Fury as parents call for murder film ban

THE parents of slain Island School students Kenneth McBride and Nicola Myers have angrily called for a Chinese-language film dealing with the shocking 1985 murders at Braemar Hill to be banned. A trailer for the film, The Bo Ma [Braemar] Hill Murders, has been showing at the Olympia Theatre in North Point since Thursday. The Category-III film, produced by the Super Power Motion Picture Company, is scheduled for release in early June. ''Finally the truth,'' says the voice-over on the three-minute trailer, which shows a Western woman being raped, a naked, bloody body lying on a hillside and other violent scenes. Screen credits mention some of the actors: Miss Macau, and Penthouse and Playboy cover girls. Kenneth McBride, 17, and Nicola Myers, 18, were beaten to death at Braemar Hill on April 20, 1985. Nicola was raped. On January 20, 1987, three men were sentenced to death and another jailed indefinitely for the slaying. A fifth man had admitted the double murder earlier and was sentenced to detention at Her Majesty's pleasure. ''We had no idea that anything like this was planned,'' said Mr Hugh McBride, Kenneth's father, yesterday. ''We are shocked and horrified by the idea and we consider it an insult to our children's memories. If there is anything we can do to stop it we will do so, and I will be taking legal advice this week. ''We have not been contacted, not been asked for permission and we totally disassociate ourselves from it. The film appears to us to be a scandalous attempt to profit from the evil done to our children and we hope the distributors have the decency to think again and withdraw the film before it is released.'' The film's director, Cheng Kin-ping, claimed he was not trying to exploit the murders. He said the film attempted to tell the life story of a character based on the Braemar Hill ringleader, Pang Shun-yee, 24, who was described during sentencing as the man who gave the order to kill the teenagers. ''The film is told from the point of view of the murderer, about why he did what he did,'' said Cheng. ''It is a personal profile - you could say it was a social tragedy, the social reasons which led him to commit the crime. But it doesn't mean we absolve his responsibility for his actions.'' Producer Mr Gin Lau Siu-kwan said the film-makers' intentions were to make a moralising film and expressed regret that the promotional material for the film exploited its sexual and violent elements. ''None of us wanted to make a 'sexploitation' film,'' he said, adding the murders accounted for about 10 minutes of the 80-minute film. Of those 10 minutes, he said, three contained scenes involving sex and violence. Mr Lau said the poster and trailer for the film were made by the distributor, Hollywood International Entertainment Holding Co Ltd. In the company's original versions, the film was portrayed as the story of a deviant, he said. ''The distributors have cheapened the film, but they say it is the only way to sell it in Hongkong, and I could not persuade them to the contrary,''he said. There are two versions of the film - one for Hongkong and one for distribution in Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. The sex scenes have been cut from the overseas version. ''The overseas film is the one we wanted to make,'' said Mr Lau, who claimed commercial interests had the last say in the film's Hongkong version. ''We have to consider the box office, and when the distributor tells me sex and violence sells tickets, I can't argue with him, or my film will never reach the screens.'' Cheng said the film was 70 per cent based on fact, but that it also contained revelations from a former police officer who worked on the case. He said some of the details had been altered ''to protect the relatives of the victims'' but admitted he had not approached the McBride and Myers families because he believed they had gone back to the United Kingdom. Only the Myers family have left Hongkong. A poster lists the Police Public Relations Bureau (PPRB) among the organisations which co-operated in the making of the film. PPRB spokesman Mr Eric Lockeyear said yesterday his office had received a copy of the film's synopsis last year. ''The synopsis basically outlined the background of one of the criminals involved in the case. There was no coverage of the crime actually being committed,'' he said. Super Power contacted the police three times last year, informing them of its location filming and on one occasion applying for a permit to use uniformed officers in the film. ''We rejected the application because we didn't want to be involved,'' said Mr Lockeyear. ''The police at no stage offered any assistance.'' The Bo Ma Hill Murders is scheduled to follow another Category-III film, Lan Kwai Fong Swingers, at the Olympia. Its makers caused an outcry when they tried to film distressing re-enactments of the New Year's Eve Lan Kwai Fong tragedy on location. ''I wonder if the film director really believes that this is an honest attempt to probe someone's psychological state,'' said Mrs Maggie McBride yesterday of The Bo Ma Hill Murders . ''If that is his premier objective, then perhaps you can say analysing deviant behaviour has an educational purpose. But I have lived in Hongkong for a long time and I must wonder whether that was his intention.'' Mr and Mrs McBride said they were particularly upset because the film comes after eight years in which The Nicola Myers and Kenneth McBride Memorial Fund has provided cash awards and scholarships to local students. ''We have made such an effort to have the children's lives remembered and not their deaths,'' said Mr McBride. ''And judging from the support our memorial fund has received, a great number of Hongkong citizens have agreed with us that this is the way they should be remembered.'' Island School head master Mr David James said: ''It is still such a painful thing for so many people. This comes along now after we have tried to make something good come of it with the scholarship fund. To make a movie like this is in the worst possibletaste.''