Hong Kong Film Festival UK X Archipelago I Heard the City Breathe + Q&A FRI 25 OCT 18

I Heard the City Breathe is a programme of three shorts that reinvestigate the urban environments of Hong Kong, Thailand, and Shanghai. These films challenge our perceptions of what is (im)possible in an Asian city, defamiliarising these urban spaces through surreal narratives. Such surrealism ranges from ghosts hidden in 1960s wigs, to glasses that reveal imagined futures, to the real-life surrealism of a personal video diary capturing the city-wide lockdown. They invite us to view familiar cities through an outsider’s eyes, sometimes transforming them into places where even the inhabitants might feel like outsiders.

Featuring:

AN ASIAN GHOST STORY
Dir. Bo Wang
A ghost story departs from a 1965 United States embargo, known as the “Communist Hair Ban”.
In English and Cantonese with English and Chinese subtitles

CRAZY LOTUS (UK Premiere)
Dir. Naween Noppakun
A new invention causes mysterious occurrences as people stroll around between infinite possibilities.
In Thai with English subtitles

THE MEMO (UK Premiere)
Dir. Badlands Film Group
This is a video diary of the surreal lock-down made by the filmmaker couple who were trapped in a small, rented apartment in Shanghai. In the face of endless madness, the camera gradually breaks free from the window and observes a vast social isolation unprecedented in the country’s history.
In Shanghainese and Mandarin with English subtitles

This screening is followed by a Q&A with writer-curator Cici Peng and director Naween Noppakun.

Hong Kong Film Festival UK Instagram / Hong Kong Film Festival UK Twitter / Hong Kong Film Festival UK Website