Obedience
Hung Hom is a neighbourhood of contrasts; because it houses a majority of Hong Kong’s funeral homes, its living shares the roads with hearses carrying the dead. Homes of the affluent and middle-class tower over short, dilapidated residential buildings waiting to be torn down and rebuilt. While citizens visit the neighbourhood’s temple of Kwun Yum – the revered Goddess of Mercy - every year to seek wealth by praying for a “loan” from the deity’s legendary treasury,
locals peddle their second-hand goods at a flea market that is held only at dawn, and elderly people rummage through waste on the streets in hopes of finding recyclable materials that will earn them what amounts to pennies.
Five years in the making, the latest film by acclaimed independent documentarian WONG Siu-Pong is a thought-provoking day-in-the-life snapshot of Hung Hom. Revealing how our waste is never truly discarded, but merely processed into something of value for others, the film forces us to reconsider the concept of “waste” in modern society. Through his quiet observation of this seemingly ordinary neighbourhood tucked in the very centre of the city, WONG shows a
microcosm of Hong Kong and its many contradictions.
Director
Wong Siu-pong
Cast
Release Date
19-12-2024
Language
Cantonese
Run Time
71 minutes
