[Event Coverage and Movie Review] Asian Cinerama "Hong Kong Focus" - Far Far Away 缘路山旮旯 FILM MA

 [Event Coverage and Movie Review] Asian Cinerama "Hong Kong Focus" - Far Far Away 缘路山旮旯 

FILM MAKERS VIRTUAL MEET WITH FANS AT "ASIAN CINERAMA - HONG KONG FOCUS (MALAYSIA)" SHOWCASED "FAR FAR AWAY" AND "COFFIN HOMES"

The Asian Film Awards Academy (AFA Academy), in collaboration with Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC), GSC Movies (GSCM), and with financial support from Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) and Film Development Fund (FDF), held the "Asian Cinerama - Hong Kong Focus (Malaysia)" at GSC Mid Valley from October 7 to 9, 2022.

 

The three-day event kicked off with director Amos Why's sweet coming-of-age romantic comedy FAR FAR AWAY, which featured a virtual meet and greet with the director/screenwriter himself and actress Jennifer Yu. The film was deemed to be quick in its principal photography because it was shot in a breeze over 12 days. The director jokingly asked Jennifer Yu if she felt rushed during the shoot, only to be surprised by her response: "Yes, we were rushing for the last boat out of the island, otherwise we would be stranded there until the next morning." Amos Why explained that the filming was not rushed because of the script's flow, as the film used four cameras in only one scene and was shot entirely with one camera.

 

Jennifer Yu, on the other hand, was praised for her natural acting in the role of Melanie. She thanked the director for giving her the freedom of interpretation and gave an example of her suggestion to feel the body temperature with her forehead rather than her palm being accepted. To her surprise, some audience members admitted to having the same practise at home, and laughter erupted when one fan stated that he would not mind Jennifer Yu doing that to him.

 Introduction

Hau 阿厚, a 28-year-old IT Geek, is a mediocre but warm-hearted introvert who finds himself the object of affection for five attractive women in the span of a single year. Except for one peculiar characteristic, the quintet all live in different parts of Hong Kong. But seeing our heartthrob's struggles to get there is half the fun; all of the travelling allows director Amos Why to give his audience a chance to see and appreciate parts of the city that they rarely get to experience.

 

Who will Hau eventually end up with?

 

Review

This film's approach to telling a love story is completely unique. Instead of an oppa-like main male lead, as is usually the case in a love story film, they cast a geek-like main protagonist Hau (played by Kaki Sham 岑珈其). This could be a risk because most film productions want to cast someone attractive in order to attract more audiences. However, I thought it was a brilliant move because it resonated more with the general male population and created a sense of relativeness with many male audiences. Kudos to Kaki Sham for creating a believable character that felt natural and authentic to an introvert with cultural relatability to Hong Kong (or Asian) male personalities.

 

On the other hand, the writing for the five female characters is excellent.

 

Cecelia So (苏丽珊) portrayed A Lee, an introverted coworker with a pretty face. Her quiet demeanour is a carbon copy of Hau's personality.

 

Crystal Cheung (张纹嘉) portrayed the role of Fleur, an older woman who wishes to marry and have children before the age of 30. She's like a protective older sister who knows how to look after Hau.

 

Rachel Leung (梁雍婷) was cast as Mena Man, a seasoned romancer with a fiery, short-tempered, and calculative personality. Because of her love experience, she can offer Hau new perspectives on romance.

 

Hanna Chan (陈汉纳) played Lisa, Hau's "Goddess" or dream gal in his secondary school, whom he never dared to court due to his low self-esteem. She's the type of girl that many guys would want as a girlfriend because of her beautiful face, love of nature, and overall perfection in many ways.

 

Last but not least, Jennifer Yu (余香凝) portrayed Melanie, Hau's undergraduate close friend who has completely opposite characteristics to Hau. Rather than being quiet and introverted, she is outgoing, expressive, and has an extrovert personality. Despite their seemingly opposing characteristics, both complemented each other well at work and outside of work.

 

Aside from the love interests, the film also featured Hao's buddies Jude Law (played by Yatho Wong 黄溢濠) and Tai-Tung (played by Will Or 柯炜林), who were always a great backup and support whenever Hao had love problems!

 

All of these characters felt strikingly close to many guy's real-life experiences, particularly the various types of female love interests and the buddies.

 

The acting here is really remarkable with very convincing culturally-close conversations. There are many coarse languages on and off in their conversations. (which, to be honest, is reflective of real life, where people sometimes randomly use some coarse language when talking and expressing themselves in front of their close friends.)

 

The beautiful scenery shot in remote areas of Hong Kong was one of the film's highlights. In my opinion, this film can easily be used to promote Hong Kong tourism to all of these lesser-known locations. It also highlighted the travelling and journey to get to all of these places, which made me feel like I was on a road trip while watching the film.

A genuine love story with stunning Hong Kong scenery.

 

This film's pacing is also very well-balanced, taking the audience on a relaxing journey alongside Hau's exploration of his romantic relationship. This sense of tranquillity is something we rarely see, especially in modern romantic genre films.

 

The audio production also did an excellent job of capturing the essence of the scenes in which Hau interacted with his love interests. The music selection is also excellent, providing the retro HK vibes that are sorely lacking in a film like this.

 

I thought director Amos Why 黃浩然 did an excellent job of capturing the attention of the audience with his film direction and good cinematography. During the post-screening Q&A, director Amos Why discussed how his real-life experience with a long-distance relationship with his wife inspired him to make this film. Jennifer Yu, on the other hand, spoke about her filming experience for the film. She stated how different her real-life personality is from the character she played in the film. Honestly, I really love Jennifer’s depiction of her character in this film. Hopefully she can win best female supporting actress 最佳女配角 via this role in the upcoming 第59屆金馬獎59th Golden Horse Awards.

 

Overall, I adore this film because of its genuine love stories and stunning Hong Kong scenery. Thank you GSCMovies for inviting us to review the film during Asian Cinerama "Hong Kong Focus" presented by Asian Film Awards Academy.

 

The following day, another virtual meet and greet was held with COFFIN HOMES' talented director Fruit Chan. When asked why there weren't more ghosts in the beginning of the film,

 

"Horror movies are all about the same thing," the director explained, "so we had to think of a different element, and this time our theme evolved around the rising property prices in Hong Kong." Then we added some ghost and horror elements to make it fun and quirky." A fan also asked the director if a sequel to "The Midnight After" was in the works, and he explained that it would be relatively expensive due to the CGI.

 

Other films shown during the programme include TIME, SHADOWS, SHOWBIZ SPY, A MURDER ERASED, and REMEMBER WHAT I FORGOT, in addition to FAR FAR AWAY and COFFIN HOMES.

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