UNera­sed memo­ry – Hong Kong & Tai­wan Short Films

3.12.22 | 20:30 Uhr 

Hong Kong / Tai­wan / Deutsch­land 2021/22 | 97 Minu­ten | Kurz­film­pro­gramm | Kan­to­ne­sisch, Hak­ka und Tai­wa­ne­se Hok­ki­en mit chi­ne­si­schen und eng­li­schen Unter­ti­teln

1) Islan­der (TW 2021 – 24 min – R: Wu Zi-en)
Set in the near future, an old man takes his grand­son Sam­my on a long jour­ney. Tra­vel­ling from the far south, his sole pur­po­se is to visit his only son, a long-detained poli­ti­cal pri­soner char­ged with seces­si­on and sub­ver­si­on. A sub­dued con­ver­sa­ti­on ensues as the inc­ar­ce­ra­ted tri­es to com­mu­ni­ca­te with his silent son. Befo­re the time is up and he is taken away, he pleads: ‘My son, do not let them make you for­get me.’ The despe­ra­te roar is his last reac­tion­a­ry appeal echo­ing under the peaceful silence of the new order. Shot in black-and-white, this cau­tio­na­ry tale by direc­tor WU Zi-en is writ­ten out of ima­gi­na­ti­on for the future and the reso­lu­ti­on to never for­get. The direc­tor cho­se to set the film in Tai­wan and during the island’s own ‘White Ter­ror’ peri­od, as he is worried that Tai­wan may fall under the Com­mu­nist Par­ty rule. He descri­bed it as a fable about Taiwan’s ima­gi­ned future. The film did not meet Hong Kong cen­sors’ appr­oval.

2) The Dancing Voice of Youth (HK/D 2021 – 22 min – R: Eri­ca Kwok)
A girl with a mys­te­rious back­ground arri­ves at the city, who­se exis­tence gra­du­al­ly beco­mes as light as the floa­ting air. In the dark night of a chao­tic age, must we live like spec­tres?
It is an expe­ri­men­tal film fea­turing meta­phors about “the social unrest and what hap­pen­ed in the city” in recent years. The film recei­ved a “spe­cial men­ti­on” in the 27th ifva Awards, howe­ver it can­not pass the Cen­sor­ship Aut­ho­ri­ty as the aut­ho­ri­ty said it could inci­te hat­red of the govern­ment and it con­tai­ned “ungroun­ded state­ments” that could mis­lead view­ers into thin­king the govern­ment abu­ses its powers to curb the pro­tests.

3) Lost Pearl (HK 2021 – 21 min – R: Ste­ve Li)
While pro­tests rage in Hong Kong, Kit spends most of his time on his father’s fishing boat. The radio and his pho­ne keep him abre­ast of the latest deve­lo­p­ments. He some­ti­mes meets with fri­ends, but his uncer­tain­ty about the future just keeps incre­asing. It is a dra­ma which was rejec­ted by the Broad­cas­ting Authority/ local TV sta­ti­on from show­ing on TV pro­gram­me “Sound And Visi­on”.

4) Bonus film (In order to pro­tect the iden­ti­ty of the direc­tor, the infor­ma­ti­on of the film will not be shown in publi­ca­ti­ons.)