Discoveries from Hong Kong SAR China World Cinema

Made by veteran Hong Kong filmmaker Lau Shing-hon over 10 years, MUSIC BEYOND SOUND tells the story of an unlikely guqin master. In 1974, John Thompson, an American, went to Taiwan, then Hong Kong, to study Chinese and the ancient silk string guqin (7- string zither). After 45 years he plays on, still inspired by the beauty of the music and by the culture that produced it. And In 2010 he was the only non-Chinese among 14 masters the Zhejiang Museum had invited to play in a concert featuring guqins from the Tang dynasty over 1000 years ago. With an indepth interest and insight in both Western and Chinese classical music, John Thompson and his musical journey is an embodiment of East-West cultural exchanges and mutual appreciation.

A little girl called Beibei goes to the seaside every day to gaze into the boundless sea, hoping to one day see her father return. Everything changes when she finds a seashell with a message from him engraved on it. From then on, she starts a journey with her dad from the sea to the universe.

A lonely teenager hooks up with someone at the hotel, where they soon realise how their minds are both preoccupied during their encounter. Their bodily passion could hardly continue, and they have no other way but to tap into each other’s heart and soul.

After being away from home for quite some time, Wong returns to his old stomping grounds to see some of his friends, only to find that a band of kung fu-trained thugs has a serious bone to pick with him and his companions. When the group tries to attack Wong and his buddies, they quickly learn that they're messing with the wrong man, as Wong, too, is a skilled martial artist. Whose expertise will prevail in this battle for honor?

Hong Kong Diaoyutai Movement (1971) documents HK youth protesting the U.S. decision to transfer the disputed Diaoyu Islands to Japan alongside Okinawa's return. The protest joined the transnational Baodiao movement, launched by overseas Chinese students in America and taken up across Taiwan and Hong Kong in defense of Chinese territorial claims. The film was produced by 70s Biweekly, a radical publication that served as a crucial platform for political debate among young Hong Kong intellectuals. Co-founders Ng Chung-yin and Mok Chiu-yu, who organized the demonstrations themselves, commissioned directors Law Kar and Chiu Tak-hak to create a documentary from inside the movement. The camera moves with the protesters, capturing chants, gestures, and surging crowds as they unfold. This approach transforms cinema into a tool of activism—the filmmakers weren't documenting history but participating in it, positioning the camera as part of collective action rather than a neutral observer.

Hui-man has the body of a beast. As a former social worker, he still wishes to help others, especially his loved one Ning, a headstrong beauty who resists the world and who lives in the ruins after leaving her wealthy family. Both fight for survival and face their own needs and fears. Reunited despite obstacles, they only wish for a simple candlelight dinner without fanfare.

In Lei Gu Town in Sichuan, Xu who lost his wife during the 2008 earthquake is ready to get married again. His hesitation arises when he sees that his teenage daughter Shan is not yet ready to move on. Shan goes for a walk to landslide dam for a moment of solitude. The dam was formed when landslide debris fell and destroyed a whole village. It is an aftermath of the quake, yet it is at the same time a beautiful scenery. Perhaps not all things brought by a disaster are negative, Shan wonders.

Fai is mired in work on a project that appears to foreshadow the wake-up call he is about to receive. Rushing to the bedside of her grandmother, he is shocked to learn that not only she is at risk of being paralysed following a stroke but that her faculties have been compromised by advanced Alzheimer’s. Entrusted with the care of the grandmother’s canine companion, he is confronted with the sad reminder that a man’s best friend has taken the place of absent family members and filled in the emotional void, prompting him to reassess the priorities in his life and make amends for neglecting an endearing figure in his childhood.

Fragmented coastal scenes scattered across the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area: a security guard on duty at a Shenzhen beach, a woman posing for bridal photos along the West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade, children playing in the shallows beneath a bridge, the transparent glass interior of the M+ Museum, the rooftop of Sky100, the upper reaches of the Pearl River, and the waterfront of Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, among others. Most of these filming locations were chosen from lists of photogenic sites popular on Xiaohongshu (RedNotes), i.e. places that have become “internet-famous” through a single viral post, attracting waves of photographers and tourists. Yet the artist deliberately diverges from these original images, turning away from the sharply defined details and edges of these celebrated sites. Instead, the camera retreats into marginalized zones at the limits of visibility, areas suffused with blinding halos of light.

The custom of exchanging gifts at Christmas is no easy ritual for a little girl who resorts to collecting rubbish in order to raise enough money for the occasion. This film offers no earth-shaking scenes, nor heartstring-pulling sentimentality, but a glimpse of the world through the eyes of the little girl, so that we might feel what she feels about the society and humanity, and have empathy with rather than sympathy for her.

Refused to play by the unspoken rules, former model Julie starts her own classy thirst trap modeling business with the hope to make a breakthrough. Things don't go as planned as a nude scandal breaks out. Overwhelmed by betrayal, unexpected gains and losses, Julie begins to rethink her business and her future.

Sze-man is facing a dilemma when she participates in an inter-school debate. On the negative side, she is working on the motto “Hong Kong Government should allow Mainlanders to settle down in Hong Kong”. During the course of preparation, however, she is constantly challenging her own position. Her “secret” as a cross-boundary student living in Shenzhen is carefully kept away from her classmates for fear that she will be discriminated against. With more and more drifters crossing the Hong Kong - China border, we are actually facing a changing time with a fast-developing and unique relationship with the Mainlanders, as well as ourselves.

The emotional journey of a 12-year-old boy who is forced to choose between the acceptance of his new friends, and a treasured gift given to him by his father.

Jackie and Fat are best pal. They crashed a stranger’s memorial service and caused a commotion by using a recording device that could read people’s mind and alter their emotion.

Life after university may be just dandy for people with passion and drive, but what happens if you are aimless, dreamless and hopeless? With no goals or ambition in life, a fresh graduate believes that she is an oddball destined for mediocrity. Her perfect solution is to be a slacker and to work part-time at a 12-dollar store. Unfortunately, the mundane life and wacky colleagues just add to her melancholy. The array of eccentric characters at the 12-dollar store speaks volumes on how the new generation perceives their less-than-rosy future.

Two Parallel Scenes of Manhood

A seemingly perfect middle-class Chinese family faces an unprecedented situation when Lei brings a man home on NYE to pretend to be her boyfriend. Her same-sex girlfriend's unexpected visit intertwined her with a real intimacy crisis.

Three women from different generations in Macao face pivotal moments in their lives, while struggling to protect their best friends - three magical balloons.

After the anti-immigration riots occurred in the UK in early August 2024, far-right called to attack 100 places, such as immigration centres, across the country on 7th Aug. The leftist urged to stand up against racism to show solidarity with communities. I joined one of the counter-protests. I jot down what I saw with my camera and reflected from the perspective of a former activist.

Yin, a ten-years-old boy, grew up in a single parent family, gangs up with bad peers and spend most of his time in video game parlours. One day, Tin is egged on to take part in a theft, and event that will leave an indelible memory in the young delinquent's heart...

Life perhaps resembles a football match. Losses could have been undone if you are ambitious enough. In A Floating Hope, Kit seemingly takes up this football philosophy. As a little school boy, he has to face the consequences of his parents’ divorce. On his birthday, Kit meets his mother for a brief time, wishing to regain a mother-and-son relationship.

hong kong film

Hong Kong horror film.

If existence precedes essence, then everything is meaningless. “Perceive as you see, believe not what you perceive, then accept what you see as they are.” A girl who died is reborn without memory and embarks on a journey to explore the meaning of life.

Ali is a Hungarian film director (over 50, grey hair, not completely bald yet), who is no longer making films. The question is: what has happened to him? One day, he gets a phone call from Hong Kong, and decides to find an answer to the question in Mong Kok on the 37th floor.

When I first took up this Super 8 camera, I knew I was about to leave my home. Too Long Ago, Not Far, shot between 2019 to 2023, alludes to the Huaying Tongyu [華英通語, meaning: interchangeable expressions between Chinese and English, first published in 1867 in New York], the earliest English textbook for Chinese people that uses Cantonese phonetic notation to teach the pronunciation of English words. This seamless editing mode offers me the base to record everything in the city as notations, things that I want to look at over and over again. Perhaps by the time I go back, nothing changes, everything remains the same. As the Chinese saying goes, horse keeps on running, and people keeps on dancing.

Throughout the recent months of protests against the extradition law amendment bill, film crews have been following and filming various officers who were playing key roles in different Police operations, in order to record on film the adversities they faced when executing their duties as well as their emotional journeys along the way. In the documentary, these officers working in different posts and different levels in the Force also provide moving personal accounts of what they and their families have been through during these challenging times. Filming of the documentary started when a riot started in Admiralty on the evening of August 31, 2019, and concluded on on December 24, 2019. Over a span of four months, the most dangerous , divisive and chaotic period in Hong Kong was captured.

A cramped environment with all kinds of restrictions shapes Hong Kong into a square city. Perhaps life is impoverished, oppressive, and the actuality is being difficult to change. Yet, Bong hasn't lost his imagination of birds soaring high in the sky, and has still retained his longing for wonderful things.

A minimalist optical sound meditation on simplicity and repetition building complex arrangements of audio-visual oneness, where the most basic geometric shapes draw intricate visual and sonic patterns.

Hong Kong movie

Tik, who was born with ADHD, is meticulously cared for by his single mother diagnosed with cancer. This early summer, he finally musters up his courage to step out of the motherly comfort zone and embarks on a journey of growth.

I like to sneak pictures of ladies with mobile phone, yet I have never imagined that the lady will appear before my eyes in such an inconceivable way.

Cheung Yuk Fan feels suffocated in Hong Kong after 2019. 2021 Summer, She resigns from her job as an arts administrator and rents a flat in a sub-divided unit in an industrial building. She is determined to hide herself in this small world and start her own online trading business, forgetting about the distractions of the outside world. But one day, the beautiful sound of piano playing next door suddenly leads her into a realm of fantasy and illusion.

The short film mainly talks about the dream Pirate who travels around in different housing estates in Hong Kong to look for the dream photon. On the way, he meets a child who has a relationship with him and encounters the threat of the dream eater. Will it save him or continue to escape?

In a city that worships money, there is a group of people who still insist on living the philosophy of "people are not living on food alone." Instead of choosing to live in seclusion, they choose to actively enter the world, improve their hearts, and influence others through artistic creation. Their innovation has not only driven the art world in Hong Kong but more importantly, through their enthusiasm for creation, they have made us understand that as long as we have a "heart", no matter how difficult the environment is, we can persist in a "love".

Ssecond film in two filmmakers’ view on Hong Kong shortly before the UK sold its former colony to China. First part was directed by Ingo Petzke.

A group of men are kidnapped by a psychopath who alerts them that they are to tell him the code to a briefcase full of cash by the time he finishes 20 cigarettes or face death. Absurdity ensues.

Jesus match couples with red ropes, so they cannot separate with each other. However, the man thinks that she is not “the one”, who`s pregnant for 3 years. He decides to find his true love, instead to not follow Jesus`s arrangement anymore. It seems good at the beginning, but things did not went the way he think. Who is his “true love”? Does “true love” even exist?

The film's narrator, an observer modeled on the critic Walter Benjamin, takes us on a journey through a variety of urban landscapes, examining public spaces and making connections between light, perception and the culture of attractions in today's consumer society. Structured as a documentary essay in the spirit of city symphony films, ELECTRIC SIGNS features footage in Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New York, and other cities around the world. Also featured are interviews with prominent lighting designers; advertising and marketing professionals; urban sociologists and visual culture experts; and community activists.

A three minutes, 2D animation film, about the protest in Hong Kong. A group of Hong Kong people protesting against the extradition law amendment bill, concerned the bill will damage Hong Kong’s autonomy.

Told through the point-of-view of the wandering spirit of the last Javan rhino that was poached in the jungles of Vietnam in 2010, the film takes us through a complex structure of narratives and visuals, both gruesome and beautiful, real and mythological, that have built and upheld certain Vietnamese traditions. From Chinese colonialism and its assertion through the practice of medicine, to French colonialism and their obsession with trophy kills, and throughout the Vietnam war, the animals tell a different side to the story.

Circles, rectangles, lines, and crosses – the beauty of graphics and minimalism in between positive and negative space.

Miller Fisher amalgamates the distorted visual, physical and existential experience of an autoimmune disorder by the same name, with the aesthetics and vernacular of the animated GIF.

"This is considered one of the earliest pure gangster films in local cinema. It’s a fascinating plot about a boy raised by a triad kingpin in the 1930s. When the godfather dies, the young Xiang is given power over the gang and the master’s household. Trying to be faithful to the old man’s principles, Xiang finds himself unable to control his master’s widow and daughter, who are led astray by the widow’s worldly, greedy sister. At the same time, Xiang must ally with other triads to smuggle aid to the forces fighting the invading Japanese. He is torn between devotion to tradition and the need to adapt to modern materialism and the impending world war." (From David Borwdell's blog: http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2014/04/15/genre-%E2%89%A0-generic/)

Stop Peeping tells the story of a man who repeatedly breaks into his neighbors apartment, so he can wring out her sweaty clothes to make ice lollies. Amusing, perverse and...refreshing?

Hong Kong is called many things, but "musical" is rarely, if ever, among them. Mak's semi-experimental documentary looks at a handful of local musicians who are actively forging creative havens in the city's most unexpected corners, from old dai pai dongs to major tourist hubs to childhood neighbourhoods. As Ah P, Billy and Dejay choose to express themselves wherever, whenever, Mak's latest explores social and political issues in the context of the physical space, contrasts the subjective with the objective, and proves that the city indeed has a vibrant indie music scene.

'Connected Souls' is produced by HKCS, directed by John Leung Yu and starring Leung Chung Hang, Choi Wai Ki and Timothy Cheng Tse Sing. The story follows a film director as he makes microfilm for HKCS, visiting various service units to learn about the social service stories.

Luggage? Check. Travel document? Check. Keys? Check. The Year is 2040 and Ching is all set to embark on a mission to track the whereabouts of a dog and its owners which will transport her back in time before she was even born. In 2013, an age of mobile phones and Google Maps, the time-traveller meets a painter and piques his curiosity to join in her quest. Can she reach the parents she never had the chance to get to know and will he find a purpose in life after tempting fate and death? Will the mementos of their brief encounter – a painting that crystallises the artist’s feelings for her and a keepsake pendant that has been passed down for generations – survive the time and reconnect the two?

A Shaw Brothers production

For every emigration wave, there is always a wave of return to Hong Kong. Leaving and returning seem to be the beginning of the journey for rootless Hong Kongers. Perhaps Hong Kongers are destined to wander in a cycle of uncertainty. Emily and her fiancé Vincent immigrate to the UK with hopes of starting a new life. They will take over the home of Megan, an old classmate who has lived there for several years and decided to return to Hong Kong. The three friends roam around London and will bid farewell to each other after spending the day together. It is goodbye but it is also the start of a new journey. The director uses this film to express her own feelings after going through the same journey. She carefully inserts daily life details to show the cultural differences and reflects on the faint sadness of exchanging fates.

After the anti-express rail protests, Choi Yuen Village’s struggle did not end with the railway project approval. Villagers shifted from fighting demolition to painstakingly relocating and rebuilding their community. In 2011, they planned the new village together—including house design, sewage, and land use—while facing government pressure to move out by November. Road access issues caused additional worries. As demolition began, villagers stood together to protect their homes and demanded time to build before moving. By May 2011, villagers left their longtime homes for makeshift housing on newly bought farmland, continuing their collective effort. Their unity in overcoming countless challenges set an example for other rural communities and shows that real resistance is a long journey requiring ongoing attention.

Grandpa Chan, 73 and Grandpa Wong, 82, run into the mist of teargas and try to protect the young protesters from any harm. With all the dangers and hardships they have been through, to them retreat is never an option.