The controversial Hong Kong movie “Ten Years” was screened at the New York Asian Film Festival on Monday, which the goverment is apparently trying to keep quiet and/or ignore.
“Hong Kong films reign supreme in New York film festival”, boasted a press release issued by the government last month. Yet it failed to mention (even obliquely) that “Ten Years”, which won “Best Film of the Year” at the Hong Kong Film Awards, was being shown along with nine other local movies.
“Oh well,” you may think. “Maybe it was an oversight.” Not so, friends.
Even if you choose to believe that the government “forgot” that the “Best Film of the Year” is being internationally recognised, the first sentence of the statement reads, “Hong Kong Panorama, sponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York, is showcasing a total of nine (and not 10) distinguished Hong Kong films in New York.”
The “complete” list of HK films being shown at NYAFF 2016. Screenshot: Government press release
Just to drive the point home, all of the other Hong Kong entries are later individually named and – spoiler alert – not one of them is “Ten Years”.
One of the film’s directors, Jevons Au, said to Quartz, “I don’t know if ‘Ten Years’ has become an unspeakable film, just as [it] cannot be mentioned in mainland China.”
“Ten Years”, which consists of five short films depicting what Hong Kong could be like in 2025 under increasing control from the Chinese Communist Party, was produced on a shoestring budget of HKD6 million.
The critically lauded but polarising film was given a limited release in late 2015, but quickly gained traction after it surpassed box office sales for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at Broadway Cinematheque, the sole cinema it was screened in at the time.
It was criticised by state-run news outlet Global Times as an “absurd” and pessimistic “thought virus”.
Soon after its Hong Kong Film Awards nomination was announced, major China-based broadcasters pulled out from airing the awards ceremony. Afterwards, coverage of the awards in Chinese media listed the winners in all categories except for “Ten Years”.
That’s not to say people in mainland China aren’t curious about the indie flick that’s provoked such a big reaction, though. In an unintentionally hilarious case of mistaken identity in April, a 2006 Channing Tatum rom-com also called “10 Years” became the most-downloaded film on YYeTs, a popular site used by Chinese netizens to illegally download foreign media.
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