Hong Kong Arts Development Council

After his success as a martial arts film star, WONG Joi made a fatal decision to write and direct his debut feature Golden Sword Woman, with his beloved wife Mei-fung starring as the eponymous heroine. Years later, a senile, demented WONG, who keeps blabbering about his ‘groundbreaking’ debut, is being taken care of by his grudging son Ho. The film parodies the visual style of the Shaw Brothers martial arts films to tell the story of a contemporary father-and-son conflict and reconciliation. Golden Sword Woman travels in time and between both sides of the silver screen, between the romantic world of swordsmen and the unpromising, secular family life.

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.

The film is a resonant portrayal of the younger generation in the post-Umbrella Movement era. Two years ago, Ah-man (Ng Wing-sze), an independent yet stubborn university student, left home after a furious argument with her mum when the Umbrella Movement broke out. Now, she undertakes a new kind of lifestyle – a life of a vegetarian and an organic farmer. However, she never stops thinking of the taste from home. With the film's fragmentary narrative style, Ah-man’s story also reflects the ambivalent decisions between family and society of her friends.

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?

Life and death are decreed by fate, so the wisdom goes—but who really controls our first and last breath? When we are vulnerable, is the omniscient and omnipotent Heavenly Father the only refuge? The pastor’s wife is terminally ill. By her death bed is the devoted younger son who wishes to minimize her suffering by withholding life support so that she can leave in peace. The pastor, however, insists on obeying the doctrines and God’s will. As signs of impending death approach, is the pastor simply waiting for a miracle? A difficult debate ensues when love for the family conflicts with religious obligations.

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.

Mothers often go to extremes and make sacrifices for their children, including feigning madness. Fun-nei's mother has been kept in custody in a mental hospital for killing her husband, leaving daughters Fun-nei and Si-ling on their own. Fun-nei later achieves success by making her eventful life story into a documentary. One day the mother escapes from the hospital and returns home. Furious that Si-ling has not reported the escape, Fun-nei clashes with her sister and films the conflict, eventually unveiling the hidden truth.

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”.

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.

We enjoy the adrenaline rush given by horror films. But what if we are personally involved in the horror? Director Chun has created a ghost story based on a real case with a dancer murdered, incorporating all marketable ideas like women, supernatural forces and violence. Successfully he persuades the boss to invest in his horror, but there is one “little” requirement – in order to pass the Mainland censorship, no ghost can be presented in the ghost story. So keen to make it work, Chun compromises. While he starts to change the script, an unexpected visitor shows up and leads him to a special journey. A film depicting the bittersweet life of film workers.

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.

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.

A homeless man works as a bounty hunter of pets and missing persons on the side. Sleeping rough on the streets for eight years and counting, he is by no means a do-gooder bent on saving the helpless but is simply eking out a meagre existence in a society that turns a blind eye to individuals like him and renders them invisible. One day, the sighting of one such misper turns into a debacle, and the man hunter finds himself the unlikely saviour of the runaway. Yet beggars can’t be choosers and survivors should never be apologetic for putting their own well-being first. Still, it begs the question: As a society we are judged by how we treat the most vulnerable. And what does that make us, having failed so miserably collectively?

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.

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.

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.

Kevin, a young theatre director from Hong Kong, is searching for ideas for his next play with his team, hoping to get funding for an overseas production. Frank, a middle-aged hairdresser in Berlin, is performing his daily routine. Coincidences bring them together, though their friendship is dictated by the parameters of the smartphone. Kevin decides to adapt the stories of the Berlin Wall to the stage, as old memories of living in East Berlin come flooding back to Frank. Shadows, in their literal and metaphorical sense, become the third wheel which silently alters their lives and turns into a story that transcends the boundaries of reason. Through this experimental work, director Terence LI sheds light on the inner space-time of the queer and the displaced.

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?

Divorced café owner Kayan lives with her daughter Tung. Her life is renewed after meeting her lesbian partner Shuting who becomes part of the loving family. When Kayan dies in a tragic car accident, the grieving Shuting wants to continue taking care of Tung but encounters strong opposition from Kayan’s mother. At Kayan’s funeral, due to social norms and taboos, Shuting is completely side-lined and stripped of the privilege to bid farewell to the love of her life. She faces yet another dilemma, having to make the decision to do what is best for Tung.

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”.