In
Hong Kong, the future may already be here, five years ahead of schedule.
Tragically, it is a future of eroding freedoms and intrusive police state
tactics envisioned by the filmmakers speculating on what HK life might be like
in a decade’s time. Their 2015 anthology film won best film at the Hong Kong
Film Awards, despite the condemnation of the Mainland state media. The eerie
prescience of Ten Years is undeniable when it screens as part of the
Metrograph’s film series, To Hong Kong with Love.
Kwok
Zune’s “Extras” is certainly stylish and maybe not as paranoid as it might have
seemed five years ago, but the ironic kicker remains obvious right from the
start. Two low level triads have been recruited to stage a phony assassination
attempt to drum up public support for a draconian “public security” proposal. From
the vantage point of 2020, the parallels with the extradition bill are almost
spooky. Mike Mak’s stark black-and-white cinematography well serves the darkly
cynical morality tale, but it does not land with the same emotional force as
some of the later stories.
By
far, the weakest constituent film is Wong Fei-pang’s “Season of the End,” in
which a duo of cultural anthropologists collect specimens from razed working
class neighborhoods in a rather absurdist, Beckett-ish fashion. It is far too
reserved and mannered to make any appreciable impact with general audiences.
Fortunately,
Jevons Au’s “Ðialect” represents a dramatic improvement. Screenwriters Chung
Chui-yi, Ho Fung-lun, and Lulu Yang tell the deceptively simple but heartfelt
story of a Cantonese-speaking cab-driver facing the potential loss of his
livelihood, because of legal mandates requiring Mandarin fluency. Leung
Kin-ping’s terrific performance as the driver is subtle and dignified, but
still quite poignant. It is a quiet human story, but it also has direct relevancy
for Hong Kong’s Localist movement.
“Dialect”
alone would be enough to justify recommending Ten Years, but the courageousness
of director-screenwriter Chow Kwuh-wai’s “Self-Immolator” demands to be seen to
be believed (and marveled at). Unfolding in pseudo-documentary-style, the POV
camera crew tries to undercover the identity of a protestor who indeed
self-immolated, apparently in response to the death in prison of
hunger-striking independence activist Au-yeung Kin-fung.
Chow
explicitly refers to the notorious Falun Gong self-immolations as most likely propaganda
operations faked by the CCP and its secret police, while consciously echoing
Jan Palach’s self-immolation in Communist Czechoslovakia. It is an amazingly
bold work of cinema, but it is also an enormously gripping and suspenseful
short film.
Yet,
Ten Years still manages to save the best for last. Screenwriter-director
Ng Ka-leung’s “Local Egg” could be considered the film’s equivalent of To
Kill a Mockingbird. Sam, the proprietor of a neighborhood grocery, is about
to lose his long-time supplier of locally produced eggs because of government
harassment. He is sad to see them go, because he has done business with the family
for years and his customers prefer locally-sourced food. Unfortunately, the
very use of the word “local” causes him grief with the junior snitch squad,
which his son Ming belongs to.
Even
though it comes in an anthology film, Liu Kai-chi’s performance as Sam really is
exceptional. His portrait of the shopkeeper is truly akin to Gregory Peck’s
Atticus Finch. Yet, perhaps the best aspect of “Local Egg” is the way Ng and
Liu manage to find an affirming note to end it on.
Ten
Years very
clearly asks whether there is still time to save Hong Kong’s future and very
way of life. “Local Egg” hopes there is, but “Self-Immolator” suggests
otherwise. So much of those two films (and “Dialect”) have already come to
pass, it is hard to consider Ten Years “speculative” anymore.
Regardless, it still contains some powerful drama and potent protest. Very
highly recommended, Ten Years screens this Saturday afternoon (2/29) at
the Metrograph.
