一个好爸爸 | Run Papa Run

Run Papa Run is a bit of a different take on the usual Hong Kong gangster movie shenanigans. In the film, Louis Koo plays Lee, a young man who finds father figures in the Triads his mother takes care of in her underground clinic. Despite his mother’s objections, Lee joins the local gang, and soon becomes one of the most powerful gangsters in Hong Kong. However, things are turned upside down for Lee soon after her meets a pretty lawyer named Mabel. After getting Mabel pregnant and marrying her in a shotgun wedding, Lee finds himself wanting to be a “good” Triad for the sake of his daughter, Heiyi. Of course, it isn’t so easy for a hardened gangster to be a nice guy, and Lee must try to balance the needs of both of his “families”.

Directed by Sylvia Chang | Starring : Louis Koo, Rene Liu, Nora Miao, Siu Chung Mok, Suet Lam | Presented at Hong Kong Film Festival

饺子 | Dumplings

No woman can resist the temptation of potential rejuvenation – for some it’s a dreamy blissful chase; for others a never-ending nightmare of endless pursuit. But Qing can afford it all. An ex-starlet turned wife of a prominent rich man, Qing is destined to have this dream come true. Qing uses a lot of connections to get to the mysterious chef, Mei to obtain her famous specialty dumplings. Qing is no gourmet but simply dying to recover her youth and beauty. At stake is her new “career” as a housewife of the rich. Mei’s dumplings claim to deliver the goods. Mei, a former gynecologist, developed a secret recipe for rejuvenation which has allowed her to bid farewell to her career as an abortionist. Now Mei only serves desperate rich women like Qing. Mei understands a woman’s need and she can fulfill a woman’s desire, all you need is a leap of faith to take a bite into her special dumplings with usual fillings.

Directed by Fruit Chan | Starring : Miriam Yeung Chin Wah, Bai Ling, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Miki Yeung, So-Fun Wong | Presented at Melbourne Film Festival, Edinburgh Film Festival, Helsinki Film Festival, Rio de Janeiro Film Festival, Sao Paulo Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival

香港有个荷里活 | Hollywood Hong Kong

Sex, violence, and pork are the hallmarks of this ultra-black comedy from maverick Hong Kong filmmaker Fruit Chan. Boss Chu is the rotund proprietor of a fast-food stall specializing in pork located in a decaying Hong Kong shanty town. Boss Chu runs the business with his equally porcine sons Tiny and Ming. Living near the pork stall is a teenaged would-be gangster, Wong Chi-keung, who though e-mail makes the acquaintance of a young woman calling herself “Shanghai Angel Hung-Hung”, a prostitute recently arrived in Hong Kong from China. After doing frequent business with Wong, Hung-Hung begins frequenting the pork stall, where she becomes close friends with young Tiny. However, Ming soon develops a more carnal interest in Tiny’s new playmate, and Hung-Hung takes advantage of Ming’s infatuation by seducing him. Boss Chu is also attracted with the young prostitute, and she begins working her charms on the father of the family. Once Wong, Ming, and Boss have all fallen under Hung-Hung’s spell, the three men each begin receiving threatening letters from a lawyer, who claims that Hung-Hung is underage and that statutory rape charges will be filed against them unless they’re willing to pay, leading to some unpleasant visits from the blackmailer’s enforcers. Heunggong Yau Gok Holeiwut is the second film in a planned trilogy about Chinese prostitutes in Hong Kong, following Fruit Chan’s 2000 release Durian, Durian.

Directed by Fruit Chan | Starring : Xun Zhou, Glen Chin, Sai Man Ho, You-Nam Wong, Kit Man Tam | Presented at Venice Film Festival, Pusan Film Festival, Stockholm Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, Singapore Film Festival, Cinemanila Film Festival

榴莲飘飘 | Durian Durian

Durian Durian is an extension of the life of Fan, the illegal immigrant girl in Little Cheung. Fan strikes up a friendship with fellow immigrant Yan, the hardest working prostitute in town who must endure the harsh conditions of her job on one side of the border (HK) while she tries to turn her profits into a success on the other side of the border (China). One day, the pimp accompanying her gets his head smashed from behind in a random act of violence. The weapon is a strange, spiky fruit known as the “durian”. The idealistic and naive views of Hong Kong that the girls share are destroyed by differences in culture, isolated existences, and limited choices.

Directed by Fruit Chan | Starring : Hailu Qin, Wai-Fan Mak, Suet-man Mak, Xiao Ming Biao, Wai Yiu Yung | Presented at Venice Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, London Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, Belgrade Film Festival, Cinemanila Film Festival

细路祥 | Little Cheung

A nine-year old boy confronts the heady complexities of the adult world, its violence, guilt and loss, with comic and tragic consequences. After school, Little Cheung helps out in his father’s restaurant, working in the kitchen and delivering food to neighbourhood gambling dens, funeral parlours and brothels. He is cute, well-liked, always handsomely tipped. Little Cheung’s father hides a warm heart beneath a cold, hard shell. His mother looks after business, whilst his house-bound grandmother, silent but loving, nurses a secret sorrow. His older brother was lost to the gangland underworld years ago. Little Cheung befriends Fan, a street-smart girl his age and together they run a strange delivery business with the local mafia. Cheung splits the commission with her and steals cakes from his father’s restaurant. He is brutally punished by his father and runs away on his grandmother’s birthday. Fan reveals his hiding place, then disappears. Uneasily reunited with his family, from the balcony where Grandma always sat, he sees Fan in the street. Little Cheung runs to greet her, but their reunion is short-lived. Fan and her family are arrested and hauled into a police van. Illegal immigrants, they will be deported to Mainland China. Little Cheung is alone.

Directed by Fruit Chan | Starring : Yuet-Ming Yiu, Wai-Fan Mak, Yuet-Man Mak, Robby Cheung, Gary Lai | Presented at Locarno Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, AFI Film Festival, London Film Festival, Gijón Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, Melbourne Film Festival

香港制造 | Made in Hong Kong

Autumn Moon is one step short of a triad, and an ocean removed from respectability. A go-nowhere, no-nothing nobody, Moon is the boss of his own gang, which has one member, a retarded fellow named Sylvester, and passes his time playing basketball and collecting debts for local triad Wing. Marginalized by society and perhaps his own poor self-image, Moon nonetheless attempts to make his mark on the world, finding direction in his love for Ping, a young girl suffering from renal failure, and a chance connection to Susan, a school girl who committed suicide. Moon’s quest for personal significance is full of startling violence, lyrical emotion and surprising irony, and director Fruit Chan’s camera is right there, infusing this street level Hong Kong tale with a vibrant and affecting immediacy. Made in Hong Kong succeeds on multiple levels – as a tale of disaffected youth, as a rude answer to the gangster-glorifying Young and Dangerous films, and as an affecting portrait of what it means to be born, bred, and buried in Hong Kong.

Directed by Fruit Chan | Starring : Sam Lee, Neiky Yim Hui-Chi, Wenders Li, Carol Lam Kit-Fong, Amy Tam Ka-Chuen | Presented at Locarno Film Festival, Vancouver Film Festival, Pusan Film Festival, Gijón Film Festival, Nantes Film Festival, Hong Kong Film Festival