World Premiere | In Competition | White Mulberry Award Candidate
Taiwan, 2026, 116’, Cantonese, Mandarin
Directed by: Chao Koi-wang, Hu Chin-ye
Screenplay: Chao Koi-wang, Chen Yi-ru
Cinematography (color): Sou Wai-kin
Editing: Liao Ching-sung, Lee Chun-hong, Nose Chan
Production Design: Hsuan Shao-chen
Music: Ellison Lau
Producers: David Tang, Eric Liang
Cast: Mui Cheng-in (Jojo), Kai Ko (Hua), Elaine Jin (Chon), Tou Chung-hua (Gao), Stanley Yau (Lao Sir), Dada Chen (Pip)
Date of First Release in Territory: June 27th, 2026
Foreign projects made in Macau tend to be keen on highlighting the glitz and glamour of the city’s casino scene. However, Chao Koi-wang and Hu Chin-ye’s
I Blew Out the Candles Before Making a Wish (the title comes from the song
Half-Adult by defunct Hong Kong pop duo Shine) manages to tell a story about gambling by barely stepping into the city’s casinos. This low-key drama is an ode to the people who bet low and lose everything. Call it the anti-
Ballad of a Small Player.
Loosely inspired by news headlines,
Candles follows Jojo (an excellent Mui Cheng-in), a young girl whose father has fled to avoid gambling debts. When she mysteriously picks up several “dead chips”, or casino chips that have been taken out of circulation and cannot be exchanged for cash, she believes that she can win enough money to bring her father home. She first asks her seemingly honest teacher (Stanley Yau, of Hong Kong boy band Mirror) to bet the chips and give her the winnings, but he secretly sells the chips to a broker and tells Jojo that he lost everything. It is hinted that he plans to use the money to buy a flat – a pipe dream for any modern urbanite.
Cue Hua (Kai Ko), a Taiwanese man who is burdened with a flat he can’t afford after his wife (Dada Chen) left him. To afford mortgage payments, Hua works as a debt collector for a local loan shark, but he is far too nice to be competent at his job. While failing miserably at intimidating Jojo and her grandmother Chon (Elaine Jin) to pay up, a friendship of sorts is formed between Hua and Jojo, who still has dead chips in her possession.
Even though gambling takes up a significant part of the story,
Candles is intentionally almost entirely set in the sleepy residential neighbourhoods of Macau to show off the real sights of the city (the opening shot, an extended zoom-out that reveals the residential buildings surrounding the famous Ruins of Saint Paul’s, should give you a clue). Instead of the high rollers, Chao and Hu focus on the fortunes of the small-timers, from a Taiwanese casino dealer (Tuo Tsung-hua) with a sick son to the migrant workers who rent the empty rooms in Hua’s flat. Even though not every character in the film is honest, the script by Chao and Chen Yi-ru also refuses to paint anyone as a villain (even the supposedly intimidating loan shark has a decent side to him). These characters lend the film an authentic charm that only a locally born and raised filmmaker like Chao can pull off.
Candles unfolds in such a leisurely pace that it doesn’t even seem too bothered whether its characters win or lose. In fact, the entire film can probably be summed up with a single line of dialogue near the end: “Lose today, win tomorrow.” While the personal stakes are high for the characters, they all eventually learn that fortunes in Macau can change in the blink of an eye. A casino table is still no place for the fainthearted, but
Candles offers solace by saying that no one loses forever. For those who enjoy their stories of small-time criminals and underachievers to be quiet and grounded, this may be the feel-good film of the year.
Chao Koi-wang
Born in Macau and educated in Taiwan, Chao Koi-wang’s short films have been selected for short film festivals around the world. I Blew Out the Candles Before Making a Wish is his first feature film.
Hu Chin-ye
As a playwriter, Hu Chin-ye has been nominated for the Taishin Art Awards five times. After co-directing the short film Goddess with Chao Koi-wang, Hu now makes his feature directorial debut with I Blew Out the Candles Before Making a Wish.
FILMOGRAPHY
2026 – I Blew Out the Candles
Before Making a Wish