Marking his tenth film, “Naked Nations – Tribe Hong Kong” is also Scud’s swan song in filmmaking, with the fact actually being a central element of the narrative of this 161-minute mix of drama, making-of, documentary and self-hommage. At the same time, it can also be perceived as an act of defiance, while one of the central elements of the majority of Scud’s films, male nudity is also quite prevalent here, although this time, his own too.
Naked Nations – Tribe Hong Kong is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam
Scud invites his collaborators from previous films including Adonis He and Osman Hung, along with Stanley Kwan (one of the few men that doesn’t get naked in the movie) and embarks in a multileveled “trip” that seems to unfold in a number of thematic axes. The first one is the whole Covid situation, with Scud recording how the government handled the whole thing in the past three or so years, with his critique being quite intense, as much as his defiance. This last element is presented both in the intro scene of the movie, which is bound to make any viewer laugh particularly in its conclusion, the private pool segments, where a number of (naked) men are gathered frequently, the scenes in the bars and the performances, as much as the presentation of how disruptive the measures were for a number of entrepreneurships and in individual.
This last element brings us to the next one, which is Hong Kong itself, with Scud presenting it in all its glory, both in the outside, through a number of very intriguing long and panoramic shots and in the plethora of interiors the ‘story’ takes place in. The scene with the tents on the outside during the night is one of the most impressive in the whole thing, while also joining these two axes together. As Scud includes a chapter on Jumbo Floating Restaurant, one of the landmarks of Hong Kong which ran from 1952 and ceased operation in 2020, a sense of nostalgia starts permeating the movie, which becomes even more intense when the director insists that this is his last work. As we watch Stanley Kwan trying to convince him to continue, and his actors crying due to the fact, the aforementioned nostalgia soon turns into drama, with Scud’s words about only worrying about his cast, intensifying this aspect even more while also adding a comment about depression and its roots, and the whole concept of making difficult decisions.
At the same time, “Naked Nations – Tribe Hong Kong Story” is a (homosexual) love story, with Scud focusing more on two particular ones, one of which includes himself frequently in the nude, in a decision that could be perceived as both a ‘thank you’ to all the actors (for their nakedness over the years) he has featured in his works and a homage to his films of the past. That this aspect includes lengthy and quite realistic sex scenes adds much to the aesthetics here, with the camera pulling no punches in their depiction. It is these scenes that also allow for what could be described as a self-indulgent exhibitionism to be induced with some context and become part of the narrative, in a rather intelligent approach to the whole thing.
Scud’s own editing adds to the whole somewhat oneiric approach here, in a pace that lingers between the mid-tempo and the rather slow, although a sense of movement is constantly part of the scenes on the screen. At 161 minutes, the movie is definitely long, but the variety of cinematic and contextual elements here do not allow it to become particularly tiring.
“Naked Nations – Tribe Hong Kong” is definitely a very personal movie, but there is much artistry, info and context here to make it a title that is as rewarding as it is difficult.
