QUATTRO HONG KONG I: Four Hong Kong directors come together for a common prayer for their beloved city. Fruit Chan juggles animation and live action to craft an ode to cinema and innocence in The Yellow Slipper. In Clara Law’s Red Earth, Daniel Wu plays a management consultant coming to Hong Kong to meet a girl, and witnessing a sensational sunset. Heiward Mak, the youngest of the quartet, weaves a nocturnal tale of lonely hearts and destiny in We Might as Well be Strangers, and Herman Yau heads down memory lane for a dish of Fried Glutinous Rice before it went upmarket.
QUATTRO HONG KONG II brings together three of Southeast Asia’s best and Hong Kong’s own Stanley Kwan. From sleepy Tai O village to bustling Yaumatei to the city’s famed flower market, Cannes winners Apichatpong Weerasethakul (M Hotel, Thailand) and Brillante Mendoza (Purple, the Philippines) find mystery mixed with beauty. Malaysia’s Ho Yuhang lets fly his comic talents in Open Verdict, a gem about some kind of cross-border trade. And Stanley Kwan takes us on a real-time bus trip from the airport to Kowloon in 13 Minutes in the Lives of… The heady and deadly mix of Hong Kong and cinema; wonder never ceases.
Fried Glutinous Rice
Director: Herman Yau 13 mins
Cast: Dennis To
Before Hong Kong’s modernization, a dish of fried glutinous rice cost no more than fifty cents. Since the city’s transformation, this delicacy has all but disappeared. This piece of local culture is not something that the commercial world can put a price on.
Red Earth
Director: Clara Law 22 mins
Cast: Daniel Wu
A professional management consultant comes to Hong Kong to meet a girl he briefly encountered a month ago. He checks into a hotel room and waits for her to show him the unforgettable view of the sunset that she had once promised him. But somehow he can no longer remember her face. Then, strange things happen that not only changes his life forever, but also the lives of seven billion people.
We Might As Well Be Strangers
Director: Heiward Mak 20 mins
Cast: Chui Tien-you, Kate Yeung
A man who wants to take his lover out for a late night snack ends up drowning his desire with food. A girl who wants to see the man she loves cannot make up her mind, and ends up seeking consolation in drinking. These two post-80’s individuals, trying to resist the ennui of city life and clinging onto their cell phones for relief, meet as they wander around Nathan Road…
The Yellow Slipper
Director: Fruit Chan 12 mins
Cast: Joey Kan, Kitty Fung
There was once a little boy whose mother would often take him to the movies to see his father. His mother was an actress. And his father was a famous actor… The boy has now grown up, and his mother has since passed away. But he still loves the movies, and it no longer matters who his father was.
Purple
Director: Brillante Mendoza 16min
Cast: Rene Durian, Raymund Nullan
Inspired by the color of bauhinia, a purple that is at once mysterious and regal, Mendoza and his team spent their days in Hong Kong's flower market and Tai O, the fishing village in Lantao Island. Travelogue, anthropology and more, Purple begins as an observation of the ways Hong Kong people go about their everyday activities, and emerges as an ode to beauty: the specific beauty of Hong Kong as a city, and the almost transcendental beauty of life itself.
Open Verdict
Director: Ho Yuhang 21min
Cast: Kara Wai Ying-hung, Michelle Wai, Chui Tin-yau, Carlos Chan, Chew Kin Wah, Ricky Wong
Thrilled by Hong Kong’s unbounded energy, Ho Yu-hang lets loose his comic talents. Two Hong Kong narcotics agents receive a tip from their Malaysian counterparts: a Malaysian kingpin will be hauling some serious goods to Hong Kong for some serious business. “Watch out for him, find out when he shows up, and….”
M Hotel
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul 12 min
Cast: Chaisiri Jiwarangsan, Nitipong Thinthupthai, Chalermrat Kaweewattana
Two men are on the 17th floor of a hotel, taking lazy afternoon portraits. They are there to shoot a film for the Hong Kong International Film Festival. Outside, another man is in the park with his sound recorder. Yaumatei transformed into a place of sound and mystery, pure Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
13 Minutes in the Lives of...
Director: Stanley Kwan 16 min
Cast: Gordon Lam Ka-tung, Terence Yin, Hiro Kayama, Felina Pau, Yolande Yau
One Saturday afternoon in late November, 2010, a bus throttles from the Airport Station to Kowloon. Riding this 13-minute trip there are: two gleeful middle-aged women returning from the “Animated River Scenes at Qingming Festival” exhibition, a mainland couple here for a holiday and their young friend; a touring Japanese musician, and a local intellectual type. Small talks and lovers’ discourses, a trip in real time and a slice of life in today’s Hong Kong.
Taken from HKFF 2011 - SHORT FILMS
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