Hong Kong Asian Film Festival 2019: from Lion Rock to My Prince Edward, 12 exciting new Hong Kong films to see
- For Hong Kong film fans used to moaning about being fed cookie-cutter police thrillers, event offers an impressive line-up of new movies that avoid the genre
- Alex Lam, Charlene Choi, Gillian Chung, and Chu Pak-hong are among the stars who appear, and Ten Years contributor Chow Kwun-wai is back with his second feature
Fans who bemoan the Hong Kong film industry for becoming an assembly line of cookie-cutter police thrillers are in for a treat at the upcoming Hong Kong Asian Film Festival. Now in its 16th year, the annual showcase features an impressive slate of Hong Kong films " all, remarkably, made by new or emerging filmmakers with a clear affinity for the city.
We take a look at 12 of the most exciting titles in the programme.
1. Lion Rock
The first of this year's two opening films is based on the inspirational true story of Lai Chi-wai, an elite climber who was left a paraplegic following a traffic accident in 2011. Having played with horror-comedy conventions in his 2015 feature debut, the social satire Get Outta Here , director Nick Leung Kwok-pun again channels the fighting spirit of Hong Kong people in a whimsical tale. He draws from Alex Lam Tak-shun possibly his best performance to date. (October 29 and November 4)
2. Ciao UFO
The festival's other opening film is a quintessentially Hong Kong story. Directed by Patrick Leung Pak-kin (Simply Actors), the sci-fi comedy uses an urban legend " of UFO sightings from a public housing estate in Aberdeen, in Hong Kong's southwest, in the 1980s " as a vehicle to tell a deeply human story about life's many disappointments. A must-see for fans of 2000s pop idols Charlene Choi Cheuk-yin, Chui Tien-you and Wong You-nam. (October 29 and November 6)
3. The Fallen
Earlier this year, Lee Cheuk-pan made one of the most stylistically accomplished film debuts in recent memory with G Affairs , a daring narrative experiment that announced an exciting talent to watch.
In this follow-up, Lee applies his aptitude for brooding atmosphere and dark themes to a revenge thriller, which sees the prodigal daughter (Hanna Chan) of a legendary drug kingpin return to settle scores after her father's death, while a mysterious woman (Irene Wan Bik-ha) pulls strings behind the scene. (October 30 and November 6)
4. Your World, Without Me
With his first two films, Wong Ka Yan (2015) and When Sun Meets Moon (2018), radio host turned filmmaker Benny Lau Wai-hang cemented his reputation as the most hopelessly romantic of storytellers.
For his third feature, filmed in the Garze Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Sichuan, southwest China, the Hong Kong director found an innocent setting for a pure romance between a small-town young man (Zhang Youhao) and a traveller (Xue Haojing) he comes across at the foot of Mount Gongga, the highest mountain in the province. (November 1 and 10)
5. 3cm
With just three features under his belt, J.C. Wong Siu-pong has developed a reputation for documentaries that tackle grim aspects of Hong Kong society.
Having covered the lives of low-income immigrant families (in Fish Story) and the spectre of death looming over families with ailing members (in Snuggle ), Wong explores a genetic disorder, tuberous sclerosis complex, through the experience of one family in 3cm, and in the process reveals inadequacies in Hong Kong's medical system. (November 1, 4 and 10)
6. Bamboo Theatre
If anyone is still seeking signs that Hong Kong's documentary filmmaking scene is maturing, look no further than the work of Cheuk Cheung, who has found a niche documenting Chinese opera culture.
After telling the story of a male performer playing a female lead in 2012's My Way , and that of a young Kunqu Opera artist in 2015's My Next Step, Cheuk's latest film takes a comprehensive look at the century-old tradition of building makeshift bamboo sheds for performance during rural festivities. (November 2 and 7)
7. Memories to Choke on, Drinks to Wash Them Down
Best known as the cinematographer of such acclaimed films as Murmur of the Hearts and Old Stone, Leung Ming-kai has teamed up with New York-based actress and writer Kate Reilly to create this collection of four short films.
Quirky and nostalgic, the vignettes include two immigrants' journey from Yuen Long to Central, a family's visit to their own Sham Shui Po toy store, two teachers on an after-school snacking trip across the city, and a woman's fight for the future of Sham Shui Po. (November 2 and 16)
8. Many Undulating Things
While the cityscape of Hong Kong has long played a key part in its cinema, the city's urban topography has rarely been as prominent as it is in Many Undulating Things. Directed by New York-based artist Bo Wang and Hong Kong-based scholar Pan Lu, this cinematic essay charts the transformation of urban spaces, from its busy streets to its crowded shopping malls.
That these locations would become the battlefields of Hong Kong's current anti-government protests " coincidentally, after the film's premiere in April " only goes to prove their role in shaping the city's cultural identity. (November 3 and 15)
9. Missing
Screening as part of the festival's Midnight Crazy section is this chilling mystery drama by new director Ronnie Chau, best known for his controversial short film My Life Planning . Adapted from a popular internet novel from 2016, Missing revolves around the urban legend of a gateway into another world that is purported to exist in Sai Kung.
Gillian Chung Yan-tung plays the daughter of a man who has vanished for years since he went on a mountain hike in the area. Expect spooky encounters galore. (November 9)
10. Beyond the Dream
Six years after making his debut with the ambitious A Complicated Story, Chow Kwun-wai is back with his second feature. In the interim he made a telling contribution to the 2016 Hong Kong Film Awards best picture Ten Years (he directed the segment Self-Immolator, a mockumentary about the future of the city's civil disobedience movement).
Chow's new effort is an unconventional romance about a schizophrenic patient (Terrance Lau Chun-him) and a psychological counsellor (Cecilia Choi Si-wan) he's fallen for. (November 14 and 15)
11. My Prince Edward
The first of the festival's two closing films marks the directing debut of Norris Wong Yee-lam, who scripted the ViuTV drama series Margaret & David: Green Bean.
Set around Golden Plaza in Prince Edward, a go-to shopping mall for affordable wedding supplies, the drama muses on the nature of marriage and happiness in its depiction of the complicated relationship between a 30-something woman (Stephy Tang Lai-yan) and her long-term boyfriend, a wedding photographer (Chu Pak-hong, a best actor nominee at this year's Golden Horse Awards). (November 17)
12. The Secret Diary of a Mom to Be
Also closing the festival programme is this humorous second feature by Luk Yee-sum, a frequent screenwriter for Pang Ho-cheung and director of the mildly erotic coming-of-age drama Lazy Hazy Crazy (2015).
Dada Chan Ching, a Pang regular, plays a career woman who must try to keep up with her high-profile public relations job when she accidentally becomes pregnant " a development neither she nor her husband ever sought, having planned for a life without children. (November 17)
The Hong Kong Asian Film Festival runs from October 29 to November 17 at various venues. For full programme details, visit hkaff.asia.
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