IN AN INDUSTRY in which the truth is often buried beneath mountains of hype, it is somehow refreshing to meet director and screenwriter Aubrey Lam Oi-wah.
You walk away feeling she has escaped it all. Take the promotional schedule for her sophomore outing, Hidden Track. The film centres on a young girl from Wuhan, Popo (played by the actress of the same name), who comes to Hong Kong in search of a CD with a hidden track (performed by Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou, hence the Chinese title, Looking For Jay Chou).
The track reminds her of the boyfriend she has lost, and she hopes that by finding it, her broken heart will finally mend. Hidden Track is a romantic-comedy aimed directly at the hearts of Hong Kong youths - starring alongside Popo are local glamour boys Shawn Yue Man-lok, Daniel Wu Yin-cho and David Wu - and those looking for a dash of sentimentality.
Under normal circumstances you would expect the director to be lauding the film, telling the assembled journalists about its positive message. If you disagree with how your work ends, you keep it to yourself.
Not so with Lam. 'I am a realist when it comes to these matters,' she says in a film company office in Tsim Sha Tsui. 'This film is all about how important it is to find 'someone', about how that will put the missing part into the puzzle. But that doesn't work for me,' she says, acknowledging that Hong Kong audiences prefer happy endings.
While she is happy with the finished product, Lam wishes she could send out a weighter message through her work. 'But that's the nature of films like these, so maybe next time,' she says.