Tin Shui Wai in Film / Hong Kong International Film Festival 2008

Tin Shui Wai (天水圍). The name gives the impression of a vista in which heaven (tin天) is joined with water (shui水). "The overall plan of Tin Shui Wai is quite perfect. Education, healthcare, community, cultural and recreational facilities are all present and sufficient to meet the needs of the community residents ... in a short ten years, Tin Shui Wai was transformed rapidly from a quiet rural village into a modernized new town.
...
Chief Executive Donald Tsang admitted during last week's Legislative Council's Q&A session that the community facilities in Tin Shui Wai are inadequate and that the government made omissions during the planning of Tin Shui Wai. So the next time when a problem occurs, will the authorities repeat the numbers above or admit once again that there were "omissions"? Will this paradise which combines 'education, healthcare, community, cultural and recreational facilities' have to wait another ten years before it appears in front of the 'Tin Shui Wai people'?

(From this Mingpao article translated by EastSouthWestNorth)

Whether or not the "Tin Shui Wai people" or even "Tin Shui Wai Housewives" (as some are reportedly referred in the same article) will need to wait another ten years for infrastructural improvements is yet to be known. What is known though, is that filmmakers have taken comparatively little to no time to document and dramatize the pitiful social conditions.

The issue is about to make its presence manifest in this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival. In more concrete terms, there will be three separate films undertaking the specific narrative of Tin Shui Wai as either its subject matter or dramatic background.

The most decidedly authoritative, or at least auteur-ish, voice to cover this thorny issue is Ann Hui in her soon to premiere (globally) The Way We Are (2008) [天水圍的日與夜, 許鞍華, 2008]. Hui is no stranger to social realism, her trilogy of Vietnamese immigrant films are cherished works of the Hong Kong new wave, and are mentioned briefly in this biographical article.

Another premiering effort is Lawrence Lau's topically named and potentially controversial Besieged City (2008) [圍城, 劉國昌, 2008]. The third and most critical, or at least the most direct offering is Cheung King-Wai's All's Right With The World (2007) [歌舞昇平, 張經緯, 2007]. Its pathos laden English title references Robert Browning's poem Pippa Passes (God's in his heaven / All's right with the world!). Cheung's documentary promises to be a much needed probing of not only Tin Shui Wai residential plight, but also a confrontation of Hong Kong's wider class struggles and inequalities.

Further reading on Tin Shui Wai:
A trilingual overview from Mingpao.
Report of the "Lok Fu Family Tragedy" that sparked wider attention from HK government
The responding statement from HK's Social Welfare Department
"Tin Shui Wai's Growing Underclass" from The Standard
"A Hard District To Run: Tin Shui Wai" from Cherry's Blog
Albert Chan's Open Letter to Hong Kong

Further on HKIFF:
The 32nd Hong Kong International Film Festival
HKIFF Blogosphere (Chinese language only)
gar~* from Safari Underground's picks from HKIFF 2008

Image: Studio H

Update: David Bordwell offers a short report on The Way We Are, drawing comparisons with Ozu. Plus a snapshot of Hong Kong's 'fourth category' low profile local film genre.