The 2025 Hong Kong International Film Festival has begun, along with my personal HKIFF-ing! (Film reviews)

  

At the Hong Kong premiere of one of the 2025 Hong Kong 

International Film Festival's Opening Films

 

Pavane for an Infant's lead actress Fish Liew and director 

Chong Keat Aun on stage before the screening
 

Pavane for an Infant (Malaysia-Hong Kong, 2024)

- Chong Keat Aun, director and scriptwriter

- Starring: Fish Liew, Natalie Hsu, Tan Mei Ling, Pearlly Chua, Ben Yuen 

- Part of the HKIFF's Gala Presentations program 

 

At the Hong Kong International Film Festival last year, Chong Keat Aun's Snow in Midsummer was named the winner of the Firebird award best film for young cinema competition (Chinese-language).  When speaking to a couple of Hong Kong filmmakers after one of its HKIFF screenings, I got the distinct sense that they were impressed by the Malaysian drama about one of the country's taboo subjects, the "race riots" that occured on May 13th, 1969.  

 

The impression that the Malaysian director's become quite the darling among Hong Kong film folk increased this year with the selection of his Pavane for an Infant as one of the Opening Films of this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival.  And with Chong Keat Aun's third film having a number of Hongkongers among its cast and crew (including actress Natalie Hsu and cinematographer Leung Ming-kai).    

 

Despite her making her name in Hong Kong cinema, lead actress Fish Liew actually hails from Malaysia.  But because she had to be in Hong Kong for so many years already, she reportedly struggled initially to get back to speaking Cantonese like a native Malaysian Cantonese speaker rather than a Hong Kong one!  And it's very much to her credit that she not only does this in Pavane for an Infant but, also, speaks too in Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mandarin; something that her character, a worker at a baby hatch who interacts with Malaysians of other ethnicities as well as her own does.

 

Lai Sum (portrayed by Fish Liew)'s colleagues include Malay women and her boss is a ethnic Chinese woman (essayed by Tan Mei Ling) who's a practicing Muslim.  Among the women seen using the baby hatch are an ethnic Indian Hindu woman as well as ethnic Chinese ones; and among the adoptees of the abandoned babies are a Malay Muslim family.  Chong Keat Aun's film further showcases Malaysia's multi-ethnic, -cultural and -religious society and beliefs by including such as a Minangkabau ceremony celebrating a new female addition to the matrilineal society, and a Taoist medium (played by Hong Kong actor Ben Yuen).

 

At one level, the female friendships and various other demonstrations of female solidarity that course through Pavane for an Infant paint a positive picture of Malaysian society.  On the other hand, the fact that there are so many abandoned babies that the existence of baby hatches have become institutionalised, even if still opposed by certain strands of society, is, of course, less so.  And most definitely when many of the abandoned babies -- and abortions spoken about in the film (which actually are illegal in Malaysia) -- come as a result of rape and such.

 

As such, this is another one of Chong Keat Aun's films that I get the feeling will only be allowed to be screened in his native Malaysia after a number of cuts are made by the censors.  Which is a pity as he actually addresses important, relevant social and cultural issues in sensitive and thought-provoking ways; even though, I must admit, I could do without the "magical realistic" stylistic touches -- along with leisured pace -- that he does seem to be fond of too! 

 

My rating for this film: 7.5 

The Invasion (The Netherlands-France-U.S.A., 2024)

-  Sergei Loznitsa, director and scriptwriter

- Part of the HKIFF's Auteurs program

 

Despite Ukraine not being listed among countries that co-produced this documentary film, it's the country that's the focus of it.  Ukranian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa's also was shot entirely in the Eastern European country that has Russia invaded in February 2022 and is still very much a nation at war at the time of writing.

 

Unlike, say, Eastern Front, which I viewed at the 2023 Hong Kong International Film Festival, The Invasion doesn't have footage of battle.  But the war and enemy, and its effect on Ukranians, is very much apparent in this documentary which begins with an extended take of the funeral of a number of fallen soldiers that includes footage of their being mourned in a cathedral and, also, at Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Kyiv's Independence Square.

 

Over the course of the 145 documentary, a number of other funerals are also shown -- and, also, in long takes.  Sergei Loznitsa is obviously determined to show the sacrifices that Ukrainians have made for their country; ones that include the deaths of those who were the beloved spouses, parents, children of others, and respected and valued members of communities.  

 

At the same time, the Ukranians in The Invasion also are shown to be people who are determined to carry on with life even while living with death and destruction, the sound of war not far away and air raid warnings.  People -- soldiers but also civilians of different ages, ranging from elderly folk to young children -- also are seen observing happier ceremonies and times.

 

A cynic might say that The Invasion is a propaganda work, as it shows Ukranians to be enduring, and able to embrace life at a time when they and their country's survival are being threatened.  At the same time though, the price being paid is shown to be terribly high. And the fact that Ukraine has prevailed, is prevailing, more than three years on after Russia attacked and been attacking it, is something very much worth recording and witnessing.

 

My rating for this film: 7.5 

Snow in Midsummer gets critical acclaim and screened outside of Malaysia -- but will it get what it deserves in its home country? (Film review)

  

Poster for Snow in Midsummer on display

at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre during

the 48th Hong Kong International Film Festival

 

Snow in Midsummer (Malaysia-Singapore-Taiwan, 2023)

- Chong Keat Aun, director, scriptwriter and co-music composer (with Yii Kah Hoe)

- Starring: Wan Fang, Pearlly Chua, Pauline Tan, Lim Koet Yenn

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Firebird Awards: Young Cinema Competition (Chinese Language) program

 

In my previous blog post (and review of Hollywoodgate), I mentioned there being a number of Hong Kong films that cannot be screened in national security law era Hong Kong -- yet my (still) being able to view many works from elsewhere that are banned in their home territories.  Snow in Midsummer may be one more such cinematic effort.  At the post screening Q&A I attended, its director-scriptwriter, Chong Keat Aun, said that he had submitted his drama about what he's called "a hidden wound in Malaysian history" to the Malaysian film censorship board -- but, as yet, had not heard back from them.

 

The same day that it screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, Snow in Midsummer was named as the winner of the Firebird Award in the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese language) section of the fest.  And it is set to begin its Hong Kong theatrical run tomorrow -- four days before the 55th anniversary of what's now known as the May 13th Incident (which I used to remember hearing about as the May 13th race riots -- since, in the Malaysian worldview, Malays, Chinese and Indians are different "races" (as opposed to ethnic groups) -- for what seemed like the longest time).   

 

Snow in Midsummer begins on May 13th, 1969. Ah Eng (played by Lim Koet Yenn) is a young girl of ethnic Chinese parentage who's a bullying victim at her Malay language (and presumably majority ethnic Malay) Kuala Lumpur primary school.  Her Nyonya mother, Su Mei (portrayed by Pauline Tan), wants her husband Kooi (essayed by Peter Yu) to get Ah Eng blessed by a medium of Datuk Kong -- but he chose to have a ritual performed on their son Yeow (played by Teoh Wei Hern) instead.

 

The relationship between Su Mei and Kooi appears on the strained side. So it came as no surprise that when Kooi gets two tickets to go watch a movie at the Majestic cinema that evening, he elects to take Yeow with him. The snub ends up saving Su Mei and Ah Eng's lives. Because, the Majestic cinema ends up becoming a massacre site that night -- while Su Mei and Ah Eng, who had contented themselves with going and watching an open air Cantonese opera performance by the temple where the medium of Datuk Kong had effectively held court, were saved by members of the Cantonese opera troupe (whose leader is played by Pearlly Chua) who let them hide backstage with them while others ran riot and murdered or were murdered.

 

Fast forward 49 years and Ah Eng (now portrayed by Wan Fang) is now a middle-aged woman living in Penang. After she learns about a soon-to-be demolished "513 cemetery" on the Kuala Lumpur outskirts, she decides -- over the objections of her husband (who comes across as rude and domineering as her father) to go there on the anniversary of the riots -- to see whether she can find the graves of her father and brother; something her grieving mother had been unable to do all these years. 

 

Snow in Midsummer's director, Chong Keat Aun, spoke about the difficulties of finding Malaysian actresses for his film on account of the continued sensitivites over the May 13th Incident.  And I can't help wondering if the character of Ah Eng would have been more loquacious  if she had been played by a Malaysian actress as an adult rather than a Taiwanese whose lines were largely in Mandarin (despite the film being multi-lingual -- using Hokkien, Cantonese and Malay (as well as English? I forget!) dialogue (whose English subtitles don't quite do them justice).

 

Alternatively, it might have been Chong Keat Aun's intention all along to get the audience figuring a lot of things out for themselves via visual and other cues.  Frankly, I think this is a big ask of Snow in Midsummer's audience since there really are a lot of things that require prior knowledge: of not only Malaysian history but Malaysian ethnic relations, local ethnic traditions and Cantonese opera.  

 

As an example: The movie's title refers to the Cantonese opera performed in the film whose theme concerns a grave miscarriage of justice -- something that Chong Keat Aun clearly believes has taken place not only with regards to what happened on May 13th, 1969, itself but, also, the neglect of its victims over the years. (On a perhaps related note: I also felt that Ah Eng and Su Mei were women who their husbands sought to control -- even oppress -- them, yet were actually strong characters in their own way, even while being much put upon!)

 

In any case, the work does appear to have struck a chord with film festival programmers and audience members at such as Venice (where it had its world premiere), Taiwan (where it was nominated for 9 Golden Horse Awards) and now also Hong Kong.  Still, I do believe that it's in Malaysia where Snow in Midsummer would most resonate.  We can but hope that it will be allowed to be screened there at some point in time -- and without the damaging cuts that removed its essence, the way that has happened to Cannes award winner Tiger Stripes!  

My rating for this film: 8.0

Oasis of Now is the kind of fest film that can send audience members to sleep! (Film review)

The Hong Kong International Film Festival is one of

Hong Kong's premier cultural events

 

Oasis of Now (Malaysia-Singapore-France, 2023)

- Chia Chee Sum, director and scriptwriter

- Starring: Ta Thi Dju, Aster Yeow Ee, Abdul Manaf bin Rejab

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Global Vision program

 

There's been many a year where I've not seen a Malaysian offerings at a Hong Kong film festival.  However, in the past year or so, both the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival (HKAFF) and now the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) have featured Malaysian movies in their program.  But while Amanda Nell Eu's Tiger Stripes and Jin Ong's Abang Adik went on to get Hong Kong theatrical releases after the HKAFF, I can't see this happening for Chia Chee Sum's Oasis of Now; this not least because this spare, slow-paced effort comes across as the kind of work that can be appreciated only by film festival audiences, if that!

 

Oasis of Now revolves around Hanh (portrayed by Ta Thi Dju), a casually multi-lingual female who is gradually revealed to be an undocumented Vietnamese immigrant doing odd jobs for different residents of an old housing estate where the film's director-scriptwriter used to live. She also turns out to be the mother of a young girl called Ting Ting (played by Aster Yeow Ee), with whom she occasionally meets up, and hangs out, with in a stairwell of the housing estate; something that's not immediately clear because, among other things, when we first see Ting Ting, she is being treated as a daughter by another woman.

Very little is explicitly spelled out in Oasis of Now; and this can lend proceedings an intriguing air of mystery.  Initially, I was fine to go with the flow and spend time observing what the filmmaker chose to impart more by way of the film's atmospheric cinematography and sound engineering than narrative plotting.  But after a period, I found myself looking wishing for more clarity with regards to a number of details.  

 

Also, I found it difficult to figure out how much time had passed in the movie -- for even while Hanh's wardrobe never seemed to change and night didn't seem to dawn in the film, it did seem that some days must have passed to accomodate all the things that went on in the story.  Even more problematically, I found myself unable to resist checking my watch more than once to see how much time had passed and was left before this minimalist movie ended.  In addition, I found myself wanting to look around the cinema to gauge the reactions of my fellow audience members -- over the course of which I saw that a number had nodded off mid-viewing!

 

All in all, I think it's fair to conclude that I don't think many in the audience were captivated or enthralled by this movie that also feels far more emotionally distant than it could and should have been. And it's indeed so that I didn't find Oasis of Now particularly to be my taste.  More specifically, I think of it as yet another entry from a school of Malaysian cinema that looks to have been overly inspired by Tsai Ming Liang (who, for those who didn't realise, is Malaysian born) in my not so humble opinion.  

 

To be sure, I've been okay with a few such efforts (like Woo Min Jin's Days of Turquoise Sky, which I viewed at the 2008 Hong Kong International Film Festival).  However, I've not cared for a number of others, including one by Tsai himself that I viewed at the 2007 Hong Kong International Film Festival: I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, which, actually, may be the cinematic effort that holds the record for sending the most audience members to sleep that I've ever seen at the Hong Kong International Film Festival!

 

My rating for this film: 5.0    

The kind of week that makes one pessimistic about Hong Kong's prospects, however personally resilient one endeavors to be

  

Lest we forget: it's currently a holiday season!

 

Earlier this week, the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) released the results of its 2023 review and 2024 forecast survey.  Earlier in the month, PORI had interviewed 501 Hong Kong residents aged 18 or above, asking them to evaluate whether they felt satisfied about the city’s development in the past year and for their projections for 2024, as well as assessing their happiness and prospects.

 

The result, as reported by the Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), was that "Hongkongers have a net optimism rate of zero percentage points for the city’s development in the year ahead". More specifically, "while 40 per cent of respondents were optimistic about the city’s development in 2024, 40 per cent said they were pessimistic, giving a net optimism rate of 0 percentage points".  Lest it not be obvious: "“The very simple picture is that people are very pessimistic about the future of Hong Kong in 2024, on the whole,” Robert Chung, president and CEO of PORI, said in response to a question from HKFP."

 

Interestingly, however, "respondents had a “less pessimistic” assessment of their personal prospects, with 47 per cent saying they expected personal development to improve next year, versus 22 per cent who expected a setback.  “When you ask them about how they feel about themselves, how they cope with [the outlook], they seem to be less pessimistic,” Chung added."  How to account for this?  

 

The way veteran journalist and political commentator Johnny Lau sees it, "While many people found the city’s prospect to be pessimistic, they were able to adjust their mood and feel happy for themselves" Somehow, "while the external environment was uncontrollable, people demonstrated resilience by adjusting their personal feelings".

 

I wonder if people living outside of Hong Kong will find this strange and even hard to believe.  But I must say that I can understand this -- and even have this kind of experience and perspective myself.  Take as an example my mood and situation this week: on the one hand, I've had good times by way of doing such as having had Christmas dinner with family members and spent time doing such as going on enjoyable hikes and walk this week, and also viewing a really excellent film in Abang Adik (Malaysia-Taiwan, 2023) at the cinema; but on the other, I'm also all too aware that this has been yet another week of political repression in Hong Kong.

 

Among the lowlights: Veteran activist Koo Sze-yiu was denied bail for a third time on Monday (i.e., Christmas!) morning over a protest he had planned -- yes, PLANNED (as opposed to carry out) -- against the overhauled District Council "elections" that took place on December 10th (with just 27.5% of registered voters electing to turn up for it!).  A reminder: Mr Koo is 77 years old AND has been diagnosed with Stage 4 rectal cancer; so it can seem mean, if not rather mad, to treat him like he poses a genuine threat to national security.  

 

And yesterday saw three students jailed for up to six years over their involvement in a foiled 2021 plot to bomb court buildings and government offices.  Cheung Ho-yeung, Ho Yu-wang and Kwok Man-hei are currently 23, 20 and 21 years old.  Which means that they were 21, 18 and 19 when they were arrested and charged with taking part in a “conspiracy to commit terrorism” under the national security law that China imposed on Hong Kong on June 30th, 2020.  

 

Of the trio, Ho Yu-wang was singled out as "the plot mastermind who planned to manufacture explosives and target court buildings in 2021".  A reminder: the youngest of the trio, Ho was 19 years old at the time of their arrest and supposed plotting to "commit terrorism". At the same time though, "no bombs were [actually] made and no casualties occurred".  Call me naive but... could the authorities have taken these young people too seriously as threats to national security?!

 

Meanwhile, this morning saw lots of news reports about another young Hong Kong activist having gone into exile.  One of the youngest pro-democracy activists to have been sentenced in Hong Kong under a national security law, Tony Chung is still only 22 years of age but already an ex-convict -- having completed his prison sentence in June of this year.  But, as he's now made public, he was still not completely free -- with his being required to not post or say "anything that would harm Hong Kong’s national security — a wide-ranging and unclear restriction — and not speaking publicly".  

 

Oh, and, as further detailed in a Washington Post piece: "Since Chung’s release, officials from Hong Kong’s Correctional Services Department have requested meetings every two to four weeks, summoning him to random locations and then transporting him to undisclosed places in a seven-seater van, its curtains drawn shut. Chung said that during those encounters, he was interrogated about his activities over the previous weeks, asked to provide the names of elementary school classmates as well as “detailed information about his visits to restaurants and bars, along with contents of [his] conversations.”"

 

"The “deep surveillance and immense pressure” he experienced after being released from prison “disturbed my life, and I couldn’t withstand such torture, both physically and mentally. So I felt that I had to leave Hong Kong,” Chung told the Guardian, hours after arriving in the UK."  Honestly, his decision is understandable for many people.  (And just to be clear: one need not agree with his politics to do that.)

Oh, and this afternoon saw news that the parents of Agnes Chow, another young Hong Kong activist who's gone into exile, were questioned at Tai Po Police Station this morning.  (Agnes Chow lived in Tai Po before she was sent to jail and then moved to Canada.)  As the Hong Kong Free Press reported: "Chow’s mother was invited to assist police investigation as the guarantor of her daughter’s bail, sources told local media on Friday".  And while it may sound innocous enough, the fact of the matter is that what we have now in Hong Kong is the employment of tactics previously associated only with Mainland China and involving using family ties to exert emotional pressure on people.

 

Writing about the treatment that Tony Chung's outlined that he has received post coming out of jail, Bloomberg's Matthew Brooker Tweeted that "The term "police state" gets thrown about a bit, but hard to see how HK doesn't meet the definition on this basis: police state [n.] a totalitarian state characterized by the use of police, esp. secret police, to suppress dissent and exert repressive control over its citizens".  And I'm sure he thinks this too about the treatment meted out to Agnes Chow, her parents, Ho Yu-wang and Co, and Koo Sze-yiu.

 

A darker thought: this week's not over yet.  What other bad developments are in store this weekend... and in the year to come?  And how much more must Hong Kong and its -- thus far, often unexpectedly resilient -- people endure?!

The Goldfinger is not a film I value all that much! (Film review)

  

Officially opening later this month but I've already seen it!

 

The Goldfinger (Hong Kong-Mainland China, 2023)

- Felix Chong, director and scriptwriter

- Starring: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Andy Lau, Simon Yam, Charlene Choi, Alex Fong Chung Sun

 

Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Andy Lau reunite in a blockbuster (whose HK$350 million budget makes it one of the most expensive Hong Kong movies ever made) directed by one of the scriptiwriters of Infernal Affairs, the 2002 crime drama they starred in that Martin Scorsese remade into the multi-Oscar winning The Departed.  Glossy looking and beautifully shot by cinematographer Anthony Pun (who also lensed Hong Kong's current all-time box office champ, A Guilty Conscience), this Mainland China-Hong Kong co-production looks to aim to be a major crowd pleaser but I can also see its clearly ambitious makers expecting critical acclaim and have the film be the Federation Of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong's next Best International Feature Oscar nominee. 

 

But like Where the Wind Blows (2022), another big budget period crime drama which stars Tony Leung Chiu Wai and was indeed the Federation of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong's official Oscar selection last year, The Goldfinger left me cold and feeling it's yet another style over substance offering which won't win over that many Hong Kong viewers (though it could maybe satisfy Mainland Chinese ones).  And, sorry, having the Independent Commission for Corruption (ICAC) as the movie's good guys (rather than the cops) is not going to cut it these days; especially since the ICAC are among the organizations involved in making political arrests these days (along with the Hong Kong Police Force and National Security Bureau)!

Speaking of the police: The Goldfinger begins with police officers rioting(!) and threatening violence against unarmed individuals(!!).  Early on in the film, it also is revealed that Lau Kai-yuen (played by Andy Lau), the ICAC officer in charge of a major investigation against businessman Ching Yat-yin (portrayed by Tony Leung Chiu Wai), is a former police officer -- something which might be expected to explain his doggedness in pursuing his prey over a lengthy period of time during which Andy Lau morphs into an older man who, rather disturbingly, resembles Hong Kong's Financial Secretary Paul Chan!

 

For his part, Tony Leung Chiu Wai remains recognisably himself over the course of proceedings -- but his Ching Yat-yin character does radically change in circumstance and clothing style: from a poor, out-of-work engineer who looks to have been smuggled into Hong Kong by boat to a money-making genius who many were wont to believe had the golden touch and sat atop an international finance empire.  (Cue lots of work for -- and great work -- by such as the film's costume and set designers and art director!)  

 

A note for those who didn't realise: The film's titular character is based on George Tan, the ethnic Hokkien head of the Carrian Group whose fraud case has a large section devoted to it on the official ICAC website.  The following are quotes from it that can serve to outline part of The Goldfinger's plot: 

 

"In 1972, a 37-year-old Singaporean civil engineer arrived in Hong Kong to work as a project manager in a subsidiary company of a land developer. Soon the engineer was the land developer’s ‘hotshot’ and was even given the financial backing to establish a joint enterprise with the developer. Following the stock market slump in 1973, signs of rapid recovery in the Hong Kong property market began to emerge in 1976. The engineer saw a window of opportunity and started to purchase land in the New Territories with the intention of becoming a major property player..."!

 

This same engineer (who some people also had thought was Malaysian) went on to establish the Carrian Group.  In The Goldfinger, the conglomerate in focus is known as the Carmen Group.  In 1980, the Carrian Group acquired a high prestige property in Central called Gammon House.  In The Goldfinger, the Carmen Group acquired a high prestige building in Central known as Golden House.  And so it goes.

 

Watching The Goldfinger and the antics of its money crazy characters (who excessive money also turns them into pretty crazy people in general) can sometimes be akin to viewing -- not so much Crazy Rich Asians as The Wolf of Wall Street!  I know some people can derive some fun from doing so but for me, it can get too sleazy to seriously enjoy.  

 

Something else that I don't enjoy is the elements of the film that smack of casual racism, including casting terrible Caucasian actors to perform alongside a stat-studded and generally pretty capable group of Hong Kong thespians, and having one of them play a Southeast Asian presumably because he (Philip Keung) has darker skin than the average ethnic Chinese Hong Konger.  And then thre's the anti-British swipes that can feel like cheap shots and that I'd expect more from Mainland Chinese sources than contemporary Hong Kong movies. 

While we're on the subject of cheapness: I don't think a mega budget Hong Kong movie should be so carelessly made that not only is it way too obvious that scenes supposedly set in an overseas prison actually were shot in Tai Kwun but, also, that exhibit labels in its former prison cells be visible on screen!  Honestly, the more I think of The Goldfinger, the more problems with it I can finger.  I could go on but I think you already get the picture (i.e., I did not like this movie!), and thus will stop! 

 

My rating for this film: 5.0 

International recognition of Chow Hang-tung, and Hong Kong's lack of press freedom on World Press Freedom Day (May 3rd)

Golden sky in Hong Kong the day after Golden Week ended! :D

 

Let's start with what passes for good news for pro-democracy Hong Kongers in the national security law era: It was announced yesterday that Hong Kong lawyer-activist Chow Hang-tung had been chosen by South Korea's May 18 Memorial Foundation as the winner of this year's Gwangju Prize for Human Rights.  ""Chow Hang-tung's struggle against the Hong Kong government's undemocratic, inhumane treatment has become the source of courage and hope for human rights advocates and those longing for democracy around the world, even when she is in custody," said Moon Hee-sang, head of the judging panel and former speaker of the National Assembly."

 

Some context from an article in The Korea Times: "The Gwangju Prize for Human Rights was established in 2000 to mark the spirit of the Korean movement for democracy and honor those who fight for human rights and peace. Previous winners include Cynthia Maung, a Burmese doctor and founder of Mae Tao Clinic which has been providing free healthcare services for internally displaced people and migrant workers, and Arnon Nampa, a Thai human rights lawyer and vocal critic of the country's monarchy."  (The Gwangju Uprising, known in South Korea as May 18, began in Gwangju on May 18th, 1980, and had as its goal the ending of dictatorial rule in the country.)

 

Also from the same South Korean new piece: "Chow, 38, who is in prison now after being convicted of inciting and taking part in arranging an unlawful assembly ― a commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre ― has become a symbolic figure for everyone who is longing for democracy, a judging committee said at the May 18 Memorial Foundation office in Gwangju".  And yes, it is heartening to get more confirmation that Chow is seen as such in territories beyond Hong Kong as well as her native Hong Kong.  (More than by the way, Chow Hang-tung also is one of six Hong Kongers nominated for the Nobel Peace Price this year.)

 

Sadly, since Chow is currently behind bars (and looks to be so for a time), she will not be able to travel to Gwangju to accept her award.  Instead, "[o]n behalf of Chow, her representative is expected to receive the award at the ceremony on May 18, Korea's anniversary of the 1980 pro-democracy uprising in the southwestern city."  And if it so happens that the six Hong Kongers nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize were to win it (a long shot but, hey, there's a chance!), they all would have to have representatives accept it on their behalf -- as was the case with Liu Xiaobo back in 2010.  

 

While we're on the subject: another of the six Hong Kong Nobel Peace Prize nominees is Gwyneth Ho, another Hong Kong political prisoner I got to thinking of yesterday as a result of it being World Press Freedom Day on account of her having been a journalist before becoming a political activist.  Ho and Chow are just two of the Hong Kongers I have much respect and admiration for; with ex-Stand News chief editor Chung Pui-kuen being another, and a fourth being former RTHK program producer Bao Choy, who yesterday began her final appeal over her conviction for making false statements to obtain vehicle records to make a documentary about the July 21st, 2019, Yuen Long attacks.   

 

The fact that Gwyneth Ho is currently a political prisoner, Chung Pui-kuen is on trial for sedition (and may well end up serving time being bars) and Bao was convicted for what many people don't see as a crime should tell you something about the state of journalism in Hong Kong. Put another way: it's not a surprise to see Hong Kong "languish near the bottom of the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) press freedom ranking released on Wednesday’s World Press Freedom Day".

 

More specifically, Hong Kong "ranked 140th among the 180 regions in the international media watchdog’s latest ranking, trailing behind Colombia and Cameroon. [Meanwhile, (Mainland)] China ranked 179th, just above North Korea."  And while it's true that Hong Kong's ranking this year is eight positions higher than it was last year, it's only because press freedom had deteriorated even more in other territories rather than because the situation in Hong Kong had improved from a year ago!

 

As Cédric Alviani, East Asia bureau director of RSF pointed out, the international media watchdog noticed that 13 “press freedom defenders” (who include Gwyneth Ho and Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai) had been detained under “trumped up charges” in Hong Kong.  In addition, the RSF "had observed “an increasing number of journalists in exile,” including those who made “a very difficult decision to leave their home due to increasing pressure from the government” for places including the UK and Taiwan."

 

Speaking of which: Taiwan is at number 35 in the RSF's press freedom ranking -- which makes it the highest ranked Asian territory.  For context and comparison: the top-ranked territory is Norway, the United Kingdom is positioned at number 25, the United States is ranked at number 45, South Korea is at number 47 -- and even Malaysia, whose press I don't consider all that free, is at number 73; a whopping 67 places higher than Hong Kong!   

Michelle Yeoh -- from Malaysia to Golden Globes via Hong Kong

Michelle Yeoh panel that's part of the More Brilliance,

Still Different -- The D&B Story Redux exhibition

at the Hong Kong Film Archive

 

Let's talk about Michelle Yeoh.  The star of Everything Everywhere All At Once won the Golden Globes award for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical Film today -- and not only did it prompt talk of an Oscar win to follow but heated efforts to proclaim both her Malaysian roots and Hong Kong connections by government figures as well as ordinary citizens.

 

In Malaysia, it seemed that she was being forgiven -- at least for the time being -- for her championing, then seeming disavowal, of disgraced prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.  And many a Malaysian delighted in trumpeting her being a fellow Malaysian who had brought honor to their country.  Meanwhile, Hong Kong Culture Secretary Kevin Yeung also extended congratulations to Michelle Yeoh on her Golden Globe triumph; a move that attracted derision on the part of many Hong Kongers.      

The issue for many Hong Kongers appears to be that Kevin Yeung had claimed that Michelle Yeoh was a Hong Kong actor.  There are those who just simply will find fault and disagree with ANYTHING the Hong Kong government says or does.  Then there are those who will claim or appear to infer that one can't be both a Malaysian and a Hong Konger.  Or, at the very least, that one can no longer be associated with Hong Kong after one moves elsewhere -- despite having lived their previously for years, even decades: an assumption that I find problematic because, well, there are now quite a number of Hong Kongers living outside of Hong Kong. 

 

For my part, I'm not entirely certain that Kevin Yeung had, in fact, claimed that Michelle Yeoh was a Hong Konger.  Also, I'm not entirely sure that Michelle Yeoh has never described herself as a Hong Kong actress because I have vague -- possibly erroneous, but they do exist -- memories of her doing that back when she was living and working in Hong Kong.

And here's the thing: Michelle Yeoh most definitely born in Malaysia and is a Malaysian citizen.  But she's actually never appeared in a Malaysian movie -- or, as far as I can recall, ever played a Malaysian in a movie!  

On the other hand, she's played Hong Kongers in many a (Hong Kong) movie.  And Hong Kong's film industry is definitely that where she was trained, got her breaks (in some cases, literally!) and became a star.  Long before Hollywood came calling and she started being seen as an international Asian megastar.

 

For my part, because I first saw her in Hong Kong movies, I do tend to regard her a Hong Kong film actress -- even while also being very aware that she was a Malaysian citizen -- in that she is a star of Hong Kong cinema.  And yes, that's so to this today; not least because I don't feel that she's completely said goodbye to the Hong Kong phase of her career.  It was just in 2018, after all, that I most recently viewed her in a Hong Kong movie: Yuen Wo-ping's Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy; which, for the record, came out in the same year as -- but months after -- Crazy Rich Asians. 

But is Michelle Yeoh a Hong Konger?  From what I've read, she no longer maintains a home in Hong Kong.  And it's possible that she no longer has Hong Kong permanent residency; but, then again, she might.  Something else that matters a lot to many Hong Kongers is that she has never made any statements about Hong Kong's political situation.  (But, then, she might have decided not to do so based on how she got burnt over the ones she made in Malaysia!)

 

Still, I think it's safe to say that Michelle Yeoh still has personal and professional connections and ties in, and to, Hong Kong.  She's spent the better part of her life her, after all; and far more of her adult life here than in Malaysia, in fact.  And I think it's also fair to say that she is/was a major star of Hong Kong cinema. 

 

So, yes, a part of me hopes -- though doesn't expects -- that should she win the Best Actress Oscar this year, that she'll mention, many even thank, Hong Kong cinema in her acceptance speech, even if not Hong Kong itself.  As a fellow Malaysian Tweeted (back in April 2012!):  "Michelle [Y]eoh warga Malaysia. Dan menyinar di Hong Kong".  Put in English: "Michelle Yeoh is a Malaysian citizen.  And shines/shone in Hong Kong".     

The Sunny Side of the Street shines a light on a different side of Hong Kong from what audiences usually see (Film review)

Its official cinema release date is March 31st

but there are preview screenings taking place already!

 

The Sunny Side of the Street (Hong Kong-Malaysia, 2022)

- Ray Lau Kok Rui, director and scriptwriter

- Starring: Anthony Wong Chau-sang, Sahal Zaman, Endy Chow, Inderjeet Singh

 

Although its Hong Kong cinematic run is scheduled to only begin in March of this year, quite a few of people had already heard of The Sunny Side of the Street even before 2023 came along.  This is because this understated drama about a far-from-model father and a less-than-model son was nominated for six Golden Horse Awards last November and ended up winning not only its debutant director-scriptwriter, Ray Lau Kok Rui, the best original screenplay and new director prizes but also its main star, Anthony Wong Chau-sang, his first ever Golden Horse best actor honors.

 

Upon viewing The Sunny Side of the Street, I do think that these accolades are well deserved.  Anthony Wong's assured portrayal of a taxi driver named Yat -- who has a crusty exterior but good heart -- gives this thoughtful film a strong emotional anchor.  At the same time, one can see how Ray Lau's script provides the character of Yat a psychological complexity that is revealed layer by layer the further along into the movie one goes.

 

Early on in this dramatic offering, it's shown that Yat is emotionally distant, even estranged, from his police officer son (portrayed by Endy Chow), whose wedding dinner he walks out of midway through.  The reasons why come to light in heartbreaking, yet never emotionally overwrought, scenes later in the movie.  Even more tragic is the reason why Yat comes to feel obligated to take care of, and do good, by a young refugee boy named Hassan (played by Sahal Zaman) whose father (sensitively essayed by Inderjeet Singh) was a lawyer in Pakistan before he and his long-suffering wife (played by Kiranjeet Gill) fled to Hong Kong some 10 years ago. 

 

Born in Hong Kong, fluent in Cantonese as well as Urdu, and someone who's never been out of the New Territories (even to Kowloon), 10-year-old Hassan becomes a truant from school and turns to a life of petty crime; partly, one gets the sense, because no one -- not his parents, teachers, etc. -- seemed to realize how bad his eyesight was as well as because he came to fall in with the wrong crowd.  And it's not exactly like Yat -- whose physical health has been adversely by his alcoholic ways -- is the best influence in the world that Hassan could have.  But in the relatively short time that they know each other, the "taxi lo" is able to show the young boy new views (sometimes literally) and provide him with new experiences (some more positive than others).

 

Through The Sunny Side of the Street, Ray Lau Kok Rui also shows his film's audience new and/or alternative perspectives on Hong Kong.  A Malaysian immigrant to the city, he knows what it's like to not be a local -- and also how a good many Hong Kongers, even ones who are ethnic Chinese and native Cantonese speakers, are, in fact, fellow immigrants too.  And I don't think it's a coincidence that the vast majority, if not all, of the main and supporting characters in the movie turn out to not have been born in Hong Kong; irregardless of the color of their skin.

 

Speaking of which: it's impossible to not notice the prominent roles given to a number of non-ethnic Chinese individuals in The Sunny Side of the Street.  In recent years, there have been a number of Hong Kong films with such, including 2021's The Dishwasher Squad and Drifting, 2020's Hand-Rolled Cigarette, 2019's Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down (one of whose co-directors, Leung Ming-kai, is this film's cinematographer), and 2018's Still Human (one of whose stars was Anthony Wong) and Big Brother.  And I think it's fair to say that, admirably, few of these characters are one-dimensional stereotypes nor their particular cultural identity throwaway elements in the movies.

 

My sense is that this is the result of realizations latterly made about Hong Kong (multi-)cultural identity and community.  And I welcome this in terms of it helping to increase the richness of (portrayals of people in) Hong Kong cinema.  I wonder whether this will help The Sunny Side of the Street find an audience beyond Hong Kong -- including Ray Lau's native Malaysia; this even though there's no denying nevertheless that this cinematic work is, actually, a very Hong Kong movie: one shot and set entirely in Hong Kong, and using the filmmakers' knowledge of this part of the world to tell well a tale that is simultaneously local, inter-cultural, personal, (socio-culturally) political, timely and for the ages.

 

My rating for this film: 8.0      

Bidding yet another friend farewell on the same day as an article in The Guardian asks "Why would you move to Hong Kong?"

Chiu Chow fare for a farewell dinner this evening 

 

I went to yet another farewell dinner of a friend this evening. This particular friend is originally from the US but moved to Hong Kong before I did. I still remember his happy (ecstatic even) emails from his first months here, which made me so very envious that he had fulfilled his dream to move to Hong Kong to live. 

When I finally came over to Hong Kong myself, I already had four friends living here. The first one to leave did so long before 2019.  As I've previously stated: I've long thought of Hong Kong as a transient place; with my having had a friend leave every year that I've been here.  (The first to leave was a friend from English boarding school who had lived here for decades but -- entirely coincidentally; it's not my fault! -- decided to leave weeks after I finally moved here!)  

 

The friend whose farewell dinner was this evening is the second of the four to announce he's going to do so.  And, in a move that came as a shock, another of that quartet -- one who had told me only a few months ago that he had no plans to leave whatsoever -- told me he's leaving the city he moved to as a child (after his father got a job here) and has spent the vast majority of his life early next year!    

 

Some information about my friends, which will give an idea of the kind of people who love(d) Hong Kong but found that it was not a good place for them (and, in the case of one, their child) to live after all: one is a British-born (ethnic) Chinese who studied at Winchester College and Cambridge University; another is a Ph.D.; the third is yet another university graduate; and two of them have Hong Kong-born spouses.  Put another way: they are the kind of people who one would expect to be viewed as being able to positively contribute to society -- and a goverment that has vowed to "trawl the world for talent" might actually target (to come here, as opposed to throw in jail).           

 

Speaking of that vow: it really doesn't look like getting talent to move to Hong Kong might be pretty difficult these days.  To wit: an article appeared on the main page of The Guardian's website with the following question as its title: “Why would you move to Hong Kong?”  And this is how its first four paragraphs reads:

Raleigh Chuang’s decision to move to Hong Kong from London in 2021 bemused her friends. She was offered a position at an international bank that required the relocation.

 “Why would you move to Hong Kong?” her friends asked, well aware of the political and social upheaval that has gripped the city in recent years.

Hong Kong has seen an exodus of workers since a national security law was introduced in 2020. The erosion of social and political freedoms, due to the security crackdown and tighter digital surveillance that began during Covid-19 pandemic, have coincided with the city’s workforce shrinking by about 140,000 people in the past two years.

More than 10,000 have been arrested for participating in the 2019 pro-democracy protests and some activists have waited for nearly two years for trial without bail. Over the past two years, press freedom has been drastically reduced.

Some other damning facts listed in the article: "Hong Kong’s population has fallen from 7.52 million at the end of 2019, to 7.29 million in mid-2022, according to census data. The number of people aged 20-29 has shrunk from 11.8% of the city’s population in 2019, to 9.9% 2022. More than 130,000 Hongkongers moved to the UK in the first 18 months after the government opened a special visa scheme in January 2021."

 

The 27-year-old Chuang, who "has heritage from both Taiwan and Hong Kong, says she was not convinced by the international media’s portrayal of Hong Kong, which has at times pitched it as a city in decline. Chuang wanted an unbiased view of the city, saying she enjoys the thrill of being in a controversial place during a controversial time. “Part of my decision to move to Hong Kong is paradoxically fuelled by the current, unprecedented situation the city is in,” she says. “There must be a grey zone amidst all this and I wanted to see for myself.”"

 

I found myself in two minds when reading about Chuang.  Part of me wondered if she's overly naive; another part is tempted to agree with her assessment that "there must be a grey zone" though.  But even the latter part of me wonders for how long the "grey zone" will remain (even while, of course, hoping that it will do so for far longer than many expect and have predicted).

The Guardian piece goes on to report about others for whom Hong Kong still offers more opportunities and freedom than their home territory: specifically, Mainland China.  The two people from Mainland China interviewed in the piece are: a university student who is part of the LGBT community; and a journalist who studied here and now works here.    

 

Another country that I could imagine some people feeling that they would have more opportunities and freedom in Hong Kong than at home is Malaysia.  And this particularly if the fundamental Muslim dominated, ethno-nationalistic Perikatan Nasional had ended up heading the government in the wake of the General Election on Saturday.  

 

But, as it so happens, it's turned out not to be the case -- with Anwar Ibrahim being announced as the new prime minister of Malaysia earlier today and calming the fears of Malaysia's significant ethnic minority (which includes ethnic Chinese) by declaring that no Malaysian will be marginalised under his watch!  So I'm thinking Hong Kong will (continue to) be a "hard sell" for much of the world beyond Mainland China, if even that for all that many Mainland Chinese denizens who have the equivalent academic and professional qualifications to my friends who are leaving or have already left!  

One more (and last?) visit to M+ (Photo-essay)

On the final day that entrance to M+ was free for Hong Kong residents, I spent a few hours at the museum of visual culture whose opening many people (including myself) had looked forward to for years, only to feel not so enthused about it when it finally did so -- thanks to China imposing a national security law on Hong Kong and censorship (of films and undoubtedly of other arts too) having become a thing in this territory where free speech used to be taken for granted.  On my first visit to the museum a few weeks earlier, I had gone through the Hong Kong: Here and Beyond exhibition and the galleries devoted to the M+ Sigg Collection.   

I also had quickly gone through rooms devoted to other exhibitions that made me realize that I needed another visit to better appreciated them.  Thus it was that did so on this second visit -- during which I also enjoyed taking in the Golden Hour and after dark views from M+'s 3rd floor roof garden, and a (sneak) peek at sections of the Yayoi Kusama exhibition (which opened on November 12th and would cost one HK$240 to officially check out!).  

 

More than incidentally, it seemed like the museum had more visitors on its final free day than when I previously visited.  There also were a good number of people there taking selfies in its galleries and, also, a few people who looked to view the museum primarily as a setting for them to take photos of their companions, some of whom were posing away like professionals!  Fortunately, it still wasn't TOO packed though; and I found that if I waited just a few seconds, most of the time, I'd end up with clear shots of the art work -- though, in some cases, it was actually amusing to have people in the frame of them too! ;b

Zhang Wang's Artificial Rock No. 31, with museum guard! :)

 

Malaysian artist Heman Chong's Monument to the people 

we've conveniently forgot (I hate you) -- which is

made up of 1 million pitch black business cards!

 

Palimpset, by Wang Gongyi (who is listed as working in 

both Portland and Hangzhou), and two admirers

 

Michael Joo's Untitled (5.1.14)'s sculptures bring to mind

police riot shields that bear the scars of clashes with protestors

-- and evoked visceral reactions from more than one M+ visitor

 

A section of M+ gallery space dominated by 

anothermountainman's building hong kong 03/redwhiteblue

 

Alan Chan's album cover for Anita Mui: Leap the Stage

 

Tina Lui's album cover for Deanie Ip: You Left Me Here

-- showing Deanie Ip as I've never seen her before!

 

Yayoi Kusama's Death of Nerves does look pretty awesome-- 

but I'm still leaning against paying HK$240 to see any art exhibition! ;(