Septet: The Story of Hong Kong (2022)

This film is just a surprise to me. I know that it did come out somewhere this year but do not have any intention to watch it due to its lack of critical response or festival buzz (sadly mostly due to COVID - hopefully Johnnie To and Milky Way still have enough orders or financial backing to sustain any loss from this film's unfortunate-timing release), especially given the tepid output, quality- and quantity-wise, of Hong Kong cinema these days. Thanks to a long flight on an Asian airline, however, I had the chance to watch the film and got pretty emotional as it reminded me a lot of "the good old days" of Hong Kong cinema. I have to say that I really admire Johnnie To for his ability to "navigate" the Chinese censorship system to be able to pump out good films with investment from Mainland even. One ingredient surely is the lack of direct criticism of the "current Hong Kong" and instead focusing solely on the past or other apolitical cinematic themes. Such "velvet" touch turned out to be a boon for this anthological film, as the directors, who represent the "good old days" of Hong Kong cinema, were spared of the "responsibility" to criticize the present and could thus fully put their heart and mind on telling their personal stories about those "good old days". Of course, as personal as they are, some stories are rather underwhelming like Tsui Hark's sophisticatedly quirky yet emotion-detached section, or Sammo Hung's uneventful retelling of his days with Master Yu Jim-yuen (the part of whom Sammo actually already played in Painted Faces in 1988), but none are forgettable, and several are extremely emotional and memorable. The best, hands down, is Ann Hui's "Headmaster", which is a simple yet very emotional story about the dedication and sacrifices of ordinary Hong Kongers in making Hong Kong such a great place (at least during the "good old days" before the 1997 reintegration to China). With a minimalist script that is few in words but profound in meanings and good performance across the board, this section reminds me of Ann Hui's very own A Simple Life (about another lonely little Hong Kong lady that had an actually wonderful and meaningful life for the land that she lived and loved). Following "Headmaster" to me is probably Patrick Tam's "Tender in the Night" - a section that is very Wong Kar-wai-esque in depicting the duality of ephemerality and eternality of love and romance in the face of time and life decisions, enhanced by a very, very good and nostalgic soundtracks. On the other end of sophistication, Yuen Woo-ping's "Homecoming" is very simple, script-wise, but a much, much cherished section in my opinion due to its respectful touch on the wuxia genre (especially the traditional Shaw Brothers films) and a gentle reminder of its righteous and family-focus values that definitely have much longer lasting impacts than its actually rather simple action/wuxia sequences. Johnnie To's "Bonanza" is a little disappointment to me due to its lack of bombastic sequences, but after realizing that there is ANOTHER side of Master To - his quirky side, and that as the overseer of the whole project, he would not try to outshine his collaborators in that expensive and action-leaning way, I came to enjoy his part a lot since it provides the audience with an actual, albeit very brief, recent history of Hong Kong via its main events like the reintegration or SARS. Finally, Ringo Lam's "Astray", although not really an outstanding piece, also made me emotional due to its heart-warming treatment of the difficult subject of death, which, coincidentally enough, was what Ringo met just before the festival release of this film. If only Stephen Chow could join this project to round up it with the last and very important aspect of Hong Kong cinema - slapstick comedy... Probably the stale state of this once-glorious cinema is too sad for such treatment, and Chow is also too old, and too unmotivated to do even a small section like others. Still, this is a film to cherish for anyone who loves Hong Kong cinema of the past, and who still has some hope for better days of this cinema in the years to come.