Hong Kong Arts Development Council

In Lei Gu Town in Sichuan, Xu who lost his wife during the 2008 earthquake is ready to get married again. His hesitation arises when he sees that his teenage daughter Shan is not yet ready to move on. Shan goes for a walk to landslide dam for a moment of solitude. The dam was formed when landslide debris fell and destroyed a whole village. It is an aftermath of the quake, yet it is at the same time a beautiful scenery. Perhaps not all things brought by a disaster are negative, Shan wonders.

Security guard Cheung is a loving father who takes good care of his children. As his kids grow older, they have their own lives and that leaves Chueng feeling lonely. He displaces his fatherly love onto his colleague Sheung's young children instead. This innocent act, however, makes his daughter suspect that Cheung and Sheung are having an affair and a small incident risks being blown out of scale.

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.

To a wheelchair-bound elderly woman abandoned to the care of a foreign domestic maid, a phone line is a lifeline that connects her to a cross-section of females from a jumble of bygone eras. As she showers persistent but inconsequent questions on her unwitting receivers, she drifts further from reality, her lucid moments increasingly rare. Struck by the doctor’s advice, her son takes the first step towards helping her separate fact from fantasy, and by relating the nostalgic past to the present, unlocks old memories that are waiting to be shared.

Pak-kiu works as a gaffer while waiting for his first break in front of the camera. An inviting target of ridicule, he remains unwavering that he will rise above the sordid realities of the glamorous world of film-making with his determination to be a proper actor rather than a star. So when he is offered a bit part as a cancer patient in a new film, he jumps at the chance to practise method acting, literally getting into his character and inhabiting him through claiming membership of a support group, which reunites him with an old classmate. However, the reunion, shrouded in a façade of altruistic motive, leaves him ill-prepared for a role in real life that is not so easily dismissed as a character in the script...

High school student Faye leads a lonesome life, being bullied at school and her family living abroad. She keeps a distance from people, including her classmate Yiu whom she secretly admires. Yearning for love and desperate to break away from her mundane life, Faye becomes a part-time girlfriend named “Sushi”. A delicate dish on the sushi conveyor belt, Faye is coveted and manipulated by the assortment of men who seek her services. Her life is further complicated when Yiu suddenly confesses his affection for her on the phone. Navigating the tumultuous journey of love, will Faye finally be able to lift herself up, take the lead and find her way?

After losing his son in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, a disillusioned old man chooses to stay silent and block out the noises of political bickering in the city. After all, nothing anyone does ever seem to make any difference. With the quick deterioration of freedom in Hong Kong, how much longer can the old man choose to stay silent before the oppression becomes too much? Amidst the noises from all sides, which side should we listen to, or should we simply stay apathetic and block out the noise altogether?

Sherman is a journalist working on a feature story about Kintsugi, the ancient Japanese art of repairing ceramics with powdered precious metals, a manifestation of the Japanese philosophy of embracing the flawed or imperfect. As she learns of a Japanese Kintsugi master's arrival in Hong Kong, she arranges an interview with him and brings along some broken ceramic pieces to the Kintsugi lessons. Sherman unexpectedly runs into her ex-boyfriend, Chun, whom she has not seen for a long time. Because of Sherman's feature, the two are re-acquaint with each other. Sherman is troubled about Chun’s entering her life again. The shattered pieces and the broken relationship - can all that be repaired?

She is a teacher of Chinese literature, reciting poems and recounting the brilliance of ancient Chinese poets before a class of students whose common parlance is foul language. He is a hormone-charged teenager who makes a paper plane for the teacher from a torn textbook page doodled with drawings of the object of his fantasy. She is a divorcee whose husband was rumoured to have an affair with a student in his school. With partly fascination and partly curiosity, he starts making suggestive remarks in class and stalking her outside the school, rattling her with flirtation. Both carrying a heavy load of baggage, the teacher and her student are about to ignite a spark that will scorch them both.

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.

Falling petals, flying snowflakes, fragments of memory…all are transient just like our dreams. Without thoughts, there need not be a concrete plot or captivating story to tell. Just as philosopher Zhuang Zi wrote--the fools think they are awake. Each scene and image exudes illusion and fantasy. The absence of plot and dialogues allows freedom in interpretation and clarity. The symphony of images becomes a poem for the audience to treasure. Cinema is dreamy in nature, allowing the true poetic spirit to thrive—when we rid ourselves with thoughts.

Luggage? Check. Travel document? Check. Keys? Check. The Year is 2040 and Ching is all set to embark on a mission to track the whereabouts of a dog and its owners which will transport her back in time before she was even born. In 2013, an age of mobile phones and Google Maps, the time-traveller meets a painter and piques his curiosity to join in her quest. Can she reach the parents she never had the chance to get to know and will he find a purpose in life after tempting fate and death? Will the mementos of their brief encounter – a painting that crystallises the artist’s feelings for her and a keepsake pendant that has been passed down for generations – survive the time and reconnect the two?

Legendary chef Mo Yik-Tin is notorious for turning animals into spectacular dishes – tastes always rule over lives under the butcher's knife. Equally thoughtful and fascist, Mo is a fascinating mentor in the eyes of his apprentice. In subtle tension with the TV programme's host, Mo is poised to present his greatest culinary dishes which set off an intense debate with the programme host. A reflection on the general public's food-obsessed culture and celebrity worship, this feature also highlights human's decadence and corrupt excess through the aesthetics of food.

What constitutes a “disadvantaged youth”? Man Hang did have noble and lofty goals for his life after graduation, but they were quickly crushed by the harsh reality of life. Working an unglamorous job at a warehouse along a colleague with autism, Man Hang was bullied by his boss with unreasonable demands. His mind wanders back to his school days especially when he was seated next to Wing Lok, a classmate with autism who was constantly ridiculed and taunted by the class. During reunions, Man Hang and his friends mused on the irony: With all of them having similarly unremarkable careers, are their lives more fulfilling than Wing Lok who could remain true to himself?

Mable, the daughter of HK's infamous rogue cop is at a loss when her father's old debts lead to the murder of her mother. With the help of Inspector Lok and the sage guidance of her God Grandfather, she uncovers a truth she never could have imagined.

A man is forced to face the childhood traumas that still haunts him in this atmospheric gothic drama. Fung returns to his rural home to attend his mother's funeral. In line with local customs, Fung has to carry his mother's corpse back to the scene of her death, deep inside a forest where he spent his childhood. During his journey, memories of his broken relationship with his single mother and his childhood encounter with violent wolves that was rumored to be inhibiting the forest all resurface in Fung's mind.

Gun is a loan shark. Having worked hard for years, i.e. intimidating and threatening his debtors, he musters just enough money to purchase a house for the family. The plan is at risk, however, when one of his debtors dies and Gun discovers that he is not the only creditor. Out of desperation, he asks for his daughter’s help, who is unwilling to be involved in her father’s shady business. The simmering tension causes a rift in the family.

Joyce and Lily have a different class background but stealing unites their friendship. Joyce is the poor one who cannot afford a smart phone whereas Lily is the posh one who turns into a kleptomaniac due to a detached relationship with her family. When Lily spots Joyce stealing a phone from their classmates, Lily helps her out. They even join hands to be partners in crime. Lily teaches Joyce the art of stealing while Joyce appreciates her company. However, too many successes make them go further and further. While starting from shoplifting, they decide to pickpocket on streets. Will their ambition beat them down and have them arrested? Throughout Speaking Low, Joyce and Lily’s friendship also entails an ambiguity of their sexuality.

"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?

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……