Age of Valiant
HK's valiant 'frontliners' are masked, black-clad youth unafraid to use violence against their police and government. Hear their voices, hopes, and dreams.
11'
Hong Kong
IFFR 2020
Six PLA veterans rob a Hong Kong jewelry store in this still-shocking masterpiece of Hong Kong New Wave. Johnny Mak's only film as director was released in 1984, the year of the Sino-British Joint Declaration ensuring the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
Mak allegorises, then complicates his scenario. A group of mainland criminals wreaks spectacular violence in a series of set pieces: a thrilling car chase, a murder at a skating rink, and a climactic ultra-violent confrontation as the heavily armed robbers are besieged in the infamous Kowloon Walled City. The film today gains added complexity, as Mak's astonishing humanisation of these ferocious criminals plays against the indiscriminate violence of the film's Hong Kong Police.
As Hong Kong critic and programmer Li Cheuk-to writes, the film depicts “Hong Kongers' fatalism facing a no-win situation” when “pent up sensations of frustration, defeat, and insecurity ultimately result in no-holds-barred violence and fatalistic destruction”.
IFFR 2020
Programme IFFR 2020
Hong Kong, the most cinematic city in the world, reveals through its films – old and new – the political, social and economic tensions tearing it apart today.
Read more about this programmeHK's valiant 'frontliners' are masked, black-clad youth unafraid to use violence against their police and government. Hear their voices, hopes, and dreams.
11'
Hong Kong
IFFR 2020
A social critique of class-based ultra-dense living conditions; a political critique of anti-democratic politics; and a masterpiece of Hong Kong cinema.
145'
Hong Kong
IFFR 2020
A unique, virtually wordless dance poem: a thrilling pop/art tribute to the power of Hong Kong's indomitable people.
73'
Hong Kong
IFFR 2020