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SFFILM Festival

Hong Kong Trilogy: Preschooled Preoccupied Preposterous

Directed by Christopher Doyle

Hong Kong | 90

22 Apr
Fri, Apr 22, 2016 at 6:00 pm PT

Description

As one of the world’s most celebrated cinematographers, Christopher Doyle has brought his inimitable imagistic flair to over three decades of films by a diverse roster of directors from Wong Kar-wai to Alejandro Jodorowsky. His third directorial feature is a playful meditation on a subject close to his expatriate Australian heart: Hong Kong, where he’s spent much of his adult life. Hong Kong Trilogy is an unclassifiable love letter to that megalopolis, joining elements of documentary, fiction, whimsy, politics and absurdist humor, with a cast of real residents playing versions of themselves. Its three segments portray three age groups shaping the city’s present and future. In “Preschooled,” children find time just to be kids when not chafing under various kinds of pressure (“I’ve been tutored so much, who needs real school anymore?,” one complains). The more reportorial “Preoccupied” chronicles the Umbrella Movement, a short-lived but resonant 2014 sit-in protest in favor of democratic reform. Finally, “Preposterous” seniors roam the city on a speed-dating adventure that climaxes in a Fellini-esque celebration of eccentricity at the beach. Throughout this fond, impudent survey, Doyle observes his adopted home with a longtime resident’s intimacy and an outsider’s curiosity—as well as, of course, a visual poet’s eye. —Dennis Harvey

Director Christopher Doyle

Born in 1952 Sydney, Australia, Christopher Doyle began his career as a Hong Kong-based, multi-award-winning cinematographer on Edward Yang’s debut feature That Day, on the Beach (1983). Since then he’s worked for directors including Stanley Kwan, Chen Kaige, Sylvia Chang, Gus Van Sant, Zhang Yimou, Philip Noyce, James Ivory, Fruit Chan, Jim Jarmusch, Neil Jordan, Peter Chan and Sebastian Silva. He famously collaborated with Wong Kar-wai on six features, among them Chungking Express (1994), Happy Together (1997) and In the Mood for Love (2000). His films as director include the features Away With Words (1999) and Warsaw Dark (2008), in addition to segments in the omnibus films Paris, je t’aime (2006) and Beautiful 2014.

Trailer

//player.vimeo.com/video/158107739?autoplay=1

Film Details

Language Cantonese, Mandarin, English

Year 2015

Runtime 90

Country Hong Kong

Director Christopher Doyle

Producer Jenny Suen, Ken Hui

Writer Christopher Doyle

Editor AQ Lee

Cinematographer Christopher Doyle

Music Kevin Cheuk Chung Lau