Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
HKFA’s “Close Encounters with Master Filmmakers: Movie Talks” explores humanistic cinematic works of director Jacob Cheung
In the 1980s, Cheung made a strong directorial debut with “Lai Shi, China’s Last Eunuch” (1988), a critical and commercial success, before following it up with “Beyond the Sunset” (1989), which won the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Film and Best Screenplay. The selected films vary in subject matter and technique, but are all filled with Cheung’s sense of humanistic care. Two of them illustrate how individuals caught in hardship navigate their circumstances, including “Lai Shi, China’s Last Eunuch”, where the protagonist is evicted from the imperial palace shortly after his castration following the fall of the dynasty, and “Always on My Mind” (1993), an absurdist comedy about a news anchor with terminal cancer who colludes with television executives to sensationalise his illness in order to secure his family’s financial future.
A number of the selected works display Cheung’s interest in the female perspective. “Beyond the Sunset” explores the generational divide stemming from mindset and cultural differences through the rift between the protagonist and her daughter, who has been living abroad for many years. “Intimates” (1997) contrasts the life journeys of two generations of women – one who is still nursing a broken heart, and the past of her father’s nanny. In one of Anita Mui’s iconic cinematic performances “Midnight Fly” (2001), she starred as a woman in conflict yet marked by a strange mutual understanding with her husband’s mistress.
Adapted from an online novel, “Rest on Your Shoulder” (2011) tells the story of a woman who transforms into a butterfly and finds the cure for a pandemic in the insect world, with a fresh spin added to humanism by infusing it with fantasy.
Tickets priced at $60 will be available from October 11 (Sunday) at URBTIX (www.urbtix.hkIssued at HKT 12:00
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