So far, Hong Kong cinema has performed strongly at home in 2016. Wilson Yip’s kung fu actioner Ip Man 3 is well on the way to grossing over HK$50 million, and Patrick Kong’s romantic Anniversary has grossed over HK$16 million, breaking the director’s box-office record. But the limited release of Ten Years, a collection of five short films which predict a bleak future for Hong Kong over the 10 years to 2025, is easily the most important film of the year.
Ten Years was released on 17 December 2015, on one screen at the Broadway Cinematheque, a small multiplex cinema in Mong Kok. It sold out every show from morning to midnight for two consecutive weeks. The film widened its release after that, and still achieved extremely high seating rates. Ten Years took HK$2 million in 25 days, something of a miracle considering it was up against the usual slew of Hollywood and local blockbusters during the Christmas and New Year period.
Ten Years is not really valuable to the industry because of its success at the box office, as impressive as that is. It’s important because it deals with politically sensitive topics that haven’t been – and probably won’t be – covered by mainstream films. The 104-minute movie consists of five short films by new talents. Each director depicts a different pessimistic vision for the future of Hong Kong under the rule of the Chinese mainland.
Kwok Zune’s Extras describes a political conspiracy which leads to a terrorist attack aimed at making the Hong Kong public support the government’s National Security Law. Wong Fei-pang’s Season of the End tells of a young man who collects objects from demolished buildings, and decides he also wants to preserve his body after the destruction of the city. Jevons Au’s Dialect shows how government policy puts social pressure on Hongkongers to use the official language of Putonghua rather than their native Cantonese dialect.
Self-immolator shows how far protestors are prepared to go in the fight to preserve their freedoms in Hong Kong, and how far the government is prepared to go to stop them. The collection ends with Ng Ka-leung’s Local Egg, which situates local egg farming in a Cultural Revolution-style storyline about government youths attacking bookstores.
The film is politically sensitive, as it depicts the government introducing policies to restrict the freedoms of Hong Kong people. This reflects recent real-life events, like the mysterious disappearance of booksellers selling political books banned by China, the appointment of Arthur Li as chairman of Hong Kong University, despite the strong opposition of the students and alumni, and the passing of the revised copyright ordinance. Such events made Ten Years credible with audiences.
Filmmakers have not dared to make frank, realistic political films for a long time. Before 1997, there were ‘soft’ political movies like Alfred Cheung’s Her Fatal Ways series, which used a crime story to show cultural differences between Hong Kong and the mainland and the comic parody Bodyguards of the Last Governor. Since then, no films have really talked about politics.
One reason is that commercial Hong Kong filmmakers want to make movies in, or for, the Chinese mainland, which is lucrative. To do this, they have to play by the government’s rules – and keep their mouths shut about politics and freedom of speech issues. Even those who disagree with the mainland Chinese government are careful in what they say in their films, as they don’t want to risk the ire of the authorities and lose business. They’d rather not address political issues at all.
On the other hand, a number of independent productions do focus on social and political issues, like political demonstrations, and 2014’s Umbrella Revolution. But it’s difficult for any kind of indie film to get distribution in Hong Kong, as there are no longer any art-house cinemas. Most indie films can only screen at the Arts Centre cinema in Wan Chai for a few shows.
Ten Years is an exceptional case, as it’s unusual for a film with a strong social message to do so well at the box office.
Although it was intended as an experimental project, it turned out to be a well-made film, and its values appealed to local audiences. It might become the model for the socio-political films of the future.
Ryan Law