Discoveries have been endless this past year, as Hong Kong Film Festival (UK) continues to explore a newfound fluidity alongside the Hong Kong community in the UK. Adrift are the stories of Hong Kong, a wavering sense of identity alongside an uncertain history. Memories fluid, imaginations of a drifting home.
Hong Kong Film Festival’s second edition is titled “Home Away From Home”. Distance and disparity unveils a world of possibility; between Hong Kongers in the UK and those in Hong Kong, between the Hong Kong we once lived in, but can now only watch from afar. Between the Hong Kong in our dreams, and the Hong Kong laid bare to us now; between your Hong Kong and history’s Hong Kong, between a colonial Hong Kong and post-colonial Hong Kong. A pre-1997 versus a post-2019 Hong Kong, a Hong Kong under the world’s watchful eyes, and that under our own scrutinising gaze… It is through this year’s programme that the prograers aim to discover, define, and reimagine the two Hong Kongs.
27 feature films, documentaries and shorts, together with 10 online shorts; revolving around separation and migration, the 2019 anti-extradition protests, humanity amongst humans. With titles exploring Asia’s gaze, stories will also touch upon love, family, youth, memory, fantasy, and ultimately the meaning of film as art itself.
The festival is separated into 5 sections: First, “Redefining Hong Kong: Portraits Over Time” is a collection of character studies centred on Hong Kong, but not necessarily made in Hong Kong, proposing open interpretations to Hong Kong’s past, present, and future. Second, “UK Visages & Chronicles of the Diaspora” traces the paths of those who relocated from Hong Kong early on, poised side by side in a juxtaposition of their experiences across different continents and eras. “If, Humanity: Reflections in Asian Political Turmoil” is a curation of invaluable footage recorded by directors in Asia fighting for innate human rights. “A Mirror Image: Hong K X Taiwan Documentaries”, is a combination of the most defining films in the histories of Hong Kong and Taiwan. And finally, “The Classics”, showing the most exemplary of local and diasporic films from Hong Kong.
Joining us this year will be filmmakers from Hong Kong, the UK, Taiwan, Myanmar, Singapore… Beyond screenings, there will be candid conversations, discussions, interactive dance performances, workshops for the newly settled, and more – it is with cultural debates that a fluid identity can take form and take flight.
Snippets of the Hong Kong story weave itself into people’s lives and continue to write itself – nestled in daily life, embraced in curiosity and resistance. With disparity as the focus in a home away from home, coupled with the infinite retellings of stories from Hong Kong, every single person, with their own unique understanding, writes their own story of Hong Kong.
FULL PROGRAMME (For info about tickets please go to the Official Website HERE)
“Redefining Hong Kong: Portraits Over Time”
If We Burn (UK Premiere)
Dir. James Leong, Lynn Lee / Hong Kong / 2023 / Colour / 265 mins
The Grass is Greener on the Other Side
Dir. Crystal Wong / Hong Kong, United Kingdom / 2022 / Colour / 73 mins
Say I Do To Me (UK Premiere)
Dir. Kiwi Chow / Hong Kong / 2023 / Colour / 114 mins
Twilight’s Kiss
Dir. Ray Yeung / Hong Kong / 2019 / Colour / 92 mins
Keep Rolling
Dir. Man Lim Chung / Hong Kong / 2020 / Colour / 118 min
Short Film Programme: Post Apocalyptic Hong Kong
Depths of Night
Dir. Step C / Hong Kong / 2021 / Colour / 13 mins
Lost Pearl (UK Premiere)
Dir. Steve Li / Hong Kong / 2021 / Colour / 21 mins
THAT SPRING, IN THE SKY OF H-VILLE, THERE WAS ____ (UK Premiere)
Dir. Chung Hong Iu / Hong Kong / 2022 / Colour, B&W / 9 mins
Time, and Time Again (World Premiere)
Dir. Asgard Wong / Hong Kong / 2022 / B&W / 30 mins
Walk Along The Wall (UK Premiere)
Dir. Kin-pong Ieong / Hong Kong / 2021 / Colour / 30 mins
Sub-section: Resistance, Reenacted
Blue Island
Dir. Tze Woon Chan / Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan / 2022 / Colour / 97 mins
Battle of Orgreave
Dir. Mike Figgis, Jeremy Deller / United Kingdom / 2001 / Colour / 62 mins
“UK Visages & Chronicles of the Diaspora”
Ping Pong
Dir. Po Chih Leong / United Kingdom / 1986 / Colour / 100 mins
Flowing Stories
Dir. Tsui Shan Tsang / Hong Kong, France / 2014 / 97 mins / Colour
Short Film Programme: The Inbetweeners
Short Story Long (UK Premiere)
Dir. Carrie Shen / Hong Kong, United Kingdom / 2022 / 28 mins / Colour
Simon Says, Simon Says
Dir. So Siu / Hong Kong / 2022 / Colour / 30 mins
The Dispute (World Premiere)
Dir. Fredie Chan / United Kingdom / 2023 / 34 mins
From HK to MK
Dir. Michael Ho / United Kingdom / 2017 / Colour / 10 mins
BFI Archive footage – Around the New Territories – Hong Kong
United Kingdom, Hong Kong / 1938 / Colour / 14 mins
“If, Humanity: Reflections in Asian Political Turmoil”
Myanmar Diaries
Dir. The Myanmar Film Collective Myanmar, the Netherlands, Norway / 2022 / Colour / 70 min
Lost Course
Dir. Jill Li / Hong Kong / 2019 / Colour / 179 mins
The Hong Konger: Jimmy Lai’s Extraordinary Struggle for Freedom
Prod. Stephen Barrows, Ron Holwerda, Cort Langeland, and Robert Sirico / United States of America, Hong Kong, United Kingdom / 2022 /
Colour / 73 mins
“A Mirror Image: Hong Kong X Taiwan Documentaries”
Sub-section: Vicissitudes
Rice Distribution
Dir. Tammy Cheung / Hong Kong / 2003 / Colour / 35 mins
Nail
Dir. Ting-Fu Huang / Taiwan / 2002 / B&W / 45 mins
Sub-section: Whispers
Flowing Stories
Dir. Tsui Shan Tsang / Hong Kong, France / 2014 / Colour / 97 mins
A Holy Family
Dir. Elvis A-Liang Lu / Taiwan, France / 2022 / Colour / 88 min
Sub-section: Kindred Histories
Blue Island
Dir. Tze Woon Chan / Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan / 2022 / Colour / 97 min
Taste of Wild Tomato
Dir. Kek Huat Lau / Taiwan / 2021 / Colour / 123 mins
“The Classics”
Lan Yu
Dir. Stanley Kwan / Hong Kong / 2001 / Colour / 86 mins
Ping Pong
Dir. Po Chih Leong / United Kingdom / 1986 / Colour / 100 mins
“Online Shorts”
The Manual of Love
Dir. Buber Mak / Hong Kong / 2021/ Colour / 29 mins
The Handbook of Suicide
Dir. Jonathan Wong Ka Nok / Hong Kong / 2022 / Colour / 30 mins
Farewell
Dir. Ken Wong / Hong Kong / 2022 / Colour / 19 mins
The Kowloon Emperor
Dir. Willis Wong Man Chak / Hong Kong / 2022 / Colour / 28 mins
Fire Room
Dir. Kaki Wong / Hong Kong / 2021 / Colour / 15 mins
Anatomy of Rats
Dir. Antonio Tam Sin Yeung, Tino WU Tin Long / Hong Kong / 2022 / Colour / 30 mins
Trek of an Extinct Bird
Dir. Gloria Lok Yee Ho / Hong Kong / 2022 / Colour / 28 mins
After the riots, before the liberation
Dir. Hong Iu Chung / Hong Kong / 2020 / Colour / 15 mins
Memory Palace
Dir. Dorothy Cheung / United Kingdom / 2021 / Colour / 23 mins
By 3pm
Dir. Kaiu Choy / Hong Kong / 2022 / Colour / 23 mins
