People making appearances before the screening included Elegies'
producers and, on the far right of the picture, director Ann Hui
Elegies (Hong Kong, 2023)
- Ann Hui, director
- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Galas program
The second of two Hong Kong documentaries I viewed last Sunday, Ann Hui's Elegies is another offering that feels deeply personal and has its helmer appearing in front of the camera as well as behind it. Even while she's made her share of epic films in her long career (among them the over three hour long The Golden Era), Hong Kong's most celebrated director also has delved into more personal movies: including, famously, two recognizably autobiographical works in and Starry is the Night (1988) and Song of the Exile (1990).
With regard to the former film: it's worth noting that the academic its female protagonist (played by Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia) has an affair with was an English Literature professor. And Ann Hui, who earned a Master's degree in English and comparative literature from the University of Hong Kong before going and studying at the London Film School, has long made clear her love for literature (including in Keep Rolling, Man Lim-chung's very watchable documentary about her). So if any Hong Kong filmmaker were going to make a film about poetic contributions by and of Hong Kongers, it was going to be Ann Hui -- and she's done so in a way that shows how much poetry is tied to her life, and Hong Kong too.
On one level, Elegies can be seen as a poetic lament for a Hong Kong which is no more. Among the poets featured in this literary documentary which had its world premiere at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival are those, like Xi Xi, filmed on location reciting her poem about the old Kai Tak Airport, who have passed away. And while the two Hong Kong poets who Ann Hui chose to spend the most time on, and with, in the film on are still alive, one of them (Fujian-born Huang Canran) has opted to move back across the Hong Kong-Mainland China border while the other (Liu Wai-tong) has moved to Taiwan.
A self-described economic exile (who finds Hong Kong too expensive to live in), Huang Canran initially comes across as cynical but reveals himself to be a man of deep feeling and passion over the course of Ann Hui filming him and hanging out with him at his residence and cafes, and on walks and hikes. Huang Canran's also shown returning to Hong Kong, specifically to his mother's old residence. And one of the more beautiful bits of Elegies comes when his poem about taking his mother to view flowers is read while the camera shows the spot that helped inspire his piece.
Although it's not openly stated in this tonally gentle offering, one gets the sense that Liu Wai-tong is in political exile in Taiwan. (This is a man, after all, whose poems include one about the 2 million plus one march of June 16th, 2019.) A cosmopolitan individual who was born in Guangdong, spent a number of years in Beijing and has visited Paris and other parts of the West, there still is the sense that he is very much a Hongkonger -- with many of his poems, like Huang Canran's, specifying Hong Kong locales and being grounded in Hong Kong.
So even though and when the likes of Liu Wai-tong and Huang Canran aren't physically in Hong Kong, it would seem that there's a part of Hong Kong that's forever them -- and vice versa. Based on this, I'd argue that "Legacies" might be a better title for this thoughtful, thought-filled film than "Elegies". Also: I've seen "elegies" being defined as "poem[s] of serious reflections" as well as "poem[s] for the dead" -- and think it's important to point out that even while this documentary does contain serious reflections, it actually is not without light-hearted, laugh out loud moments!
This comes by way of the personalities who figure prominently in this film: all of whom don't seem to take themselves as seriously as might be expected; not just Huang Canran and Liu Wai-tong but, also, Ann Hui herself. A fun example: after being asked by Huang Canran's daughter why she's filming the young woman's father, a conversation ensues that has him laughingly observing that his work is not appreciated by his relatives and the documentary's director divulging that her mother claims to not only find it hard to understand her movies but way prefers watching Korean dramas to them! :D
My rating for this film: 8.0
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