36th HKIFF: Festival and Awards Recap

The 36^th edition of the HKIFF has finally come to an end, it is time to look back at some of the buzz titles from the fest this year with the premiere of the three world premiere local films: fest opener “Love In The Buff”, documentary “On The Edge Of A Floating City, We Sing” and the other Peng Ho-Cheung feature “Vulgaria”.

“Love In The Buff” is a sequel to “Love In The Puff”, which charmed so many Hong Kong cinephiles two years back with its simple, but cute love story between two fouled-mouth regular smokers. While “Buff” does not necessarily bring anything new on the table or outdo its predecessor, certainly its entertainment values and charm remain, and never lose its heart which is so great about the first place, even the stage has moved to Beijing, and they quitted smoking. But it is still the same old romantic story and Jimmy, Cherie we adore and love in the first place.

“On The Edge Of A Floating City, We Sing” premiered at the fest, but surely it didn’t receive much attention and hype compared to two other Peng’s features. But it still deserves a watch. With its common social and political themes regarding the land monopoly phenomenon in Hong Kong and touchy topic June 4^th, it looks more like a documentary that summarizes past few years of Hong Kong, than a documentary centering around three independent musicians. It has some flaws, but still thought-provoking enough for any local people that feel related with to turn away from.

“Vulgaria” is quite a surprise, touted as a pure local film, not mixed with an ounce of Chinese mainland production, at least that is what they claimed, it manages to turn out to be a “very fucking funny movie” as director Peng Ho-Cheung wished. It is filled with some crazy moments, though when it was almost done during viewing, it did give the feeling of incompleteness. But perhaps it never aims to be taken seriously, from its playful entrance towards the last minute of the film, what is a mystery remains a mystery to the audience. The film tells us that it is never easy to be a producer, more even so to make a popular film. But the hardest thing actually is to make a vulgar comedy, so vulgar that only a purely local film would be able to do that.

Awards Recap:

HKIFF just announced nine winning titles this year in five categories or competitions. In the Young Cinema Competition, “Song Of Silence” from young Chinese director Chen Zuo won Firebird Award, Japanese teenage drama “The End of Puberty” won Jury Prize.

In the category of Documentary Competition, Indian documentary on caste and class oppression “Jai Bhim Comrade” won Firebird Award, while “Back to the Square” from Canadian filmmaker Petr LOM won Jury Prize.

Move on to the Short Film Competition, Canada and Japan collaboration “Muybridge’s Strings” won Firebird Award, French short “Everyone says I love you” won Jury Prize, Special Prize was won by “Acid” from Hong Kong.

Other awards winners include “The Mirror Never Lies” as FIPRESCI Prize winner. For the SIGNIS award, Canadian “Monsieur Lazhar” won the prize, with “I Wish” and “Declaration of War” being the special mentions.