This cinematic tapestry of contemporary Hong Kong weaves together the memories of older generations’ historical experiences with the struggles of the younger generation striving to preserve their freedom today.
Synopsis
The film documents three real-life characters who engaged in rebellions when they were young. Through reconstructing these events, the film dramatizes their scarred memories and experiences by using four young people who participated in the 2019 Anti-extradition Law Amendment Movement in Hong Kong. These real protagonists are separated by time and history, yet their lives parallel and overlap, because they have similarly defiant backgrounds and find themselves in similarly chaotic predicaments.
Images flow between documentary and drama, blending archival materials, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, weaving an expansive tapestry that encompasses these tumultuous eras…
How do the young people of this city envision their future today? What do they think about this seemingly unwinnable revolution?
“This is a story about those generations who have contemplated the nature of Hong Kong and their identities as Hongkongers, but who are depressed by their inability to shape the city’s fate. This kind of disillusionment is a universal tether that binds all of us together.”
Dir. Chan Tze Woon
About the director
Chan Tze Woon is a Hong Kong-based director and writer. Born 1987 and raised in this city, his debut feature-length documentary Yellowing (2016) examined the Umbrella Movement, a large-scale civil occupation in 2014. This documentary explored Hong Kong’s fraught relationship with mainland China. It won the Shinsuke Ogawa Prize at the 2017 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2016 Taipei Golden Horse Film Awards.
Chan’s first two short films, The Aqueous Truth (2013) and Being Rain: Representation and Will (2014), both broached the subject of Hong Kong’s political situation by means of conspiracy plots and the mockumentary form.
Blue Island is Chan’s second feature-length film.
Blue Island 憂鬱之島
97 mins｜Colour
2022 | Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan
SUBTITLES
Traditional Chinese, English
PRESS CONTACT
LANGUAGES
Cantonese, Mandarin, English
NORTH AMERICAN DISTRIBUTOR
The dGenerate Films collection of Icarus Films
[email protected]