Fresh Wave

Attack and defense, that’s what fencing is, and so is life. Two university fencing team players are meant to be each other’s archenemy. Fung, who is talented but bad-tempered, lost his place to Pun in representing the university in the upcoming inter-school competition. He puts the blame on the fact that Pun was born to be the son of the past representative of Hong Kong fencing team, which is an advantage that he could never beat. While the other side of the story is, Pun is being pushed to the edge of nervous breakdown by his over-aggressive father who wants his son to complete his unfulfilled dream.

Art imitates life in this charming short about the fictional actress LilyMoon. With a chance encounter and a lost autobiographical manuscript, a bartender becomes acquainted with the retired screen star. Their friendship blossoms as LilyMoon reminisces about her past including her life as a sought-after actor, non-existent childhood and memories of first love. Eventually, the young and well-meaning bartender helps to relieve LilyMoon's pent-up feelings of sadness and encourages her to meet a long-lost lover.

Single father Tsui meets university student Gigi who works at an old-fashioned barber shop that Tsui frequents. They bond immediately and begin a profound exchange. The fleeting friendship is a pleasant surprise during times of vulnerability, but does not help to overcome their individual challenges and demons. Tsui continues to put off dealing with a pressing matter that has long been eating him. Amidst the social unrest, Gigi’s outlook and musings on life lead Tsui to reflect on the unsolved matter and he eventually makes an important decision.

Is there eternity in the universe? Five-year-old Ka-wing and his younger sister Ka-yan have been asking this question for all time. From a tumultuous childhood in an abusive household, the siblings are delivered to the HO’s, where they find temporary solace and stability. A brief reunion with their biological parents propels the children back onto a trajectory of precarity and shatters their young dream of home, a shifting idea gradually taking form as they grow up. Featuring Loletta LEE Lai-chun (Golden Horse Awards for Best Actress, Ordinary Heroes, 1999) and David SIU Chung-hang, the short is a narration of childhood through a decade of imaging technology.

Like a cactus, a marriage is expected to last but not without a few prickly details. While the bride's mother is in bliss over her elder daughter's upcoming marriage, the bride's sister is doubtful after witnessing the groom on the street with another woman. As the bride discovers her fiance's affair, the torrent of events prompts a pointed conversation between the three women, highlighting their contrasted views on marriage and fidelity. The bride is veering towards a meltdown while her sister grows more skeptical of marriage.

An umbrella standing alone in the rain by the road. Is it a magical umbrella that protects its owner, or a curse? Sum-yu, a reserved young woman, suffers daily sexual harassment in the office by her male colleagues and superior. All this changes when she comes across a blood-red umbrella on a rainy night, unleashing a malevolent spirit and transforming her into a merciless avenger against the men who have wronged her. Can wrongs of the past life be righted in the current one? A modern ghost story incorporating body horror motifs, the short relates a bloody and thrilling tale of contemporary gender relations.

18-year-old Shengnan is invited to a mysterious party by her cousin. Upon arrival, Shengnan finds herself surrounded by greasy middle-aged men, with the exception of Jianguo, who is different. Shengnan and Jianguo decide to bail on the party, embarking on a night of adventures in the adult world.

Egg suffers from severe hearing impairment and mild intellectual disability. She is sent to a home for the mentally handicapped when she loses the most important person in her life. Walking alone into a strange community, she believes that her father did the same by starting his own journey along the seacoast. Today is the birthday of Ham. He has been waiting for a new change and for his mother to take him away. However, days go by and nothing happens. Locked up in a security room, he is all anxious and depressed until he meets Egg who is trying to escape. In an abandoned house facing the sea, Ham and Egg build an ark, hoping to sail to the time before the world began.

Leaving music school, the happy-go-lucky Ling returns to Hong Kong to her dementia-stricken father, on whom she tries to conduct music therapy. Her demurer older sister Munn, the caretaker and sole supporter of the family, watches with disapproval. Playing the piano piece her father once taught her, Ling seems to register some change in her father’s condition, a glimmer of hope amidst the abyss of oblivion. However, secret animosity and rivalry eventually leads to open conflict between the two sisters, bringing out long-time family traumas. Will music save them?

A directorial effort from Ashley Cheung, a promising and up-and-coming scriptwriter. An excellent dramatic short film with the brilliant performance of Joman Chiang, the Queen of independent films, and Himmy Wong of Weeds on Fire. Nim Cheung is a senior counsellor of the Suicide Prevention Hotline. She is still suffering from the death of her little daughter. One day, she receives a phone call of a young man who is attempting suicide. She finds out that he is the one responsible for her daughter’s death. What will she do facing this dilemma, which may cause complete different stories to both of their lives?

Seated in the front row of a funeral hall are a boy and a teenager, the picture of the deceased yet to be placed. A florist, Tung (Ai Wai), is consumed by grief but puts on a front for others. The boy drops by at the florist and orders a custom floral arrangement - a teddy bear-shaped wreath with his favourite yellow flowers — to be readied in three days' time and paid with money saved up in his piggy bank. Tung forges an unlikely friendship with his young customer, an encounter that releases bottled-up emotions so that healing process can begin.

A girl called Christy is missing. The case haunts Detective Max, time and time again, leaving him with a sense of remorse. Following a trail, Max arrives at an abandoned school where he finds traces of a cult ritual and a murder scene. Suddenly he finds himself in a stylish bar where he sees his former colleague and Christy. Meanwhile the murderer is lurking behind... Will Max find hope and redemption from the dismal past? Shot in black and white, this mysterious thriller employs the stylistic elements of neo-noir and horror to recreate our urban terrors of missing people.

The fairy tale of childhood is that our lives will follow an ideal trajectory. Destiny decides otherwise for Wing-Kai who becomes bedridden, paralysed from the neck down after a car accident. The monotonous hospital life depresses the young man. Years later, he meets a young girl who is caring for her boyfriend in vegetative state, believing that her love will wake him up eventually. Wing-Kai ridicules her innocent optimism. When the young man recovers miraculously, hope reawakens in Wing-Kai who begins rehabilitation training with great fervour. However, time passes and everything remains the same. Sinking into even deeper despair, Wing-Kai tries to regain control over his own destiny.

Music is the common language that draws people together. Johann Bach’s Goldberg Variations brings the two lonely and unrelated people in the film - an inconspicuous mid-aged man Joe and a once popular actress Shu closer. A subtle and occasional encounter takes place in the remote country side where Joe is the night shift storekeeper and Shu goes to the area for shooting. When Joe plays this particular work of Bach, Shu is touched and shares with him her miserable life experiences. He feels that there is a bonding between them until he attempts to explore more into this illusive “relationship”.

“Once clothed as an official, you represent law and justice.” This was taught to young detective Xian who worked under Detective “Silent Dog” Ao to catch mountain robbers. To everyone’s dismay, the robbers turned out to be detectives from neighbouring counties who were forced to rob the ruling county to save the poor. Through trickery and lies, Ao started a bloodbath to kill the robbers. Shaken to the core by Ao’s deceit, the originally naïve Xian abandoned his dreams to uphold righteous values. Not to be outdone, he ended up murdering the treacherous Ao for his own gains. With blades and blood, Xian was later hailed as a legendary detective.

"The more difficulties you suffer, the more you need to change and overcome." A shadow of his former self, Siu-ho is a tattooist who works for the triad and put tattoos on betrayers as punishment. His best friend Tyson, a fighter past his prime of life, also succumbs to reality and works on a job which he detests. As both of them experience a desperate period in their lives, they try to remind themselves the pursuit of life through the pain of tattooing and fighting. Fame and glory are not their goals, but feeling alive is. With too many forces in the city threatening to dash their dreams, will they succeed in forging ahead?

Ching’s parents are retirees ready to leave for Taiwan where a new chapter awaits them. The only thing holding them back is their daughter’s hesitation to join them. Unbeknownst to them, Ching is stuck in an affair with a married man. She is constantly teetering between trust and distrust, clinging on unfulfilled promises instead of letting go. Life has presented a difficult crossroad to her as she weighs between acting for her own good and following what the heart desires.

Kwan believes that she is unique. Enclosed in solitude within her own literary world and deprived of affections from her family, she longs for love in whatever form it takes - no matter how distorted. She considers the detention class with Mr Cheung a shelter from the world, until it is shattered together with all her hopes. She finally comes to the realisation that it is the world that goes against her. There is no hiding place for her no matter how hard she struggles……

The average person’s head has up to 100,000 hairs. Each strand may be unique in length and texture but they are said to bear our memories of sorrow and worry. Neighbors come to the old shop “Barber’s Time” to part with both their hair and bad memories. Although Cantonese style haircutting is on the slippery slope to extinction, barber shop owner Hoi-chuen wishes for his son Cheung-fat to manage the shop. Aspiring to be a writer like J. D. Salinger instead, Cheung-fat takes over “Barber’s Time” when his father had an accident. Just like his father, Cheung-fat develops rapport with the customers and provides guidance. His own life also turns around when a runaway girl comes to the shop. A magical heartwarming tale of community support and kindness, the short features Kaki Shum from the film “Weeds of Fire”.

There are people and places that we used to hold dear in our hearts and gradually became sediments of buried memories. When Charlotte encounters a suitcase at the second hand shop she works at, her emotions are unearthed and bring her back to the days of innocence with Chan. Charlotte did believe that Chan, just like the neighbourhood in bygone times, would remain constant. Yet all old things are helplessly abandoned and crushed beneath the wheel of time. At the same time, Ling is depressed and lonely because of Chan's death. Sending Chan's things away to purge her negative emotions and to set herself free from the past, a treasured relationship reveals itself like ripples of emotions.