Hong Kong films at the CineFest

Hong Kong films at the CineFest

2023.08.28. 11:48

Good news for Asian film fans: this year’s CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival will feature six films from Hong Kong. Hong Kong has a long tradition of excellence in the world of filmmaking, and now audiences will not only be able to get a glimpse of their colorful art, but also meet the actors and actresses of the films screened.

Making Waves – Navigators of Hong Kong cinema is a touring film program that has already visited Beijing, Udine, Bali and Shanghai in 2023. The CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival will be the Hungarian platform for the series of events, and the selection will be part of the festival’s Open Eye program.

The plot of the first film screened, Mad Fate, begins on a rainy night. A fortune teller tries to help a prostitute but arrives late on the scene, the girl is already dead. By chance, Siu Tung is also there, and becomes mesmerized as he stares at the girl’s corpse. The fortune teller sees the future and realizes that Siu Tung is about to commit murder. He decides to confront the inevitable. The film will be shown at Uránia on Monday, September 4 at 9:30 pm.

The Sunny Side of the Street is about a refugee boy who is helped to escape from Hong Kong by a local taxi driver. But their budding father-son relationship is marred when the boy discovers over time that the taxi driver is his father’s killer. The film will be shown on Tuesday 5 September at 9.30pm at Uránia.

Over My Dead Body invites you into an apartment complex where all hell breaks loose after the residents find a dead body. The film will be screened on Wednesday 6 September at 7pm at the Urania, followed by a meet and greet with one of the cast, actor Wong You-nam. Wong You-nam, 39, has appeared regularly in films since 2002. He was seen in the first part of the hugely popular and critically acclaimed martial arts action film Ip Man (2008) alongside Donnie Yen, and in the spectacular sci-fi comedy The Midnight After, which premiered in Europe in the prestigious Panorama program at the Berlin International Film Festival.

In A Light Never Goes Out, widow Mei Heung has endured countless sleepless nights since the death of her husband Bill. One day, among the belongings Bill left behind, she finds a key that leads her to her husband’s secret workshop where she meets her husband’s young apprentice, Leo. She learns from Leo that Bill had an unfulfilled last wish: to recreate a legendary neon sign. With Leo’s help, Mei Heung tries to find out the history of the neon sign and learn the trade in the hope of fulfilling the deceased’s last wish. The film will be screened on Thursday, September 7 at 5pm at Uránia. The screening will be followed by an audience meeting with one of the film’s characters, 29-year-old Choi Cecilia. The actress, who has already had an exciting and colorful career, won the 26th Hong Kong Film Critics Association Award for her performance in Beyond the Dream a few years ago and was nominated for Best Actress at the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards for the role.

In Guilty Conscience, the irresponsibility of the sharp-tongued lawyer Adrian Lam sentences the innocent Jolene Tsang to 17 years in prison. In his shame, Adrian turns to public service and becomes a defender of ordinary people. One day, new evidence comes to light that will allow Jolene’s case to be retried. The film will be screened on 7 September at 7:30pm at the Uránia Room, followed by an audience meeting. Two of the film’s stars, actress Yeung Renci and actor Lam Bowie, will be travelling from Hong Kong to attend the screening. Yeung Renci, 29, started her career in television before moving into films. In the film Guilty Conscience, she plays a lawyer, which she considers one of the most exciting challenges of her career so far.

In the film In Broad Daylight, based on true events, a news agency’s team of investigative journalists are tipped off about abuse at a home for the disabled. To expose the inhumanities taking place there, their reporter goes undercover posing as the grandchild of one of the residents. The film will be screened at the Urania on 8 September at 7pm, with a Q&A session with actor Lam Bowie, one of the characters. Lam Bowie, 57, has appeared in television series and films since 1991, and has twice won the Best Actor Award in his country for his television roles. He is a very colorful character, having appeared in Gard Boils (1992) alongside Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung Chiu-wai. The most influential action film of all time not only launched the Hollywood career of its director John Woo, but later inspired films such as The Matrix and John Wick. John Woo loved working with Lam Bowie so much that when the director returned to his homeland after two decades to make a two-part historical opus with a gigantic budget (The Crossing – 2014, The Crossing 2 – 2015), he asked him to join the cast again. The actor also recently appeared alongside Jackie Chan in Bleeding Steel (2017).

Making Waves – Navigators of Hong Kong Cinema is a film program of the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society, made possible with the support of Create Hong Kong.

Advance ticket sales for the films are now open at jegy.cinefest.hu.

    FILM:
    A Guilty Conscience (Open Eye)
    A Light Never Goes Out (Open Eye)
    In Broad Daylight (Open Eye)
    Mad Fate (Open Eye)
    Over My Dead Body (Open Eye)
    The Sunny Side of the Street (Open Eye)
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