After 4 months of stressed ready, filmmaker Kiwi Chow obtained a dreaded, however not altogether sudden, message: Hong Kong censors had banned his new film from reaching the large display.
The 46-year-old’s profession, which took off in 2015 with an award-winning dystopian story, encapsulates how a movie business as soon as identified for its audacious spirit and sardonic humour has dimmed to depart artists describing a artistic straitjacket.
His newest thriller “Deadline” tells the story of an elite college rattled by warnings of an impending suicide, Chow instructed AFP in an interview, describing the work as an allegory for hyper-competition underneath capitalism.
The film was filmed in Taiwan however set in what Chow known as an “imaginary world”.
“Censors determined that it was ‘contrary to the interests of national security’… But how? Nobody gave an explanation,” the director stated, calling the choice “absurd”.
Beijing imposed a strict nationwide safety legislation on Hong Kong in 2020 after large and typically violent pro-democracy protests within the finance hub. Film censorship guidelines had been tightened a yr later.
After that, Chow stated, the movie business stepped up self-censorship.
“If it involves Hong Kong’s real political situation, absolutely no one will make a movie about it,” he stated.
Asked about “Deadline”, the Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration stated it might not touch upon particular person purposes.
Censors banned 13 movies, citing nationwide safety causes, between 2021 and July this yr, whereas 50 movies had been “required to be modified”, the workplace instructed AFP.
Hong Kong banned no movies between 2016 and 2020, however that determine jumped to 10 in 2023.
Chow stated he believes his movie was rejected not due to its content material, however as a result of his years flouting Beijing’s taboos have put him on an off-the-cuff blacklist.
“I want to collaborate with actors, seek out locations and investors, but it is very difficult,” he stated.
“I felt so lonely,” he stated of creating “Deadline”.
On December 17, 2015, “Ten Years” premiered in Hong Kong and showcased 5 dystopian vignettes — together with one directed by Chow — at a time when many residents feared Beijing’s rising political affect within the semi-autonomous metropolis.
Speaking to AFP precisely 10 years later, Chow recalled how crowds flocked to neighborhood screenings after some mainstream cinemas refused to indicate the movie.
“Many people felt that ‘Ten Years’ depicted Hong Kong’s predicament… and how freedoms could be lost. (They felt) this was prophesied in the film and it came true,” Chow stated.
Chow’s phase of the movie, titled “Self-immolator”, ends with a fictional aged lady dousing herself in petrol and flicking a lighter.
“The self-immolator was a symbol of sacrifice. I wanted to ask Hong Kongers: ‘How much are you willing to sacrifice for values like freedom and justice?'” he stated, including that his concepts on sacrifice are formed by his Christian religion.
He stated he bought his reply throughout the 2019 pro-democracy protests, which had been unprecedented in scale and ferocity and led to greater than 10,200 arrests and greater than 2,000 individuals sanctioned by legislation.
In 2019, Chow was close to the top of the manufacturing cycle of a romantic drama movie, however he additionally shot intensive footage of the protests that will develop into the documentary “Revolution of Our Times”.
The documentary premiered on the Cannes Film Festival in July 2021, however Chow by no means tried to display it in Hong Kong and stored the complete manufacturing workforce nameless.
“After making ‘Revolution of Our Times’, I expected not to be able to make movies for quite a long time, and was mentally prepared to go to jail,” he stated.
While the documentary didn’t land Chow in jail, the filmmaker stated he paid a steep value as buyers and collaborators abandoned him, nearly dooming “Deadline”.
Chow stated he couldn’t safe a single Hong Kong college as a filming location, prompting him to maneuver the manufacturing to Taiwan, the place the movie was launched final month.
The long-awaited Hong Kong censorship resolution got here as a blow, significantly for the movie’s industrial prospects.
“The government took an official stance that this film was contrary to the interest of national security, which could be a first (for me), and adds some level of risk and anxiety,” Chow stated.
Some of Chow’s supporters in Hong Kong travelled to Taiwan for particular screenings of “Deadline”, although one organiser stated he was searched by customs upon his return.
Hong Kong customs declined to touch upon particular person circumstances.
Chow didn’t wish to “abandon” his metropolis regardless of feeling that political censorship was creating headwinds for his work.
“Maybe I will lower my budget or change the script,” he stated. “As long as (the film) can be made in Hong Kong, then I haven’t given up.”
© 2025 AFP