35th HKIFF: A Look Back at Hong Kong Entries Punished, beside(s,) happiness and Hi, Fidelity,

After the much anticipated preem for Don’t Go Breaking My Heart and Quattro Hong Kong 2, it was Yuen-Leung Poon’s Hi, Fidelity’s turn to shine — and without a doubt, veteran actress Pat Ha is the film’s highlight and that’s not to say that fellow thesps Carrie Ng and Michelle Ye didn’t offer noteworthy takes either. Deemed a “chick flick” from the get go, this tells the tale of middle-aged women cheating on their husbands — but as the plot soon thickens, it appears to be a lot more complex, much more of a relationship thriller than just a pure romantic film. Alongside the exploration of women’s midlife crisis and their yearning for the lost times, there are plot twists followed by more plot twists, essentially I’m not sure if it plays off so well and this despite the film’s big revelation that certainly has the whole audience bursting by the seams. The third act feels rushed – and isn’t really impressive, but solid performances managed to make this worth the many twists and turns.

Originally intended for television, Heiward Mak’s less than open hour beside(s,) happiness is a simple tale of a 28 year-old woman searching for happiness while dealing with a pregnancy by a younger beau. The narrative is simple and straight forward, unlike Heiward’s previous work Ex which didn’t use a linear approach towards the storytelling. But one thing that remained the same was her ability of capturing the essence or the mindset of this generation of young adults. It is presented in a much more light-hearted way, compared to her other films. As a TV movie or full feature, this works.

Technically, Punished wasn’t the closing film of the fest, but it was certainly the more memorable Hong Kong title introduced near the fest’s end. Law Wing-Cheong, perhaps best known for being the assistant director of Johnnie To, took another shot of taking the helm alone. Contrary to what I originally thought this might pan out to be, this isn’t exactly a film entirely focused on a proposed kidnapping storyline, but rather, it’s much more of a film about vengeance, forgiveness and karma. The moral lessons of this film are pretty obvious, but the atmospherics throughout helps with the thrills department. Strong performances, particularly from Anthony Wong, is what carries the film throughout.

Award Recap:

Finally after half a month, the fest finally announced the winners of total 13 awards. For the section of Asian Digital Competition judged by Ruby Yang and Raymond Red, Tema Tseden’s Old Dog won Golden Digital Award. Thai drama Eternity won silver digital award. The Sun Beaten Path won special mention. Moving onto the Humanitarian Awards for Documentaries, Japanese documentary Peace won Best Documentary Award. Pink Saris by previous HKIFF award winner Kim Longinotto.

In the category of Short Film Competition, surreal drama Pigs won Grand Prize, Swedish film Little Children, Big Words won Jury Prize. Nowhere Elsewhere and I was a Child of Holocaust Survivor won Special Mention respectively. South Korean drama Bleak Night won the FIRESCI PRIZE, special mention was Japanese teenage film Good Morning to the World.
Gritty U.S indie film Winter’s Bone was the winner of SIGNIS Award. Special Mention is The Human Resources Manager.