Apparently, Star Wars wasn’t as much of a big deal to Hongkongers as a film about… themselves (the vain bunch, we are).
“Ten Years”, a local low-budget movie portraying the bleak Hong Kong of 2025, outdid “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at the arthouse Broadway Cinematheque, CNN reports.
And believe it or not, it looks pretty decent:
Hardly a happy-go-lucky, lightsaber-touting space scuffle with fluffy, funny aliens, the movie takes the form of a morbid representation of Hong Kong’s future.
The story opens with a scene of self-immolation, as a protester sets himself on fire outside the British Consulate.
Not quite the rosy LKF love-affair theme other producers went for recently then.
Director Chow Kwun-wai, 36, said that the alarming opening was meant to shock local audiences into taking action against the creeping influence of Beijing in Hong Kong.
Referring to the fact that Tibetans often resort to this form of protest against Beijing rule, Chow warned that Hongkongers could eventually find themselves in a similarly awful situation if resistance is not realised.
After this delightful opening, the film goes on to explore themes of political corruption and the loss of the city’s identity through 10 short features.
Another scene, “Dialect”, addresses the potential deterioration of Hong Kong identity through the marginalisation of the Cantonese language. The episode plays out the story of local taxi driver, who is made redundant once his role requires proficiency in Mandarin.
Despite the generally dark outlook of the film, Chow urged Hongkongers to recognise that the movie’s very existence is a sign of hope:
“We should be grateful that we still have freedom of speech and we have to cherish and protect it,” he said.
Unsurprisingly, some actors were put off by the provocative nature of the script, fearing participation might hinder their chances of working in the mainland. These fears have perhaps been largely justified by the much publicised recent disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers.
“Ten Years” was produced on a crazy low budget of just HKD600,000 by a predominantly volunteer cast and crew. The latest Star Wars film, on the other hand, cost a whopping USD200 million.
Maybe Hongkongers don’t only care about money after all…
