Hong Kong Film Festival: "Ten Years"

See the micro-budget sci-fi omnibus that beat Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the Hong Kong box office. Chinese authorities considered Ten Years so dangerous that they banned it from theaters and even blacked out broadcast of the Hong Kong Film Awards simply because it was nominated. Made for the equivalent of about $70,000, this collection of five short films, each by a different director, speculates darkly on what Hong Kong will look like in 2025

See the micro-budget sci-fi omnibus that beat Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the Hong Kong box office. Chinese authorities considered Ten Years so dangerous that they banned it from theaters and even blacked out broadcast of the Hong Kong Film Awards simply because it was nominated.

Made for the equivalent of about $70,000, this collection of five short films, each by a different director, speculates darkly on what Hong Kong will look like in 2025. A false-flag assassination plot and a children’s brigade that keeps tabs on subversive adults are among the ominous predictions. The idea for the film germinated before the 2014 Hong Kong street protests, but all five of its parts channel the energy and anxiety of the Umbrella Movement. (Dir.: Ng La-leung, Jevons Au, Chow Kwun-Wai, Fei-Pang Wong, and Kwok Zune, Hong Kong, 2015, 104 min., DCP, Cantonese with Chinese and English subtitles)