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SFFILM Festival

The White Girl

Directed by Jenny Suen

Hong Kong/Malaysia/Japan | 97

16 Apr
Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 6:15 pm PT

Description

Living in a riverside shack in Hong Kong’s last remaining fishing village, a teenager is told by her overprotective father that she must always protect herself from the sun. Believing that she is cursed, but buoyed by a curiosity that leads to friendships outside her immediate environment, she becomes a symbolic focal point for the filmmaker to dreamily explore Hong Kong’s past, present, and future, aided by Christopher Doyle’s intoxicating cinematography. Joe Odagiri co-stars.

New Hong Kong director Jenny Suen’s alliance with the legendary Doyle immerses the viewer in a chimerical, haunted, and magically filmed tale set in present-day Pearl Village.  Part postmodern fairy tale, part political allegory, and part quirky existential comedy, the story follows three eccentric misfits as they fight to save an abandoned colonial ruin from corrupt developers.  Angela Yuen manages somehow to be both effervescent and morose as the invisible “white girl” who hides from the sun and aches to solve the mystery of her long-absent mother.  Melancholy romantic ballads from the past float out of a vintage radio, the local oyster boy resorts to hawking mosquito coils since the oysters are almost gone, and a distant typhoon is fast approaching.

Director Jenny Suen

Hong Kong-born Jenny Suen graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and made several short films before teaming with the esteemed Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle to make Hong Kong Trilogy (2015), an experimental documentary about three distinct generations of people negotiating life in that rapidly changing city. Of their latest collaboration, Suen says, ““Two hundred years ago, Hong Kong was only fishing villages. So, obviously, the fishing village in our film is an allegory for Hong Kong, its distant past and its possible near future. But even without the politics it is a coming of age story. A love story and a love story about Hong Kong.” (Variety)

Trailer

//player.vimeo.com/video/258419621

Film Details

Language Cantonese, Mandarin, English, Japanese

Year 2017

Premiere North American

Runtime 97

Country Hong Kong/Malaysia/Japan

Director Jenny Suen

Producer Ken Hui, Heidi Ng, Alea Rahim, Jenny Suen, Leonard Tee

Writer Jenny Suen, Christopher Doyle

Editor Jinpo Yip, Jenny Suen

Cinematographer Christopher Doyle

Music Lung Dart

Cast Joe Odagiri, Angela Yuen, Jeff Yiu