Hong Kong: Final Days of Freedom tries to keep the spotlight on Hong Kong (even) in 2024 (Film review)

  

Poster for a documentary, not anime

Hong Kong: Final Days of Freedom (U.S.A.-Hong Kong, 2024)

- Sean Fleck, director, writer and co-producer (with Alan Parks)

 

Back in 2020, Hong Kong protest documentary short Anders Hammer's Do Not Split was nominated for an Oscar.  One year later, Kiwi Chow's Revolution of Our Times had its world premiere at the Cannes film festival.  Five years on from the anti-extradition bill-turned-pro-democracy protests that captured the world's attention, films continue to be made about Hong Kong and its protest movement.  And while I've not managed to view James Leong's If We Burn (2023) and the anonymously made She's In Jail (2024), about imprisoned lawyer-activist Chow Hang-tung, I've managed to view Hong Kong: Final Days of Freedom here in Hong Kong.

 

Made by American documentary filmmaker Sean Fleck, Hong Kong: Final Days of Freedom is so newly made that it includes information about the passing of Article 23 into law, something which took place barely two months ago.  Incredibly, the pretty comprehensive work also has some coverage of such as the Article 23 protests of 2003, the National Education protests of 2012, the Occupy phase of the Umbrella Movement in 2014, the bookseller abductions of 2015 and Causeway Books' Lam Wing-kee's post-escape revelations before getting to its main subject matter: the 2019 protests and what's happened to, and in, Hong Kong since.

 

Although its poster may make it seem otherwise, Hong Kong: Final Days of Freedom is a seriously legit work that has far from a cartoon-like approach to Hong Kong, and the anti-extradition bill-turned-pro-democracy protests that raged on the streets for much of 2019 and into 2020 before Covid (then known as Wuhan coronavirus) woes got Hongkongers fixating on the pandemic over protests.  Witness its coverage of the peaceful -- and very large number of -- Hong Kong protestors (known as the wo lei fei who were "peaceful, rational and non-violent") as well as the frontline protestors known as "the braves" (that such as Do Not Split had focused -- I'd even say fixated -- on).

Hong Kong: Final Days of Freedom also includes interview footage with a number of personalities -- including the likes of exiled dissidents Frances Hui, Joey Siu, Samuel Chu and Jeffrey Ngo --  and Lee Cheuk-yan, a Tienanmen Square Massacre survivor and former trade unionist, activist and politician who's been behind bars ever since he was arrested and denied bail on Febrary 28th, 2021.  By the way, it was somewhat disconcerting to see Lee Cheuk-yan in the documentary -- especially those sections of it that spoke in what might be termed "the ethnographic present" -- since he's not appeared in public (excluding his court appearances) for more than three years now.

 

Hong Kong: Final Days of Freedom also includes interviews by a number of Hong Kong protestors whose faces and actual names are not revealed.  This is understandable since those people were taking a risk by appearing in this documentary -- even if they were only providing factual information about the pro-democracy protests.  (And, frankly, I'm also possibly putting myself at risk/in danger by revealing that I've seen the film and in reviewing it.  Such is the state of -- and life in -- national security era Hong Kong!)

Sean Fleck's documentary additionally contains interviews with a number of American politicians (including Republicans Mike Gallagher and Michelle Steel but also Democrats Raja Krishnomoorthi and Jake Auchincloss).  And although they come from and represent both sides of the ideological aisle, my sense is that this might weaken whatever messages that Hong Kong: Final Days of Freedom seeks to make -- on account of the documentary being perceived as (primarily/wholely) targeted to Americans.

 

This is a pity since I actually think that Hong Kong: Final Days of Freedom tries hard to be even-handed even while also being largely on the side of pro-demcracy Hong Kongers; something the way it chooses to conclude makes pretty clear.  Also, the quote from George Orwell's 1984 that the work chooses to open with it is says so much: i.e., "The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.  It is their final, most essential command"; this all the more so due to it having been superimposed over a Maoist propaganda poster!

My rating for this film: 7.5

Snow in Midsummer gets critical acclaim and screened outside of Malaysia -- but will it get what it deserves in its home country? (Film review)

  

Poster for Snow in Midsummer on display

at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre during

the 48th Hong Kong International Film Festival

 

Snow in Midsummer (Malaysia-Singapore-Taiwan, 2023)

- Chong Keat Aun, director, scriptwriter and co-music composer (with Yii Kah Hoe)

- Starring: Wan Fang, Pearlly Chua, Pauline Tan, Lim Koet Yenn

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Firebird Awards: Young Cinema Competition (Chinese Language) program

 

In my previous blog post (and review of Hollywoodgate), I mentioned there being a number of Hong Kong films that cannot be screened in national security law era Hong Kong -- yet my (still) being able to view many works from elsewhere that are banned in their home territories.  Snow in Midsummer may be one more such cinematic effort.  At the post screening Q&A I attended, its director-scriptwriter, Chong Keat Aun, said that he had submitted his drama about what he's called "a hidden wound in Malaysian history" to the Malaysian film censorship board -- but, as yet, had not heard back from them.

 

The same day that it screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, Snow in Midsummer was named as the winner of the Firebird Award in the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese language) section of the fest.  And it is set to begin its Hong Kong theatrical run tomorrow -- four days before the 55th anniversary of what's now known as the May 13th Incident (which I used to remember hearing about as the May 13th race riots -- since, in the Malaysian worldview, Malays, Chinese and Indians are different "races" (as opposed to ethnic groups) -- for what seemed like the longest time).   

 

Snow in Midsummer begins on May 13th, 1969. Ah Eng (played by Lim Koet Yenn) is a young girl of ethnic Chinese parentage who's a bullying victim at her Malay language (and presumably majority ethnic Malay) Kuala Lumpur primary school.  Her Nyonya mother, Su Mei (portrayed by Pauline Tan), wants her husband Kooi (essayed by Peter Yu) to get Ah Eng blessed by a medium of Datuk Kong -- but he chose to have a ritual performed on their son Yeow (played by Teoh Wei Hern) instead.

 

The relationship between Su Mei and Kooi appears on the strained side. So it came as no surprise that when Kooi gets two tickets to go watch a movie at the Majestic cinema that evening, he elects to take Yeow with him. The snub ends up saving Su Mei and Ah Eng's lives. Because, the Majestic cinema ends up becoming a massacre site that night -- while Su Mei and Ah Eng, who had contented themselves with going and watching an open air Cantonese opera performance by the temple where the medium of Datuk Kong had effectively held court, were saved by members of the Cantonese opera troupe (whose leader is played by Pearlly Chua) who let them hide backstage with them while others ran riot and murdered or were murdered.

 

Fast forward 49 years and Ah Eng (now portrayed by Wan Fang) is now a middle-aged woman living in Penang. After she learns about a soon-to-be demolished "513 cemetery" on the Kuala Lumpur outskirts, she decides -- over the objections of her husband (who comes across as rude and domineering as her father) to go there on the anniversary of the riots -- to see whether she can find the graves of her father and brother; something her grieving mother had been unable to do all these years. 

 

Snow in Midsummer's director, Chong Keat Aun, spoke about the difficulties of finding Malaysian actresses for his film on account of the continued sensitivites over the May 13th Incident.  And I can't help wondering if the character of Ah Eng would have been more loquacious  if she had been played by a Malaysian actress as an adult rather than a Taiwanese whose lines were largely in Mandarin (despite the film being multi-lingual -- using Hokkien, Cantonese and Malay (as well as English? I forget!) dialogue (whose English subtitles don't quite do them justice).

 

Alternatively, it might have been Chong Keat Aun's intention all along to get the audience figuring a lot of things out for themselves via visual and other cues.  Frankly, I think this is a big ask of Snow in Midsummer's audience since there really are a lot of things that require prior knowledge: of not only Malaysian history but Malaysian ethnic relations, local ethnic traditions and Cantonese opera.  

 

As an example: The movie's title refers to the Cantonese opera performed in the film whose theme concerns a grave miscarriage of justice -- something that Chong Keat Aun clearly believes has taken place not only with regards to what happened on May 13th, 1969, itself but, also, the neglect of its victims over the years. (On a perhaps related note: I also felt that Ah Eng and Su Mei were women who their husbands sought to control -- even oppress -- them, yet were actually strong characters in their own way, even while being much put upon!)

 

In any case, the work does appear to have struck a chord with film festival programmers and audience members at such as Venice (where it had its world premiere), Taiwan (where it was nominated for 9 Golden Horse Awards) and now also Hong Kong.  Still, I do believe that it's in Malaysia where Snow in Midsummer would most resonate.  We can but hope that it will be allowed to be screened there at some point in time -- and without the damaging cuts that removed its essence, the way that has happened to Cannes award winner Tiger Stripes!  

My rating for this film: 8.0

Hollywoodgate reveals much more about Taliban-ruled Afghanistan than they may thought was possible (Film review)

  

Director-cinematographer-co-producer Ibrahim Nash'at and 

co-editor Atanas Georgiev at the post-screening Q&A

 

Hollywoodgate (Germany-U.S.A., 2023)

- Ibrahim Nash'at, director, cinematographer and co-producer

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Documentary Competition program

 

In recent years, film censorship has become more of a thing in Hong Kong than previously was the case.  Probably not coincidentally, we've seen a decrease in the number of Hong Kong films screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.  (After all, I can think of a number of Hong Kong films that, while screened overseas, no longer can be screened in Hong Kong -- including one that had its world premiere at Cannes in 2021.)      

 

At the same time, many films (still) can be screened in Hong Kong that can't be screened in the countries that their filmmakers hail from and/or they were shot.  I think of offerings by such as Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi (two of which -- This Is Not a Film (2012) and Closed Curtain (2013) -- I viewed at previous editions of the Hong Kong International Film Festival); and, among those screened this year, the likes of Tatami, and this documentary work by Egyptian director-cinematographer Ibrahim Nash'at chronicling daily life in Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power there.

 

Hollywoodgate takes its name from a complex on the outskirts of Kabul previously occupied by the American military (or, it is speculated, CIA operatives).  Soon after the last American forces left Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban go in to see what's there -- and do so accompanied by Ibrahim Nash'at and his camera.

 

Granted permission to film in Afghanistan, albeit on pretty restricted terms, Ibrahim Nash'at's camera is officially trained for the most part on Mawlawi Mansour, a bushy-bearded Taliban commander who gets named as the Commander of the country's air force.  At great risk to his personal safety (threats to kill him if he misbehaves can be heard being issued by more than one Taliban member), Hollywoodgate's director-cinematographer also manages to capture a lot of other subjects in his frame.

 

Amazingly, Ibrahim Nash'at ended up managing to stay and film for a year in Afghanistan.  Over this time, one is able to see the Taliban evolve from guerillas to a more conventional military force; thanks in no small part to their reappropriation of an estimated US$7 billion worth of military equipment and supplie that the American forces left behind at complexes like Hollywood Gate.  (And while attempts were made to destroy equipment by the Americans, quite a bit of it were found to be repairable by the Afghans, including a rather alarming number of pretty impressive military aircraft -- transport helicopters, fighter jets, bombers, etc.)

 

Somewhere along the way, Ibrahim Nash'at also gained permission to film one of Mawlawi Mansour's junior soldiers, an officer named M.J. Mukhtar who, if anything, appears to have a stronger thirst for violence than his commander.  And also a looser cannon.  Yet the Egyptian documentary filmmaker stuck to spent time with him, including when M. J. Mukhtar drives around Kabul.  In so doing, he manages to film scenes from the car of everyday scenes, such as of people going about marketing -- which may be among the most chilling segments of Hollywoodgate thanks to the glimpses one gets of the terrible lot of women in the Taliban-controlled land.   

A the post-screening Q&A, Ibrahim Nash'at was asked if the Taliban had seen his documentary.  He replied that they had expressed no interest in doing so.  So the chances are that Hollywoodgate will never be screened in Afghanistan, and that probably is for the best.  As I could well imagine some members of the Taliban regretting his having been granted as much access as he was to film -- for what he managed to do is reveal a lot, a good bulk of which is chilling and also tragic indeed.

 

My rating for this film: 8.0.

Tatami is a very suspenseful and watchable mix of sports and politics (Film review)

  

Face to Face with Zar Amir at the 2024

Hong Kong International Film Festival :) 

 

Tatami (Georgia-U.S.A., 2023)

- Guy Nattiv (who co-scripted with Elham Erfani) and Zar Amir, co-directors

- Starring: Arienne Mandi, Zar Amir, Jaime Ray Newman, Nadine Marshall

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Cinephile Paradise program

 

As I write this, the Georgian capital of Tblisi is in the news as it is rocked by mass protests by the country's citizenry against its government.  In Tatami, however, it is a politically neutral space which is playing host to a World Judo Championships that Iranian judoka Leila Hosseini (played by Arienne Mandi) aspires to win, even if this means her going up and defeating a friend who also is a sporting rival in Israeli judoka Shani Lavi (essayed by Lir Katz).

 

As those familiar with Middle East politics will know though, Iranian hardliners would not countenance the idea of someone from their country appearing next to someone from Israel in public.  So when a genuine possibility arises of Leila and Shani coming together in an upcoming round of the competition, pressure gets put on Leila from the Iranian regime to either pull out of the championship by faking an injury or deliberately losing to an opponent in an early round.

 

A true sportswoman (who cares far more about sport than politics, and for whom it's anathema to throw a match), Leila refuses to do so.  In so doing, she directly defies her long time coach (and former judo champion), Maryam (portrayed by Zar Amir), as well as Iranian government officials who have commanded Maryam to get her charge to do what they want.  And because the order to withdraw comes from the very top, this act of disobedience and defiance puts Leila and Maryam -- and perhaps even more so since they're in Iran: Leila's husband (played by Ash Goldeh), young son and parents, and Maryam's family -- in grave danger.

 

Based on and inspired by true occurences and events, Tatami is a nail-bitingly suspenseful drama with a a great story to tell.  It also is a very watchable sports actioner with emotionally gripping judo scenes that must have demanded much physically from its actresses, and are excitingly lensed (in black andd white -- a decision Zar Amir explained as wanting to emphasize the black-and-white view of the world held by the Iranian regime, and black and white outfits of the competing judoka -- by Todd Martin) and dynamically edited (by Yuval Orr).  

 

As improbable as it might sound, Tatami got this (re)viewer caring about whether Leila would win every single one of the judo bouts we see her compete in -- often utterly ferociously, like she was fighting for her very life on the tatami -- as well as whether she and her family, and also Maryam (who one can sees does care very much for Leila as an athlete as well as Leila as a person, and for Leila's and her own safety), will somehow be able to escape the wrath and/or grasps of the ayatollahs.  It helps that Arienne Mandi put in such a winning performance; ditto Zee Avi, whose character was more difficult to champion and like while even more conflicted.

 

More than by the way, Zar Amir not only co-starred and -directed but also was in charge of Tatami's casting and is one of the film's co-producers.  I think it also worth noting -- and I'm sure had some impact on the production -- that she knows what it's like to have incurred the anger of the Iranian authorities.  More specifically, she was banned from appearing in films and TV for 10 years, and sentenced to  to 99 lashes with a leather strap, by the Iranian court -- and only avoided these penalties by fleeing Iran.  She has lived in France since 2008.     

 

My rating for the film: 9.0

Favoriten shows us a multicultural Austrian elementary class' world (Film review)

  

48th Hong Kong International Film Festival 

advertising by the side of a street

 

Favoriten (Austria, 2024)

- Ruth Beckermann, director and co-scriptwriter (with Elisabeth Manesse)

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Documentary Competition program

 

In what can seem like another life now, I aspired to be an educator.  Hence my often gravitating to books. TV shows and films with educational settings (including, to name just a few: To Serve Them All My Days; To Sir With Love; The Paper Chase; and Dead Poet's Society).  

 

If given the choice though, I'd focus on secondary or tertiary rather than primary education.  For, frankly, my sense is that the younger the child, the more difficult it is to deal with them!  So I am inclined to take my hat off the most to primary school teachers -- and was left in awe of the one we see in Favoriten -- who is obviously adored by her young charges, all 25 of them, the majority of whom she teaches and communicates with in a language that's not their first language.

 

Ilkay Idiskut is a teacher in the largest elementary school in Vienna, Austria.  Favoriten -- which takes its name from the working-class district in which the school is located -- documents the goings-on in her classroom over a period of three years as she guides her multi-cultural, co-ed class of students (many of them recent migrants and/or refugees from countries such as Turkey (where she herself originally hailed), Syria, Serbia, Romania and Ukraine) through the third to fifth grade of the Austrian school system.  

 

Director Ruth Beckerman and cinematographer Johannes Hammel also follow Ilkay and her class on trips to a mosque (where a student proudly reveals that his father is an imam) and a Catholic church (where it is revealed that none of the students are of the Catholic faith).  There are also scenes where the parents, with their children present, meet with Ilkay (where it comes to light that quite a few of the parents are themselves struggling with speaking German); and one where the school's head teacher holds a meeting with his staff (during which one gets the distinct sense that the school (system) is not as well-funded as should be the case).

 

In the main though, the focus in Favoriten is on the learning that takes place in the classroom; with Ilkay teaching the class about how to behave and treat one another as well as maths, German and other formal subjects.  And while Ilkay is the main "character" in the film on account of her being the teacher in charge and primary adult in the documentary, the students quickly show that they may be diminuitive in size but quite a few of them have outsize personalities, and presences that have an effect on their surroundings and others around them!

 

At one point during filming, director Beckermann gave the children camera phones and had them film and conduct interviews of their classmates.  This results in interesting footage and conversations.  But the actual film crew also appear to have been successful in getting the children to act naturally in their presence too; resulting in Favoriten being a remarkably intimate collective portrait of a group of children whose struggles along with endeavor are honestly shown, and who have been helped along for three years by the presence in their life of an exemplary educator who truly cared for them.    

 

My rating for this film: 7.0

The Dupes is a classic of Arab cinema that is a painful but important watch (Film review)

  

One of a number of pro-Palestinian stickers spotted 

in Hong Kong in recent months

 

The Dupes (Syria, 1972) 

- Tewfik Saleh, director and co-scriptwriter (with Ghassan Kanafani)

- Starring: Mohamed Kheir-Halouani, Abderrahman Alrahy, Bassan Lotfi Abou-Ghazala, Saleh Kholoki 

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Restored Classics program

 

Going into the screening of this (restored in 2023) classic of Arab cinema, I knew that -- as per the title of the fourth segment of 2019 Hong Kong film Memories to Choke On, Drinks To Wash Them Down -- It's Not Going to Be Fun.  And, actually, in view of what's been happening in Gaza for some six months now, The Dupes may be an even more upsetting watch in early 2024 because this 1972 film shows how much, and longer, Palestinians have been suffering than many people realize. 

 

Set in Iraq but actually shot in Syria by Egyptian director Tewfik Saleh, The Dupes had its world premiere at Tunisia's Carthage Film Festival in the same year that its co-scriptwriter, Palestinian author-politician Ghassan Fayiz Kanafan, was assassinated, in Beirut.  Kanafan also wrote Men in the Sun, the 1962 novel that The Dupes' story is adapted from.  And both the novel and the film tell the story of three Palestinian refugees seeking to travel from the refugee camps in Iraq, where they cannot find work, to Kuwait, where they hope to make the kind of money it is impossible for them to do in the refugee camps.  

 

The oldest and first of the three to be introduced in The Dupes is Abou Keïss (portrayed by Mohamed Kheir-Halouani), an illiterate farmer who went through the 1948 Nakba (ethnic cleansing of Palestinians) and still pines for the olive trees he once had in his home village.  A generation younger than him, 16-year-old Marwan (essayed by Saleh Kholoki) nonetheless feels the pressure to provide for his family -- now rather than after, as he had hoped, he had finished his schooling.  And in between the two of them in age is Assad (played by Bassan Lofti Abou-Ghazala), a young activist who has had run-ins with the authorities and thinks it would be better for him to flee before he gets arrested and thrown into jail. 

 

After each of them individually fail to agree terms with Iraqi smugglers, all three Palestinians decide to entrust their fate to Abul Al Khaizran (portrayed by Abderrahman Alrahy), a fellow Palestinian who said he would smuggle them on board a truck he would drive across the desert to Kuwait -- for a fee, but less than what the Iraqis said they charged.  (For the record, the bulk of The Dupes focuses on Palestinian individuals and their interactions with one anothers; with such as Zionists barely having any screentime.) 

 

Before they meet one another's acquaintance, Abou Keïss, Assad and Marwan are shown to have already experienced (more than) their (fair) share of deprivations and frustrations.  But while Abul Al Khaizran appears to be in a better position than the desperate trio, it turns out that he, too, has a tragic past; one that has made him actually even more embittered than his fellow Palestinians -- who, unaware of this, decide to trust him with their lives primarily because he hails from the same homeland as them.

A detached observer viewing what transpires in The Dupes will look at Abou Keïss, Assad and Marwan as easily identifiable, as per the film's title, dupes for trusting Abul Al Khaizran with their very lives.  And this especially when one beholds the old truck he drives and hears his plan, which involves hiding the desperate trio for a part of what was already a pretty dangerous journey inside its water tank -- in hellishly hot conditions, given that they would be making their trip in August (the height of summer).  

But the fact of the matter is that Abou Keïss, Assad and Marwan are pretty much in a "Damned if you do, Damned if you don't" situation and it's really a case of dying a slow or quick, extremely painful or still painful, death for all of them.  The sorry fate of Palestinians, refugees, and Palestinian refugees, it seems.  

 

At the same time, there's some hope dangled in front of our trio of protagonists -- and the fact of the matter is that sometimes, it's the hope that can kill you.  To repeat: The Dupes is not a film one goes into a screening of assuming that it'll be a fun watch.  But credit to Tewfik Salleh and co for making it engrossing, involving, cruelly tense and painfully heart-tugging -- and for making this (re)viewer want so much better for the work's (anti-)heroes, against what really are overwhelming odds.

 

My rating for the film: 8.0

Cinema Strada puts Law Kar left, right and centre (Film review)

  

Cinema Strada director Donna Ong and subject Law Kar

at the world premiere of the film

 

Cinema Strada (Hong Kong, 2024)

- Donna Ong, director

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Filmmakers and Filmmaking program

 

The man known to Hong Kong film fans by his pseudonym/penname Law Kar (but whose actual name is Lau Yiu-kuen) is the subject of this documentary directed by Donna Ong.  He also is the producer and narrator of Cinema Strada -- so most definitely is left, right and centre of it.

I'll come right out and say it: I'm not sure whether this is a good thing.  For one thing, Law Kar may be too familiar with Law Kar!  By this, I mean that he -- and thus, Cinema Strada -- may have assumed that audiences of the documentary will already have known a lot about him prior to going into a screening of it.  For even while it does pretty much tell the story of Law Kar from the beginning, chronologically speaking, it also can feel like some of the more basic and obvious information we should know about this veteran Hong Kong film critic is missing -- or only mentioned by the by.

 

As an example: Law Kar was the programmer for the Hong Kong Film Archive from 2001 to 2005 (and a guest programmer for a number of years after that).  He also programmed the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Hong Kong film retrospectives for a number of years.  In doing so, he shaped opinions and views on Hong Kong cinema for decades -- particularly, it might be argued, in the 21st century.  And yet, the bulk of Cinema Strada focuses on events that took place in the 20th century, and selective decades of that century at that.

In particular, Cinema Strada spends a lot of time on the 1960s -- covering not only Law Kar's time as editor-in-chief of popular youth magazine, The Chinese Student Weekly, which he used to introduce world cinema and film theory to readers, critiqued non-mainstream art films from overseas, and shone a light on local moves in Chinese films, but also his reactions and thoughts about such as the Hong Kong Riots of 1967 and Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film, Blow-Up!  

 

Given its surprisingly extensive coverage of the 1967 Hong Kong Riots, you might think that there would be mention too of more recent political upheavals in Hong Kong.  But that's not the case.  And I have to admit that I got to wondering whether this constitutes self-censorship on Law Kar's part.  Something that would be... understandable, given the times we now live in. (A reminder: Article 23 came into effect days before this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival got going.  This on top of Hong Kong already having a national security law imposed on it by China on June 30th, 2020.)  But disappointing and sad all the same.

 

Let's put it this way: I came out of Cinema Strada wondering what this film would have been like if it had been made just five years earlier -- the same way that I rue the biopic about Anita Mui having come out in 2021 rather than, say, 2011, 2016 or even 2019.  I also wondered if Law Kar the subject would have been better served if he had been less "hands on" with regards to this documentary.

 

To be sure, it was interesting to learn about such as Law Kar's youth in Macau, his time in Italy (when he went to study for a time and met Fellini, even being an extra in one of the Italian auteur's films) and also his views of 1950s Hong Kong after he moved here from Macau.  It also was fun to see snippets of his time with TVB (which he joined in 1974), where he scripted and co-directed drama series for and with then up-and-coming directors including members of the Hong Kong New Wave such as Patrick Tam Ka-ming, Ann Hui, Yim Ho and the late Alex Cheung. 

 

 Still, I can't shake off the feeling that, ultimately, what I got was an incomplete, uneven, skewed maybe too, portrait of Law Kar -- that was incredibly detailed in parts but basic in others -- and feel that it's a pity that this was so.  This not least as I think Law Kar, the man, could be as interesting a film subject as Harry Odell, the impressario that Dora Choi and Haider Kikabhoy's  To Be Continued (which had its world premiere at last year's Hong Kong International Film Festival) did such a great job of introducing its audience to.

My rating for this film: 6.0