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Focus Hong Kong returns to The Garden Cinema in London on Saturday 24 June for two acclaimed films examining contemporary Hong Kong

Join , the only UK film festival dedicated to celebra7ng the amazing cinema and filmmakers of Hong Kong, at The Garden Cinema in London on Saturday 24 June to experience two classics of contemporary Hong Kong cinema on the big screen. Going beyond the usual representations of Hong Kong productions via older genre cinema, the programme features two very different but equally fascina7ng and authentic looks at Hong Kong since the 1997 Handover, including and 's Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down, an anthology mixing the personal and the political through four gently provocative stories of everyday people, and 's searing 1997 masterpiece , a shocking, violent look at Handover-era Hong Kong youth.

Tickets are on sale now: https://focushongkong.uk/strand/june-2023/

Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down features four stories (three fictional, one documentary), which show how fiction and fact, humor and drama, the personal and the political are contemporary facets of the same ever-fascinatng, complex, challenging realities that constitute Hong Kong. Leung Ming-kai and Kate Reilly's delightful anthology captures the rich mix of cultures that defines Hong Kong in a lively and gently provocative fashion, following a diverse set of characters from different backgrounds as they reminisce on the past while looking to the challenges of the future, trying to balance nostalgia with uncertainty. Having won over audiences during a highly successful international festival run, the film now has its in-person UK cinema premiere, giving audiences the chance to enjoy an authentic look at modern-day Hong Kong society on the big screen.

Released to critical acclaim and multiple awards in 1997, the year of the Hong Kong handover, Fruit Chan's Made in Hong Kong was praised as an anarchic, searing masterpiece, a powerful distillation of urban alienation and youthful despair, following a small-time triad member stuck in an endless cycle of pointless violence with no hope of escape. After he and his friends witness the suicide of a young girl, they embark on a journey to deliver two letters she had on her when she died. Produced on a shoestring budget, with non-professional actors and using discarded film reels for stock, the powerful film has since attained classic status, and if anything feels more relevant and challenging today, remaining a hard-hitting, must-see cinema experience.

The short programme is the first of two planned Focus Hong Kong screening events to be held in London during the summer of 2023 – stay tuned for an announcement regarding the next event, to be held at BFI Southbank in July.

About Focus Hong Kong

Focus Hong Kong is a UK film festival dedicated to celebrating the amazing cinema and filmmakers of Hong Kong, from early works to the glory days of its reign as the Hollywood of Asia, through to new and exciting films. Focus Hong Kong screens a wide range of new releases and classics, films that are vibrant, exciting, innovative, and artistic, and which above all are uniquely Hong Kong.

Focus Hong Kong is run by Andrew Heskins and James Mudge, and grew out of the success of the Chinese Visual Festival Hong Kong programme, which from 2011 featured premieres and retrospective screenings of a long list of films, with key talent including the legendary Stanley Kwan, Jun Li, Shu Kei, Jennifer Yu, Cheung King-wai, Nicole Chan, Sunny Chan and others having been brought to the UK.

Since its inception in 2020, Focus Hong Kong has held a number of highly successful editions, offering UK audiences the chance to watch even more fantastic films and opportunities to interact with guests from Hong Kong. Through presenting new blockbusters, retro classics, independent and arthouse films, documentaries, shorts and visual art to UK audiences, as well as the talents behind these produc7ons, Focus Hong Kong highlights the creativity of Hong Kong's filmmakers and promotes the continuing development of the Hong Kong film industry.

About the author

Adam Symchuk

Adam Symchuk is a Canadian born freelance writer and editor who has been writing for Asian Movie Pulse since 2018. He is currently focused on covering manga, manhwa and light novels having reviewed hundreds of titles in the past two years.

His love of film came from horror and exploitation films from Japan that he devoured in his teens. His love of comics came from falling in love with the works of Shuzo Oshimi, Junji Ito, Hideshi Hino, and Inio Asano but has expanded to a general love of the medium and all its genres.

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