(Hong Kong, 85 min.)
Written and directed by Christopher Doyle
Featuring: Connie Ming Shan Yuen, Thierry Chow, Ching Man
Lip, Vodka Pal Hei Wong
Programme: Contemporary World Cinema (World Premiere)
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| Photo courtesy of TIFF. |
Grandmaster cinematographer Christopher Doyle makes his
feature documentary debut as a director with the gorgeously bizarre film Hong Kong Trilogy: Preschooled Preoccupied
Preposterous. (There should probably be some commas in there, but it’s an
arty one.) Calling HK: PPP a
documentary doesn’t do the film justice, though, since this free-flowing and
artfully democratic docudrama infuses elements of fiction, non-fiction, and
(arguably) performance art for a truly contemporary film experience. Don’t look
at Preschooled Preoccupied Preposterous
as straight documentary: this film defies convention for a fully immersive
experience in a city framed anew.
Hong Kong Trilogy presents a triptych of generational tales of Hong Kong as with preschoolers (kids, but not necessarily pre-schoolers in the North American connotation), preoccupied teens and young adults, and finally, preposterous senior citizens. The film features narration from real citizens of Hong Kong young and old (hence the documentary element) who then dramatize stories and action to complement their thoughts and feelings. The first sequence, Preschooled, mostly features the story of a boy named Vodka and his renegade toy turtle, which he sets free at a waterfall at the inkling of his friend’s Buddhist teachings. The missing toy leads him to question his friend—and Buddha—as a lost turtle simply equals a sad face and a tsk-tsk from mommy.
A greater act of questioning comes in the second chapter, Preoccupied, which features the 2014
pro-democracy Umbrella Movement in which young adults shut down the city and forced citizens to
rethink the idea of freedom. (The Umbrella Movement shares considerable traits
with the Occupy Movement.) The Umbrella name comes from the defense against
pepper spray from police using umbrellas, and Doyle uses the symbol as a motif
throughout the film to inspire viewers to open their minds. This chapter, which
comprises the bulk of HK: PPP’s
running team, displays the most bipolar engagements with documentary and drama.
As Doyle’s camera observes the protestors in action, the film captures the full
scope of the tent city that blocked traffic and created a city within a city in
which peace and prosperity take value over fast-paced consumerism. The
voiceovers of the students offer a mix of idealist passion and pragmatic
philosophy as they discuss Hong Kong’s future and rally together to make a new
society that does away with the current outdated ideology.
The film uses the immediacy of documentary observation as
Doyle pans along the rows and rows of tents, which are organized precisely with
functional mail systems, and looks at how simple it is to create a new and
improved harmonious society with collective will and action. The film takes a
special interest in the Imagine Wall that borders the Umbrella zone, which gets
its inspiration from John Lennon’s “Imagine.” The occupiers
refinish the wall with inspirational notes and posts from around the globe and
show that dreamers can be more when they band together. The film asks if Hong
Kong may ever return to its pre-Occupy days as the leaders of the future become
invigorated for change, but jaded by a system that fails them and disregards
their needs.
Preoccupied veers
strongest from documentary, though, with its sequences in the underground in
which members of the Umbrella Movement meet and strategize their plans. The
action itself is plausible, but Doyle shifts his mode of approach from passive observation
to a more active and engaged camera. The all-seeing eye of HK: PPP both betrays and advances documentary, as the coverage of
the scenes is too great to be candid. Clear shot/reverse shots are evident, as
is the range of angles that cover the scenes. It nevertheless feels authentic
because the inspiration and impetus of the drama is real.
The final sequence, Preposterous,
features a droll trolley train of senior citizens embarking on a day of speed
dating. Characters from the first two sequences intersect this narrative as the
eldest generation of Hong Kong tries to fill the empty void in its life. This
chapter of the film is the most lyrical and poetic with the characters mediating
on their lives and their notions of freewill as time fades.
Hong Kong Trilogy: Preschooled
Preoccupied Preposterous finds an engaging life and energy to the city as
it frames Hong Kong anew. The city’s citizens, rather than its iconic sights
and contemporary skyline, define the city here, and it’s a lyrical world that
reflects on the past, present, and future. Doyle’s cinematography is
characteristically excellent as it favours the immediacy of documentary
aesthetics over the more ornately dazzling masterwork of his most famous
dramatic shoots like Hero and In the Mood for Love. The film asks for
a collective re-evaluation of society and Doyle leaves the audience with the
open question of whether an idealized society should be fact or fiction.
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Hong Kong Trilogy: Preschooled Preoccupied Preposterous had its
world premiere at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.
Please visit www.tiff.net for more
information on this year’s festival.
More coverage on this year’s festival can be found here.
