To Be Continued is a loving tribute to an iconic local landmark, Hong Kong's first impressario and Hong Kong itself (Film review)

  

The directors of a gem of a documentary I viewed

at the 2023 Hong Kong International Film Festival

 

To Be Continued (Hong Kong, 2023)

- Dora Choi and Haider Kikabhoy, co-directors

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Filmmakers and Filmmaking program

 

Having failed to secure tickets for opening day screenings of two Hong Kong films, it wasn't until the fourth day of the 47th Hong Kong International Film Festival -- and after I had viewed films from Italy, the Ukraine and what used to be Czechoslovakia -- that I viewed a cinematic offering from this part of the world.  Coming as it did from two first-time directors whose names I was not familiar with, I went into the screening of To Be Continued with low expectations with regards to overall quality but hope that my shared interest in local cultural heritage with the helmers would make the film worth viewing.

 

To say that I ended up being bowled over may well be an understatement.  Dora Choi and Haider Kikabhoy have crafted a wonderful work that came out of a campaign to save the iconic State Theatre that tells the story of this landmark cultural space, its founder, and Hong Kong itself.  Drawing on five years of research that included trips to Singapore and the orchestrating of a return pilgrimage of sorts to Hong Kong by relatives of its Cairo-born, Shanghai-bred, long-time Hong Kong resident founder, To Be Continued is an involving, heartwarming gem of a documentary that makes use of far more than just talking heads.   

 

Established in 1952 as the Empire Theatre by Hong Kong's first impressario, Harry Odell, the Fortress Hill venue played host to musical greats such as Isaac Stern, Benny Goodman and Xavier Cugat (the last of whose music prominently figures in Wong Kar Wai's Days of Being Wild) as well as screened Hong Kong and international movies.  (It regularly did such as schedule Cantonese-language Wong Fei Hung movies (starring Kwan Tak-hing) early in the day, a higher budget Mandarin-language Hong Kong film or Western movie in the afternoon and a live musical performance in the evening!)

 

After changing owners, it operated as the State Theatre between 1959 and 1997.  For much of the time that I knew it, it was home to a snooker hall.  For a time, there were fears that the now Grade I heritage-listed building would be demolished.  That it wasn't is thanks in no small part to heritage activists who include this film's co-director, Haider Kikhaboy (who, among other things, also is the co-founder of Walk In Hong Kong, one of the city's leading cultural entreprises.  More than by the way, the film's other co-director, Dora Choi, has a resume that includes stints with RTHK and Apple Daily).

 

Haider Kikhaboy also appears on screen in To Be Continued but the personality who dominates the film is Harry Odell, the flamboyant showman with Russian Jewish heritage who made Hong Kong his home as well as stage for several decades (and even had a part in defending Hong Kong during World War II).  In addition to being a love letter to the State Theatre, this documentary is also a loving tribute to Harry Odell, whose cultural influence on Hong Kong cannot be over-valued.  Hearing people like singer-actress Rebecca Pan and the late actor Kenneth Tsang reminisce about the State Theatre and the entertainment personalities Harry Odell brought over to Hong Kong show that full well.          

At the same time, it also is a tribute to Hong Kong that it was where Harry Odell was able to do and achieve what he did.  The sparkling picture To Be Continued paints of 1950s Hong Kong made a Hong Konger friend who viewed the film say that she wishes she had been alive in that era.  Still, as the title of the work points out: the Hong Kong story is not yet over -- and, hopefully, its cultural legacy of being a place of great possibility, and where East and West meet and the products of those meetings flourish, is one that will continue for a while to come.

 

My rating for this film: 9.0