Director Jack Ng, Anastasia Tsang, Ho Cheuk Tin and Actress Renci Yeung Having Interviews with Thai Media Outlets
Director Jack Ng and actress Renci Yeung of “A Guilty Conscience”, Director Anastasia Tsang of “A Light Never Goes Out” and Director Ho Cheuk Tin of “Over My Dead Body” visited Thailand to attend the " Next Generation: Emerging Directors Exhibition & Hong Kong Film Gala Presentation". They were interviewed by various media outlets, sharing the creative process of their films and the current situation of Hong Kong film industry.
The four Hong Kong film talents, Director Jack Ng and actress Renci Yeung of “A Guilty Conscience”, Director Anastasia Tsang of “A Light Never Goes Out” and Director Ho Cheuk Tin of “Over My Dead Body” were interviewed by various media outlets, including Thai Public Broadcasting Service, online media outlets “The People” and “IAM Everything”, film critic platforms “Hot guy in the Movies” and “Movie Phenomenon” during their visit to the ” Next Generation: Emerging Directors Exhibition & Hong Kong Film Gala Presentation” in Bangkok.
Director Jack Ng and actress Renci Yeung of the opening film “A Guilty Conscience” shared with the media that they were both surprised and glad to know the film had achieved over HK$100 million in the Hong Kong box office. Director Ng felt much encouraged and as a Hongkonger, he was very happy witness another golden era of Hong Kong film industry. Having achieved over HK$100 million in the box office with his film was an uplifting boost for the Hong Kong film industry. “A Guilty Conscience” stars the renowned Hong Kong actor Dayo Wong as a barrister whose client suffers from an injustice caused by his arrogant decision. When presented with a chance to reverse the verdict, he decides to file an appeal fighting against the bigwig to do the justice. Several Thai local reporters responded that the theme of the film resonates with people around the world.
When Jack was asked to describe the film in one word, he chose “satisfaction”, that the audience would experience different levels of satisfaction after watching the film. He promised the audience that this would be an interesting and exciting crime film for sure. Actress Renci Yeung described the film as “a great relief”, because she believed that most people have faced injustice and felt the frustration for being exploited in daily life, but these emotions were often suppressed. Therefore, she thought the audience would be relieved after watching this film.
Renci also shared the difficulties she encountered during filming with the media. She said that the personality of the character was totally different from hers. As a young female barrister in the film, the actress herself is not like an iron lady in reality. She adopted an unusual way of speaking to portray the character well. “My character is a lawyer whose spoken words are precise, powerful and eloquent, so I had to speak in a deeper voice and a sedate tone, like a reliable and respected person.”
(Full article: https://www.iameverything.co/contents/a-guilty-conscience?fbclid=IwAR0bFYHezaSKMSNUpNYcHLIJC3gp78mJI9cBHulTFP34vtWTJoszoAP0F8U)
Another film showcased in the programme, “A Light Never Goes Out”, themed around neon lights in Hong Kong. The film tells a story of the middle-aged widow Mei Heung attempting to fulfill her late husband Bill’s last wish: to recreate a demolished legendary neon sign. It combines various elements such as family, love, and social issues. Director Anastasia Tsang shared in detail about her creative process with the local media. When asked about the reason for putting the two elements of neon lights and family together in the film, she said that in the beginning she planned to tell a story about losing the loved ones. Her inspiration was drawn from a relative who lost her husband while her children had grown up and left her alone. She then wanted to add some Hong Kong flavours into the film, neon lights came into her mind. “I wanted to insert a visual element that could bring out the features of Hong Kong in the film, apart from action scenes and crime film, Then I thought of ‘neon lights’, which is an iconic representation of Hong Kong.”
Director Tsang explained another reason for choosing neon lights as the theme was to record and preserve in another way the neon signs that are being dismantled. Majored in cultural management, she valued recording in cultural inheritance, and she found something in common between the two chosen themes in the film. “I found that these two themes – the loss of loved ones and neon lights – have one thing in common, which is disappearance. The former is about the sadness of losing the loved ones, while the latter is about the gradual erasure of an important symbol of Hong Kong. I combined these two elements and made the film ‘A Light Never Goes Out’.”
(Full article: https://www.thepeople.co/interview/culture/52515)
Anastasia also mentioned that she incorporated personal experiences and reflected current social situation in the film. Nowadays, property prices in Hong Kong escalate and the younger generation always feel uncertain about the future under the influence of social, economic and political factors after the pandemic. “I wanted to touch on the different problems that the younger generation are experiencing. For example, the daughter in the film pursues a successful career, like me. But at the same time, another generation of youngsters, like the apprentice in the film, has a bleak future and cannot see the purpose of living. Although he is not as successful as we generally expect, in fact the definition of success can be different for each person. I would like to encourage the audience through this character and bring hope to them.” She also hopes that films can bring changes to the audience, by inspiring them to view the world in different perspectives. She said she could not be sure if films can change the world, but she believed that it can change people.
(Full article: https://happeningandfriends.com/article-detail/450?lang=zht)
In addition to attending post-screening sharing sessions and colleges lectures, the director of the closing film “Over My Dead Body” Ho Cheuk Tin also visited the post-production house of the Kantana Group, a scaled local film and television production company. Kantana Post Production is a major television and film production company in Thailand. It provides post-production services to local works and production of many other Asian countries, including Japan and Indonesia. Its scope spans from dubbing, color grading, animation production, sound editing and mixing, to film restoration and subtitling. Their past works include NETFLIX Thai thriller “DELETE”, Chinese film “A Dog’s Tale” and the Indonesian-Singapore co-production film “Buffalo Boys”. There are more than 50 studios and conference rooms in the production house, making it the largest post-production house in Thailand. The local staff guided Director Ho to visit several editing, dubbing and recording studios to introduce the local production environment and discuss on the possibilities of collaboration in the future. They watched a Thai film”4 Kings II”, which had just completed its post-production, in a small theater.
Presented and funded by Create Hong Kong, Hong Kong Film Development Fund, co-presented by Asian Film Awards Academy, in collaboration with House Cinema, and supported by Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Bangkok. “Next Generation: Emerging Directors Exhibition & Hong Kong Film Gala Presentation”, was held successfully in Bangkok, Thailand from 22 October to 11 November 2023. Hong Kong Film Gala Presentation will continue its journey to Indonesia, Cambodia, and Dubai. Stay tune to the latest news on our official website.
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