually is more than one silent friend in this movie; and that while they are indeed plants in the 2020 and 1972 sections, it seemed to me that in the 1908 section, Grete's silent friend may well have been her camera (which allows her to see and depict plants, and herself too, in new, creative ways)?!

 

My rating for this film: 6. 

Past Future Continuous may not be the documentary it's presented to be (Film review)

  

One of the posters that was part of the HKIFF's 

poster exhibition at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre

 

Past Future Continuous (Iran-Italy-Norway, 2025) 

- Firouzeh Khosrovani and Morteza Ahmadvand co-directors, and co-scriptwriters (with Naghmeh Samini)

- Part of the HKIFF's Documentary Competition program 

 

This deceptively straightforward entry in this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival's Documentary Competition was the winner of an award at last year's International Documentary Film Amsterdam (IDFA).  It also is described as a documentary on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) website, Letterboxd and elsewhere I've looked.

 

But something seems amiss when there are three scriptwriters along with two co-directors (USA-based Firouzeh Khosrovani, and Moretza Ahmadvand, who resides in Tehran, Iran) listed for Past Future Continuous but none of them have the same name as Maryam, the involuntary immigrant from Iran now teaching at a university somewhere in the USA, whose story is told (in first person narrative form) in the film.    

 

To be sure, it would be understandable if Maryam is not the real name of someone who has resorted to having closed circuit television cameras installed in her family home in order to be visually connected with her parents living thousands of miles away in a country it no longer is safe for her to return to.  Very sadly, there are many people, including Hongkongers, who can only see beloved family members on TV, computer and smartphone screens these days.  

 

I just wish it would be more clearly outlined if Maryam is a real person's pseudonym or fictional character since there is a whole world of a difference between watching something is reality versus fiction, however based-on-reality the presented fictionalised situations are.  And the truth of the matter is that the nagging possibility that the people we see on screen for the bulk of Past Future Continuous are actors playing parts rather than the actual parents of someone who clearly loves and misses them can be distracting -- and detract from what actually would be a genuine tragedy unfolding on the screen; one involving a lonely couple -- who no longer have guests in their home, the way they used to do so in their younger, pre-Iranian Revolution days -- growing older, frailer and ill before our eyes.

 

Alternatively, if Past Future Continuous were indeed taken as a realist work of fiction rather than documentary, I actually would have been more tolerant of the repeated images of a fluttering white dove that feature in more than one part of the film and looked upon them as lyrically poetic rather than aesthetically indulgent!  Either way though, it speaks volumes that so much is left unsaid in this enigmatic work where so many things (and people?) may not be all that they (initially) seem.

 

My rating for this film: 6.0    

Sorrows and Joys of a Middle-Aged Man is a film older than the People's Republic of China! (Film review)

  

I saw these ticketing machines at the HKIFF venues I went to

but I didn't actually see them being used that much (as my

sense is that most fest goers buy their tickets (way) in advance)! 

 

Sorrows and Joys of a Middle-Aged Man (China, 1949)

- Sang Hu, director 

- Starring: Shi Hui, Zhu Jiachen, Han Fei, Li Huanqing 

- Part of the HKIFF's Chinese-language Restored Classics program 

 

When I saw that the year that this film (whose 4K restoration was screened at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival) was made, I wondered if it was a pre- or post-Chinese Communist Revolution offering.  If it was the latter, I would not have elected to view it -- as I'm not a fan of Chinese propaganda movies.  However, it turned out to be the former -- and not only that but star a man who ended up being a victim of the Communists' Anti-Rightist Campaign that are officially stated to have involved the political persecution of more than 550,000 individuals (and unofficial estimates rise up to between 1 to 2 million).

 

One of the most highly regarded film folks of the "Second Golden Age" of Chinese Cinema, Shi Hui, plays Chen Shaochang, a middle-aged school principal who is seen visiting his beloved wife's grave on Ching Ming (Grave-Sweeping Day) with his three children.  Enough years have passed since their mother's death that the three children don't seem to take a visit to pay respects to their deceased mother all that seriously.  In contrast, Minhua, the daughter of a friend of his, caught his attention as a result of her loudly weeping at her mother's grave nearby.

 

To a large extent, Shaochang's sorrows can be traced less to his having prematurely lost his wife and more to the actions of his children, especially after they grow into adulthood.  In particular, the eldest of his children, Jianzhong (essayed as an adult by Han Fei), turns out to be quite the piece of work. An ambitious banker who marries his boss' elder daughter (played by Li Huanqing), he seeks to live in the luxurious style that he thinks is more befitting of a wealthy individual than a humble school principal or his son -- and this includes not only doing such as moving into a mansion but also making his father retire from his respectable but low paying position at the elementary school he founded.

 

At this point, I was thinking that Sorrows and Joys of a Middle-Aged Man seemed to be a film the Communists would approve of; what with its taking the side of the humble, poorer man rather than that of the rich folks in the story.  At the same time, far from being an entirely serious work, the mildly satirical movie also has some light-hearted moments and quirky takes that make it so that this (re)viewer didn't feel like it was trying to be over-ideological and -moralistic.  Also, when seeing Shaochan seeking to battle others to try to get onto over-crowded public transport, one may well see Jianzhong's point about how it's unbecoming for his father to regularly do this!

 

As a comedic montage showed though, Shaochang was not deriving much joy from taking up the hobbies (among them calligraphy, stamp-collecting and birdwatching!) that retired, older folks were supposed to enjoy.  So, clearly, that had to come from elsewhere; and included seeing how, despite her sad childhood made sadder by having a step-mother who bullied her, Minhua (portrayed as an adult by Zhu Jiachen -- and who, in reality, was only 9 years older than Shi Hui!) managed to grow into a lovely young woman who became a teacher at Shaochang's school and then his successor as principal.

 

There also are twists in the third act and coda of this move that give Shaochang great joy.  Actually pretty predictable, they also can shock one another level -- in that they are kind of things that might not be approved of so much these days but make more sense back when the film was made!      

 

On a historical/cultural note: it's worth noting the choices of life partner that the Father of Modern China, Sun Yat-sen, made -- and also the love interests of this movie's (un-credited/supposed) scriptwriter, Eileen Chang.  On a related cultural note: it seems (then) that generation gaps between parents and their children may loom large but less so those between non-relatives, even a young person and someone of the same generation as their parents!

 

My rating for this film: 8.     

Spare Queens is a bowling- and female-centric movie with plenty of drama and action to spare (Film review)

  

Key cast and crew at the world premiere of Spare Queens

 

The movie's two leading ladies

 

Spare Queens (Hong Kong, 2026)

- Tommy Tom, director and co-scriptwriter (with Lee Po-chi)

- Starring: Stephy Tang, Chrissie Chau, Anson Kong, Adam Pak

- Part of the HKIFF's Galas program 

 

In bowling, a "spare" is awarded after all the pins that were not hit by the first bowling attempt are hit with the second ball.  While it doesn't score as high as a "strike" (when all 10 pins are knocked down in the first roll), it's still pretty good.  And when a "spare" is made after the first ball left a 7-10 split (where the corner pins on opposite sides are left), it is quite the achievement indeed!

 

For his feature film debut, director-scriptwriter Tommy Tam chose to delve into the world of a favourite sport of his: one that both females and males can play and excel; and Hongkongers are competitive in. (A bit of trivia: last year's International Bowling Federation World Cup and World Championships took place in Hong Kong.)  And while Hong Kong has seen a number of sports movies in recent years (including football-themed Pass and Goal (2025), volleyball themed Life Must Go On (2022) and running-themed Zero to Hero (2021)), Spare Queens might well be Hong Kong's first ever bowling-themed movie!  

 

In addition, as its title indicates, Spare Queens is as female-centric as it is bowling-themed.  For while MIRROR band member Anson Kong appears as a talented male bowler whose style is rough but still can produce results and actor-model Adam Pak has a not insignificant part to play in proceedings, it's the film's two lead actresses who have the meatiest roles -- as former bowling rivals who return from retirement to play for the Hong Kong team and bid to help it qualify for the world championships.  (Yes, this is a film about second chances (and what people do with them).  And no, it's not much of a spoiler to point this out.  If so, they shouldn't have had the word "Spare" in the film's title!)   

 

For those who still know Chrissie Chau best as a "lang mo" (pseudo model) or Stephy Tang as a member of a girl group: rest assured that these two now 40-something-year-old entertainers have come a long way from there and are outstanding on their own in this movie and even better when on the screen together.  Also, that it looks to have been an inspired move on the part of director Tom to get both of these actresses to play against type and have their characters not only have personality clashes but also a relationship that's affected by their different social status and family background.

 

Other nice touches involve the characters of Chau, Tang and Kong being given distinct bowling styles that actually add to the story as well as are fascinating to see.  All in all, I found Spare Queens' dramatic scenes absorbing and its sporting action very entertaining; this from someone who's not spent much time at all in bowling alleys, never mind watching and following bowling as a competitive sport!

 

Cinematographer Chris Lee sure kept things interesting by utilizing quite the creative array of unusual camera angles for the bowling scenes.  Credit too to director Tom for having made good use of his animation and visual effects producer to produce a winning work that looked as well as was substantively good on the film's modest HK$8 million budget!

 

My rating for this film: 7.5          

How to Divorce During the War highlights how families can be torn apart, sometimes because of politics (Film review)

Display of posters of films, including that for How to Divorce 

During the War, screened at the 50th Hong Kong

International Film Festival 

 

  

Lithuanian filmmaker Andrius Blaževičius at the Q&A

session after a Hong Kong International Film Festival 

screening of his film 

 

How to Divorce During the War (Lithuania-Luxembourg-Ireland, 2025)

- Andrius Blaževičius, director-scriptwriter

- Starring: Marius Repšys, Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė, Amelija Adomaitytė

- Part of the HKIFF's Young Cinema Competition (World) program 

 

I don't know if others feel the same way about this but How to Divorce During the War strikes me as a title for an absurdist comedy rather than, say, an utterly serious drama.  As it turned out though, there is very little to laugh about in this work, set in 2022 Lithuania, about a nuclear family whose world is turned upside down by the parents splitting around the time that the Russians attacked Ukraine.

 

Vitas (played by Marius Repšys) is a filmmaker who spends more time daily cleaning the family home and being the main caregiver for pre-teen daughter Dovile (essayed by Amelija Adomaityte) than on the latest script that he's working on but has writer's block over.  In the eyes of his high-flying media exec spouse, Marija (Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė), he is a shadow of the interesting, intelligent man that she married -- and so she wants out.  (She's also in a lesbian relationship with a colleague who seems to have egged her to divorce her husband.)

 

Since their house was in Marija's name, she had the legal right to ask Vitas to move out of it.  Which he reluctantly did.  Their daughter Dovile stays with Marija while Vitas moves back in with his parents, who he finds increasingly hard to get along with; especially after he finds -- via their doing such as spouting pro-Russian propaganda about the Ukraine war -- that they do not share his political views, which are more aligned with that of his now-ex-wife along with their daughter.

 

Consequently, Vitas finds himself part of not just one but two families at war with themselves at a low point in his professional life.  And, truly, it's hard not to feel for him.  And, also, Doville.  Who doesn't say much but watches, observes and knows far more -- about the family situation and also what's going on in the world at large -- than her parents and other adults may realise.  

 

On the other hand, Marija is not always as easy to have sympathy for; and is someone whose actions I sometimes could understand but I disagreed with at others.  The most complex character in the movie, it is through her that one is shown the domestic and internal conflicts that can arise from a woman becoming the main provider of the family -- something that still is the exception rather than the rule.  Also the conflict that a working person has with regards to how much one should -- or, maybe the better word is can -- professionally and financially sacrifice for one's ideological beliefs.  

 

My sense is that many Hongkongers who viewed this film will most relate to Vitas: particularly, his experiences with his parents.  Because of what happened here in 2019 and after China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong (in 2020), and how what happened were covered and portrayed by media on different sides of the political equation, conflicts (have) ensued between many parents and their (adult) offspring; and resulted in the breaking up of families -- or, at the very least, an increasing number of (adult) offspring deciding to move out of family abodes to live on their own.    

 

Part of me wanted to ask How to Divorce During the War's director-scriptwriter, Andrius Blaževičius, whether he was aware of Hong Kong's situation during the Q&A that was held after the screening I attended of his film.  Also, whether he knew that many Hongkongers feel a kinship with Ukrainians (and why).  But while I didn't, I do get the sense that he wasn't entirely clueless about why this sensitive dramatic offering is one that can resonate with people here even though they live thousands of kilometers away from Lithuania and Ukraine.

 

My rating for this film: 7.0 

The Dating Menu's lacking certain ingredients results in it not being able to fully satisfy (Film review)

  

The cast and crew met the audience both and before

the world premiere of The Dating Menu 

 

The Dating Menu (Hong Kong, 2026) 

- Amos Why and Frankie Chung, co-directors, and -scriptwriters (with Kong Yu-sing)

- Starring: Lo Chun-yip, Rachel Leung, Renci Yeung, Kearen Pang, Crystal Cheung

- Part of the HKIFF's Galas program 

 

"This seemed like a film made for you," a friend said to me after he bumped into me as we were both leaving the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, where the world premiere of The Dating Menu had taken place.  And then he saw my face and he realized that I hadn't loved this movie about a man for whom the name Zelda has a special meaning as much as he thought would be the case!

 

Over dinner a couple of evenings later, I outlined one nagging issue to him: Despite this cinematic offering that stars Lo Chun-yip as Hark Lam, a professional chef who offers to cook for women he hooks up with on a dating app featuring a lot of well prepared meals, this serious foodie didn't come out of the screening feeling at all hungry the way I've done with a whole bunch of food-filled films like God of Cookery, Eat Drink Man Woman or Oxhide II.  (And I don't think I can blame cinematographer Leung Ming-kai for not being able to shoot food well as, among other things, Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down, which he had lensed as well as co-directed and -scripted with Kate Reilly, got me pining to eat quite a lot of foods in that movie!)

 

To be sure, early on in The Dating Menu, I wondered if that actually was the plan; this not least since the film's first food scene involved Hark Lam not behaving how I'd expect a top notch sushi chef would, its second had the dinner he prepared causing his date (played by a sadly under-utilized Rachel Leung) to have an allergic reaction and the third resulting in the woman he cooked for (essayed by Renci Yeung) to remark that it lacked "feel".  But even after Hark Lam apparently took to heart that feedback, it still felt like ingredients were missing -- to make the work fully winning, even if not its protagonist's culinary creations!

 

In fairness, some scenes in the movie do work better than others.  I'm thinking here of those which had Hark Lam going and cooking for a single mother (portrayed by Crystal Cheung) and her two daughters and, upon being challenged as to why he had made simple food for them, saying that he figured that's what children would like.  (Not coincidentally, that was a rare occasion in The Dating Menu where Hark Lam explained the thinking behind his choices of dishes.  And yes, I think the movie would have been strengthened considerably by more of that.)

 

I also did appreciate the part of the film when Hark Lam went to the home of Yvonne (played by Kearen Pang) who revealed that her British husband had moved back to the UK but she was going to remain (alone) in Hong Kong.  For starters, the conversation between the two -- like another later on in the movie which takes place in his restaurant between old friends -- covered issues that many Hongkongers are thinking about.  In addition, Kearen Pang managed to give far more humanity and dimension to her character than the other actresses did for their parts which, frankly, felt far more underwritten -- and, well, under-cooked -- than that of the main male in the movie.

 

And therein may lie my main issue with The Dating Menu: that is, that unlike with, say, Amos Why's Far Far Away, which has a similar plot structure involving a bunch of female characters being linked to one another only by way of their all knowing one particular man, the women in this movie seem more like plot devices to further the man's story (and emotional development) rather than have stories to share in their own right.  I wouldn't go so far as to accuse the directors and scriptwriters of sexism but I would venture to argue that they weakened their movie by not giving due respect and care to the women in this work, and -- returning to the issue(s) I pinpointed earlier in this review -- certain salient parts of the culinary process too!

 

My rating for this film: 6.5        

The Ozu Diaries is a Yazujiro Ozu documentary for his fans (Film review)

Scene in Tokyo three years ago -- the year of the

120th anniversary of Yazujiro Ozu's birth

 

The Ozu Diaries (U.S.A., 2025)

-  Daniel Raim, director-scriptwriter

- Part of the HKIFF's Filmmakers and Filmmaking program 

 

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, there are fewer Japanese films than usual being screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival this year.  But as it turned out, I've viewed the same amount of documentaries about Japanese subjects at the 50th HKIFF as I have Japanese films (which also included anime work The Lost Blossom along with the live action Meets the World).  

 

First up was Noh documentary The Path of Soul.  And then there's The Ozu Diaries, American filmmaker Daniel Raim's documentary about the late, great Yasujiro Ozu -- mainly in the Japanese auteur's own words (taken from his private journals but also letters) but supplemented by archival interviews and recollections by those who knew him (notably, Kinuyo Tanaka, the star of a number of his early works, scriptwriter Kogo Noda, child actor Tomio Aoki and Ozu's granddaughter, Akiko Ozu), and reflections on Ozu's works by Kiroshi Kurosawa, Wim Wenders, Luc Dardenne and Tsai Ming Liang.

 

Of the quartet of directors interviewed for the documentary, my sense is that the main contributions of the three non-Japanese ones was to emphasize Ozu's international influence and reputation.  However, I found it interesting and amusing to hear Kiyoshi Kurosawa talk about how he personally "discovered" the films of Ozu -- a director out of fashion at the time that the younger Japanese filmmaker decided to give Ozu's films a watch, beginning with the later, color talkies (rather than chronologically, with Ozu's silent black and white works).

 

In contrast, much appreciated colour along with insights were added by the inclusion of the interviews of those who had worked with Ozu; and I really liked that their recollections are of him as a person, not just a director.  Among other things, The Ozu Diaries reveals that he was a man who loved his sake, to dance and laugh, had Western as well as traditional Japanese ways about him, and who cared very much for -- and laughed a lot in the company of -- his mother. 

 

The Ozu Diaries covers a lot of ground, and even features excerpts from his diaries along with photographs and sketches from the time he spent as a conscripted soldier in Manchuria and Singapore.  It is worth noting though that Ozu expressly forbade the publication of at least one of his diaries from the war years.  And I do get the sense that Daniel Raim erred on the side of caution in terms of what he decided to include from those periods of Ozu's life in this documentary.  

 

Consequently, those looking for dirt to smear Ozu won't find it in this documentary by someone who surely ranks as a fan of the Japanese auteur.  Which, frankly, is a situation I think the vast majority of people attracted to go watch a documentary about Ozu would prefer.  For, after all, many cinephiles are attracted to the films of Ozu for their great humanity -- which often comes with far more doses of humour than those who still have yet to discover his works (some clips from which -- including home movies! -- are included in this documentary) realise.   

 

My rating for this film: 7.5   

How great but also sad it is that Cageman (Hong Kong, 1992) is so very relevant and relatable 34 years on! (Film review)

 

The now 81-year-old -- but still very lively! --  Teddy Robin Kwan 

was the guest of honor at the Hong Kong International 

Film Festival screening of the restored version of Cageman 

 

Cageman (Hong Kong, 1992)

- Jacob Cheung, director and co-scriptwriter (with Ng Chong-chau and Yank Wong)

- Starring: Michael Lee, Roy Chiao, Teddy Robin Kwan, Victor Wong, Ku Feng, Liu Kai-chi, Wong Ka-kui, Lau Shun, etc.

- Part of the HKIFF's Chinese-language Restored Classics program 

 

Cageman is a film I've known about but put off viewing for decades.  It's not that I doubted that it was good.  After all, it was named Best Film -- and won in three other categories, including Best Director for Jacob Cheung -- at the 12th Hong Kong Film Awards, a very competitive year in view of other Hong Kong films made and released in 1992 including Centre-Stage, Swordsman II, and Once Upon a Time in China II.   

 

But it being a drama about people who live in cage homes -- which still exist in Hong Kong more than 30 years on, more than by the way -- makes for it having a reputation for not being easy to watch.  Also, there has not been good home video versions of it available for decades now.  Something that hopefully will be remedied in the near future now that there's a 4k restored version of it: which had its first ever public screening earlier this week; and at which one of its cast members, Teddy Robin Kwan, was the guest of honour.

 

And while director-co-scriptwriter Jacob Cheung was unable to attend the screening, he recorded a video message that was played before the start of this cinematic treasure of a film during which he sadly noted how many members of the cast are no longer with us (RIP, Michael Lee, Roy Chiao, Victor Wong, Ku Feng and Lau Shun, among others; and also the two youngest stars, Wong Ka-kui and Liu Kai-chi). On a happier note, Cheung recounted how he was so pleased about Cageman having been received positively upon its original release -- and that the award that gave him the most satisfaction was that for Best Ensemble received in Singapore.

 

After viewing this deservedly well-regarded offering, I understand why: as Cageman has an incredible cast, fully deserving of great acclaim, who infused their characters with humanity -- and, at times, a surprising amount of good humor -- as well as worked together very well. Michael Lee was incredibly watchable as the elderly but spritely "7-11", who runs a grocery within the cage home complex with the help of the more physically mobile "Sissy" (portrayed with great empathy by the late Chinese-American actor Victor Wong).

 

Roy Chiao anchors the film as "Fatso", the manager of sorts of the cage homes who also lives in one along with his intellectually disabled son, Sam (essayed by Liu Kai-chi, who I'm more familiar seeing playing father figures in his later years).  While Teddy Robin Kwan, Ku Feng, Lau Shun and Wong Ka-kui play other "cagemen" -- there are no (cage)women, by the way, but there's an ethnic mix in the film that, interestingly, is taken as a matter of course rather than made much of -- who stand to lose their homes after it's announced that the landlord has sold the building it's located in and the building will be demolished.

 

One of the biggest ironies and tragedies presented in Cageman is that while audience members will think that the living conditions of the "cagemen" are terrible, they -- a number of whom appear to have been (non-native Cantonese-speaking) refugees from China -- themselves think that there are much worse possibilities.  (Though, strangely enough, there's a former cage home dweller who moved out onto the streets who seems to be doing better than his friends in the movie; more specifically, Charlie, the cheery character played by Joe Junior!) 

 

Arguably even sadder to see, actually, is how the district councillors (a two-faced lawyer with Western ways played by Dennis Chan and a Chinese-opera-singing bow-tie wearer played by Chow Chung) use rather than help their cage dwelling constituents.  Ironically, that might have been (looked upon as) a dig against the colonial British government back in 1992 on the part of this Sil-Metropole Organisation production.  But 24 years on, the continued relevance of this invaluable social drama that might have been seen as (produced by) "leftist" by Hongkongers is a damning indictment on the post-Handover regime(s) (too).   

 

My rating for the film: 10. 

Two Prosecutors tells a tale that's sadly predictable but chilling all the same (Film review)

 

Poster for the ninth film I viewed at the 

50th Hong Kong International Film Festival 

 

Two Prosecutors (France-Germany-Netherlands-Latvia-Romania-Lithuania-Ukraine, 2025) 

- Sergei Loznitsa, director and co-scriptwriter (with Georgy Demidov)

- Starring: Alexander Kutznetsov, Aleksandr Filippenko, Anatoliy Beliy 

- Part of the HKIFF's The Masters program 

 

For much of Two Prosecutors, one only sees a single prosecutor on screen: Kornev (portrayed by Alexander Kutznetsove, whose nose looks like that of someone who emerged much the worse from a brutal boxing match or game of rugby!), a young government prosecutor only three months into his career.  Naive and idealistic, after coming into possession of a letter written in blood by a political prisoner, he decides to go see and hear the man: a former local party stalwart who had visited and given a speech about truth and Bolshevism at Kornev's law school.

 

Despite the prison head trying to dissuade him from doing so in multiple ways, Kornev stubbornly persists in meeting with a man considered so dangerous that he's been put in solitary confinement far away from other prisoners and watched over by multiple guards.  This despite  Stepniak (essayed by Aleksandr Filippenko) being elderly and physically weak, and, in fact being pretty close to death's door. 

 

It's pretty obvious that Stepniak has been physically tortured, and so badly that his internal organs are badly messed up.  It's less certain why the old Bolshevik ended up being among the victims of what looked to have been a power struggle that saw the NKVD (secret police; precursor of the KGB) infiltrate and take control of the Communist Party apparatus in their city of Bryansk. In any case, Stepniak adamantly maintained that if only his tale was told to Joseph Stalin, he would be freed and wrongs righted.  And asks Kornev to do just that.  Or, at the very least, appeal to someone in the central government over in Moscow to come clean up the locally centered mess.

 

Kornev, an upright, card-carrying member of the Communist Party, agrees to do so.  And journeys to Moscow to report all this to the man who's effectively his top boss: the Procurator General, Andrey Vyshinsky (Anatoli Beliy plays the film's second titular prosecutor, and real life historical figure).  But when they meet... well, let's just say that this scene is as chilling, if more so, than the moments when Stepniak shows Kornev the torture marks on his body as well as arms and legs.

 

Those who know that 1937, the year that Two Prosecutors is set, was the height of what's known as Stalin's Great Terror (or Purge) will have known early on where this film adaptation of a novella by Georgy Demidov, a Soviet physicist-writer-political prisoner was heading.  But it's the journey, rather than the destination, that really matters with regards to this tale. And director Loznitsa masterfully keep's one attention and stokes one's mounting horror regarding how things will end for the honorable Kornev for this gripping work's entire running time.   

 

By the way, that director Loznitsa was unable to make this film in his native Ukraine or Russia tells you speaks volumes about the current state of those parts of the former Soviet Union.  Equally clear is how Two Prosecutors is a strong indictment of the kind of regime that punishes righteous and idealistic folks who seek to do good unto one's fellow citizens. 

 

My rating for this film: 7.5  

A Foggy Tale dispenses hope for a better tomorrow even in times of (White) Terror (Film review)

  

A Foggy Tale screened at the Hong Kong 

Cultural Centre's Grand Theatre 

 

Lead actor Will Or on stage at the post-screening Q&A

 

A Foggy Tale (Taiwan, 2025)

- Chen Yu Hsun, director-scriptwriter

- Starring: Caitlin Fang, Will Or, 9m88

- Part of the HKIFF's Galas program 

 

The "White Terror", the name given to period of martial law and violent political repression of by the then ruling Kuomintang political party, lasted for 40 years. In 1989, two years after it ended, Hou Hsiao Hsien made the first film about it, the seminal City of Sadness.  In the years since, a few other filmmakers have mined this subject, including another great Taiwanese auteur, the late Edward Yang, with A Brighter Summer Day (1991).  

 

Clearly though, there still are a lot of stories to tell about those tumultuous times. And by way of this winner of four Golden Horse Awards (including for Best Narrative Feature, and Best Original Screenplay for its director-scriptwriter), Chen Yu Hsun has produced a powerful work that deserves to be spoken in the same breath as the works of Hou and Yang -- and honoured the memories of those who unjustly perished during the White Terror and those who survived against the odds.    

 

A Foggy Tale tells the story of Yue (portrayed by Caitlin Fang), an orphaned teen from an impoverished rural family whose beloved elder brother is captured and killed by the Kuomintang.  Determined to bring his body back home (rather than have it end up in a common grave), she makes the approximately 250 kilometer journey from Chiayi to Taipei.       

 

Plucky but naive, she soon gets abducted by men aiming to sell her off to for a few hundred (Taiwanese) dollars.  Very fortuitously for her though, she also had crossed paths with a Cantonese ex-soldier turned rickshaw driver whose foul mouth belies his heart of gold and Kung-tao (played by multi-lingual Hong Kong actor, Will Or) and he comes to her rescue.  Over and over again, as it turns out.   

 

In addition to being this film's title, A Foggy Tale also is the name of a story that Yue's elder brother tells her elder sister (played by the actress whose stage name is 9m88), a Taipei resident who Yue had previously never really known as the elder sibling had been sold off when Yue was very young.  In addition, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that director-scriptwriter Chen thinks that many people today have foggy memories of the White Terror and that he wants to cast light on those terribly trying times that he, who currently is in his 63rd year, lived through.  (More than by the way, his Wikipedia entry includes the following line: "After failing the university entrance exam, he had no choice but to enlist in the military.")

 

More than by the way, there is no escaping from the fact that A Foggy Tale is an intense film with painfully tragic and stomach-churningly horrific moments and scenes.  But director-scriptwriter Chen makes this excellent dramatic work easier to watch and digest by including in it colourful characters, some light, even (darkly) comedic segments, and a hope that better days and futures lie ahead, for individual people and, also, their nation as a whole.      

 

My rating for this film: 9. 

A Japanese anime with arresting visuals and an Italian film with a whole lot of dialogue! (Film reviews)

  

Moments before the beginning of a Hong Kong 

International Film Festival screening

 

The Last Blossom (Japan, 2025)

- Baku Kinoshita, director and co-scriptwriter (with Kazuya Konomoto)

- Voice actors: Kaoru Kobayashi, Junki Tozuka, Pierre Taki, Hikari Mitsushima, Yoshiko Miyazaki

- Part of the HKIFF's Animation Unlimited program  

 

For those people who still think that anime is just for children: check out The Last Blossom.  Okay, yes, it has a child character (Kensuke is voiced by 30-something-year old Natsuki Hanae) and even a talking flower (voiced by Pierre Taki).  But this truly is a mature dramatic work about an elderly, dying yakuza serving a life sentence looking back at his life and reflecting in particular on the phase of his life back in the 1980s when he lived with the love of his life, devoted single mother Nana. 

 

Such is the length of the time line of The Last Blossom's story that both lead character Minoru and Nana are voiced by not one but two people; with Kaoru Kobayashi supplying Minoru's younger voice, Junki Tozuka his older one, Hikari Mitsushima voicing Nana in the 1980s and Yoshiko Miyazaki in the 21st century.  Yet I must confess that I only realised this when looking at the film credits!

 

Meanwhile, the Housenka flower is voiced by only one actor despite it appearing in flashback scenes taking place in the 1980s (when it was growing in the garden of the house that Minoru, Nana (who he chose not to marry so as to ensure that she would be unsaddled with yazuka connections) and her son Kensuke lived) and as a potted plant in Minoru's prison cell that Minoru talks to in the early 21st century period.  (More than incidentally: the audience of The Last Romance is informed that young and dying humans can hear the Housenka flower's utterances.  Also, people who are seriously ill (who may recover rather than die).)  

 

Such fancifulness is the exception rather than the rule in this sombre, evenly paced film that poignantly details a long, deep love and what Minoru was willing to do for the woman he loved, and also the sacrifices that he made not only for her but also Kensuke -- who Nana had accused Minoru of not thought of as his son -- and his yakusa boss/"older brother".  But director Kinoshita also is to be credited for making sure there is beauty in what would otherwise be an overly sad work: visually, including via a hanami fireworks display one festive evening; and with music, notably via inspired use of the classic Stand By Me tune.    

 

Beautifully rendered throughout, The Last Blossom is visually impressive.  But what makes it a thoroughly as well as quietly absorbing watch is its touching story revolving around a taciturn yet very understandable main character -- filled with regret but also imbued with a stubborn belief that defeat can be turned into victory in the final stretch with just one great move -- that tugs at the heart.

 

My rating for this film: 8.0 

 

Year One (Italy, 1974) 

- Roberto Rossellini, director and co-scriptwriter (with Marcella Mariani and Luciano Scaffa)

- Starring: Luigi Vannucchi 

- Part of the HKIFF's Gala Presentation program 

 

This Roberto Rossellini film was the opening film of the inaugural Hong Kong International Film Festival in 1977.  I imagine that it was very well received since the 4K restoration of it was chosen to be screened at the 50th edition of the fest; and got a far better audience reaction than that at the screening I attended, which saw a few walkouts and also people dozing off midway through the movie!

 

Early on in this neorealist work, its main character, real life Italian politician-statesman Alcide De Gasperi -- a leader of the Christian Democracy party who served as the country's prime minister from December 1945 to August 1953, passing away just one year later -- states that he prefers dialogue to monologue.  If only that was so too for Roberto Rossellini, in whose film De Gasperi (as played by Luigi Vannucchi) talks and talks and talks... at great length, and mainly at, rather than to, other people in an efforts to preserve a fragile democracy and turn a country divided and in shambles into one that could offer more to its people!

 

Year One mainly consists of three type of scenes.  The type that features the most has De Gasperi speaking in whole paragraphs -- expounding really -- without much pause, mainly about weighty, political issues, and prompting me to idly wonder how the actor was able to do so without his mouth turning dry and his needing to drink some water!  The second type features a Greek chorus or so featuring either the chattering class idly chatting in what looks like a bar situation or fellow politicians in serious discussion over political moves by various figures. 

 

And then there's which this incredibly talky film opened with, and I wish there had been more of: scenes with far more action than dialogue, and which I honestly think conveyed so much more with images than all the words coming out of De Gasperi's mouth did.  Including a dramatic World War II bombing scene; another of the terrible aftermath of bombs hitting a village; another showing Rome under Nazi occupation; a fourth showing Rome in the ecstatic moments after its liberation by Allied forces; and a fifth of frenzied rival political campaigning in the first post-war years.

 

I am sure people who with greater knowledge of Alcide De Gasperi and Italy in general would get far more out of Year One than the likes of me.  But, look: I knew about as little about Ghost Elephants before watching Werner Herzog's film about the search of them or Lebanon before viewing Lana Daher's Do You Love Me; and yet found them far more to my liking!  Also, it's not often that I come out a movie thinking its story might have been better served as a book or even as a radio show.  Or, at the very least, that it really would have been more effective in communicating its entirely serious messages with far less talk, however impassioned, and more action!

 

My rating for the film: 5.0