Directing
Gun is a loan shark. Having worked hard for years, i.e. intimidating and threatening his debtors, he musters just enough money to purchase a house for the family. The plan is at risk, however, when one of his debtors dies and Gun discovers that he is not the only creditor. Out of desperation, he asks for his daughter’s help, who is unwilling to be involved in her father’s shady business. The simmering tension causes a rift in the family.
Ting and her friends go to Mui Wo where they see cows freely walking around. Someone appears and reminds them not to disturb the cows. The next day comes the news that seven cows were killed in a car accident at Mui Wo, which catches Ting and her friends’ attention. Ting starts a fundraising campaign hoping to build a cows’ shelter but is taken as an act to trick people’s money. The disheartened situation brings Ting to revisit the site, where she meets Sunset, the cow caretaker whom they have met before. She eventually develops a sense of responsibility to protect the cows when one day Sunset asks her to inherit the post of caretaker from him.
Ting enjoys the limelight, thrives on the attention and rises to the occasion each time she struts her stuff on the Cantonese opera stage, an amateur passion she pursues with the austere self-discipline and competitiveness of a professional. Her best friend, Yuk, is her polar opposite, a companion who feels more comfortable on the sidelines in a supporting role. When the threat of losing the lead role to Yuk, complicated by an injury, creates a rift between the two friends and sours her relationships with her opera mentor and family, Ting learns to confront her inner demons and swallow her ego to mend broken ties.
Fei roams the city at night, attempting to capture it with her camera. One night she meets a mysterious cow in the busy city and photographs it. Soon she meets Ming, who is trying to record the cow's noise. Together they attempt to find the elusive cow.
'Connected Souls' is produced by HKCS, directed by John Leung Yu and starring Leung Chung Hang, Choi Wai Ki and Timothy Cheng Tse Sing. The story follows a film director as he makes microfilm for HKCS, visiting various service units to learn about the social service stories.
It was raining non-stop when Hong Kong was rocked by the tumultuous events of October 2014 (the "umbrella movement"). In a fixed sequence shot, the film captured students meeting each other in the hall, in the rooms, discussing, arguing about or remaining indifferent to the event, while it continued to rain outside.
Bible of Kong Girls takes a look at three women exploring their lives and dilemmas within the space of a year. Splitting the film segments into the four seasons of the year, we follow Asther, Sai B and C-fu. The three modern, spirited and quirky women are introduced to an article, ‘The 37 Self-help Guidelines from Lee Ka-shing’s Private Secretary’ that serves as a sort of bible for the woman of today. With each passing season the women encounter another challenge life throws at them whilst following the rules of the article, but are these guidelines tearing the friends apart instead of helping them?
In a traditional fishing village where most youngsters have left to work in the city, the older generations are left behind. Ren, a widow who lives in the village helps her neighbour, Mrs Wah, to deliver a gift to her son, Chung in the city. Ren finds out that Chung is leading a harsh life. Back in the village, there is no one with whom she can share this secret. The only refuge from the sleepless night is her deceased husband. A Thousand Sails is a short tale about the poignant separation between city and village, mother and son, life and death. With long shots and sophisticated art direction, Eric Tsang Hing-weng compellingly captures the actors’ performances, especially that of Professor Chow Po-chung’s surprising debut.
The title is an allusion to the Chinese gambling game but the story is a treacherous journey with high stakes and a handsome reward. Three friends brave rugged terrain to escape hardship and persecution, surviving on foraged food and their meagre possessions – a pack of ciggies, the Little Red Book of Chairman Mao and three dices – all the while hounded by Red Guards on patrol. Loyalty, friendship and life are bet against a new beginning in the city where the streets are allegedly paved with gold. The odds are against them and the chance of survival is a row of the dice.
Mommies tells an emotionally compelling and complex story of two interwoven mother-and-son relationships. Sally works as a hostess, a kind of life her unruly son Keith loathes and from which he seeks refuge through self-harm. Keith looks with longing for the seemingly happy and loving relationship between mentally-ill Mandy and her son Luke. Yearning to become part of the other family, Keith wishes Mandy were his mother instead. But will that ever be possible? The sympathetic Mandy and Luke try to help Keith, and when they think things are looking better... Subtly told, Mommies captures the human condition of Hong Kong people’s lives seldom seen.
Acting is not always a life of glamour and excitement, and is often filled with sweat and tears. Devoted actor Gus is crushed when he fails to cry on cue. As self-doubt sinks in, he hears that his father has suffered a sunstroke. He decides to help at his father’s company and cast his dream aside. When his friend Mo offers him a role in a new film, he declines but not before Mo shoves him the script. When he starts to read the script at night, he is amazed to find that the plot is identical to the events around him. In the realm of a dream-like script or a script-like dream, Gus ponders his life as an actor and finds his own direction.
Ching’s mother asks Ching to take her grandmother in until she is sent to a nursing home and that makes her ponder over her relationship with her mother. Three generations of women, each has their own share of pain.
Lai-sing, full of aspirations as a journalist, lives in Hong Kong with his sister Kei-mei. Their parents live in Hainan since retirement while Uncle Guoyou lives in Shenzhen. The family is separated until the third anniversary of the death of Lai-sing's grandmother. According to tradition, a monument has to be erected on this occasion, which brings the family members to meet up. The reunion slowly unveils the indiscernible distances and intimacies built over time. It is only through understanding and acceptance that they would cast aside their differences and show genuine care for each other.
Ching’s parents are retirees ready to leave for Taiwan where a new chapter awaits them. The only thing holding them back is their daughter’s hesitation to join them. Unbeknownst to them, Ching is stuck in an affair with a married man. She is constantly teetering between trust and distrust, clinging on unfulfilled promises instead of letting go. Life has presented a difficult crossroad to her as she weighs between acting for her own good and following what the heart desires.
We enjoy the adrenaline rush given by horror films. But what if we are personally involved in the horror? Director Chun has created a ghost story based on a real case with a dancer murdered, incorporating all marketable ideas like women, supernatural forces and violence. Successfully he persuades the boss to invest in his horror, but there is one “little” requirement – in order to pass the Mainland censorship, no ghost can be presented in the ghost story. So keen to make it work, Chun compromises. While he starts to change the script, an unexpected visitor shows up and leads him to a special journey. A film depicting the bittersweet life of film workers.
Kuen is a lounge singer on Temple Street. Her son Kakei, now a university student, returns to Hong Kong for just a few days after emigrating to Canada with his father. Kuen's colleague Kit has to work overnight and enlists Kuen’s help to take care of her young son. During the sleepless night, Kuen and Ka-kei relive their past and envisage their future through another pair of mother and son. Under the bright sun, the cycle of life and family relationships continue, made all the more touching by the nuanced moments of care and concern between each other. SHAM Ka-ki of Weeds On Fire plays the son and renders a tender and layered performance full of subtlety.
The film is based on the Founder of Causeway Bay Books - LAM Wing-kee’s experience after he was temporarily released back to Hong Kong after 8 months of detention in Mainland China. LAM was demanded by the authorities to retrieve his computer in the bookstore in Hong Kong, alongside with the information of his customers. Only when he found out that his colleague handed over to him the wrong computer, should he start to think about possibilities besides submitting to authorities from Mainland China. The film re-enacts the events happened in the two days he was allowed to return to Hong Kong and explores LAM’s decision to defy, and refuse to leave his homeland.
