A documentary about Noh and a feature film set in Kabukicho at the Hong Kong International Film Festival (Film reviews)

  

There still are (a few) films having their world premiere

at the Hong Kong International Film Festival

 

A HKIFF photographer taking photos of The Path of Soul's

director, Cheuk Cheung (and interpreter Joanna Lee?)

 

The Path of Soul (Hong Kong-Japan, 2026) 

- Cheuk Cheung, director 

- Part of the HKIFF's Reality Bites program 

 

In the wake of Japanese films being pulled from a culinary-themed film program organized by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department this past December, some of us film fans wondered and worried as to whether there would be any Japanese offerings at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival.  The answer, we found, is that there are some in the program but just a handful.  And there would have been even fewer if not for this Hong Kong-Japan co-production helmed by Hong Kong filmmaker Cheuk Cheung.  

 

Best known for his trilogy of Chinese opera documentaries (including My Way (Hong Kong, 2012) and Bamboo Theatre (Hong Kong, 2019)), Cheuk Cheung's latest film looks at the Japan's Noh theatre.  Multiple years in the making (with footage going all the way back to 2017), The Path of Soul focuses on Hikaru Uzawa and Hisa Uzawa, two female Noh performers who also happen to be a mother-daughter pair.     

 

Although it's mentioned in this illuminating work that 15% of Noh performers are female, director Cheuk mentioned during the post-screening Q&A session -- which, by the way was wonderful for all the questions being good and the answers detailed and really interesting! -- that many people, including Japanese folks, still don't realise that there are (professional) female Noh performers.  Something else that's pointed out in the The Path of Soul is that females were only admitted into the Noh theatre world after the Second World War.  Not long in the grand scheme of things then, in view of this Japanese theatre art having been performed since the 14th century!

 

Inevitably then, The Path of Soul spends time discussing the challenges that both the senior Hisa Uzawa and junior Hikaru Uzawa face as a consequence of their being female in a traditionally male world.  At the same time though, the viewer gets the sense that females in the world of Noh are becoming normalised by way of footage showing the Uzawas not only performing but also teaching Noh to young girls along with boys and men as well as women who all seem perfectly happy to obey their instruction.  And their spouses looking to support them in their endeavors too.

 

During the Q&A, Cheuk revealed that he knows some Japanese but also worked with an interpreter when filming, and conducting interviews that were filmed and screened as part of, this absorbing offering.  He also revealed that he and Hikaru Uzawa are good friends.  Which helps to explain how open the Uzawas were with him.  Though, interestingly, he also mentioned that he felt that the best interview he had with Hikaru Uzawa was one in which she spoke with her eyes closed during it!

 

My rating for this film: 7.0 

 

Meets the World (Japan, 2025) 

- Daigo Matsui, director 

- Starring: Hana Sugisaki, Kotona Minami, Rihito Itagaki, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Yu Aoi

- Part of the HKIFF's Fantastic Beats program 

 

This ensemble film is an adaptation of a 2022 novel by Hitomi Kanehara, a writer who has explored serious, gritty subjects like pedophilia and self harm, and whose own life trajectory has been pretty dramatic and unconventional.  (Among other things, the daughter of an academic dropped out of school when she was just 11 years old and left home at age 15!)  

 

Having not read it (this not least because it's not been translated into English), I don't know if the novel version of Meets the World is serious and gritty.  But I can tell you that the film is far less so than might be expected, considering that its characters include a woman who works in hostess club and men who work in the male equivalent, one who has been spending time in a psychiatric facility and also ones who have spent significant portions of their lives contemplating suicide. 

 

Sometimes, this can work in its favour: in that, it's novel and actually pleasant to watch unlikely friendships form between Yukari (played by Hana Sugisaki), a 27-year-old bank worker who's also never had a boyfriend (thanks probably in part to her being super-immersed in yaoi fandom), and cool bar hostess Rai (portrayed by Kotona Minami) and her (sexually) sophisticated Kabukicho-based friendship circle, which include extrovert nightclub host Asahi (essayed by Rihito Itagaki), bar owner Oshin (played by Kiyohiko Shibukawa) and the charismatically melancholy Yuki (Yu Aoi playing against type). 

 

At other times though, it can feel like director Daigo Matsui is airbrushing elements that would add depth and logic to character story arcs and general proceedings.  This particularly so in the latter part of Meets the World when certain dramatic turns seem to come from out of the blue and throw the film for a loop.  This even more so when these "developments" are left unresolved and unexplained.

 

All in all, Meets the World works best when its characters are happy.  And innocent.  With my favourite moments and scenes in this emotionally all over the place movie being those where Yukari reveals and revels in her being a super fan of a manga that very amusingly has characters who are yakiniku (grilled meat) menu items that come in the form of handsome gay men!  

 

With regards to films that feature fans of yaoi: I must say I prefer BL Metamorphosis (Japan, 2022).  And with regards to cinematic adaptations of novels: it really would not be fair to compare this to Our Little Sister (Japan, 2015) -- because pretty much every movie is not as good as that.  But yes, well, I can't help thinking that if Hirokazu Kore-eda had directed this film, it most definitely would have been a far better offering than this promising-but-ultimately-rather-disappointing one from Daigo Matsui!

 

My rating for this film: 6.0       

Two very different documentaries viewed at the 2026 Hong Kong International Film Festival (Film reviews)

  

Advertising for the 50th Hong Kong 

International Film Festival seen around town

 

Ghost Elephants (USA, 2025)

- Werner Herzog, director-scriptwriter 

- Part of the HKIFF's The Masters program 

 

Some years ago, I was talking to a film programmer about what films are fine to be viewed on a small screen and what needs to be seen on a big one.  At the time, I thought that documentaries and domestic dramas didn't lose as much when viewed on home video than blockbuster epics.  He begged to differ, stating that all films have are best seen on a big screen since that's where they were made to be screened by filmmakers.

 

Over the years, I came to his way of thinking.  And particularly appreciate it when I get to view a film on the truly big screen at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre's 1,734-seater Grand Theatre -- as was the case with Werner Herzog's documentary about the epic journey undertaken in search of an elusive herd of elephants in Angola's hauntingly beautiful as well as ecologically very important Bié (aka Central) Plateau.

 

As is expected of a work by Herzog, Ghost Elephants is not a conventional documentary.  (Though having said this, as a friend noted, it is one of the veteran German auteur's more conventional offerings.)  This particularly so in his injecting and emphasising mystical elements -- by way of the San people (popularly referred to as "Bushmen") whose tracking skills can seem close to supernatural and also a local king's recounting of an ancestral legend involving an elephant that shed its skin -- to his documentation of what's effectively a scientific expedition led by zoologist-conservationist Dr Steve Boyes in search of what could well be currently the largest land animals on the planet and maybe even a previously undocumented elephant sub-species.

 

Something that can be endearing about Herzog is how so much seems to fascinate him.  In Ghost Elephants, it's not just the titular subjects but those who go in search of it, and the peoples of the foreign land that he encounters along the way.  And while the sight of the elephants are hard to ignore when they appear on screen, the Bié plateau along with other views of the African landscape are exquisitely filmed too, and come across as characters in their own right with parts to play in the story being told.

 

Speaking of story: along with the documentation of a magnificent scientific obsession (on the part of Steve Boyes) and the wonders of nature, Ghost Elephants also tell of humans' inhumanity in the treatment of Mother Nature; pointing out that casualties of Angola's so-called "civil war" included wildlife as well humans, and showing archival footage of a 1960s-era elephant hunt that involved shooting at them from a helicopter.  

 

Which has me thinking it's a curious, and lamentable, omission on Herzog's part that he didn't mention in the documentary that the Bié plateau was, as per the Wikipedia entry on it, "deeply affected by slavery, with estimates of as much as half the local population being enslaved in the mid-1800s".  Perhaps it will be the subject of a follow-up work from the filmmaker?  Though, to judge from what one sees in the film, the chances are higher that he will return to Africa to make a work focused on the San people, who he confessed out loud in Ghost Elephants to finding it hard to not over-romanticise!

 

My rating for the film: 7.0 

 

Do You Love Me (Lebanon-France-Germany, 2025) 

- Lana Daher, director and co-scriptwriter (along with Qutaiba Barhamji)

- Part of the HKIFF's Reality Bites program 

 

In the first few minutes of her documentary, Lebanese filmmaker Lana Daher explictly informs the audience of Do You Love Me that this work will not show events taking place in chronological order and that the effect may be disorientating -- but if so, it's on purpose.  What she didn't state in the work itself -- but I think should be clear by way of a look at the offering's title -- is that this also is a film that works best if the viewer engages with it emotionally as well as intellectually.

 

Clearly a labour of love by someone who loves Lebanon, Do You Love Me presents a history of a nation with no national archive by selecting from, and splicing, images and sounds from more than 20,000 hours of audiovisual footage spanning some 70 years.  Seven years in the making, this 75 minute work incorporates news and feature film clips, TV programmes, home videos, personal photographs in an initially dizzying and altogether ingenious way.

 

Through the eyes, ears and work of Lebanese people of various ethnicities, religions, ages and so on, we see the country's complexity, beauty, problems, horrors and humanity.  Viewers are treated to scenes of everyday life, scenes of violence, and even scenes of violence that, tragically, have become everyday.  (And yes, I am aware of what's happening to, and in, Lebanon currently.  Which makes it all the more important that Do You Love Me was made, and bittersweet to view.)

 

Like it does in the country of some 5 million people, Beirut -- where approximately half of the people live -- looms large in the film.  Director Daher does not hide that this city that's the 16th largest in the Arab world is socioculturally divided along religious lines but also shows both the Christian and Muslim sides, in joyous as well as unhappy scenes, and always with humanity.

 

Although it effectively begins with scenes of the sea, it's the sense of humanity that overwhelmingly courses through Do You Love Me.  Mesmerising and increasingly hypnotic, the choices of visuals and music are masterful.  And while I admittedly came away from this work still not knowing enough of Lebanon to love it, I must say that I do feel that I learnt enough to respect the people of Lebanon and feel that they deserve better, including more peaceful and good times than they are currently facing as well as have faced over the years and decades.  

 

My rating for this film: 8.0.    

Montages of a Modern Motherhood is replete with scenes of a modern mother's trials and tribulations (Film review)

 

Advertising for three Hong Kong movies (including Montages

of a Modern Motherhood) at Golden Scene Cinema in late 2024 

 

Montages of a Modern Motherhood (Hong Kong, 2024)

- Oliver Chan Siu-kuen, director-scriptwriter

- Starring: Hedwig Tam, Lo Chun-yip, Janis Pang, Patra Au, Fung So-po, Tai Bo

 

After viewing her (and yes, Oliver Chan is a woman!) bravura first feature film, Still Human (2018), I've been looking forward to seeing Oliver Chan's follow up cinematic effort and didn't think I'd have to wait seven years to do so.  This especially after she announced in July 2019 that she had a "new project" for the second half of the year -- only for it to be revealed that the "project" in question was a baby!

 

If the first months of her being a new mother had any semblance at all to that of the protagonist of Montages of a Modern Motherhood, it'd help explain why it took so long for her second film to come about however.  Though it's also worth pointing out that this drama about the trials and tribulations of a new mother also did have its world premiere back in October 2024 (at the Busan International Film Festival) and screened at other film festivals in Tokyo, Taiwan and Hong Kong before finally starting its theatrical run in its home city late last month.

 

Based on its fest circuit demand (and its Hong Kong International Film Festival screenings having sold out very quickly), it thus might come as a surprise to learn that the offering has brought in a paltry HK$2.3 million in the first two weeks of its general cinematic release.  But after viewing this 111 minute long work  myself, I understand.  In short: it's a good, well-made film that does deserve an audience -- but it's not an easy watch at all; this not least because the baby in the movie cries A LOT, and loudly too, in it!

 

Despite the efforts of baby Ching's mother, Suk-jing (Hedwig Tam in what looks to have been a very demanding role), the infant is not a happy being.  Was it because she wasn't adequately fed?  If so, it clearly was not for want for trying on the part of the mother -- as Suk-jing tried ever so hard to pump milk out of her breasts and, also, produce the mother's milk she knows is better for babies than the powdered milk that her mother-in-law (Pang Hang-ying) sought to replace it with.   

 

Was it because, as the wise woman (a sympathetic turn from Fung So-po) that Suk-jing enlisted to help her look after Ching, suggested, a baby reflects the feelings of the mother, so that "happy mother, happy baby" -- and thus "unhappy mother, unhappy baby"?  For it is true that there appeared to be very few happy moments in Suk-jing's time as a mother (and thus, also, Montages of a Modern Motherhood itself); with her living situation (as part of a three-generational household along with her husband Wai (played by Lo Chun-yip) and, also, her in-laws) making things worse rather than actually helping -- and her own beloved mother (essayed by Patra Au) living two hours away and thus being less able to help out than either woman would have liked.

 

Oliver Chan has said that Montages of a Modern Motherhood is intended "not only a heartfelt tribute to new mothers but also an effort to help men and families better understand the struggles women face postpartum — fostering greater empathy, support, and involvement".  If so, I think she could have done a better job; not because her film did not sympathetically or adequately show how a new mother can feel unsupported and in need of help -- but because it did so in such a way that it might put everyone -- male as well as female -- viewing it off having any kids of their own! 

 

"Anyone in the late stages of pregnancy might do well to avoid Montages of a Modern Motherhood" began the Hollywood Reporter review of this drama!  And a man walked out midway through the screening that I attended!  That man, I am going to assume, will either never want to a baby in his home after viewing the film -- or, if he already has one was thinking "I've already heard my share of crying babies in my life; I don't need (so much) more while watching a movie!" 

My rating for the film: 7.5

Stranger Eyes is on the strange side! (Film review)

  

Seen on the screen before the final 2025 Hong Kong

International Film Festival screening I attended 

 

Stranger Eyes (Singapore-Taiwan-France-USA, 2024)

- Yeo Siew Hua, director-scriptwriter

- Starring: Wu Chien Ho, Lee Kang Sheng, Anicca Panna, Pete Teo

- Part of the HKIFF's Cinephile Paradise program 

 

While the Hong Kong International Film Festival was in progress, two friends and I discussed our fest picks. Upon hearing that Stranger Eyes was among my selections, one of them jokingly asked me, "Are you sure?  Lee Kang Sheng's in it!"  Whereby I pointed out that although he's been in a number of films I've disliked (including Goodbye, Dragon Inn and I Don't Want To Sleep Alone), all of them had been directed by Tsai Ming Liang -- unlike this one!

 

Post viewing this Yeo Siew Hua directorial effort, however, I must say that I get the sense that Tsai Ming Liang is a filmmaker that this work's helmer admires though; and not just because of the Singaporean director-scriptwriter having got Tsai Ming Liang's favourite actor to appear in his movies.  Among other things, the slow and methodical pacing appears to be influenced by Tsai Ming Liang too; and ditto re the film's improvisational style, which lends it a quirkiness and unpredictability that seems rather, if I were to culturally stereotype, un-Singaporean!

 

Despite being a multi-national co-production, Stranger Eyes' setting is entirely in Singapore though.  Also recognisably Singaporean are elements such as the film's focus being on individuals who live in apartments -- one group in a three-generational household, the other in a two-generational one.   

 

Initially, Stranger Eyes centers on the former.  Junyang (played by Wu Chien Ho) and Peiying (portrayed by Annica Panna), their baby and his mother (who comes in the form of the un-grandmotherly appearing Vera Chen) live together in an apartment.  Or, rather, did -- as baby Bo has disappeared.  One moment, she was at a playground with Junyang.  Then, when his attention was focused elsewhere, she seemingly vanished from sight.      

In an apartment in a block facing their apartment live supermarket manager Wu (portrayed by Lee Kang Sheng) and his elderly mother.  Unbeknownst to Junyang and Peiying, their paths have crossed with Wu -- who, it turns out, has been effectively surveilling them at work and from his home; in part because he is fascinated by Peiying, seemingly in part out of boredom and, also, because it's easy enough to do!      

For reasons that never seem to have been made clear, Wu decides to drop off DVDs of recordings of his surveillance "work" at the home of Junyang, Peiying and co.  Whereupon the young couple -- and Officer Zheng (played by Malaysian actor-singer-composer Pete Teo), the cop investigating the disappearance of baby Bo -- get to suspecting that Wu may have kidnapped their young child.  

A strange psychological thriller-drama, not least in that much of the psychological dispositions and quirks of everyone concerned seems to be left to interpretation, Stranger Eyes was most interesting to me in terms of showing the surveillance devices and opportunities to observe others that various people, police but also civilians, neighbours and strangers have at their disposal in today's world.  Videos taken on phones and surveillance cameras are utilized but we also see how, and how much of themselves, people reveal on social media and such.  And how people can stay anonymous in crowds or when in uniform or just carrying out the kind of work and duties so routine that folks barely notice the person doing them.

 

Ironically, even while the people in Stranger Eyes are shown doing things, we actually don't hear them speaking, never mind actually qualitatively conversing, all that much.  So is the message of the movie that we can see but still not understand others around us, including those we live in close proximity to?  Maybe.  For the director -- rather frustratingly to my mind -- appears to have sought to keep his cards close to his chest as well as not wear his heart on his sleeve! 

 

My rating for this film: 6.5

An American Pastorale is far more American nightmare than dream (Film screening)

TV journalist turned documentary filmmaker Auberi Edler

listening to questions at the post-screening Q&A   

 

An American Pastorale (France, 2024)

- Auberi Edler, director, scriptwriter and cinematographer

- Part of the HKIFF's Documentary Competition program 

 

Back in the 19th century, French diplomat-historian Alexis de Tocqueville published Democracy in America after spending 10 months in the United States of America.  Now in the 21st century, French TV journalist turned documentary filmmaker Auberi Edler spent around that amount of time in a small conservative American town (actually, technically, borough) and has produced An American Pastorale, a documentary that could be said to show how democracy in America dies.

 

In March 2023, a year long electoral campaign began to elect the school board of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania (as opposed to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, the setting for Cameron Crowe's 2005 romantic comedy, Elizabethtown!).  As Republican and Democrat candidates went from door to door canvasing voters, Auberi Edler's camera was there to follow and record them.

 

Non-interventionist, offering neither narration nor commentary, Auberi Edler quietly captured on camera how a schoolboard election devolves into culture wars whose strands included book censorship, gun control and the undue influence of organized religion (and, in Elizabethtown, one evangelical church in particular) in people's lives and general politics.  In school classrooms, churches, private homes and pretty much elsewhere in between, people of various political stripes -- all of whom are uniformly white in terms of their ethnicity though (note: I've checked and Elizabethtown really does have very few non-white residents) -- are filmed revealing their private as well as public thoughts and in so doing, reveal so much about themselves, their hometown and their country.

 

An American Pastorale had its world premiere -- shortly after the American Presidential Election last year but before Donald Trump returned to the White House -- at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (where Auberi Edler came away with the Best Director prize).  At the time of my writing this review, it has yet to be screened in the USA.  (Indeed, it was only a few days ago that the North American distribution rights for it were sold.)  

 

Based on its title, one might have thought that the natural/target audience for this documentary would be Americans.  But an American friend who saw it (here in Hong Kong) told me it had made her cringe and another friend, upon my telling her about the film, told me she didn't think she could stomach viewing it; this particular because she actually personally knew someone from Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania!

 

Despite not being an American myself, I understand.  An American Pastorale is not an easy watch for those who don't like seeing bigotry triumph, thanks in part to how ineffectual, even downright lame and weak, the opposition to far-right white nationalism in Christian clothing was (and is).  Put another way: pretty much everyone seen in this quietly devastating cinema vérité-style documentary -- by a filmmaker who knows very well that, often, it's best to just let a person incriminate themself -- does not come off looking good.  And their country too!

 

Those who know me know that I absolutely hate people talking in cinemas.  But I have to confess: I found myself commenting aloud about, and in response to, certain statements and declarations made, seemingly seriously, by Elizabethtown residents -- and recorded for posterity in the documentary -- that just came across as so crazily asinine!  (As an example, a gun lover talked about the possibility of Hamas going over to attack this rural American community!)      

On a positive note: it's an incredible achievement on the part of Auberi Edler that she managed to get the people in the documentary to seemingly forget that her camera was trained on them, and their every word being recorded.  To be sure, some of them did appear to be performing for the camera -- as well as an audience of their peers -- some of the time.  But more fool them, for thinking that they would be made to look good in this thoroughly thought-provoking work which, actually, lays waste to whatever myths and delusions of grandeur that Americans would ever have about themselves and their country, for the world to see!

 

My rating for this film: 8.5

The System strikes me as not just a groundbreaking crime drama but, also, one of Hong Kong cinema's genuine gems (Film review)

Both the Hong Kong International Film Festival 

screenings of The System took place at M+

 

After the screening, The System's director, Peter Yung

(the gentleman on the right) made an appearance

 

The System (Hong Kong, 1979)

- Peter Yung Wai-chuen, director, producer and co-scriptwriter (along with Lee Sai)

- Starring: Pai Ying, Sek Kin, Chiao Chiao

- Part of the HKIFF's Chinese-language Restored Classics program 

 

"There is something special to the Hong Kong New Wave. The movement, spanning just a few short years in the late 1970s and early 1980s, transformed our cinema."  Thus began a Hong Kong Film Archive program introduction about it from 2017.  And to this day, some of the Hong Kong New Wave members -- particularly Ann Hui and Tsui Hark -- remain among the biggest directorial names in Hong Kong/Chinese language cinema.

With just five directorial efforts to his name (compared to Ann Hui's 33 and Tsui Hark's close to 50), Peter Yung Wai-chuen ranks among the less well known of the Hong Kong New Wave.  However, his 1979 debut directorial feature film, The System, is highly regarded by those in the know -- and is one of the Hong Kong New Wave films chosen to be restored in recent years -- with good reason.

 

Even while the Shaw Brothers continued to make movies at their studio in Clearwater Bay studio, favouring shooting in indoor sets, Peter Yung broke free and made incredible use of actual physical locations in Hong Kong that rival and sometimes even were even more colorful and dramatic than anything that could be constructed on a Hong Kong movie budget.  Forty-six years on, the capturing on film of many of those Hong Kong locales -- some of which no longer exist (like the old New World Hotel on the Tsim Sha Tsui harbourfront), others of which have changed beyond recognition (including the neon-lit streets of 1970s Hong Kong) -- alone makes this film quite the visual gem.  But, admirably, there's so much more to The System than that.  

 

Peter Yung had conducted extensive research on the drug trade for an earlier, documentary work and he infused this crime drama centering on a police detective (Chief Inspector Chan is essayed by Pai Ying) trying to nail drug lords (like that played by Nick Lam) with details that provide it with an air of authenticity and enhances his storytelling. From what a cop does after returning home to the planning and execution of the tailing of a suspect, much is shot with authority and visual verve.

 

Adding considerably to the drama and complexity of the film is the main "bad guy", a criminal who Chief Inspector Chan interacts with in various ways -- alternately bullying, cajoling, striking bargains and partnering with to nail down bigger fish.  Tam (portrayed by Sek Kin) is given further dimensions by way of also being shown as a family man and doting father who also has a mistress (Chiao Chiao's character also has parts to play as the head of gambling den and fellow drug trafficker).  

Pei Yin and Sek Kin are of course well known names and faces as far as fans of Hong Kong cinema are concerned.  But their roles in The System may actually have given them more to work with, and more opportunity to shine, than many others.  In any case, they definitely play integral parts in helping this groundbreaking crime drama to be the thoroughly engrossing and entertaining watch that it is; one that left me with the opinion that it deserves to be far well known than it is, and happy that there already are further screenings planned in the coming months in Hong Kong of the restored version of this cinematic gem.

My rating for this film: 9.0

Still really f**king loving Hong Kong on the 5th anniversary of the 1 million strong anti-extradition bill march (Photo-essay)

This past June 4th, I was out and about in various parts of Hong Kong in the afternoon.  In Victoria Park, where the June 4th candlelight vigil regularly and officially took place through to 2019, I encountered a crazy amount of cops.  

 

Earlier today, the 5th anniversary of the 1 million anti-extradition bill protest march, I was in Victoria Park and elsewhere in Hong Kong again.  To my surprise, I didn't see many cops out and about at all.  Consequently, I felt emboldened to effectively walk once more from Causeway Bay to Admiralty this afternoon -- during which I came across some interesting sights enroute.

 

I know that, from the outside, it might seem that Hong Kongers have given up their fight for, and dreams of, democracy and justice.  But, honestly, I feel like I regularly see signs to this day that this is not the case.  Today, I present to you some of them -- and if they seem on the overly humble and trivial side, remember that there are now not one but two security laws in force in Hong Kong, and the penalties for being adjudged to break them are very dire indeed.   

Spotted earlier this week -- and, in all likelihood,

scribbled in recent weeks or months (as it's so fresh looking!)

 

The same message, less clearly written, spotted earlier today

 

A message (Keep Hong Kong Free) that I'm going to assume 

is from 2019, but is still visible in 2024

 

Also from 2019 -- barely discernible in 2024 but I feel

like I can make out an "Add Oil HK" there

 

Far more clearly, rendered in Chinese characters:

"Hong Kong people, add oil"

 

Also from 2019 but much more clearly visible, 

if you know where to find it

 

Good words to live by

 

It may not always be clear but yeah, 

we still really f**king love Hong Kong

All Shall Be Well threatened to break my heart -- and even if it didn't, did move me a great deal! (Film review)

  

Hong Kong poster for this Hong Kong film that

had its world premiere at Berlin earlier this year

 

All Shall Be Well (Hong Kong, 2024)

- Ray Yeung, director and scriptwriter

- Starring: Patra Au, Li Lin-lin, Tai Bo, Hui So-ying, Leung Chun-hang, Fish Liew

 

Back in 2020, I watched and felt very emotionally impacted by director-scriptwriter Ray Yeung's Suk Suk.  So when I read that his latest film had won the Teddy Award for best LGBTQ-themed feature film and placed third in the Panorama Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the Berlin Film Festival (where it had its world premiere), I looked forward to viewing it here in Hong Kong.  

 

For the record: All Shall Be Well was the opening film for this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival.  But by the time I got to the ticketing counter to get my HKIFF tickets (around one hour after ticketing began), tickets for both of its screenings had sold out!  So I had to wait until it began is theatrical run at the beginning of this month to do so!  Then, after viewing its teaser trailer (which is achingly beautiful but also sends out achingly painful vibes), I must admit to hesitating a bit to go watch it as I was afraid that it'd turn me into a puddle of tears!

 

Eventually though, I did go view All Shall Be Well -- and am so very glad I did so.  I'll come right out and say it: this really is a masterfully crafted film, handsomely lensed (by Leung Ming-kai) with characters that come across as very real and human (thanks in no small part to the movie's great ensemble cast), and with an important as well as multi-faceted story to tell.

 

All Shall Be Well centres on Angie (essayed ever so well by Patra Au) who we first see as one half of a loving couple along with Pat (portrayed by the luminous Li Lin-lin, in her first film appearance in decades).  Two former factory girls who ended up owning a factory and now living a retired life that appears full of contentment and comfort, they have good friends (the closest of whom are lesbian couples, like themselves); and while Angie doesn't get along great with her biological family, she looks to have been thoroughly accepted by Pat's family -- her brother Shing (played by Tai Bo, one of the lead actors of Ray Yeung's Suk Suk), his wife Mei (played by Hui So-ying), and their son Victor (portrayed by Leung Chun-hang) and daughter Fanny (essayed by Fish Liew).

 

But after Pat unexpectedly passes away one night, tensions and rifts appear in Angie's relationship with Pat's remaining relatives.  It's bad enough when Mei and Shing decide to prioritise a fung shui master's suggestion regarding what to do with Pat's remains over what Angie remembered and tell them had been Pat's wish -- and decide that Shing knows better at what time of the day Pat had been born rather than Angie (who, to make it clear, Pat had spent far more of her life with and spoken to than Shing).  But what really made things bad was Pat not having left a will and Angie (consequently) not being legally recognised as having shared a life and, among other things, an apartment with Pat -- and it becoming apparent that Shing and his family covet that apartment and don't think Angie had any right to it after all.

 

Seeing how great things had been for Angie and Pat when Pat was alive makes what happens with her family after her death so upsetting.  Frankly, it feels like a betrayal of Angie.  But what makes All Shall Be Well a really excellent work is that it also gets the viewer understanding where night shift security guard Shing, hotel cleaner Mei, Uber driver Victor and Fanny (who lives in a rat-infested apartment with her husband and two kids) are coming from, even if not one hundred percent agreeing with or approving of their perspectives and actions.  This also makes the film not only a touching lesbian drama but a thought-provoking and thoughtful meditation on family plus examination of social class and prevailing cultural mores in contemporary Hong Kong society too.    

 

By the way, I ended up not tearing up all that much when viewing All Shall Be Well -- at least not outwardly.  I could feel my heart aching and threatening to break at times during the movie though -- but also swelling and just generally feeling very much moved at other points in it!  

 

My rating of the film: 9.0

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

Favoriten shows us a multicultural Austrian elementary class' world (Film review)

  

48th Hong Kong International Film Festival 

advertising by the side of a street

 

Favoriten (Austria, 2024)

- Ruth Beckermann, director and co-scriptwriter (with Elisabeth Manesse)

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Documentary Competition program

 

In what can seem like another life now, I aspired to be an educator.  Hence my often gravitating to books. TV shows and films with educational settings (including, to name just a few: To Serve Them All My Days; To Sir With Love; The Paper Chase; and Dead Poet's Society).  

 

If given the choice though, I'd focus on secondary or tertiary rather than primary education.  For, frankly, my sense is that the younger the child, the more difficult it is to deal with them!  So I am inclined to take my hat off the most to primary school teachers -- and was left in awe of the one we see in Favoriten -- who is obviously adored by her young charges, all 25 of them, the majority of whom she teaches and communicates with in a language that's not their first language.

 

Ilkay Idiskut is a teacher in the largest elementary school in Vienna, Austria.  Favoriten -- which takes its name from the working-class district in which the school is located -- documents the goings-on in her classroom over a period of three years as she guides her multi-cultural, co-ed class of students (many of them recent migrants and/or refugees from countries such as Turkey (where she herself originally hailed), Syria, Serbia, Romania and Ukraine) through the third to fifth grade of the Austrian school system.  

 

Director Ruth Beckerman and cinematographer Johannes Hammel also follow Ilkay and her class on trips to a mosque (where a student proudly reveals that his father is an imam) and a Catholic church (where it is revealed that none of the students are of the Catholic faith).  There are also scenes where the parents, with their children present, meet with Ilkay (where it comes to light that quite a few of the parents are themselves struggling with speaking German); and one where the school's head teacher holds a meeting with his staff (during which one gets the distinct sense that the school (system) is not as well-funded as should be the case).

 

In the main though, the focus in Favoriten is on the learning that takes place in the classroom; with Ilkay teaching the class about how to behave and treat one another as well as maths, German and other formal subjects.  And while Ilkay is the main "character" in the film on account of her being the teacher in charge and primary adult in the documentary, the students quickly show that they may be diminuitive in size but quite a few of them have outsize personalities, and presences that have an effect on their surroundings and others around them!

 

At one point during filming, director Beckermann gave the children camera phones and had them film and conduct interviews of their classmates.  This results in interesting footage and conversations.  But the actual film crew also appear to have been successful in getting the children to act naturally in their presence too; resulting in Favoriten being a remarkably intimate collective portrait of a group of children whose struggles along with endeavor are honestly shown, and who have been helped along for three years by the presence in their life of an exemplary educator who truly cared for them.    

 

My rating for this film: 7.0

Enter the new dragon year!

 

"Dragon" installation in a Hong Kong public park! :D

 

Kong hei fatt choi!  It's now the third day of the new Year of the Dragon and I feel a need to mark the occasion with a blog post as well as assure people who wondered if I was alive that I indeed still am so.  Also, for the time being, I don't have plans to entirely stop blogging... but I might take a break for a bit.  

 

Somehow, I've just not felt the urge to blog as much as previously; probably because there's so little sense here that there actually are people reading what I've written -- unlike, say, over on Twitter (and no, I refuse to call it X still!).   For now, let's play it by ear and see how it goes, shall we? 

At the very least, I do still want to write reviews of Hong Kong films I see here.  And it would be nice to finish chronicling my most recent (October 2023!) Japan trip here, I think; since I know of at least one person who seems interested in checking out those posts!

A strange week for me, and quite the rubbish week for Hong Kong!

  

A reminder (from a member of the Yellow Economic Circle) 

that self care is important

 

This has been a bit of a strange week for me.  One evening saw me so very upset by something I read that I could feel my blood pressure rising, my actually feeling hot in the head and my hands literally shaking.  Another saw me feeling reflective and depressed post viewing a film looking at traumatic family experiences and how their effects are felt for decades.  And a third had me so affected by a late night discussion about what's been lost in Hong Kong in recent years that I ended up literally having a dream in which I detailed to my mother all the the things about pre national security law Hong Kong that I now miss so much.

 

Hence my not having been in the right frame of mind to do any blogging.  And all this while, life goes on and events like the national security law trial of Jimmy Lai continue to take place; with this week seeing the first witness for the prosecution take the stand.  Here's the thing though: I can't quite figure out from the reports what Cheung Kim-hung, the former publisher of the now-defunct Apple Daily, has said of his former boss that is actually incriminating!

For example, on Wednesday, Cheung said of his old boss that "“Mr. Lai has a very clear image. He advocates for democracy, freedom, and opposes totalitarianism".  Doesn't that sound more like an endorsement and praise than condemnation?  Also, what's illegal about that?!

 

Cheung also "said Lai, in 2019, told his senior editorial staff that the government proposal to amend the city’s extradition arrangement was an “infringement of Hongkonger’s democracy, freedom and human rights,” and the Chinese Communist Party would use the amendment to send “thorns in their side” to stand trial in the mainland."  Again, what's wrong and illegal about that?

 

And there's this: “Mr. Lai’s instruction was to use Apple Daily to encourage people to take to the street, to put up resistance [against the government],” Cheung said."  A reminder: not all street protests are illegal; especially those which are non-violent and got letters of no objection from the police -- which was the case with the vast majority of the anti-extradition bill and pro-democracy protest marches and rallies that took place in 2019, the year that Jimmy Lai gave those instructions.

 

As for this: "On the international level, Mr. Lai wanted to draw the attention from western democratic countries, hoping that they would offer some help, even some stronger measures such as placing sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials.”  Again, this doesn't sound illegal or criminal to me.  Especially before China's imposition of the national security law on Hong Kong on June 30th, 2020!

In all honesty, much of what's going on these days doesn't seem to make much sense to me at all.  A case in point: the waste tax fiasco that had much of Hong Kong in uproar in recent days.  As Ming Pao journalist Alvin Lum noted, only partly -- even if actually -- in jest, "Forget about Article 23. The biggest challenge for officials might be waste charging"!

 

Another crazy thing that happened in Hong Kong this week: the M+ museum being made to not mention the name of a film that they nonetheless were allowed to screen.  (For the record: it was Beijing Bastards, a 1993 drama directed by Zhang Yuan!) Prompting the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers' spokesperson, Tenky Tin, to ask the entirely valid question: “From the point of view of a regular filmgoer, one has to wonder, how can you sell tickets for a film without disclosing its name?"!

 

Even more disturbingly, this week also saw the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) withdraw its support for an annual drama awards ceremony, citing “inappropriate” arrangements last year and warning the organisers they must not breach the law; resulting in the Hong Kong Federation of Drama Societies (HKFDS) – which organises the Hong Kong Drama Awards -- not only losing its subsidy from the government advisory body but, also, being denied a venue to stage it after the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) also told the drama federation that it would not be offering a venue for the event this year!

 

Rather than accept the HKADC's decision though, the HKFDS actually decided to publicly challenge it!  On Friday morning, the HKFDS's chairperson, Luther Fung , called a press conference to “defend the theatre industry’s dignity.”  In response to the HKADC's objections to two of last year's awards presenters having been  political cartoonist Wong Kei-kwan, known as Zunzi, and journalist Bao Choy, Fung asserted that "Zunzi is a veteran cartoonist – are cartoons not art? Choy is a documentary director – are documentaries not art?"

 

Addressing the HKADC, he said: ""You made an official decision without giving us a chance to defend ourselves, and that came as a shock to us,”... adding that there had been no official meetings between the council and the federation over the funding issue.  “We demand a clarification, and for accusations to be retracted — we will not file a so-called appeal,” said Fung. “[We’re] poor, but we have a backbone!”"

 

To which I say "kudos"!  And long may Hong Kongers have backbones and not be as easily bullied as the bullies might think and hope!