[Hong Kong Arts Centre】 and Hong Kong film director Evans Chan jointly present “Alternative Histories: The Cinema of Evans Chan” at the Hong Kong Arts Centre’s agnès b. CINEMA from today until 29 April 2012. Evans Chan is an important figure in Hong Kong independent cinema. His overlapping identities, as a filmmaker and a scholar that have been influenced by both the Hong Kong Chinese and New York diaspora, have ignited him a quest for cultural identity at a critical moment in history.
Hong Kong-raised and New York-based, Chan has presented, in both fiction and documentary features over two decades, an alternative exploration of key moments in Hong Kong and the global Chinese history — from an evocation of Hong Kong’s anti-colonial struggles of the 1970’s in The Life and Times of Wu Zhongxian to his most recent critical hit, Datong: The Great Society, a thought-provoking reexamination of the official narratives of the Xinhai Revolution, which received the inaugural Movie-of-the-Year Award from China’s leading newspaper, Southern Metropolis Daily in 2011.
“With his poetic sensibility, penetrating observations, and formal originality, Evans Chan has emerged as the true intellectual auteur with a unique vision of history in contemporary Chinese cinema,” wrote renowned Taiwanese critic/producer Peggy Chiao. For Gina Marchetti, Evans Chan’s work conjures up the vision of a diasporic intellectual, who traverses “nations, cultures, languages… pointing to a new type of cultural sphere that moves through and beyond Greater China.” (Postmodern Culture).
Hong Kong Arts Centre is proud to present a nine-film retrospective of Evans Chan’s cinema, which includes Datong and Two or Three Things about Kang Youwei, a world premiere; Zhu Shilin’s Sorrows of the Forbidden City, a classic costume-drama known to have escalated the Cultural Revolution, which figures prominently in Chan’s films; and Journey to Beijing, his acclaimed documentary about the 1997 Hong Kong handover. The Sixth Generation filmmaker Ying Liang comments, "In the context of contemporary Chinese democracy development and its hardship and struggles, this film addresses almost every issue." Each screening will be introduced by Evans Chan, with guests hosting After-Screening Discussions for certain films.
Film Information:
The Life and Times of Wu Zhongxian
Date & Time: 24/04 7:30pm
Ticket: $60/35*
Hong Kong /2003 /Col /Beta /72mins
In Cantonese with English Subtitles
Based on Mok Chiu-yu’s play, The Life and Times of Wu Zhongxian evokes the saga of a radical generation spearheading social and political activism during Hong Kong’s colonial days. The film “manages to convey a sweeping sense of Chinese countercultural activity (such as a young John Woo’s experimental filmmaking) throughout the decades; the cumulative effect is a profound sense of the perils by which ordinary people attempt to change the system.” (Scott Foundas, Variety) (Mok Chiu-yu will participate in an After-screening Discussion.)
Screening with: Two and Three Things about Kang Youwei
World Premiere
Hong Kong, Taiwan, USA /2012 /Col /HD /30mins
In Cantonese, Mandarin & English with Chinese & English Subtitles
Island, utopia, art, and political devastation are topics covered by this companion documentary to Datong. It zeroes in on Korsholmen, the Swedish island Kang Youwei lived on for a few years, speculates on his love for Sweden in connection to his revival of millennial Chinese utopia of Datong, examines his impact on the birth of the Chinese modern art, and explores the root cause of the mysterious escalation of the Cultural Revolution via Mao’s criticism of Sorrows of the
Forbidden City, a movie using the backdrop of the Kang-led Hundred Days Reform of 1889.
Sorceress of the New Piano — The Artistry of Margaret Leng Tan
Date & Time: 25/04 7:30pm
Ticket: $60/35*
Hong Kong, Singapore, USA /2004 /Col /Beta /90mins
In English with Chinese Subtitles
Celebrate the centennial of John Cage, the great American composer/philosopher/artist, with this screening of Sorceress of the New Piano — The Artistry of Margaret Leng Tan, which was named the Best Contemporary Music Film by Spain’s CD Compact Magazine. Ms. Tan has been a groundbreaking toy pianist and the preeminent performer of John Cage’s music during the last three decades. Chan's “exemplary documentary” (Time Out Film Guide) also makes avant-garde music — that of George Crumb, Philip Glass, Tan Dun, Somei Satoh, and others — engaging and exciting. (Renowned pianist Nancy Loo, a colleague of Tan since their Juilliard days, will host an After-screening Discussion.)
Datong: The Great Society
Date & Time: 26/04 7:30pm
Ticket: $60/35*
Hong Kong, Taiwan, USA /2011 /Col /HD /118mins
In Cantonese, Mandarin, English & French with Chinese & English Subtitles
Framed around the Swedish sojourn (1904 - 1908) of Kang Youwei (Liu Kai-chi), China’s earliest constitutional reformer, and his pioneering feminist daughter Kang Tongbi (Lindzay Chan), in their struggles to modernise China, Datong: The Great Society was hailed as “a masterpiece” in both Hong Kong (Ming Pao) and Taiwan (United Daily), as well as “a must see for anyone interested in the future of China” (Apple Daily). This “powerful and affecting” (China Beat blog) docu-drama received the inaugural Movie-of-the-Year award given by the Southern Metropolis Daily in 2011 for “presenting an alternative perspective during the centennial of the Xinhai Revolution (of 1911), thus returning fuller memories and humanity to Chinese history. ”
Screening with: Two and Three Things about Kang Youwei
World Premiere
Hong Kong, Taiwan, USA /2012 /Col /HD /30mins
In Cantonese, Mandarin & English with Chinese & English Subtitles
Journey to Beijing
Date & Time: 28/04 2:30pm
Ticket: $60/35*
Hong Kong, USA /1998 /Col /35mm /110mins
In Cantonese & English with Chinese & English Subtitles
A unique opportunity is on hand to reflect upon the 15th anniversary of the British hand-over of Hong Kong, as captured in this “remarkable documentary” (Tony Rayns, Sight and Sound) through the prism of a philanthropic walk for China’s underprivileged children. A Berlin Film Festival selection, Journey to Beijing was praised by Lee Yee as a “masterwork about Hong Kong's decolonisation” (Apple Daily). It explores issues that have foreshadowed the uneven road of democratic advancement for both Hong Kong and China since the change-over. (Political commentator Simon Shen will host an After-screening Discussion.)
To Liv(e)
Date & Time: 29/04 2:30pm
Ticket: $60/35*
Hong Kong, USA /1992 /Col /35mm /107mins
In Cantonese & English with Chinese & English Subtitles
Of Evans Chan’s directorial debut, long considered an underground classic, The Hollywood Reporter wrote: “To Liv(e) was inspired by actress Liv Ullmann’s 1990 visit to Hong Kong, where she decried the forced deportation of Vietnamese refugees. This, coupled with the Tiananmen Square crackdown the year before, contributes to a dark cloud of apprehension over the British colony… With a painter's eye in capturing the bohemian fringe of the Hong Kong art scene, and the mature voice of a seasoned filmmaker, Chan examines love, family, and the fate of Hong Kong, and the culture clash between East and West with equal depth and assurance.”
Crossings
Date & Time: 29/04 5:30pm
Ticket: $60/35*
Hong Kong, USA /1994 /Col /Beta /103mins
In Mandarin & English with Chinese & English Subtitles
In this sly “thriller” sequel to To Liv(e), the protagonist, Rubie (Lindzay Chan), is seen working in New York’s Chinatown, where she encounters a helpless young woman Mo-yung (Anita Yuen) in search of her mysterious boyfriend Benny (Simon Yam). “This unique merging of Hong Kong cinema and New York independent film,” said Gina Marchetti, “explores a series of ‘crossings’ from Hong Kong to New York, from innocence to corruption, from sanity to madness, and from life to death. Chan’s evocation of lives ‘in-between’ cultures, genders, classes, and nations, places it among the most ambitious meditations on the Hong Kong diaspora.” This screening features the rarely seen director’s cut.
Bauhinia
Date & Time: 29/04 7:30pm
Free Admission. Seat reservation is needed. Limited quota, first-come-first-served.
Website, Seat Reservation: www.hkaconlineregistration.com
Hong Kong /2002 /Col /Beta /50mins
In Cantonese & English with Chinese & English Subtitles
In the aftermath of September 11, film student Bauhinia (Jun Li) attempts to edit her thesis project on female infanticide brought about by China's one child policy in a New York room overlooking the wreckage left by the fallen Twin Towers, while faced with an unexpected pregnancy of her own. Evans Chan melts “the fictional and real world boundaries to create a space that haunts not only its characters but the audience as well… he captures a side of post 9/11 New York unfiltered by pop media thus consequently more truthful to the human condition.” (Christopher Claxton, Hawaii International Film Festival) To be preceded by Evans Chan’s short film Subway, New York (Hong Kong /2004 /Col /DVD /10’ /In Mandarin & English with English Subtitles), which, like Bauhinia, was commissioned by the Radio Television Hong Kong.
Dr. Esther Cheung, Chairperson of the Department of Comparative Literature, The University of Hong Kong, will host a special After-screening Discussion Hong Kong Independent Film Making: A Backward/Forward Glance with Evans Chan and Jessey Tsang, a rising star of the Hong Kong independent scene whose Big Blue Lake is one of the most acclaimed Hong Kong productions of 2011.
Bauhinia and Subway, New York courtesy of RTHK.
Reference Film: Sorrows of the Forbidden City
Date & Time: 23/04 7:30pm
Free Admission. Seat reservation is needed. Limited quota, first-come-first-served.
Website, Seat Reservation: www.hkaconlineregistration.com
Hong Kong /1948 /B&W /DVD /120mins
In Mandarin with no Subtitles
Directed by Zhu Shilin, a major, but underknown auteur, Sorrows of the Forbidden City was a pioneering Chinese film which garnered international praise — at the Locarno Film Festival in 1950. The film uses the Kang Youwei-led Hundred Days Reform of 1898 as the film’s dramatic backdrop. But the conflicts between the conservative Qing court and the modern-minded reformers are presented as a familial melodrama involving Empress Dowager Cixi (Tang Ruoqing), her puppet Emperor son Guangxu (Shu Shi), and his progressive consort Zhenfei, played by the iconic Piaf-esque Zhou Xuan. (Filmmaker/scholar Lau Shing-hon will participate in an After-screening Discussion.)
