Hong Kong encouraged to stay the star of its movies

An accentuated "Hongkongness" in recent local films has caught the attention of international movie circles, where there has been concern the city is in fear of losing its own culture in the face of increasing mainland influence.

Fruit Chan's The Midnight After and Pang Ho-cheung's Aberdeen - both of which opened the Hong Kong International Film Festival last night - are among the latest examples.

"There has been a worry that Hong Kong culture and [the Cantonese] language will disappear," as reflected in recent Hong Kong films, said Sabrina Baracetti, president of the Udine Far East Film Festival, which specialises in showing Asian works in Udine, Italy.

While films such as Ip Man - The Final Fight, which screened at the festival last year, displayed a nostalgic portrait of old Hong Kong, The Midnight After and Golden Chicken SSS, to screen at the event next month, showed a more evident Hong Kong flavour, Baracetti said.

Golden Chicken SSS is a comedy revolving around the life of a prostitute played by Sandra Ng Kwan-yu. The Midnight After, which was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival, is a thriller about a group of minibus passengers who find themselves in a deserted Sha Tin after passing through the Lion Rock tunnel - reflecting worries that a Hong Kong which people once knew would one day vanish.

Baracetti recalled that when the festival began in 1999 - two years after Hong Kong's handover to China - films such as Chan's debut Made in Hong Kong (1997) carried a darker, pessimistic tone.

She saw that as indicating the anxiety of the former British colony over its unknown fate.