A Visit to the Hong Kong International Film Festival

This August, the Junior Fellow team accompanied students and resident tutors to four film screenings at the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF). On 18 August, they watched Kinuyo Tanaka’s Forever a Woman (1955), about a young poet whose work earns critical acclaim just as she is diagnosed with breast cancer. On 27 August, they watched a triple feature of Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs films (2002-03), an iconic crime and police drama set in Hong Kong. Two days later, they watched Yuni (2021), a film by Kamila Andini about a teenage girl dodging premature marriage proposals as she hopes to go to university. The final screening was on 30 August, and the Morningsiders watched Bruno Dumont’s character study France (2022) about an eponymous television journalist, who is shaken by an accident into reconsidering her soaring career.

Each screening was at a different cinema around the city, and attendees got to visit the West Kowloon Cultural District, Tsim Sha Tsui, and Causeway Bay.

"It is convenient to cleave gender into a neat binary, yet Forever a Woman offers a refreshing glimpse into the triumphs and sorrows of Fumiko, an unlikely heroine who traverses and transcends traditional womanhood. At first glance, Fumiko's story pictures the downfall of a star-crossed woman, who exhausts her youth chasing but not fulfilling the female ideal of wife and mother. Ironically, it is through laying down her pride, femininity and health that she achieves self-expression and self-actualisation, blossoming into a woman full and complete. Fumiko's inability to conform to societal ideals is a testament of her gift for hope and refusal to deny her own spiritual and carnal needs; her failings underscore the message that the subservient female archetype is not only limiting but also unattainable and synthetic. The movie's refined and natural narrative voice echoes its message, peering through the eyes of Woman and slicing through the humdrum of male-dominated narratives to tell the other side of the story." - Ching Lam, student

“The coming-of-age story [of Yuni] surprised me with its social context. It brings the education system and arranged marriage convention in Indonesian Islamic society to a wider global audience. It discusses the social and gender inequality with a sensitive and tender approach, by reflecting on the tragedy of an intelligent and progressive young female. I also love how the movie photographs common daily scenes with naturalist aesthetics.” – Jasmine, student

“Infernal Affairs has almost defined my early memories of Hong Kong film. It was a unique experience to rewatch this classic series and meet the director in person during the movie festival. Although I was familiar with the storyline, I still had fresh thoughts and interpretations of the characters and plots while watching them again. So did many of my peers. And this is how a film series becomes classical.” – Hu Yang, resident tutor

(Photo credit: Alayna Lee, Morningside College Junior Fellow)