Is Hong Kong at a dead end? Nihilistic films The Mobfathers, Trivisa and Robbery suggest it is
From a blatant riff on the seemingly futile pursuit of electoral reform, to a look back at the handover via the tale of three top criminals, and class warfare (literally) in a 7-Eleven, filmmakers offer a negative take on the city. Things that happen naturally come up in pop culture, one says
Pick any local film showing in Hong Kong over the next couple of weeks, and you’ll likely come across an implicitly nihilistic drama filled with jibes about the seething political, social and economic conflicts that threaten to boil over in the city. At a time when real life can be more dramatic than the movies, it is little surprise that some Hong Kong filmmakers have taken an absurdist route in their new works.
While The Mobfathers uses a triad election as a metaphor for the pursuit of universal suffrage, Trivisa portrays the fading influences of three notorious criminals on the eve of the 1997 handover. And then there is Robbery, a colourfully violent fantasy that places several irate Hongkongers in a convenience store and lets them take out their frustrations on each other. None of these stories ends on a positive note.
All three films are slickly narrated, proficiently crafted pieces of cinema that defied their sensationalist premises to be chosen for premieres at the recent Hong Kong International Film Festival.
“To say that the audiences today are more sensitive to political allegories may be something of an exaggeration, as it doesn’t take a very perceptive person to recognise some of the issues we’re facing,” says Herman Yau Lai-to, the veteran director of The Mobfathers and many other socially conscious films.
“When things happen and become hot topics, they naturally come up in pop culture,” he says of the recent wave of pessimistic Hong Kong films. “This is a time of protest, so you end up seeing more about that in the movies; there’s little for the people to smile about. I’m not saying that everyone should make films about real-life social issues, but it’s good to have the diversity.”