‘State’ of the Arts
Whodathunk a low-budget, labour-of-love doc about a dead impresario and his theatre would be Hong Kong MOvies’ summer sleeper?
Dora Choi and Haider Kikabhoy
Few among us could have predicted the success of Jack Ng’s courtroom drama A Guilty Conscience when it hit screens in January, but To Be Continued | 尚未完場 is a documentary, just barely feature length (80 minutes on the dot), and about a derelict movie house on the corner of King’s Road and Tin Chong Street in North Point. But there it is, generating the kind of buzz DC could only hope for. Directed by Walk in Hong Kong co-founder Haider Kikabhoy and former RTHK filmmaker Dora Choi, To Be Continued chronicles the hidden history of self-described impresario and Empire Theatre owner-operator Harry Odell (it became the State after he sold it in 1957 and it reopened in ’59), a story Kikabhoy discovered while doing some basic research for Walk In. Slowly but surely he uncovered a sprawling post-war story about the hippest musicians of the 1950s and ’60s, and Odell’s contribution to Hong Kong’s cultural landscape in the mid-20th century. Despite a wee budget furnished by the Lord Wilson Heritage Trust, Walk In and the ADC, and without an official distributor, To Be Continued has become the film everyone needs to see. The screenings that do pop up sell out in minutes (most are at Golden Scene in Kennedy Town, where auditoriums max out at 81 seats), and needless to say, Choi and Kikabhoy are a little baffled. Thrilled, but still baffled.
Odell’s place in Hong Kong cultural history was discovered when Kikabhoy launched the 2016 campaign to save the State from the wrecking ball after it was put up for sale the year before. His regular info dumps about what he was uncovering about the theatre and Odell got more and more compelling the deeper he dug until in 2018 Choi went all in.
“My hunch was that this guy was really worth exploring, but in the beginning we weren’t really confident about selling an old white guy to Hongkongers,” she begins with a laugh. “Nobody knew who he was so we weren’t sure about asking people to go to a movie about him. We started with information about the theatre itself, but later we just decided to shift focus to him. If we were going to sell him, sell him hard. We’re surprised people like him so much. But it’s always the person, the character, that’s more important than the physical thing. Without that a building is just a building.”
There’s plenty of reasons To Be Continued is on everyone’s must-do list. We can joke all we like, but Odell proved to be a singular figure who was committed to Hong Kong and positive the city deserved the finest entertainment the world had to offer – so he made it happen, usually at a loss. Born in Cairo, he was a writer, promoter, and what most would call a bon vivant, and Hong Kong was his home: he was buried at the Jewish cemetery in Happy Valley in 1975. Kikabhoy and Choi eventually found far flung relatives – like daughter-in-law Molly (above, right, with Hins Cheung in the old family home) – that tied the whole saga together. To Be Continued is an onion doc: the layers go on and on. It speaks to the arts, Jewish, and North Point Shanghainese communities in equal measure and to history buffs of all shapes. Above all it speaks to Hongkongers. After four years of turbulence, it’s human nature to want to grapple with what’s going on and, “In that sense the film is a response to that, and people relate to that,” theorises Kikabhoy. “It hits people emotionally.”
It also inspires reflection. The tendency to tout one’s own horn is a fairy recent phenomenon, stemming directly from increased awareness of heritage – which started with the loss of Wedding Card Street 20 years ago. “The localism trend is definitely one we’ve been able to ride, but even still: old, not so handsome white guy no one knows,” Choi jokes. “He was very distant, so we put a lot of effort into connecting this guy to the contemporary world from the start. It worked better than I thought it would.” It helps that documentary filmmaking is having a moment in Hong Kong (for better or worse) and that documentary literacy is on the rise. Mix a thirst for heritage preservation with an increasingly accessible format and you have a cocktail for the summer’s most coveted movie ticket. “Since the mid 2010s people have noticed things are disappearing and narratives are changing so you need someone to record them. We’re realising the value of documentary, and that’s not just in Hong Kong.” And docs connect, Choi adds, because of “The humanity that goes into them.”
After its declaration as a Grade I historic building by the Antiquities Advisory Board in 2017, property giant New World Development purchased the State for HK$4.77 billion in 2018, agreeing to conservation and restoration of the building’s unique architecture and singular Mei Yutian sculptures. Though NWD was generous with access during production, Choi didn’t feel more about them was necessary. "There was enough information about the sale out there if you wanted to Google it, and there’s plenty floating around from back in 2016 when we were doing the campaign. The stuff Haider found was really original and we wanted to talk about Odell.” Do either Kikabhoy or Choi fear the ground floor will become another mall? Nope. “There’s always been a shopping arcade in it, since back in 1959,” Kikabhoy points out. “It was very fashionable back then, and it had Hong Kong’s second escalator in it. People came just to ride it.”
Kikabhoy’s hopes are that the State reclaims its place as a cultural hub and performance venue in a bit of true heritage preservation. “Harry Odell and the theatre are just entry points. That’s what heritage preservation should be. It should capture and perpetuate what the person or building represented … If the new State recaptures the inclusive, all-embodying, experimental spirit of the ’50s Harry would very pleased,” finishes Kikabhoy. In a perfect world, the State would re-open with To Be Continued. Full circle, and all that. You listening, New World? — DEK
Where we were
Tai Kwun • May 18, 2023
Ticket sales for special June screenings at Golden Scene Cinema begin May 25. For details on the upcoming July screenings at M+ Cinema check with the museum. For information on any other screenings beyond those, follow To Be Continued on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/docu.tobecontinued.