The Dynamic Cityscapes of Hong Kong Films Exhibition in Phnom Penh!
The Dynamic Cityscapes of Hong Kong Films exhibition is a celebration and demonstration of Hong Kong’s diverse landscapes, featuring re-creation of the most memorable Hong Kong sights that have been memorialised in recent Hong Kong films.
Presented by the Asian Film Awards Academy, financially supported by Hong Kong’s Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (CCIDA), Film Development Fund and Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, in collaboration with Westec Media Limited, The Dynamic Cityscapes of Hong Kong Films Exhibition is held concurrently at Factory Phnom Penh from 4 July until 4 August 2024, 10AM – 7PM daily. Welcoming general public to visit for free, with exhibition materials available in both English and Khmer.
Hong Kong is a small city with a robust film industry. It is no exaggeration to say that Hong Kong itself is literally one big film studio. The Dynamic Cityscapes of Hong Kong Films Exhibition is a celebration and demonstration of Hong Kong’s diverse cityscapes, recreating the most memorable scenes that appeared in the specially selected films, as well as iconic sights in Hong Kong.
A set of old-style televisions and a tenement building recreation of Kowloon Walled City, a notorious urban enclave that has recently returned to the spotlight because of the action blockbuster Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In. The story of a widow who sets out to fulfil her late husband’s last wish by learning neon sign-making in Anastasia Tsang’s A Light Never Goes Out commemorates Hong Kong’s neon shop signs, one of the city’s most eye-catching symbols. An interactive installation of a bank vault and banknotes reveals the Hong Kong as depicted in The Goldfinger, a land of opportunity where any ambitious and driven entrepreneur can amass their own fortune, even for the crooked ones.
Tsim Sha Tsui’s Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong’s most well-known cultural melting pot where an unlikely friendship grows in the award-winning noir thriller Hand Rolled Cigarette. A classroom filled with books signifies the heavy burden and the stress faced by students which resonates with the characters in Time Still Turns the Pages. The traditional Hong Kong Chinese restaurant, where the characters in Fly Me to the Moon share a family dim sum meal, is another daily scene in Hong Kong.
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In
The Kowloon Walled City was probably one of the most tightly packed communities in the world, where buildings and shops of all shapes and heights were built and accessed by intricate of alleys. It inspired the look of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic Blade Runner and much of the cyberpunk genre, as well as an indoor theme park in Japan. In Soi Cheang’s big-budget action blockbuster Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, which is adapted from a popular novel originated from a comic series, the Kowloon Walled City is portrayed as a melting pot of honest blue-collar working people and various gangsters. Since the real Kowloon Walled City was torn down in 1990, the film’s production design crew and visual effects artists had to painstakingly re-create various sections of the enclave in studios and various vacant government buildings. Sights of the Walled City seen in the film include its narrow alleyways, various businesses, food stalls, dense tenement buildings, and the hidden nooks and crannies that ordinary people would never step into.
A Light Never Goes Out
Giant neon signs adorn the city’s major throughways for decades with dazzling lights, advertising all sorts of businesses. It is an integral part of Hong Kong culture. Though safety regulations have caused many of these signs to be taken down in recent years, neon lights have been immortalised in Anastasia Tsang’s directorial debut, A Light Never Goes Out. The moving drama stars Sylvia Chang as the widow of a former neon sign craftsman. When she learns that her late husband was re-creating one of his old signs before his death, she decides to learn the craft in order to fulfil his last wish. Made with real-life neon sign craftsmen as consultants, the film shows the painstaking process of making these signs in authentic details.
The Goldfinger
Felix Chong’s The Goldfinger presents a compelling portrayal of Hong Kong in the 80s as a land of opportunities. The film’s protagonist, an ambitious businessman named Henry Ching, competes for the purchase of an office building with literally a wall of gold, symbolising the excess of wealth and a life of debauchery in the city at that time. This theme is represented by an interactive installation featuring a bank vault and banknotes in the exhibition.
Hand Rolled Cigarette
In Chan Kin-long’s noir thriller Hand Rolled Cigarette, Tsim Sha Tsui’s Chungking Mansions is the home of the protagonist, Kwan, a former British-Chinese soldier who now works as a triad fixer who dips his hand into multiple businesses. Occupied by travelers, businessmen and residents of different cultural backgrounds, the Chungking Mansions serves as the perfect hiding spot for Kwan, who prefers to keep a low profile. Cluttered with various objects from Kwan’s other businesses, the building also serves as the perfect hiding place for Mani, a thief who is fleeing a gang which he has stolen something from it. Shot in Chungking Mansions at the height of the pandemic, Hand Rolled Cigarette captures the vibrant and sometimes chaotic vibe of this well-known building in gritty and vivid style.
Time Still Turns the Pages
An emotional drama about parenting and mental health, Nick Cheuk’s award-winning Time Still Turns the Pages has won numerous awards and touched the hearts of audiences around the world. Following a high school teacher’s search for the writer of an anonymous suicide note, the film takes audiences into real Hong Kong classrooms and their unique partially open-air hallways. Some of the film’s most emotional scenes – including the protagonist’s final speech to his students and a montage of the students reaching out to them – are set in such classrooms and hallways. Designed to give maximum ventilation in small, dense spaces, these open-air hallways often provide unexpectedly picturesque views of the city. Classroom filled with books, representing the stress students face every day, resonates with the characters in Time Still Turns the Pages.
Fly Me to the Moon
Sasha Chuk’s feature directorial debut is a pseudo-autobiographical story set in three parts, chronicling two decades in two sisters’ precarious relationship with their drug addict father. Chuk’s subtle screenplay relies on recurring motifs that appear through the three parts to show the changes in the characters over the years. One such motif is the two daughters sharing a dim sum meal with their father at different times in their lives. In Hong Kong, a dim sum meal is one of the most typical meals that families share. They are generally served either in large restaurants filled with circular banquet tables of various sizes (as seen in the film) or in old-school teahouses, where service is sacrificed for better prices.
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