Take-5: 49th HKIFF ’25
It’s Film Festival time. that’s all. We’re saving our energy.
People. The Hong Kong International Film Festival is coming up on the half-century mark – fast. Before we get ahead of ourselves and start blowing out candles, the 49th edition of the region’s oldest festival is around the corner, still without a permanent home, still divorced from its market partner by the Muffies at Art Basel. But if nothing else, the film industry here knows how to works with adversity. Lest we forget, one of the best editions ever was in 2003. Good times.
This year’s 200 or so features, shorts and docs include the usual mix of buzzy festival fare (Vivian Qu’s Girls on Wire, Sandhya Suri’s Santosh), curios (Francis Ford Coppola’s inscrutable but watchable Megalopolis), awards bait (Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here, Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail), otherwise under the radar gems (Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie, Souleymane’s Story) and visits from Leos Carax, Albert Serra, Sakura Ando and Wang Bing among others. This year’s Filmmaker in Focus is none other than Louis Koo Tin-lok, and really. Is there another choice?
“Non-director [focuses] have happened before and it just felt like the time was right to acknowledge Koo’s contributions to Hong Kong cinema across the board,” says HKIFF Society Executive Director Albert Lee with programming director Geoffrey Wong adding, “He’s a great actor, he’s versatile, he works in all types of films and as we all know he’s the boss at One Cool, which is involved in every aspect of filmmaking here, and really pushes forward local production and the image of Hong Kong films abroad. He’s important now, and it’s time to recognise that.” Here’s your chance to see Koo’s GOAT performance in Throw Down (remastered in 4K) and one of the late, great Ringo Lam’s most underrated actioners, The Suspect, on the big screen at the 49th HKIFF, running April 10 to 21. For details hit www.hkiff.org.hk.
Kill the Jockey
| Director: Luis Ortega, Argentina/Mexico/Spain/Denmark/USA |
Section: Gala Presentation: Cinephile Paradise
“I think Hong Kong people aren’t as attuned to South American cinema as they could be, thinking of it as slow, immersive, boring ‘festival’ films. This is not,” says Wong of one of his must-sees this year. This stylish, pitch black crime thriller about reprobate jockey Remo, who runs afoul of a mobster is, “Surreal and comical and you’ll never expect what happens next. We cherish these kinds of enjoyable films.”
Black Ox
| Director: Tetsuichiro Tsuta, Japan/Taiwan/USA | Section: Firebird Awards Young Cinema Competition (World)
Buddhist philosophy is at the core of this meditation on our relationship with nature, as filtered through one man’s connection with a cow. “Some parts are in 35mm, some are in 70mm, so it’s a unique adaptation of the Ten Oxherding pictures,” says HKIFFS Curator Alvin Tse, who also praises Tsuta’s willingness to challenge dogmatic thinking as well as the lush monochrome images. “Many films are B&W now and it’s not necessary, but here it’s absolutely the right choice."
Viet and Nam
| Director: Truong Minh Quy, Philippines/Singapore/France
| Section: World Cinema: Global Vision
Speaking of slow. “So many young directors from Vietnam are so promising and this is one example,” says Tse. Defined by minimalist camera work and long takes, Truong’s romantic drama about miners dreaming of a better future was banned at home but is part of a growing trend among Vietnamese directors rendering the country on screen on their terms. “Vietnamese filmmakers are great at toggling between dreams and reality. There’s power coming from this region and I think that will continue.”
An Urban Allegory
| Director: Alice Rohrwacher, France | Section: Masters & Auteurs (Auteurs)
Rohrwacher teamed with street artist and photographer JR to transfer Plato’s allegory of cave to modern Paris and create a new kind of fairy tale. “She immerses JR's work into this kind of children's film, full of imagination and respect for the children’s world and how children see the world,” says Wong. “It’s extremely imaginative. We always programme great directors working in the shorts format and this is one of the best in recent years.” Bonus: it screens with Leos Carax’s new short It’s Not Me.
SEven Samurai
| Director: Akira Kurosawa, Japan | Section: Kaleidoscope: Restored Classics
“I’m going to be very conservative and say the restored Seven Samurai, which I personally consider one of the greatest films ever made,” says Lee of his must-see. “I’ve see it 20, 30 times, but every time I have a chance to watch it in a cinema, I do.” This 4K remaster of the 1954 stone classic about seven samurai saving a village from bandits pays special attention to sound, so if this is your first festival rodeo, start here. “I think for anyone learning to watch films this is a great introduction.” Understatement.