夜上海 | The Longest Night in Shanghai

A successful Japanese make-up artist collides with a tough-talking Shanghai taxi driver in this romantic dramedy that twists traditional roles by making the beauty expert a male and the cab driver a feisty female. Although he works in a glamorous industry, Naoki Mizushima can’t help but notice that his life is anything but beautiful. Can the uncouth Lin Xi help him make over his life for the better?

Directed by Yibai Zhang | Starring : Wei Zhao, Masahiro Motoki, Dylan Kuo, Sam Lee, Takashi Tsukamoto | Presented at Shanghai 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