Top 5: Best in Hong Kong Cinema in 2010

[Editor’s note: I’ve asked our team of world film correspondents to dish out their top 5 films of the year from their respective countries. Here’s Milky Li Hoi Ching’s take on the Best in Hong Kong Cinema in 2010.]

Despite the fact that 2010 marked an emergence of several of the young directors producing quality films and hope for the future this year proved to be a disappointing one for the Hong Kong film industry. Here are the five that stood out.

#5. Dream Home – Peng Ho-Cheung
This much I’m sure — this isn’t a film for the weak, faint of heart audiences. But as blood-splashing as it is, I think it strongly expresses a very current social issue that Hong Kong people would feel resonates with them. As a slasher film, it combined a dark and twisted sense of humor that might come across as surreal at times, but there hadn’t been anything like this for years. With the blood spilling and psychotic murder plot, all the violence in the film might appear to be far from groundbreaking, but it’s already one of the rarest, daring films in the past few years.

#4. The Stool Pigeon – Dante Lam
Sure, Fire Of Conscience might have disappointed several of Dante Lam’s fans, but he did quickly rebounded with this one. Again, The Stool Pigeon lived up to the expectations as Dante Lam used the almost exact same cast and crew of The Beast Stalker, his critically acclaimed film in 2008. The performances from the overall cast are all excellent, the action scenes are great and well-executed, and as the story develops, the tension remains intact until the very end with the final fight scene being one of the most memorable moments in HK film this year.

#3. Love In The Puff – Peng Ho-Cheung
Yep, this makes it two for two Peng Ho-Cheung films in the list of five. This one, in my opinion, is the best romantic comedy of the year. With a simple story and a simple structure, Ho-Cheung managed to pull off what he did best as a filmmaker but this time working in a completely different genre. The story might seem far too simple and loose to draw anyone in, but with smartly written dialogues written by both Peng and Heiward Mak, with a penchant towards social realism, the overall result makes this one of the best made romantic films and solid portrayal of the young adults today with random gags and details that make for genuine funny moments on celluloid.

#2. Echoes of The Rainbow – Alex Law
It has been a great year for Echoes of The Rainbow; a street is saved from government’s demolition due to it; the first ever Crystal Bear win by any Hong Kong film. This was Alex Law’s first work in many years, and he made it count by coming out with a bang. Story-wise, this is rather simple – but the fact is: that there is rarely any real and well made local movies anymore in Hong Kong. The well-recreated 60’s scene of Hong Kong and realistically expressed details stroke a chord of nostalgic with the viewers. It is true that it intends to leave you in tears when you walk away from the cinema — but this is far from being pretentious. It deserves all the hype it’s receiving.

#1. Gallants – Derek Kwok, Clement Cheng
It was hard to pick this one as the best film of the year. I really admire Kwok and Cheng’s courage to make this film, and I think they totally didn’t disappoint and in fact surprised a lot of people with it. The box office might not do this film justice, and I could see thousands and more people drawn to the dazzling Kung Fu action of Ip Man 2 instead. But Gallants is different, it is more than just about being a superman like hero and getting patriotic. Every scene shows directors’ passion and love for the Kung Fu cinema rolling back in the seventies and eighties. Just because it doesn’t have spectacularly wild crazy Kung Fu stunt, it doesn’t make it any less entertaining. The casting choices were spot on, the comedy elements help balance the film and it’s perhaps one of the more inspiring narratives that I’ve seen in a while. It’s a rare treat when you can call this a film for serious fans Kung Fu cinema and a cup of tea for just about anyone.