Hong Kong Arts Development Council

Centering on a girl who has learned she is pregnant, the film traces the intersecting paths of several young people across a night of the full moon.

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?

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”.

Call girl Ruby dates men for pay. Arrested, she seeks help from a lawyer client. He advises her to seek letters of mitigation from people with high social status, and to play along with the probation officer. By performing an act of penitence, Ruby may be given a more lenient sentence. The lies she tells the officer, initially mere tales to solicit sympathy, slowly reveal a heartbreaking story of someone let down by adults all her life.

We cannot escape from bureaucracy in life as well as in death. Quickie promises his grandma to handle the forced removal of his great-grand aunt’s niche. But without the ancestor’s identity documents, Quickie cannot apply for public columbarium niches. On the other hand, grandma refuses to have the evicted ashes brought home for fear of bad luck. As he struggles with bureaucratic red tape, Quickie thinks of one inventive solution after another to find a temporary home for the ashes. The story is a biting commentary on ridiculous public policies rendered in vibrant, energetic colours and groan-inducing jokes to highlight the absurdity of the situation.

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 Winter Solstice has been for the Chinese an important family occasion; however, will this time-honoured tradition become obsolete? The children head back to their family home in the country to see their elderly mother. All seems well on the surface, but each faces their own crisis and difficulty: The eldest brother struggles to raise several kids; the well off second sister plans to leave Hong Kong; estranged from her husband, the younger sister keeps up appearances; and the youngest brother commits to the difficult career as a farmer. The cheerful, animated conversation at the dinner table is overshadowed by simmering anxieties.

Love is like a flickering lamp whose shades and shadows conjure up images that unsettle the mind. Barista Dawn met her elite boyfriend at a café in Hong Kong’s financial district. At his surprise birthday party, Dawn finds herself out of place among her boyfriend’s privileged friends. Among the birthday presents is a gold designer lamp. As Dawn ponders its reflection, a nightmare begins to take form in her head. On the next day, Dawn encounters a mysterious woman who is her mirror image. Dawn decides to follow her.

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.

Ms Chan, a social worker who has just returned to work, receives her first case. She pays a visit to Jia, a single elderly who seems to have accidentally dialled the Care-on-Call Service. Jia has suspicious bruises on his face and Ms. Chan senses a possible family abuse situation. However, Jia’s attitude is unwelcoming and he sends her off right away. Since then, a series of peculiar events make Ms. Chan question her own sense of reality and sanity.

A time and space that get mixed up, A brother and a sister, One who loves starting fire, Whereas the other loves extinguishing it, An unusual relationship.

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.

Hui-man has the body of a beast. As a former social worker, he still wishes to help others, especially his loved one Ning, a headstrong beauty who resists the world and who lives in the ruins after leaving her wealthy family. Both fight for survival and face their own needs and fears. Reunited despite obstacles, they only wish for a simple candlelight dinner without fanfare.

Kuen is a lounge singer on Temple Street. Her son Kakei, now a university student, returns to Hong Kong for just a few days after emigrating to Canada with his father. Kuen's colleague Kit has to work overnight and enlists Kuen’s help to take care of her young son. During the sleepless night, Kuen and Ka-kei relive their past and envisage their future through another pair of mother and son. Under the bright sun, the cycle of life and family relationships continue, made all the more touching by the nuanced moments of care and concern between each other. SHAM Ka-ki of Weeds On Fire plays the son and renders a tender and layered performance full of subtlety.

Ching’s mother asks Ching to take her grandmother in until she is sent to a nursing home and that makes her ponder over her relationship with her mother. Three generations of women, each has their own share of pain.

Traumatised by the doomed rights movement in Garan, former activist Decem seeks refuge and solitude in the forest, fleeing his homeland and all those he held dear. Relief is however short-lived. As time passes, nostalgia and loneliness creep upon the exiled youth. Decem remains trapped in recurrent nightmares of the past and continues to plunge into despair, living with a constant sense of peril. The challenges of living in the forest along with the wildfire in the mountains eventually make him reconsider the path ahead. Mirroring the disturbed youth’s inner turmoil with the sinister wild nature, the psychological drama relates the tormented state of the exiled body and soul.

The film is set in a future when the central government attempts to replace every citizen’s name with numbers. In such a social upheaval, Ma Yi cares nothing but cancels an auto-masturbating machine. While Ma Yi doesn’t violate the law, he is however arrested and interrogated by the police.

A driver who has ties with criminals follows certain principles and distinguishes himself from the “bad guys”. But just as the unanticipated carrots found in the usual “Today’s Special”, this night’s mission is made special when a young woman is seemingly in grave danger. Trying his best to avert the crisis through a night’s battle of car chases and fist fights, he arrives at the totally unexpected destination of futility. Appropriating the most popular elements of Hong Kong genre cinema: triads, street fights and car chases, Tiger YAU’s first drama short cooks up a visually rich bowl of “Today’s Special”.

The conflicts between two generations, between the urban and the rural are intensively examined. When a grandfather and his grandchild experience loss concurrently, they realize the older generation’s protection of the ancestral land and the youth’s defense of the city are cut from the same cloth. Decades have passed, but the people of Hong Kong still do not have an answer for their rootlessness.

In autumn 2019, at the peak of the anti-extradition law amendment bill movement, Yung and Yin meet on the streets. After the arrest of Yung, Yin finds herself in the awkward situation of visiting Yung’s home for the first time. Meeting the parents, Yin has to skip the usual polite chatter and put away Yung’s items before the court warrant arrives. In this austere and awkward first meeting, they talk about the absent son. The long night drags on as the shocked and worried parents are overwhelmed by the opposing political views, by relationships torn and healed, by their hopes and regrets. When dawn comes, what will become of Yung?