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Edmund Lee

IT HAS BEEN A WHIRLWIND year for Flora Lau Wan-man. An independent filmmaker whose previous efforts consisted of short films and documentaries, the Hong Kong native has, in the space of a few months, moved from being a virtual unknown among local cinema watchers to a regular presence on the international film festival circuit.
Boasting a star-studded cast and crew for a feature debut, Lau's Bends is produced by such luminaries as Nansun Shi and Winnie Yu Tsang. It's headlined by established thespians Carina Lau Ka-ling and Chen Kun, shot by lauded cinematographer Christopher Doyle, and has taken its new director-scriptwriter to festivals from Cannes to Toronto, from London to Stockholm.
Flora Lau's Hong Kong and Shenzhen-set project began with humble aspirations - and a persistent struggle to secure funding. "When I started writing the story, I had a lot of questions about Hong Kong." Lau says the scriptwriting stage began about three years ago, a period in which she was splitting her time between Hong Kong and overseas.
"I was curious to find out what Hong Kong means to me, and to other people. It's a place that changes a lot; it's already different to when I was growing up. And that evolved into the background of this story, which has two characters representing two different perspectives of Hong Kong."

The double-character study of Bends, while fictional, is based on real people. In the film, the lives of two characters from vastly different social backgrounds, both with personal problems, converge in the form of a daily working relationship.
Carina Lau plays a graceful housewife who must fight to keep up the facade of her affluent lifestyle after her businessman husband mysteriously vanishes.
Chen's character, who happens to be her chauffeur, faces tougher predicaments: as an immigrant with a wife (Tian Yuan) who is pregnant with her second child back on the mainland, the increasingly desperate man must walk a tightrope between the government's one-child policy and Hong Kong's tightening immigration controls on pregnant mainland women.
Although some Hongkongers are annoyed by what they perceive as mainlanders eating into their finite resources by giving birth in Hong Kong, Lau prefers to give her characters the sympathy and compassion they deserve.
"It's important to me to make clear that this situation comes down to a basic human level," says the filmmaker. "These characters share the same emotions, even though they're dealing with very different things in life. I wanted to make sure that I could express that - the human part of getting through daily life. It's important I give my characters some integrity."
The film's Chinese title means "crossing the line". But its initial English working title, Collision Avoidance, was more blunt about its writer-director's aim to navigate the mesh of delicately balanced boundaries in her story, be they sociopolitical, financial, geographical or emotional.
Lau sees her film as an allegory for the Hong Kong-mainland situation in recent times. "It's a very complex relationship that we have," she says. "It's part of what I want to discuss. I don't necessarily want to judge it, but I do want to present the reality as it is now, with all its complexities."
An economics and maths graduate from New York's Columbia University, she later studied at the London Film School. Lau attributes her fascination with the workings of the world to a love of macroeconomics.
Having explored the lives of Filipino domestic helpers in Hong Kong in Dry Rain (2009), the writer-director's interest in ignored social groups resonates through the plight of Bends' protagonists.
Lau's character-driven film, which indulges its protagonists' loneliness and melancholy, has also been compared to the cinema of Wong Kar-wai. But it's a superficial connection, undoubtedly spurred by the presence of some Wong regulars (including Carina Lau, Doyle and style consultant William Chang Suk-ping). Lau herself finds this amusing.
"It's funny how people pay so much attention to the Wong Kar-wai connection - obviously he's the most famous [local director] outside Hong Kong," she says. "Also, one of my crew has the same name as him. At almost every screening, someone would see that in the credits and ask me about Wong's connection with this film. And I always said, he's just a friend with the same name. He kind of helped me refine the language in the script."
In a way, you could say that Bends combines the best of both worlds. On one hand, the film enchants with top-notch art direction, subdued ambience and languid pacing that feels right at home in today's global art house cinemas. On the other hand, its authentic portrayal of daily life and its organic use of actual locations, by Lau's own admission, have lent the sheen of Hong Kong's independent film production to the proceedings.
"To me, Hong Kong is a character in the film," she says. "It's very important for me to shoot in real places. It's very important to give a real taste of Hong Kong."
Incidentally, despite having a French co-producer to supply a smaller portion of its budget, Lau also takes pride in the fact that her film is predominantly locally funded. "It's important for me to be supported by Hong Kong people, because this is a Hong Kong film," she says.
As her first feature opens across Hong Kong, Lau reveals that she has already gone back to her writing desk to work on her next project.
"There are some ideas that I have to filter through first," she says, before adding, "but hopefully that won't take [another] three years."
edmund.lee@scmp.com
 
Bends opens on November 21
 


Director Flora Lau strikes humane tone in feature film debut

Flora Lau. Photo: Nora Tam

Carina Lau in Bends.

Chen Kun (left) and Tian Yuan. 

Flora Lau (left) and Christopher Doyle.

Chen Kun plays a mainland immigrant.

Carina Lau napping.

A pensive Chen.

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48 Hours

Director Flora Lau's debut feature puts a human face on some of the city's most sensitive social issues, writes Edmund Lee


Director Flora Lau's debut feature puts a human face on some of the city's most sensitive social issues, writes Edmund Lee.


Director Flora Lau strikes humane tone in feature film debut

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Director Flora Lau's debut feature puts a human face on some of the city's most sensitive social issues, writes Edmund Lee

Director Flora Lau's debut feature puts a human face on some of the city's most sensitive social issues, writes Edmund Lee