Nature's resilience on show at Sha Lo Tung once more

Sha Lo Tung on a beautiful spring day

 

Open door at the village (ancestral) temple

 

The ecologically rich valley enclave of Sha Lo Tung -- which lies to the north of the biological treasure that is Fung Yuen Butterfly Reserve and almost completely surrounded by land within Pat Sin Leng Country Park -- has been in the news a couple of times since I last visited it.  Then, my sense had been that all was not well in that part of Hong Kong.    

 

And this was even before I read that early last year, green groups accused villagers of having a hidden agenda after they planted rapeseed flowers where fields of wild plants hosting fireflies and dragonflies used to be.  Then in December came accusations by a Sha Lo Tung landowner that the government wouldn't help conserve the village enclave even while also not allowing small-scale development on it by people whose ancestors had lived there.

 

So imagine my happy surprise and relief to find abundant natural growth where previously the land had been cleared in not the healthiest of ways and a sense of peace where previously I had felt disquiet when a friend and I made our way to Sha Lo Tung from Hok Tau Irrigation Reservoir earlier today.  And adding to my sense that nature looked to once more revived and showed its powers of resistance was the abundance of wild creatures that we spotted along the way, including in the vicinity of the scenic upland valley which, for some reason, continues to lie outside a country park despite its surrounding areas being within one.

 

On the sort of beautiful blue sky day where my eyes often were drawn upwards to admire the blue of the sky and the puffy white clouds that floated about above me, I also found myself scanning the ground and greenery for interesting critter sightings.  Bugs of the camouflaged variety as well as ones that were tiny but very noticeable on account of being bright red, a skink that moved too quickly for me to photograph (but not so fast to elude a sighting), various butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies: the presence of all of these helped to make today's hike a pleasant one as far as I was concerned.  

Still, best of all for me, was the sense of paradise regained at Sha Lo Tung.  True, it may never feel as magical as on my first visit, when I more or less accidentally ended up in the area.  But this part of Hong Kong remains one of those countryside enclaves that one can scarcely believe still exists in "Asia's World City", and whose very (continued) existence the powers that be would do well to ensure.

My unequivocal reaction to the too ambiguous Personal Shopper (film review)

 Personal Shopper's director-scriptwriter at the Hong Kong 

International Film Festival's post-screening Q&A

Personal Shopper (France-Germany, 2016)

- Screening as part of the HKIFF's Galas program

- Olivier Assayas, director and scriptwriter

- Starring: Kristen Stewart, Sigrid Bouaziz, Nora von Waldstätten

Less than 24 hours after I viewed multiple Berlinale award-winner On Body and Soul at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, I was back at the same venue for the Hong Kong International Film Festival screening of the offering that -- rather inexplicably to my mind -- won its helmer the Best Director prize at Cannes last year.  Charmingly, among my fellow audience members was ldikó Enyedi.  And given how wonderfully thoughtful and articulate she came across at her film's post-screening Q&A, I must say that I would have given quite a bit to hear her thoughts on Olivier Assayas' moody offering: which, like hers, mixes together reality and imagination but, to my mind, less successfully.

At one level, the protagonist of Personal Shopper is indeed a personal shopper, whose job is to pick and pick up high end fashion clothing and accessories from stores like Chanel and Gucci for her jetsetting hardly-ever-home fashionista boss Kyra (Nora von Waldstätten).  An American in Paris, Maureen (Kristen Stewart) also fancies herself to be a medium, like her twin brother Lewis, who recently died from a congenital heart condition that his twin sister also possesses.        

Rather than begin by showing Maureen going about her work, the film actually opens with the titular character being dropped off by Lara (Sigrid Bouaziz) at the now empty house which the latter and Lewis had called home prior to this death.  There, she awaits a visitation from Lewis, as per a pact agreed-upon by the siblings some time back that whoever died first would attempt to communicate with the other from beyond the grave.  

While Maureen does have a paranormal encounter that night, she is unable to tell whether she had been contacted by her late twin or some other supernatural being.  And later on in Personal Shopper, when she receives messages over the phone from an unknown source, she again is unsure whether the sender is Lewis or somebody else, and also whether that somebody else is dead or alive!

This uncertainty on Maureen's part also seems to be echoed on the part of the film's director-scriptwriter: in that Olivier Assayas seems of two -- maybe more -- minds as to whether he wants Personal Shopper to primarily be a critique of our overly-materialistic, soul-threatening contemporary society, a psychological thriller centered on a young woman depressed by the loss of a loved one and drifting unhappily through life, a crime drama involving a rejected lover out for blood or a supernatural horror with some pretty scary spirits moving about -- and maybe even stalking particular humans even as they move about from one country to another.  

Much clearer, however, is that Olivier Assayas considers Kristen Stewart to be his current muse, and that -- as he divulged in the post-screening Q&A I attended -- he allowed her considerable leeway to improvize when making this ambiguous-feeling movie.  For better or worse, one result of this close collaboration between filmmaker and lead actress appears to be her ending up having a lot more screen time -- and the vast majority of it alone -- than the star of a more conventional cinematic creation would have.  

Definitely less of a good thing as far as this (re)viewer is concerned is that Personal Shopper can sometimes feel like a case of "too many cooks spoiling the broth" or the designated helmer ultimately not wanting to take full control.  The generous might conclude that this film is consciously, even admirably, equivocal.  Those less inclined to be so -- frustrated, among other things, by the ending of the film being way too inconclusive -- will tend towards the opinion that by trying to be different things to different people, this work ended up dissatisfying quite a few of us.

My rating for the film: 6.0

On Body and Soul appeals to heart and mind (film review)

The HKIFF screening of my favorite contemporary offering of the fest 

was followed by a Q&A session with its wonderful director-scriptwriter :)

 

On Body and Soul (Hungary, 2017)

- Screening as part of the HKIFF's Galas program

- Ildikó Enyedi, director and scriptwriter

- Starring: Géza Morcsányi, Alexandra Borbély

 

Every year at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, local cinephiles are treated to screenings -- sometimes Asian premieres, like the case with this entry from Hungary -- of a number of films that had their world premieres at the Berlin International Film Festival which took place earlier in the year (as well as at Cannes the year before).  And while it's usually the case that this selection includes the Berlinale's Golden Bear winner, it's not at all uncommon that the work in question would also have garnered three other awards at the same fest.    

 

So expectations were pretty sky high for On Body and Soul, since this offering from director-scriptwriter Ildikó Enyedi had come away from this year's Berlinale with the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, FIPRESCI Prize and the award from the "Reader Jury of the Berliner Morgenpost" as well as the fest's absolutely top award.  And in view of this film hardly being a conventional commercial production, it's actually also pretty amazing to learn that it was a box office hit in its native country too.

 

Upon viewing this quirky but crowdpleasing work though, I now understand why this quirky romantic effort can appeal both to those who like to think about films and also "just" be entertained: for On Body and Soul is the kind of movie with moments that will get its viewers thinking, shocked, laughing and also feeling like they have been touched to the core.  A quietly magical work, it is awe-inspiring in terms of how original is its story, how well made it is, and how its helmer is able to use an audio-visual medium to not only show that still waters run deep but also reveal the passion lurking in the hearts of those whose exteriors seem cold and faces look blank to those who don't know better.

 

Endre (Géza Morcsányi) is the financial director of the abattoir on the outskirts of Budapest where Maria (Alexandra Borbely) has been newly assigned to be the quality control inspector.  At least ten years different in age, they appear to have little in common beyond their both being people who take their work at the slaughterhouse seriously and are more likely to spend time watching TV (him) and playing with LEGO minifigures (her) in their leisure time than socializing with other people.  

 

Amusingly as well as improbably however, it gets revealed that these two solitary individuals both regularly have dreams in which they are deer in a forest with a round pond and a companion of the opposite sex.  Even more unbelievably, they are incredulous to find out, it turns out that they -- who, by the nature of the dreams, are revealed to be more lonely souls than loner types -- have the same dream as the other each night and, in fact, are the other's mate in those dreams!

 

A lesser filmmaker would be able to milk elements of fantasy or farce out of this plot point.  Ildikó Enyedi shows her genius by being able to make those dream sequences beautiful even while amusing post their fantastical nature having been revealed to the audience, and the often awkward interactions between Endre and Maria after their discovery that they share those same dreams sometimes funny but other times bordering on being sad and tragic.

 

Also amazing to me was the revelation during the post-screening Q&A session I attended that On Body and Soul's cast was a mix of professionals and amateurs; with the latter including Géza Morcsányi (whose first film appearance this was, and probably last, and is better known in Hungary as the head of an eminent publishing firm) and the old stag that Endre appeared as in his and Maria's dreams!  For, in all honesty, they produced outstandingly natural performances as this (re)viewer was concerned in a mesmerizing work that is very special in terms of its tale and also the quality of its technical execution.     

 

My rating for the film: 9.0 

An enjoyable hike on a cloudy gray but actually dry weather day (Photo-essay)

The 2017 Hong Kong International Film Festival which began back on April 11th drew to a close last night.  While I feel generally pretty happy at my viewing selection,  there's a part of me that does look forward to going out hiking again on free afternoons rather than spending time in darkened rooms watching movies.

Especially on dry weather days, I often feel drawn to the hills (to make a movie analogy, a la The Sound of Music's Maria).  And even when the sun's not fully out, I've often been able to get quite a bit of enjoyment out of venturing over to such as the Tai Lam Country Park out in northeastern Hong Kong and trying out sections of trail that I hadn't previously gone on, like yet one of the many trails that take one from the Tai Lam Forest Track down to Ho Pui irrigation reservoir and the village downhill from it, from where one can get on a green minibus to Yuen Long, where many good eats await! ;b   

Yes, one can see Lion Rock and Kowloon Peak, not just

Tai Mo Shan, from the eastern section of Tai Lam Country Park!

Also in the area can be found a number of

entrances to now disused mines

Off the beaten path in Hong Kong's 

second largest country park

A nice view of Ho Pui Irrigation Reservoir that

I imagine few people actually have seen

There were points in the hike when the cloudy gray sky and 

landscape combined to make for quite the dramatic sight

At other times though, the scene looked 

less threatening and more idyllic! ;b

There's almost always a welcome breeze when you stand

atop the dam of Ho Pui's reservoir :)

Toppings for Tai Wing Wah's famous lard claypot rice

stand next to a delicious dish of pork ribs with plum sauce

that was the highlight of the post-hike dinner :b

Black Code should be a "must watch" for anyone who values freedom and the internet (film review)

Canadian filmmaker Nicholas de Pencier (with an HKIFF 

interpreter by his side) at his film's Q&A session

Black Code (Canada, 2016)

- Screening as part of the HKIFF's Reality Bites program

- Nicholas de Pencier, director, scriptwriter, producer and cinematographer  

After many years of resisting the impulse to do so, I finally joined the Facebook community a few weeks ago.  In so doing, I've been witness to how people can seem willing to reveal so much about themselves via the posts they put up, share and like on that social media platform; many of which tend to be on the light-hearted side but some of which are also are seriously political in nature.

How many Facebook users, I wonder, really do realize and care that they are leaving a super detail-filled information trail out on the internet for such as various government agencies to see?  And can they envision that even seemingly innocous comments could land one in big trouble and result in one getting tortured and forced to flee one's homeland?

To be sure, the Facebook user in question who recounted his having undergone precisely that experience in the disturbingly thought-provoking Black Code is Syrian (rather than, say, American, Japanese or living in some other country whose citizenry tend to trust their government).  And it's also true that the vast majority of cases that Canadian filmmaker Nicholas de Pencier has chosen to focus on in his work are Third World ones.  

But, as the cinematographer turned documentary director sought to make clear in a Q&A session after the Hong Kong International Film Festival screening of his film that I attended: he's by no means intending to say that the Chinese, Ethiopian, Pakistani, Syrian, Brazilian and other national governments shown monitoring the moves of their citizens in his documentary are the only ones out there engaging in internet surveillance along with censorship and cyber espionage.  (Also, he pointed out, it's not like he's unaware of companies also engaging in activities that threaten free speech and privacy on the internet; instead, it's just that the subject is so vast that it's worthy of a whole different film.)

Inspired by Black Code: Inside the Battle for Cyberspace, a book by University of Toronto political science professor Ron Diebert, whose Citizen Lab has been examining government actions designed to disrupt and/or control the internet for more than a decade, Nicholas de Pencier travelled the world to chronicle diverse examples of state surveillance, political activism and citizen journalism to show how governments seek to crush political dissent but individual citizens also are seeking to fight back. 

Certain segments of his powerful documentary are disturbing and horrifying, with real deaths being shown on film and also being shown having been preceded by violent threats and other inflammatory comments against the eventual deceased posted online.  And there are points when watching Black Code that one might feel tempted to just give up on the whole internet thang and get out of cyberspace.  

Probably realizing how his often alarming work would make many thinking people feel, Nicholas de Pencier consequently also goes out of his way to not only emphasize how brave many of the people (political activists, content providers, journalists, etc.) who feature in his documentary are but, also, that there are indeed netizens out there who have managed to strike blows for free speech, freedom, justice and a whole plethora of human rights.  

Something else that Black Code makes clear is that there really are some benefits to our world being increasingly interconnected, by the internet and otherwise.  For example, Brazilian citizen journalists can better do their job using an app that previously was only popular in Japan.  And here in Hong Kong, people watching a documentary by a Canadian filmmaker can see parallels, say, not only between what the Mainland Chinese government is trying to do in Tibet and Hong Kong but also people protesting political injustice and economic inequality in Brazil and participants in -- and those who continue to be sympathetic to -- the Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement.  

My rating for this film: 8.5

Stonehead paints a problematic portrait of China, particularly its left-behind children (film review)

There are hundreds of screenings to choose from 

at the  Hong Kong International Film Festival!

 

Stonehead (Mainland China, 2017)

- Screened in the HKIFF's Young Cinema Competition program

- Zhao Xiang, director and co-scriptwriter (with Liu Dan)

- Starring: Zhu Hongbo, Cai Jiakun

 

The tragedy of China's "little emperors" -- only children without siblings -- has been pretty well documented internationally.  Less known, and no less of a tragedy, is that many of the "little emperors" are also "left-behind children": young boys usually (more so than girls, as the country's "one child policy" also has spawned a severe gender imbalance) who have been left to be raised by their grandparents in rural areas, sometimes for years at a time, while their parents go off to the cities in search of work. 

 

Such sibling-less and also effectively parent-less children are the focus of Stonehead, a documentary-style drama set for the most part in a small village in Guangxi province that I could well imagine being pretty representative of many around Mainland China.  And Stonehead is also the nickname of the film's 10-year-old protagonist, who shares the same name (Zhu Hongbo) as the young actor who plays him but is referred by pretty much everyone, bar for his class teacher, by his strange nickname.  

 

On what was one of the happiest and proudest days of his prepubescent life, the class' top student was given a certificate of merit and also a football from the area's education director.  Prizing the football as much, if not more, than the merit certificate, Stonehead yearned to show his new possession to his father, even determining that it wouldn't get played with until that anticipated event occured (presumably the next time Chinese New Year -- when many of those working in far away cities would make annual trips home -- came around). 

 

But things don't work out as planned, with his class teacher deciding that the football actually was given to the school rather than a single student and the ball being found to have a leak after being kicked just once.  Worse the boy who kicked the ball, Stonehead's best (and maybe even only) friend, known as Pouchy (Cai Jiakun), is deemed by the cabal led by a popular classmate referred to as Monkey (Deng Shou) to have damaged it; and is consequently subjected to bullying as punishment for his "sin".

 

With few adults around and seemingly none willing to help inculcate morals, ethics and general good behavior in the children, the schoolyard and the village as a whole turns out to be quite the cruel place indeed.  In addition, it's instructive to find that the student decreed by his teacher to be the worst in the class is the top dog among his classmates whereas the one officially deemed a county-level model student is not at all popular among his peers.        

 

As can be seen by such as the existence of newly erected bigger houses strewn about the landscape and material gifts galore brought back on their rare return trips home, those who left the village to make money look to have been fairly successful in doing that.  But the price they and their families, particularly the young generation, pay for their having gone away to take part in the nation's economic development looks to be damagingly high socially and psychologically.  

 

Watching Stonehead, I felt sad and frustrated for the put-upon titular character and also the unfortunate Pouchy.  And because so much of what is depicted in the film comes across as all too real, I also got to feeling pretty pessimistic, fearful even, about the future of China: a country which looks to be getting increasingly economically wealthy but morally bankrupt.

 

My rating for the film: 7.5

Walter Hill's Revenger is not your standard issue revenge movie! (film review)

During the Hong Kong International Film Festival, I spend 

far more hours indoors in darkened rooms than usual ;S

Revenger (USA-Canada-France, 2016)

- Screening as part of the HKIFF's Gala Presentation program

- Walter Hill, director

- Starring: Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub

Of all my Hong Kong International Film Festival screening picks that (already) had entries on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) and Rotten Tomatoes websites, Walter Hill's Revenger (aka Tomboy, and The Assignment) had the lowest ratings by far.  Yet I felt compelled to check out what its director has deemed to be strictly a pulp fantasy because it stars one of my favorite Hollywood actress and possesses a novel scenario involving an expert surgeon who exacts a revenge on the hired gun who killed her beloved brother that's so singular that many might be convinced that the idea could only come out of a deranged mind.

Sigourney Weaver is imperiously cool as Rachel Jane, a cosmetic surgeon who had her medical license revoked some time back and now, for a different transgression, finds herself incarcerated in a loony bin.  Deemed so dangerous that she has to be in a straitjacket when meeting a prison psychiatrist (Tony Shalhoub) she obviously considers to be her intellectual inferior, the disgraced doctor proves to have a sharp tongue, piercing stare and steely demeanor of someone you'd be most unfortunate to cross.

Without realizing he had done so, criminal lowlife Frank Kitchen (Michelle Rodriguez) did just that; and for his sins, gets turned by Rachel Jane into a biological woman.  Even with a significant prosthetic penis, Michelle Rodriguez doesn't appear convincing as a biological man but makes up for it with an eye-catching portrayal of an angry gunman trapped in a nubile woman's body.  

More than incidentally, I find it interesting that the men that actresses like Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia have played in Hong Kong movies tend to be on the refined side of the male equation but that in this Western cinematic offering, the attempts to emphasize male-ness looked to involve providing the actress with what unfortunately proved to be too artificial-looking chest and facial hair along with male reproductive organs.  Two other technical aspects of Revenger that I thought notable are its copious amounts of flashback scenes and use of voiceovers that, when combined, make it so that Frank Kitchen dominates the picture visually but it's Rachel Jane's voice, and narrative, which feel most influential.     

For the most part though, this is the kind of film where it's probably best not to overthink things and just enjoy the wild ride that's offered up.  In retrospect, I'm surprised that it wasn't part of the HKIFF's Midnight Heat program (even while having been accorded a late night screening slot).  If nothing else, it could show (up) the likes of The Sleep Curse that B-movies involving demented doctors (especially those with A-list actors and/or actresses playing them) can indeed be wickedly entertaining without needing to descend into the realm of the seriously distasteful.    

My rating for this film: 7.5

The Posterist shines a light on a master illustrator (film review)

 

The unassuming director of a documentary

on a famous film posterist 

The Posterist (Hong Kong, 2016)

- Screening as part of the HKIFF's Hong Kong Panorama 2016-2017 program

- Hui See Wai, director

More than 20 years ago now, I walked into a Philadelphia Chinatown video store and discovered hundreds, if not thousands, of movies that had been made in Hong Kong that I hitherto did not know existed but which I would eventually grow to love.  Among them were films in videotape boxes featured distinctive illustrated images of people with bigger heads than in real life and often frozen in some kind of comic pose.  

These illustrations, I got to quickly figuring out, were for comedies, many of which -- like The Private Eyes, Aces Go Places and All the Wrong Spies -- were wacky, highly entertaining efforts.  But it wasn't until I watched The Posterist that I came to learn who was their creator.

Between 1975 and 1992, Yuen Tai Yung designed and created -- by hand -- posters for more than 200 Hong Kong movies, a number of which were big box office hits.  Among them were the posters for Bruce Lee's The Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon and Game of Death, and all 16 films starring one or more of the Hui Brothers (Michael, Sam, and Ricky).

The Posterist is an informative tribute to Yuen Tai Yung which happens to be have been made by Michael Hui's son, Hui See Wai.  In a Q&A session after its Hong Kong International Film Festival screening, the younger Hui talked about having actually originally made the film for just his family and friends to enjoy.  In particular, he hopes that a still younger generation of Huis, who include his preteen daughter, will appreciate the contents of this documentary about the artist who Hui See Wai credits for helping him gain a genuine appreciation for his relatives' work, and what a number of people belatedly realize was the heyday of Hong Kong cinema.

The Posterist is the first -- and possibly only -- film directed by Hui See Wai, who actually has no film training and didn't envision becoming a professional filmmaker.  And its director has few illusions about it being a pretty modest work; one that's workmanlike in style, with lots of talking heads and few bells and whistles.   

But among the aces in his hand are the many posters of Yuen Tai Yung whose beauty and creativity can take the breath away as well as get one smiling.  Not to be discounted too are the family connections which undoubtedly helped Hui See Wai to gain access to -- and the cooperation of -- the likes of not only Michael Hui but also singer-actor Kenny Bee, master illustrators Ma Wing Shing and a major fan of Yuen Tai Yung who's collected several of his works over the years in addition to Yuen Tai Yung himself.  And it really was quite the bonus that the subject of the documentary turned out to be a great conversationalist, willing not only to share lots of stories but also give a demonstration of his unique way of creating his works of art.

Zhejiang-born and Shanghai-raised, Yuen Tai Yung moved to Hong Kong as a teenager to find work.  In the 1990s, he emigrated to New Zealand and, from all accounts, went for years without creating a single piece of art until around 2007, when he returned to Hong Kong after the untimely death of his beloved wife.  Amazingly, these days, he's actively creating once more, and also active on social media such as Facebook, where Hui See Wai contacted him.  And long may all this continue for someone who looks to get quite a bit of joy from producing art (which, these days, also include realistic portraits along with cartoon-style illustrations) but also hanging out and sharing with his many fans, young as well as old!         

My rating for the film:7.0

The Sleep Curse has its flaws but still can generate frights (film review)

The stars of The Sleep Curse pose for pictures before its

world premiere at the Hong Kong International Film Festival

The Sleep Curse (Hong Kong, 2017)
- Screening as part of the HKIFF's Midnight Heat program
- Herman Yau, director
- Starring: Anthony Wong Chau Sang, Michelle Wai, Jojo Goh, Funaki Ikki, Gordon Lam Ka Tung

Last night, I attended a Hong Kong International Film Festival screening of a cinematic work (Hungarian Berlinale Best Film winner, On Body and Soul) whose helmer had gone some 18 years without directing a single feature film.  In contrast, Hong Kong filmmaker Herman Yau has three movies getting their first screenings in his home territory in just this month alone; with the most anticipated of the lot, action blockbuster Shock Wave, having opened in cinemas yesterday, and romantic drama 77 Heartbreaks and horror offering The Sleep Curse being accorded Hong Kong International Film Festival screenings before their general releases.

As might be expected when such quantity is generated within such a short time frame, the quality of the work(s) can suffer.  In the case of The Sleep Curse, it certainly doesn't help matters that the story (scripted by Erica Li and Eric Lee) is the sort that appears to have been designed more to help serve up visually shocking imagery and press certain emotional buttons than to actually make logical sense.  I also am moved to wonder whether the decision to have lead actor Anthony Wong Chau Sang and lead actress Michelle Wai play dual roles was less to provide them with twice the chance to impress and more to save on the cost of hiring twice the number of thespians to play those parts! 

In the story that takes place in the present day, Anthony Wong portrays Lam Sik Ka, a Hong Kong-based professor of medicine whose research some of his peers and superiors find suspect.  A sleep disorder specialist who believes the day will come when humans won't need to sleep at all, he finds a willing test subject in Monique (Jojo Goh), a Malaysian woman whose family appears to have been cursed to develop insomnia that's so serious that it inevitable leads to insanity and death.

In the film sub-plot that's set during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, Anthony Wong portrays a teacher turned collaborator -- who also happens to have been Lam Sik Ka's father.  Enlisted by a Japanese colonel (Funaki Ikki) to help do such as extort money from his fellow Hong Kongers and assist another, less scrupulous collaborator (Gordon Lam Ka Tung) who runs brothels filled with "comfort women", his fate is sealed -- and that of his relatives too -- after twin daughters (both played by Michelle Wai) of a Taoist priest enter his life.           

In its depiction of Japanese atrocities and revenge exacted by ethnic Chinese people on their territory's evil occupiers, it can seem like The Sleep Curse has Mainland China more than Hong Kong as its target audience.  However, the supernatural elements in this horror work would appear to preclude it being shown over on the other side of the Shenzhen River while this Category III-rated offering's most gruesome scenes seem like they would appeal most to the type of B-movie aficianados who are particularly prevalent in the West.

As someone who's not a particularly big fan of horror films, The Sleep Curse is the kind of work that wouldn't naturally appeal to me.  But even while I wouldn't consider it to be my particular cup of tea, and also was rather disappointed at how so many of its plot elements didn't make sense, I have to credit the movie's visuals with having been able to infiltrate into my dreams/nightmares later that night.  Put another way: this offering may be on the schlocky and exploitative side, yet it nonetheless was successful in leaving some kind of impact on my imagination, if not psyche!

My rating for the film: 6.0   

Blindness requires leaps of faith to fully enlighten (film review)

Seek and ye shall find?

Blindness (Poland, 2016)

- Screening as part of the HKIFF's Auteurs program

- Ryszard Bugajski, director and scriptwriter

- Starring: Maria Mamona, Malgorzata Zajaczkowska, Jansuz Gajos, Marek Kalita

A confession: I had not seen any of Polish auteur Ryszard Bugajski's films prior to checking out his speculative drama about a real-life Stalinist era government interrogator.  Still, I had heard about his critically acclaimed The Interrogation, which was made in 1982 but banned by the Polish government until after the disintegration of the Soviet bloc seven years later, and is infamous for what its lead character (and actress, who went on to win the Best Actress prize at Cannes in 1990) was put through.

Although Blindness switches the focus from tortured to torturer, I must admit to expecting to have to sit through a similar amount of visually punishing scenes.  This time around though, my sense is that the pain is often much more mental than physical, and sometimes even imagined rather than real too -- with the film's lead character, a middle-aged woman who has a variety of aliases as well as nicknames (including "Bloody Luna"), now coming across more like a victim-to-be rather than someone with the upper hand, and a whip in that hand to boot.

One day in 1962, Julia Prajs Brystgier (who's portrayed by the director-writer's real-life spouse, Maria Mamona) goes to a facility in the country maintained by the Catholic church to seek a meeting with the Primate (Mareka Kalita), Poland's most senior clergyman.  An atheist -- or at least agnostic -- Jew, she nonetheless professes to seek salvation through Christianity, wanting dearly to emerge from the darkness after realizing how blind she had been to such as Communism's failings and the wrongs she herself committed in its name earlier on in her life.  

At what turns out to be a center for the (physically) blind, Julia first meets up with Sister Benedicta (Malgorzata Zajackowska), a Jewish convert to Catholicism, and Father Ciecorka (Jansuz Gajos), a priest blinded by former colleagues of Julia, who -- as her Bloody Luna nickname attests -- drew quite a bit of blood and induced pain when she worked for Poland's notorious Ministry of Public Security.  The conversations she has with them -- and also, eventually, the Primate -- provide an interesting window into her tortured soul. 

They may feel on the stagey side but the at times political, sometimes metaphysical one-on-one discussions that Julia has with these other strong personalities alternately intrigue and educate.  In contrast, the film's dramatic stagings of certain events from Julia's damnable past and hallucinatory imagination tended, to my mind, to confuse matters and over-complicate the story.  In particular, the inclusion in the work of a torture victim who had identified himself as Jesus Christ looked to have overly-mystified things and made it all harder to believe.

Even while I understand that a filmmaker has artistic license to be imaginative, it seems to me that in the case of someone like Julia Brystgier, there needed to be few embellishments to make her story an arresting one.  Actually, after reading about this personality post viewing the film, the sense I got was that if Blindness had depicted more of what actually is known about her and her deeds, it'd actually disturb and devastate more.  As it was, like with Oliver Laxe's also religious-themed Mimosas (which I viewed earlier on in the Hong Kong International Film Festival), its scenes that required leaps of faith tended to lose rather than enlighten me.
  
My rating for the film: 6.0

What a Wonderful Family! II is yet another gem of a Yoji Yamada movie (film review)

The Hong Kong Cultural Centre is my favorite venue

for Hong Kong International Film Festival screenings :)

What a Wonderful Family! II (Japan, 2017)

- Screening as part of the HKIFF's Master Class program

- Yoji Yamada, dir. and co-scriptwriter (with Emiko Hiramatsu)

- Starring: Isao Hashizume, Masahiko Nishimura, Yui Natsukawa, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Yu Aoi, Jun Fubuki, Nenji Kobayashi, etc.

At the 31st Hong Kong International Film Festival ten years ago, I had the privilege of being in the audience for what must have been one of the best received movies that's ever screened at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.  As wave upon wave of near hysterical laughter filled the vast auditorium where close to 2,000 people were enjoying their viewing of Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust, I got to thinking that this was the kind of wonderful experience that film fans lived for, and wondered when -- if ever -- I'd experience its like again.

Strongly suspecting that Yoji Yamada's What a Wonderful Family! might elicit a similarly positive reaction, I sought to get a ticket for its HKIFF screening last year but ended up only getting to see it when it was released in local cinemas.  This year, however, I was not to be thwarted in my getting into the fest screening of that entertaining Japanese comedy's sequel which, to add to my delight, was held at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre's Grand Theatre.

Beginning with events taking place close to where the first movie about the Hirata family left off, it can feel like only yesterday since those characters' actions provided us with much amusement along with some food for thought.  This time around though, youngest offspring Shota (Satoshi Tsumabuki) and Noriko (Yu Aoi) are now married and living in their own abode, away from Shota's parents Shuzo (Isao Hashizume) and Tomiko (Kazuko Yoshiyuki), elder brother Konosuke (Masahiko Nishimura), sister-in-law Fumie (Yui Natsukawa), and their two sons.  

Still, like with sister Shigeko (Tomoko Nakajima) and brother-in-law Taizo (Shozo Hayashiya), the pair continue to interact with their relatives, including whenever a family meeting is called to deal with a matter posing a concern to more than one member of this actually pretty close-knit brood -- such as the 73-year-old patriarch's insistence on going behind the wheel despite his driving abilities not being as adept, and safe, as it used to be.  But even while there's some fear (particularly on the part of Shigeko) that Shuzo might have a fatal accident before too long, it's actually the death of another septuagenarian that threatens the family's happiness but then also has the Hiratas revealing their good hearts.  

Before we proceed further: here's serving up a reminder that What a Wonderful Family! II is actually a comedy.  Those familiar with Yoji Yamada's oeuvre should know that he's adept at mixing comedic moments, pratfalls and all, with heartwarming ones.  And the octogenarian filmmaker does deliver laughs aplenty in this fun movie that admirably broaches topics many others mining for laughs would not dare to approach. 

Still, what I loved most about this particular offering is how wonderfully drawn many of the characters are -- so much so that even while they can sometimes feel larger than life, they also can feel very familiar, like family even, despite someone like myself having only spent about three hours in their company, and only virtually at that!  Something else I really appreciate is that, like with his compatriot Yasujiro Ozu (whose seminal Tokyo Story was the inspiration behind Yamada's Tokyo Family), this auteur is able to show that movies can be thoroughly interesting without needing a villain in the piece; with What a Wonderful Family! II being a great and very enjoyable case in point.

My rating for the film: 8.0

Two unconventional American offerings at the Hong Kong International Film Festival (film reviews)

The commercial and arthouse meet at some

Hong Kong International Film Festival venues ;b

Loving (USA-UK, 2016)

- Screening as part of the HKIFF's Gala Presentation program

- Jeff Nichols, director

- Starring: Ruth Negga, Joel Edgerton

In the space of just five days, I've happened to see two films about real-life interracial couples.  The day before the 2017 Hong Kong International Film Festival began, I viewed Amma Asante's A United Kingdom, which tells the true story of Seretsa Khama and Ruth Williams in a moving but rather conventional way, at a local multiplex.  But while Jeff Nichols' Loving may well also get a regular theatrical run here in Hong Kong, this drama about a Virginia couple whose marriage would not be recognized by their state possesses a more unorthodox style that does seem to make it more suitable film festival fare.          

In light of its subject matter, it'd be understandable if the movie had plenty of melodramatic scenes, tense moments and grand speechifying.  We're talking, after all, about a production which tells the true story of a Southern white man and non-white (sometimes identified as black, other times as Native American, and still other times as both) whose marriage's legality was debated all the way up to the Supreme Court.  

However, Loving is a surprisingly quiet film whose understatedness sometimes threatens to emotionally underwhelm but lack of stillness also can provide certain otherwise mundane proceedings with a stately and atemporal monumentality.  Also rather contrarian is the movie showing that even while Jim Crow laws were on the books in much of the US at the time, there were places even the protagonists' home state of Virginia where white and non-white people were neighbors, worked side by side and socialized (with the unspoken idea being that poverty made them equal but that prejudices still remained, and were liable to rear its head even in (supposedly) friendly company). 

Another unusual aspect of this offering is its choice of an Ethiopian-Irish actress and Australian actor in its lead roles.  Still, in the wake of British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor having starred in 12 Years a Slave (which also had an Oscar-winning turn by Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong'o) and Nigerian-British thespian David Oyelowo having portrayed Martin Luther King in Selma, perhaps it actually was only par for the course that someone like Ruth Negga would get the role of Mildred Jeter Loving and Joel Edgerton that of Richard Loving in this US-UK co-production -- and, also, that they would easily convince in those parts.      

If truth be told, there are a few occasions in the film when director Jeff Nichols does appear too intent on playing with audience expectations before subverting them.  (I think particularly of a scene involving a rope being strung up on a tree that I thought stoked fears in too cheap a manner before dissolving to reveal, and revel in, innocent play.)  On the whole, however, the Arkansas filmmaker has fashioned a cinematic work that is hypnotizingly watchable and where a simple statement such as "Tell the judge I love my wife" can mean and stand for so very much.

My rating for the film: 8.0                

The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography (USA, 2016) 

- Screening as part of the HKIFF's Master Class program

- Errol Morris, director

At 76 minutes in length, Errol Morris' documentary portrait of photographer Elsa Dorfman, who took large-format Polaroid snaps of the well known and less so, is the shortest of the eight feature length works (seven of which have screened as part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival) I've viewed thus far this week.  It also feels the slightest, like the kind of modest work about a friend whose ideal audience actually would have been other friends of theirs.

Perhaps realizing this, The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography ends up having a significant chunk of it devoted to documenting its (main) subject's relationship with Beat writer-poet Allen Ginsberg and also has her recounting the evening when she photographed Bob Dylan.  Yet, the truth of the matter is that I found this work to be considerably more interesting when Elsa Dorfman talked about what led to her picking up a camera for the first time only as an adult and the stories behind a number of photographs she took of herself, her mother and also various strangers who paid to be photographed by her (and whose "B-Side" pictures, the photographs they rejected in favor of others, she kept even while they walked away with the "A-Side" shots).

Also interesting is Elsa Dorfman's discussion of the rise and fall of Polaroid Corporation which made some amazing products that the likes of her appeared to appreciate much more highly than its company executives.  It feels like there's an interesting story there waiting to be told but, alas, that cautionary tale still awaits to be told in another, more ambitious film.

 

My rating for this film: 6.5

Ma' Rosa condemns but also solicts empathy and understanding (film review)

Yes, the Hong Kong International Film Festival has been

in existence for more than twice as long as Hong Kong 

has been a Special Administrative Region of China ;b

 

Ma' Rosa (The Philippines, 2016)

- Screening as part of the HKIFF's Auteurs program

- Brillante Mendoza, dir.

- Starring: Jacyln Jose, Julio Diaz, Baron Geisler, Kristofer King, Jomari Angeles

 

In the same venue (The Sky, over in Tai Kok Tsui) and around the same time as I viewed Hissein Habré, A Chadian Tragedy the day before, I saw critically acclaimed Filipino filmmaker Brilliante Mendoza's latest dramatic offering.  This time around, the cinema was packed -- and, forewarned by a friend about the shaky movements of  cinematographer Odyssey Flores' handheld camera, I knew to sit further back from the screen than is usually my wont and consequently felt some pity for those who arrived later and were left with front row seats.

 

Often showing the characters' point of view rather than a more detached perspective, Ma' Rosa is a cinematic work whose director as well as cinematographer looks to want to get audience members to thinking "There but for the grace of God go I" over the course of the film.  And yes, its titular protagonist (played by Cannes Film Festival Best Actress awardee Jacyln Jose) may be foul mouthed and, together with her drug-taking husband Jose (Julio Diaz), supply drugs to their neighborhood; yet she also happens to be a hard-working mother doing what she needs to do to provide for her family, who include a college student daughter (Andy Eigenmann) and two sons (Jomari Angeles and Felix Roco), and the sense is that the drug dealing is actually only a side-business for a pair of convenience store owners.

 

Like many a Filipino film I've seen (including previous HKIFF entry On the Job), a grim image is provided of contemporary Filipino society; one where crime and corruption is rife, and it's hard to be as moral as some might expect members of a supposedly heavily Catholic country to be.  It's not just that fellow members of a community are wont to casually curse at, lie to, cheat and betray one another.  Rather, as is shown after Rosa and Jose are arrested by Officer Lopez (Baron Geisler) and his team, those officially charged with defending the law may be the most adept and in the best positions to take advantage of their fellow citizens, and appear to have few qualms for using foul rather than fair means.

 

Presented with unorthodox options to avoid prison time, Rosa and Jose go ahead and do such as rat on their friendly supplier (Kristofer King) and get their children to raise what appears to be a fortune to bribe the cops with.  Perhaps the most heartbreaking part of this dark, yet not completely uncompassionate, film is to see what they go through to come by what's not more than HK$7,600 (i.e., US$1,012) when calculated using current exchange rates.  At the same time, it's a good (in more ways than one) indication of the strength of the family unit at the heart of this drama; one whose matriarch appears to have raised to be survivors, at the very least.        

 

Brillante Mendoza has stated that Ma' Rosa and her brood are "a common Filipino family".  By this, I take it to mean that they are representative of Filipino society as a whole rather than that they are in its lower echelons.  The impression I also get is that while Ma' Rosa is a fictional work, there's a reason for its proceedings feeling so realistic.  And when these two elements of this expertly-made film are taken together, it makes for a pretty damning indictment of Filipino society -- and, in all probability, a powerfully accurate one too.        

 

My rating for this film: 8.5