The strong bond between the Far East Film Festival and Hong Kong cinema began the year before the first edition in 1999, with a focus on Hong Kong films. But does it still make sense to talk about Hong Kong cinema since the specificity of that place has been erased by the Chinese government? However, FEFF continues to label Hong Kong films separately from Chinese films and still manages to find some interesting ones, as in the case of Lawrence Kan’s In Broad Daylight, inspired by newspaper investigations published in 2016 in a Hong Kong where freedom of the press was still protected. We find out that the number of care-home beds for the needy in licensed centers is severely inadequate, so many private care-homes run on an exemption certificate; an investigative journalist, pretending to be the granddaughter of a resident, begins an investigation inside a private care-home for the elderly and people with disabilities, just looking around, talking to patients, collecting photographic and video evidence. The amount of abuse she discovers is shocking, but the truth to be revealed to public opinion does not always lead to justice. The script has some narrative features that propose additional ethical dilemmas to the classic genre of the investigative journalism film: one may suspect that the reporter is looking for a scoop and not for the good of the patients, although her interest appears sincere; on the other hand, the manager of the center, who is the “villain” of the story, is visually impaired and can claim, despite the criminal evidence against him, that he is really attached to his patients because he can understand them. It is remarkable that the abuses are not shown explicitly: by filming them indirectly, it becomes clearer why it is difficult to bring them to light and then to court without being an eyewitness.
“In Broad Daylight” by Lawrence Kan (2023)
FEFF also has the audacity to always invite various films from Taiwan, calling the independent state claimed by China by its name and not Chinese Taipei, as the Chinese governmnet would like to impose. From Taiwan we could see Chin Chia-hua’s sad and gentle movie Trouble Girl. Xiao-xiao, the girl of the title, is in fifth grade; she has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and is not easy to deal with her. We can see how her mother, separated from her husband, shows some lack of patience; she has an affair, kept hidden from the school management, with the girl’s teacher, and although he tries hard to help her, he is often perceived as an outsider to the family. The scenes filmed inside the school are essential to understanding the social drama of this condition: an unstable and unpredictable student is a hindrance, sometimes even a danger, to classmates; in turn, neither educated nor guided on how to deal with her, they become cruel, provoke her, bully her. One can appreciate the balance and honesty of this painful film: it explicitly shows a social issue that is difficult to solve but without overdoing the cheap emotionalism nor coinceiving a fake happy ending; instead, it should be a good starting point for a frank discussion among all the different components of society that deal with people with ADHD.
Still on the subject of parent-child relationships, FEFF 26 was won by another moving but less bitter film, Takano Tofu by Japanese director Mihara Mistuhiro: it is the story of the strong relationship between an elderly tofu maker and his 40-year-old daughter, both facing respect for traditions but also embracing modernitiy.
“Takano Tofu” by MItsuhiro MIhara (2023)
