![]() ![]() In all his films, Cheung’s stylistic approach reflects a personal distaste for polemical grandstanding and overt didacticism hence he disdains authorial voiceover narration and onscreen performance, devices characteristic of politically strident documentary. Such is Cheung’s trademark mode of argument. As film scholar Mette Hjort notes, “Moving back and forth in time, Cheung an argument, not only about KJ’s relation to music and life, but also about the impact of the competition- and exam-oriented approach to parenting and childhood that is a defining feature of Hong Kong life today.” 2 If this private documentary yields public commentary, it does so by inference – KJ’s rhetorical meaning arises largely from its intercutting strategy. KJ’s nonlinear structure also sets in relief a tacit social critique. Cheung’s crosscutting tactic also lays bare the film’s central themes: what happens to a child prodigy as he starts to grow older and his star dims? What happens when taken-for-granted gifts lose their luster, and intensified competition renders these gifts less remarkable? From this angle, Cheung’s documentary might seem to explore quite rarefied terrain – the plight of a well-to-do child genius – but at its heart are universal concerns regarding the fragility of family, the fallibility of mentors, and the essence of human nature, the latter a theme braided through Cheung’s entire body of work. By toggling between time periods, KJ shows how present crises find echoes and causes in the past. Flouting chronological narrative, Cheung shuffles time in nonlinear fashion, achieving a quietly virtuosic feat of editing. 1 The film’s success (it also won major prizes at the Hong Kong Film Awards) is wholly justified: KJ is a remarkably poignant bildungsroman, subtle in implication and potent in emotional force. (Cheung shot the film in 20-8.) Modestly budgeted at HK$90,000, KJ became the highest-grossing documentary ever produced in Hong Kong, screening continuously for eight months in local theaters. The story of piano prodigy Wong Ka-jeng (“KJ”) – a precocious, egocentric, but disarmingly sensitive youth – KJ juxtaposes its protagonist’s formative experiences at ages eleven and seventeen. ![]() These films reveal Cheung’s ethnographic concern with Hong Kong’s working-class straits (drug addiction, teenage pregnancy, mental breakdown), as does his script for Ann Hui’s searing drama Night and Fog (2009), an unflinching portrayal of poverty, immigration, and domestic abuse.Ĭheung’s best-known film remains his second feature-length documentary, KJ: Music and Life. Under the aegis of his own company, Beautiful Productions, he has written and directed a string of dramatic shorts, including Hill of Ilha Verde (2015), The Waves (2012), and Crimson Jade (2010). In the same years Cheung has ventured into fiction filmmaking. These films, along with Cheung’s debut documentary feature, All’s Right with the World (2008), display a set of signature virtues: a facility for navigating through different social strata an interview technique eliciting emotional frankness an undogmatic argumentative voice and a deft, often experimental, approach to narrative form. His breakthrough film, KJ: Music and Life (2009), prepared the way for a pair of intimate character studies – One Nation, Two Cities (2011) and The Taste of Youth (2016) – both of which explore individuals wrestling with existential questions and social realities. Since his precipitous rise to prominence in 2009, Cheung King-wai has cemented his status as Hong Kong’s foremost documentary filmmaker. All photos appear courtesy of their copyright owner, Beautiful Productions Limited. ![]() The author wishes to thank Esther Yau, Mette Hjort, Nicole Chan, Giselle Chan, and Winnie Ma for their generous assistance. Note: This interview was conducted in English during the Hong Kong International Film Festival in Sha Tin, Hong Kong, on 3 April 2016. ![]()
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