Francis Ng in a still from Ann Hui’s segment Headmaster, part of the omnibus feature Septet: The Story of Hong Kong (category: IIB, Cantonese), directed by Sammo Hung, Ann Hui, Patrick Tam, Yuen Woo-ping, Johnnie To, Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark. Timmy Hung, Jennifer Yu, Yuen Wah and Simon Yam also star.
Review | Septet: The Story of Hong Kong movie review – Johnnie To-produced feature sees seven directors put their feelings for the city on film
An omnibus feature comprised of seven shorts by different directors, Septet: The Story of Hong Kong looks back at a city that will never be the same again
Sammo Hung focuses on a bygone era in education, while Johnnie To reflects on Hong Kong’s fickle financial reality – but neither segment is as good as Ann Hui’s
Seven of Hong Kong’s best known movie directors capture their deeply personal feelings for the city on film – a medium that has mostly been replaced by digital video today – in Septet: The Story of Hong Kong.
The omnibus feature, produced by industry veteran Johnnie To Kei-fung, is an alternately warm, funny and touching experience.
The short films that comprise it have been gestating for years; for the record, the late Ringo Lam Ling-tung, who died in 2018, said in an interview with this writer back in 2016 that he had finished shooting his segment.
Still, there is a timeless quality to these stories that should resonate with audiences no matter when, or where, they get to see the film.
Septet begins with two different accounts of education from a bygone era. Sammo Hung Kam-bo’s 1950s-set Exercise takes a nostalgic page from the director’s memories of training alongside other aspiring martial artists under a grandmaster (based on the real-life Yu Jim-yuen and played by Timmy Hung Tin-ming, son of Sammo).
Timmy Hung in a still from the segment Exercise, directed by Sammo Hung.
Ann Hui On-wah’s quietly moving Headmaster, the best segment of the lot, follows a class of primary school students in 1961 as they mischievously react to their strict but kind headmaster (Francis Ng Chun-yu) and class teacher (Sire Ma), before the action jumps decades forward to a reunion that sees them reminisce about the old days.
The spectre of separation caused by emigration hovers over the next two segments.
Patrick Tam Ka-ming’s ’80s-set Tender Is the Night charts a night of passion between two high-school lovers (Jennifer Yu Heung-ying and Gouw Ian Iskandar, the child star from Tam’s After This Our Exile) a day before one of them leaves the city for good.
Jennifer Yu and Gouw Ian Iskandar in a still from the segment Tender Is the Night, directed by Patrick Tam.
In Yuen Woo-ping’s Homecoming, a predictable but nonetheless endearing family drama, the generation gap between a Wong Fei-hung-worshipping kung fu practitioner (Yuen Wah) and his Westernised granddaughter (Ashley Lam Kae-ning of Find Your Voice) is bridged when they bond in her last few days in Hong Kong in 1997.
The last trio of stories are slightly less effective.
Johnnie To’s Bonanza, shot in a cha chaan teng – a tea cafe – cheekily reflects on Hong Kong’s fickle financial reality down the years through the eyes of three young dreamers.
(From left) Tony Wu, Ng Wing-sze and Eric Tsui in a still from the segment Bonanza, directed by Johnnie To.
Ringo Lam’s mournful Astray follows Simon Yam Tat-wah’s returnee from Britain as he looks at the city’s older traditions with renewed appreciation.
The film closes with Tsui Hark’s Conversation in Depth, a wacky comedy set in a mental hospital. In it, Tsui introduces the concept behind the making of Septet through the nonsensical banter between Cheung Tat-ming and Emotion Cheung Kam-ching – and the segment feels a little redundant next to the high-quality shorts that came before it.
The anthology provides an authentic, sometimes emotional, look back at a Hong Kong that will never be the same again. This is essential viewing for anyone who has a special affinity for Hong Kong and its once glorious cinematic tradition.
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