Ten Years

Watched this film based on the discussion it stirred upon its release.

Ten Years is a collection of shorts that paint a bleak picture for the future of Hong Kong. One cannot feel but helpless while watching these shorts.

Yet, this movie is more for those living in Hong Kong than outside. People who have never been to Hong Kong will not be able to relate or understand without more context. Maybe that's why it didn't catch on for non-Hong Kong enthusiasts.

3.5/5. I enjoy the film. I understand the underlying stories. But the message could have been done in a better way.

A futuristic Hong Kong no one wants to fathom! The whole premise of the five clips that make up this film is bold. Having said this, there is a mix of good and bad in this film.

The first clip starts off too slowly. The dialogue is too full of British influenced Hong Kong slang and at times it is hard to understand, even for Cantonese speakers who do not reside in Hong Kong like myself although those reading English subtitles will have no problem. Too bad because the plot was a good one but it was just not well acted or scripted.

The second clip is almost unbearable to watch. It was too far into the sci-fi mode that it made the story unbelievable. The acting was wooden, the story line was wandering, the filming looked cheap, and overall it just looked amateur. Fast forward if you wish, nothing missed here.

The final three clips are why you should watch this film. All are spoken in standard Cantonese, all are well acted, the scripts all make sense, and the viewer ought to leave with a sense of wonder and amazement. I liked the fourth clip the best with superb directing, acting, and filming and this clip alone can carry the whole film.

Definitely a must watch but skip over the boring parts after the first time.

This collection of five short films is an amazing selection of dystopic visions that explore the worries of Hong Kong citizens. Driven by the growing intervention of China in the former British colony, many are worried about the destruction of their way of life. Each of the films uses this general theme differently from conspiracies to the Kafkaesque, the shorts tell the story of the less fortunate, the scientists, the food sellers, the taxi drivers, and the localists who are fighting for the autonomy or even independence of China's special administrative region. Each of the episodes move the audience deeply. As the movie paints an increasingly negative picture of Chinese rule over the city, it is not surprising that articles in official Chinese government mouthpieces have chastised the movie. Even in Hong Kong, many movie theaters did not show this film, which is a true shame, considering that the others were often sold out. I am truly hoping for a DVD soon! This is a movie I must own.

Made in 2015, 'Ten Years' is a collection of stand-alone stories from different directors that speculate what Hong Kong might be like one decade hence. As such it is surprising the self-imposed authorities in Beijing allowed the film to be made, let alone screened, as most of the stories take a dim view of the Chinese Communist Party's stewardship of the former British territory.

Four of the five stories are interesting and enjoyable, so let's get the dross out of the way first: 'Season of the End', in which a dreary young couple collect specimens of smashed pottery, ash and the like in order to preserve them. Whether this refers to a fad in current-day Hong Kong I do not know, but there seems little purpose to the film, which meanders all over the place, including some ramblings about a holiday the pair took in New Zealand. Perhaps that is the last time they were happy; after sitting through this story, I know how they feel! It is interesting that the least political of the stories is the dullest.

Okay, on to the good stuff: In 'Local Egg' a shopkeeper wonders from where he will source his eggs following the closure of Hong Kong's last poultry farm, and also has to contend with his son's membership of a young communist group that reports deviations from approved labelling in shops. The prospect of children being used to inform on their elders is chilling but all too believable, and the actor playing the everyman grocer gives a nice performance of a man frustrated by petty regulations.

Another nice everyman performance comes from the lead actor in 'Dialect', in which a taxi driver finds his business shrinking because he does not speak well enough the officially-sanctioned Mandarin (Hong Kong's traditional language being Cantonese). This is another example of the Beijing authorities seeking to stamp out local distinctiveness (for an extreme example today, see Tibet). It is enjoyable, but for the viewer who speaks neither Cantonese nor Mandarin and is relying instead on the English sub-titles the full impact was probably lost.

'Extras' follows a plot by members of the Hong Kong elite to pave the way for Beijing to introduce a (presumably restrictive) national security law. Their plan is to shoot one of two politicians appearing at a neighbourhood rally. While discussions continue as to which politician to attack, the ethnic-Indian gangster charged with carrying it out tries to convince himself it will be a success. Shot in black-and-white, this is a suspenseful work.

'Extras' is very enjoyable, but it is beaten by a whisker as the best contribution by 'Self-Immolator', which seeks to assign responsibility for its former territory to the United Kingdom. As the story begins, we see the smoking remains of someone who has set themselves alight outside the British Consulate-General as part of a campaign to force the UK to challenge the Chinese authorities' behaviour. Using a mixture of straight drama and mock interviews, the film then goes back in time a few days, following the lives of various characters (including another ethnic Indian, this time a female student) one of whom, we are led to believe, is the suicide. There's a heart-breaking twist to this tale.

Overall this collection is politically rather one-sided: the only real acknowledgement that some Hong Kongers support Chinese control of the territory is in 'Extras', and I assume a bunch of people plotting assassination are hardly representative of most citizens of HK! But as long as the viewer accepts that (completely understandable) bias, this is - 'Season of the End' aside - a terrific collection of stories.

Politically, I would called it "5 years" instead of "10 years", because some parts of it is already a reality in 2020.

The film itself is original and challenging to watch if you are not familiar with the situation in Hong Kong. Over the last decade, I lost interest in HK cinema, you rarely come across any new subject. However, this film is "a breath of fresh air". It separated into 5 parts, personally I would prefer to give each segment an individual score due to its uneven quality. Extras - 5; Season of the End - 3; Dialect - 7; Self-immolator - 10; Local Egg - 8. Overall, some of it are very well made, clever and classy actors, but it is a pity some parts of it are very long and the acting is somewhere between bad and mediocre.