This year, I am on my own to experience HKIFF with Chris as my movie partner. I was late in buying tickets and several of my top choices were sold out. However, this screening I attended, which was a trilogy of unrelated films made in Hong Kong, reminded me why I love attending international film festivals. The quirky, low-budget, off-the-beaten track films makes me think of the many stories that everyone has to share.

Homecoming [妈妈离家上班去] (directed by Zune Kwok) is a short film about a Filipino domestic helper Charlie due for retirement. This is a realistic story about Charlie leaving her young son behind to work overseas for a living; in the process, missing out on important life events in her son's life and the bonding process. This story reminded me of my helper in Singapore who has been with us for 21 years and when she joined our family, her daughter was 7 (same age as me then). It was a very heartfelt story as it showed the personal family sacrifices helpers have to make to eke out a living and in the end, the many years of distance with their own children has become too far to bridge.

Little Did She Know [援交] (directed by Risky Liu) tells of two high-school girls engaging in 'enko' (compensated dating) to save up for a Hokkaido trip. One of the girls, Yan was convinced by Kwan to try the trade and in the end, had tragic consequences. I really liked the cinematography with the colours, direction and dialogue. It helped as well that the actresses' acting was the best among the three films with good chemistry between Kwan and Yan. Excerpt from the director's motivation for the film:

"For a long time, I aim at filming a story about youngsters. I try to use a simple and direct way in shooting, using two girls with compensated dating experiences to bring out different social phenomena, relationship with family, complicated love relations... Why do youngsters give up something precious in their lives? Or is it the fact that they do not possess anything that is so-called precious and important? I am not going to figure out the roots of the situation. I just want to show parts of the aspects of today's youngsters to the audience."

That's Why You Go Away [后来] (directed by Nose Chan] has an interesting angle about what love means to each gender. The lead character, Iris, is involved with a married man and finds herself pregnant. She decides to keep the baby and accidentally meets the wife of her ex-boyfriend. A complicated love quadrangle ensues and in the end, Iris had a miscarriage and left both men. Except from the director:

"I like melodrama as it is an exquisite combination of reality and drama. I admire women. They are gentle yet tough, I try to study their underlying textures.

Many people need a romance that they think is unforgettable to tell themselves that they had been in love. And men always attach obligations to their relationships. Time adds weight to the obligation and eventually it outweighs the relationship itself. Men still get enchanted when they think of the past.

Women are persistent and wayward about love. They know very well that someone, once gone, will never come back, yet they persevere.

I just love the title of a Hong Sang-soo film, Woman is the Future of Man."

I agree with the director's comment on people needing an unforgettable romance to validate that they have been love. I used to be like that; and then realised - it is so silly to put yourself through that heartache. Romance can be simple and heartwarming with no drama involved.

Looking forward to the rest of the films I have bought tickets for.