With 11 films from the Chinese mainland, 10 from Hong Kong and four from Taiwan, Chinese films shined at the 18th New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) held on June 28-July 14. They make up almost half of the screening list. China’s movies and its film market have burgeoned and matured while the industry has become more diversified.

NYAFF features a wide variety of films including art house, comedy, martial arts, romance, horror and thriller. Young directors and women directors showed their talents and gained support, some with international reputations. Bai Xue's The Crossing and Wang Lina's A First Farewell were nominees at the Berlin International Film Festival 2019; while Wulin Orphans won the Spirit of Asia Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2018. All three movies were featured at the NYAFF this year.

Today’s Chinese directors seem to be concerned with depth and introspection. Examining the kungfu film fever of the 1980s and how it affected people’s lives is the topic of Huang Huang’s debut feature film Wushu Orphan, which is a reflection of that time with poetic images and metaphors.

Inspired by a real incident, academic and screenwriter Wu Nan made her directorial debut in the literal dog-eat-dog tale in her film Push and Shove, which explores how dog fighting as a metaphor can cause anxiety in a middle class family. Oliver Chan’s Still Human centers on the marginalized communities and citizens of Hong Kong with humor and pathos. As a small budget film, it tells the story of ordinary people's lives in the city.

A non-traditional kungfu movie 

A scene from Wushu Orphan directed by Huang Huang (COURTESY PHOTO)

Although it has the term wushu in the title, Huang's film is not a classic Chinese kungfu film. It tells the story of a teenager with no interest in martial arts but a keen talent for academic learning at a martial arts school in an inland city of China in the 1990s. After he meets a novice Chinese teacher, they become connected and find another life is possible.

Huang graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 2008 and made a short film titled No Country For Chicken shortly after about martial arts schools and the situation of intellectuals. After about 10 years, the short film developed into the feature film.

"The creation of Wushu Orphan originated from my experience of being an athlete in my childhood, but that's only where the idea came from," Huang said. "I wrote the script in 2009 when I was unemployed after graduating. I wrote several scripts, including Wushu Orphan, and participated in several script competitions. Thanks to the CFDG Young Director Support Program (Shallot Program), which is a development program that focuses on young directors’ comprehensive abilities, my project was completed."

According to Huang, in addition to criticizing the educational system, the film also bitterly satirizes the money worship and anti-intellectualism of the 1990s.

Since the movie Shaolin Temple brought a fever for learning martial arts to Chinese people in the early 1980s, martial arts schools blossomed in all corners of China until the 1990s. Applying to a martial arts school seemed the best shortcut to becoming a kungfu star, and being the next Jet Li was the dream of everyone in the schools. However, the overcapacity of the kungfu star promoting industry aggravated the decline of martial arts schools.

"I prefer the cultural aspect of martial arts. Although martial arts are romantic and impressive in books and films, they are hypocritical and boring in real life," Huang said.

More than a pet story

A still from Push and Shove directed by Wu Nan (COURTESY PHOTO)

"The story started with a pet dog and is a true story from my friend's real experience. I wrote it down and made it into a film to express the anxiety and frangibility of the middle class and how people deal with problems in China," said Wu.

The film tells the story of a Beijing screenwriter who seeks justice after his dog is brutally injured by the neighbor's Tibetan mastiff, devolving into a slapstick comedy full of tricks, hooliganism and hypocrisy.

"I'm not trying to assail anybody, it is a self-examination. We all want to pick the easiest way to solve a problem, but we forget to check whether it is the right or wrong way. To go deeper, right and wrong varies from different concepts and positions. It is a small case, but the thinking behind the dog fight is worthy, that is the angle of my film," Wu said.

To meet market demand, Wu added some commercial elements to the film, wanting to make the hardcore story into a light comedy. A Hong Kong-based production team helped her realize her goal since they could offer some rich experience.

As the fuse of the story, the dogs are no doubt one of the most important protagonists in the film. The excellent performance by the dogs has won audience praise. Wu explained that it took a month to film the dogs, with Andrew Simpson and his team responsible for dog training during production. Simpson is a renowned animal trainer in the industry who gained notoriety from Wolf Totem and Game of Thrones.

Respect and love in Hong Kong

A scene from Still Human directed by Oliver Chan (COURTESY PHOTO)

A story about a Filipino caregiver and a paralyzed and bad-tempered man in Hong Kong sounds somewhat sentimental, but the Hong Kong film Still Human manages to be warm and moving, showing the respect and love between two people.

"I want the audience to see a different Hong Kong. People know Hong Kong through the famous action, gangster and financial movies. But the city where I grew up is quite regular. People have difficulties in their lives, as well as warmth. The ordinary and tender moments are what I want to show in my movies," said Chan.

Crisel Consunji, a Filipina trained singer and creative educator, was nominated for Best Actress and Best New Performer at the Hong Kong Film Awards for her debut performance in the film. Consunji got the part through an Internet actor recruitment site.

"It is a story of hundreds and thousands of my fellow country people going abroad. I wanted to recount their stories with dignity and integrity. That was my motivation for doing the film," she said at the Q&A period.

With a budget of about $417,000, Still Human finished filming in 19 days. Compared to big budget productions, the film is small and artsy, but with its simple storyline and heartfelt narration, it nonetheless won audiences’ hearts and critics’ votes.

(Reporting from New York City)

Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo

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