We present the 2nd part of our list of films you cannot miss at the 42nd Hong Kong International Film Festival which will take place from March 19th to April 5th, 2018.
Last Child (Salanameun Ayi) by Shin Dong-seok – South Korea | 2017 – 124 min.
Section: Firebird Awards | Young Cinema Competition
A grief-stricken couple, whose son drowned saving the life of his friend, takes in the boy when they see him harassed by a group of teenagers. The father teaches him interior decorating skills and the mother gradually opens her heart. Soon the three become like family, until one day the boy makes a confession. The couple must choose how to cope with the truth that their son was not the noble sacrifice that the world knows. Director Shin underplays the emotional extremes to create a powerfully gritty tale of guilt and grief. (HKIFF Catalogue)
Schedule:
March 31st, 2018 | Saturday | The Grand Cinema – 2:15 pm
April 2nd, 2018 | Monday | The Grand Cinema – 12:00 pm
Trailer:
Looking for Lucky by Jiang Jianchen – China | 2017 – 102 min.
Section: Pan-Chinese Cinema | Chinese Cinema Now
A rousing dog-and-man comedy set in Shenyang in northeastern China, where people argue continuously. An MA student loses his professor’s dog and must enlist his father’s help to retrieve it, lest his prospective tutorship vanish. Full of humorous and lively conversations, the film captures the rhythms of real life, in which absurdity is part of living. Emerging director Jiang Jiachen delivers a biting satire on every conceivable illness in modern society, along with an endearing father-and-son relationship. (HKIFF Catalogue)
Schedule:
April 2nd, 2018 | Monday | Festival Grand Cinema – 9:30 pm
April 4th, 2018 | Wednesday | Grand Kornhill Cinema – 7:30 pm
Trailer:
Love Education by Sylvia Chang – Taiwan, China | 2017 – 119 min.
Section: Pan-Chinese Cinema | Hong Kong Panorama 2017-18
Sylvia Chang returns with this nuanced drama about the fragile bonds and surprising similarities among three generations of Chinese women. Stubborn, middle-aged Huiying plans to move her father’s remains from his rural hometown to the city, but encounters resistance from her father’s first wife. Meanwhile, Huiying’s daughter Weiwei struggles to break free from her mother. Through observant writing, sharp wit, and graceful direction, Sylvia Chang delivers one of her finest works to date. (HKIFF Catalogue)
Schedule:
April 4th, 2018 | Wednesday | Hong Kong Arts Centre – 2:00 pm
Trailer:
Mama by Jin Xingzheng – China | 2017 – 89 min.
Section: Firebird Awards | Documentary Competition
Mothers take care of their children. When mothers grow older, the children take care of them. But although Luo Zhangjie is approaching 90, her son, deeply damaged by meningitis, continues to require her care. To top it all, who will take care of him when she is gone? A moving documentary with the visual beauty of Vermeer and the stark simplicity of a fable, it grapples with the cycles of life and the problems facing a changing China. Nominated for Best Documentary, Golden Horse Awards. (HKIFF Catalogue)
Schedule:
March 30th, 2018 | Friday | The Sky – 4:30 pm
April 1st, 2018 | Sunday | The Sky – 7:15 pm
Trailer:
Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts by Mously Surya
Indonesia, France | 2017 – 93 min.
Section: World Cinema | Global Vision
Spaghetti Western becomes Satay Western in director Surya’s powerful, provocative female journey of repossessed strength and personal identity, After robbers have stolen her livestock and raped her, young widow Marlina, with a severed head in hand, hits the road to seek justice. Sharply sardonic and fiercely feminist in what is typically a masculine genre, this revenge fantasy is rooted in Indonesia’s gender inequality, complex culture and stark beauty. (HKIFF Catalogue)
Schedule:
March 21st, 2018 | Wednesday | The Sky – 7:30 pm
March 24th, 2018 | Saturday | The Metroplex – 9:45 pm
Trailer:
Nervous Translation by Shireen Seno – Philippines | 2018 – 90 min.
Section: World Cinema | Indie Power
In a year where many films explore the world through children’s eyes, both The Florida Project (P.12) and The Seen and Unseen find their counterpoint in this bittersweet depiction of the Philippines in the 1980s. Yael, at 8, balances an overseas father she barely remembers through messages on cassette tapes, an uncle who resembles him and a mother exhausted by work and responsibility, inviting us into the small-scale reality that buffers her from the troubles swirling so close around her. (HKIFF Catalogue)
Schedule:
March 20th, 2018 | Tuesday | Festival Grand Cinema – 7:15 pm
March 22nd, 2018 | Thursday | The Sky – 7:15 pm
Trailer:
Of Love & Law by Toda Hikaru – Japan, UK, France | 2017 – 94 min.
Section: Firebird Awards – Documentary Competition
This crowd-sourced activist documentary by Toda Hikaru centers on two men, Fumi and Kazu, who are both lovers and partners in Japan’s only LGBTQ law firm. While affirming their partnerships amidst multiple repressions, these lawyers also take on clients whose issues expand our awareness of the dimensions of “outsiderness” and individuality challenging the status quo in a society that has mingled democracy and modernity with deeply confining traditions and rules. Grand Prize, “Japanese Cinema Splash”, Tokyo International Film Festival. (HKIFF Catalogue)
Schedule:
March 30th, 2018 | Friday | The Sky – 7:00 pm
April 1st, 2018 | Sunday | The Sky – 2:30 pm
Omotenashi by Jay Chern – Taiwan, Japan | 2018 – 96 min.
Section: Gala Presentation | OPENING FILM
When the moon no longer shines, the beautiful yet obsolete Bright Moon Ryokan in Kyoto is acquired by the innkeeper’s Taiwanese former lover, who sends his son to supervise the renovation. Unaware of his hidden agenda, the innkeeper is excited about the idea of turning the hotel into a wedding venue, and suggests that he learns “omotenashi”, the virtue of traditional Japanese hospitality, together with her daughter and the otaku helper. Distant yet intimate, Jay Chern’s feature debut offers a heartwarming portrayal of young people getting to appreciate different cultures, and the values of things old and new. (HKIFF Catalogue)
Schedule:
March 19th, 2018 | Monday | Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre – 7:30 pm
March 20th, 2018 | Tuesday | The Grand Cinema – 8:00 pm
Trailer:
Our House (Watashi-tachi no ie) by Kiyohara Yui – Japan | 2017 – 80 min.
Section: World Cinema | Indie Power
Two worlds in an old, odd-shaped house. Seri, nearly 14, knows her mother, Kiriko, has taken a new lover and plans to remarry. Sana, waking up on a ferry with no memory, stays with Toko, who keeps many secrets. Gradually the two worlds and the lives of the four characters subtly intertwine. Contriving a mystic world at once creepy, fascinating and touching, Kiyohara Yui, the PIA Film Festival Grand Prize Award winner, shows the hallmarks of creativity resembling her mentor, Kurosawa Kiyoshi. (HKIFF Catalogue)
Schedule:
March 23rd, 2018 | Friday | The Sky – 9:45 pm
March 25th, 2018 | Sunday | The Sky – 5:00 pm
Trailer:
Outrage Coda by Kitano Takeshi – Japan | 2017 – 104 min.
Section: Masters & Auteurs | The Master
In the final chapter of the Outrage trilogy, Kitano Takeshi makes sure there is nothing left for another sequel. The former yakuza boss leaves his seclusion in South Korea and returns to Japan to settle a conflict between two powerful enterprises in a tsunami of bullets. A perfect finale to Kitano’s labyrinthine yet hermetically contained yakuza universe, where the fires of stylized violence burn themselves to cold embers, leaving only emptiness and sadness behind them. (HKIFF Catalogue)
Schedule:
March 22nd, 2018 | Thursday | Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre – 9:45 pm
March 27th, 2018 | Tuesday | Jockey Club Auditorium, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University – 7:45 pm
Trailer:
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Asian Film Festivals 