Is Hong Kong cinema dead in an era of mainland China co-productions? No, an exciting new generation of local filmmakers says

Movies like Longman Leung’s Anita and Jimmy Wan’s Zero to Hero are winning over Hong Kong audiences in a way that hasn’t been seen in over a decade

Socially conscious films by young directors that tackle humanistic topics such as mental illness, poverty and old age are also finding considerable acclaim

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Louise Wong as Anita Mui in a still from Anita, directed by the rising filmmaker Longman Leung just one of many excellent films made by emerging Hong Kong directors in the past few years.

Published: 7:15am, 13 Jun 2022Updated: 3:09pm, 17 Jun 2022

Is there a hint of truth to the frequently whispered, though seemingly hyperbolic claim that Hong Kong cinema is dead?

After all, how do you explain the minimal fanfare when, in April 2021, actor turned director Derek Tsang Kwok-cheung made history as the first Hong Kong-born filmmaker to be in the running for a best international feature film Oscar, with few people in his hometown caring to cheer him on?

Of course, the muted local reception for Tsang’s film, Better Days, could be simply due to it having no realistic prospect of winning the prize. It could also be due to the awkward circumstances that saw the 2021 Oscars ceremony heavily censored on social media in mainland China and, for the first time since 1969, not broadcast on TV in Hong Kong.

It could also reflect the sense of indifference that a large section of Hong Kong viewers have been feeling towards co-production films made with mainland China as their target audience, as Better Days was. The perceived lack of concern for the city’s own culture and values in many top filmmakers’ works has been openly lamented for over a decade.

Hong Kong director Derek Tsang and mainland Chinese actress Zhou Dongyu on the set of Better Days. The film was nominated in the best international feature film category at the 2021 Oscars.

A China-set, Mandarin-speaking bullying drama with an all-mainland cast, Better Days, Tsang’s adaptation of a Chinese novel, grossed over US$200 million at the box office (mostly in mainland China) but hardly made a splash when it opened in cinemas in his home city in December 2019 – that is, before it was recognised by industry peers and dominated the Hong Kong Film Awards in May 2020, winning three of the top four categories and bagging a total of eight prizes.

The critical and commercial acclaim enjoyed by Better Days did serve to dispel two popular myths: that Hong Kong-China co-productions tend to be artistically compromised products, and that today’s local filmmaking talents pale next to their predecessors from Hong Kong cinema’s so-called Golden Age in the 1980s and ’90s.

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