Elizabeth Kerr

2 weeks ago | zolimacitymag.com | Elizabeth Kerr

When is a detective thriller not a detective thriller? When it’s actually the filter through which a marriage drama unfolds. That’s the basic premise of Behind the Shadows (私家偵探), from writer-director Chou Man-yu and co-director Jonathan Li Tsz-chun. Like Steven Soderbergh’s spy thriller Black Bag or Justine Triet’s courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall, Behind the Shadows hangs an examination of a contemporary relationship on the framework of a genre film.

3 weeks ago | zolimacitymag.com | Elizabeth Kerr

Filmmakers Antonio Tam Sin-yeung and Jeffrey Lam Sen have a disturbing ability to make the people around them feel old. It’s not intentional and it’s not mean-spirited. It’s more like a side effect of the generational resonance of cinema. Seated in Golden Scene’s boardroom, Tam, 26, and Lam, 29, recall their earliest brushes with the movies, and what put them on a path to making them.

1 month ago | zolimacitymag.com | Elizabeth Kerr

“I don’t mind making bad films,” admits director Trevor Choi Hong-ying as he relaxes on the plush sofa in his shared Wan Chai office. That’s not to say he isn’t trying: Choi has seen two fully or partially self-funded features films hit theatres in Hong Kong in the last six months – Fresh Off Markham (敗走麥城) last winter and Smashing Frank (搗破法蘭克), released in mid-April. “I would say both these films were like homework. It’s practice for me. That’s how I learn,” says Choi.

2 months ago | zolimacitymag.com | Elizabeth Kerr

For the uninitiated, a pavane is the music for a slow, processional dance, now mostly associated with all things archaic – kind of like a cotillion. It’s a telling choice for Malaysian director Chong Keat Aun’s third feature film, Pavane For An Infant (搖籃凡世), but on reflection it’s not so disconnected. The film, after all, is about the slow processes that are chipping away at women’s agency and the archaic tone of the laws that govern them.

2 months ago | zolimacitymag.com | Elizabeth Kerr

Robin Lee needs a better suit. Not on this humid evening in late March – but he’ll need better duds for the upcoming 43rd Hong Kong Film Awards, where he’s in the running for best new director and best editing for his first feature documentary Four Trails (香港四徑大步走) about the Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge (HK4TUC).