Collaborative Screenings with University of Southampton
May 2024
Fly Me to the Moon (UK Premiere)
Sasha Chuk / Hong Kong
The film chronicles the poignant journey of two sisters over a span of 20 years, from 1997 to 2017, beginning with their relocation from China to Hong Kong. Navigating through cultural shock and grappling with their love-hate relationship with their drug-addicted father, their growth is marked by the strains of identity crisis inherent in their immigrant experience. From a feminist perspective, the film illustrates how childhood memories can linger, shaping and sometimes haunting one's life.
Ann Hui / Hong Kong
Elegies
From Boat People to Our Time Will Come, from family struggles to anti Japanese history, Venice Career Golden Lion-winning auteur Ann Hui finally films a topic she holds most dear – poetry. Through her personal encounters with some of Hong Kong’s most notable poets, including Yam Gong, Wai Yuen, Chan Chi Tak, Deng Ah Lam, York Ma, Xi Xi and Leung Ping Kwan. Hui shows the topography of contemporary poetry on and of the city. Two poles of reality, the unrestrained Huang Can-ran and the cosmopolitan Liu Wai-tong, are juxtaposed to reveal two distinctively different personalities, ideals, and ways of life. Seeing the late Xi Xi recite her own poem about the old Kai Tak Airport is a deeply heart-warming moment.
Hong Kong Short Films
Andy Law, Chan Kam-Hei, Sasha Chuk
Three young directors from Hong Kong have created three short films that encapsulate various dimensions of the Hong Kong-Taiwan connections. Despite feeling rootless in a floating city, wherever that is, the characters' ties to Hong Kong run deep within them, emerging only in moments of emotional vulnerability.
June 2023
Say I Do to Me
Kiwi Chow / Hong Kong
“I want to marry myself! To plan for a solo wedding, to marry myself, to declare my forever love for myself to the world!” Attractive comedienne Ping vows to become a viral Youtuber. She concocts a plan to put on a show of marrying herself in what was meant to secure both money and likes. In this satire of marriage and the individual self, nothing is left untouched: women, men, organised religion, homosexuality, the filthy rich, not to mention ye good old mother! Love yourself in Say I do to me, won’t you?
Chan Tze-Woon / Hong Kong
Blue Island
The film documents three real-life characters across time engaging in rebellions (during the Cultural Revolution, during the 1967 riot and during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre) when they were young. Through reconstructing these events, the film dramatises their scarred memories and experiences by interlinking their stories with four young people who have participated in the 2019 Anti-extradition Law Amendment Movement in Hong Kong. Although these protagonists are separated by time and history, their lives parallel and overlap with each other as they find themselves swimming in similar chaotic predicaments.