Drifting is a film about people on society's fringes (but) with messages that will resonate with many Hong Kongers (Film review)

A Hong Kong International Film Festival entry

given a theatrical run two months on

  

Drifting (Hong Kong, 2021)

- Jun Li, director, scriptwriter and co-editor (along with Heiward Mak)

- Starring: Francis Ng, Tse Kwan-ho, Loletta Lee, Cecilia Choi, Chu Pak-hong, Baby Bo Pui-yi, Will Or

 

This far from soporific sophomore effort from director-scriptwriter Jun Li (Tracey) was one of the offerings that I had wanted to view at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) but was unable to get a ticket for as its two fest screenings (including one at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre's cavernous Grand Theatre) sold out within minutes of ticketing having begun.  The second local film in recent years to focus on the homeless population in Hong Kong (after last year's I'm Livin It), Drifting sees its helmer focusing his attention once more on individuals considered to be on the fringes of Hong Kong society.

After being released from prison, Drifting's lead character, Fai (portrayed by Francis Ng), heads back to his old turf at the notoriously low income district of Sham Shui Po.  There, he meets up with old friends -- who include an elderly Vietnamese refugee (played by Tse Kwan-ho), a former club hostess who now earns her keep by washing dishes at a local eatery (essayed by Loletta Lee), a dread-locked former carpenter (portrayed by Chu Pak-hong) and a wheelchair-bound woman (played by Baby Bo Pui-yi) -- as well as gets his first "hit" of drugs before his return to "normal" (for him) life gets cut short when the authorities perform a street sweep that sees what to them are precious belongings -- and these people too -- being treated as trash.

 

With the help of sympathetic social worker Ms Ho (played by Cecilia Choi), they and other similarly mistreated street sleepers decide to sue the government -- and, Fai insists, get it to apologize for its faults.  (Drifting is inspired by a real-life court case.)  While waiting for their case to wend its way through the legal system and reach a verdict, Fai and his friends find a new place to live -- under a flyover -- and construct wooden huts for themselves that can better protect themselves against the elements.  

 

Against the odds, they form a close-knit community that comes to include a young man who prefers to play the harmonica rather than talk (played by Will Or) and -- to some extent, even though she does not live among them -- Ms Ho.  Accorded media attention because of the bid to see justice served (and the government pay for its wrongdoings), they also attract the attention of various do-gooders, including Father Franco Mello (played by himself) -- an Italian priest-social activist who had been the subject of Ann Hui's Ordinary Heroes (1999), whose lead actress was a certain Loletta Lee! -- and various highly idealistic as well as amusingly enthusiastic university students.       

In the wrong hands, Drifting could so easily have turned out to be "poverty porn".  Fortunately, Jun Li and his film's extremely able cast not only are able to emphasize the humanity of the ensemble drama's homeless characters but, also, make it so that many of their needs, wants and hopes are ones that many other Hong Kongers possess too.  Put another way: even while on one level, viewers can think "there but for the grace of God go I" with regards to the street sleepers, there will be moments when the thought that "we are in the same boat" probably will cross the minds of those Hong Kongers watching this movie (which benefits quite a bit too from the sterling cinematography of Leung Ming-kai).      

 

As an example: it's well nigh impossible not to get as angry and indignant as Fai and his friends when they are told that "You don't tell the police what to do".  Also, my sense is that many among Drifting's local audience will have wondered lately, as he does aloud while taking a ride on the Star Ferry, "What is so good about Hong Kong?"  And, perhaps most sadly of all, I am sure there are many people who wish they could leave the territory but feel unable to do so, like at least one of the film's most tragic characters.

  

There's no doubt about it: Drifting is not a movie that's going to make you feel that all's well with the world (or, for that matter, Hong Kong).  At the same time though, I actually didn't come out of my viewing of this insightful work wanting to slit my wrists or anything like that.  And I think that one big reason why this is so is that its characters are shown, in the grand scheme of things, to possess surprising amounts of dignity, modicums of agency and, above all, the ability to care for others -- the last of which can be especially encouraging and heart-warming.

 

My rating for the film: 8.0