@ 36th Hong Kong International Film Festival

Rioting in Hong Kong has become one of those social norms and pretty much a common occurrence. The reason for this is fairly simple, back in the 1970s and 1980s, if you work hard enough the poor class can rise to the middle class, while the middle class can move on to the upper class. However since the handover in 1997, the new generation graduating out of universities can struck in low paying jobs or simply unemployed, while the cost of living and house prices continue to rise to unprecedented levels. The result is the working class goes poorer and middle class move into the working, while the only benefit goes to the richer becoming forever richer. In essence, Hong Kong is becoming just like they feared – China. Such is the backdrop of student Lo Chin-yip’s documentary about Hong Kong people receiving the basic of human rights – one person one vote.

Days After n Coming is really a mix bag of a film. In the opening 60 minutes the film is well shot, extremely well edited and capturing all the correct moments of those action packed riots. The best thing about this quadrant is that it feels objective enough. However come the final 30 minutes Lo seems to be promoting some sort of personal agenda and society. The result is that the documentary feels like 30 minutes too long and spoiled by an extremely subjective final quadrant of a film.

All in all, Days After n Coming is an extremely good effort from first time director Lo Chin-yip and shooting a good documentary that feels like entertainment in an involving way is never easy. If the film ended in its first cut of an hour, it is almost flawless, but the final 30 minutes seems too much like self promotion. Call me a critic, a documentary is meant to be as objective as possible, and by leaning towards a particular agenda in an obvious way spoiled all the hard yards that Lo tried so hard to maintain in the beginning. At the end of the day, the film does highlight the real issues going on in Hong Kong at the moment that cannot be ignored and clearly not sustainable for an ambitious society. Still, Days After n Coming is easily a good enough effort and ignoring the final third, it is a documentary worth watching and thinking about…

Neo rates it 7/10

First part – 8.5/10
2nd part – 1/10

@ 36th Hong Kong International Film Festival

The much anticipated, banned Mainland movie about the sex industry was actually more disappointing than enjoyable. With a bunch of eagerly awaiting audience looking forward to see some genuine female body parts and beautiful faces, but we are left with over exposure of camera shots focusing on male than their more petite counterparts. It is even more shameful to say that the film was banned in China. When in essence there is really nothing out of place or daring about this film. Surely, it showed the darker side of the sex industry, but it offers no new insights into the oldest profession in the world. Still, despite this, Sauna on Moon is still better than average and for passable entertainment, some fun can still be had.

The real problem of this film is that no actors/actresses really stood out to be remembered, but rather everyone seems to be happy enough to play bit-part characters. This can be explained by the director (Zou Peng) himself, that he used a lot of people he know and real people from the sex industry in this film. In a way, it is actually commendable to the director for even attempting this kind of touching genre in the Mainland territory. Surely, he had to work within the strict boundaries and cautious restrictions. Even though the film is banned from release, the last thing, Zou Peng wanted is to be banned and arrested from film making forever.

All in all, Sauna on Moon is not a bad film, but it feels like a product that doesn’t walk the talks, doesn’t show enough feminine body parts to strike a chord with the demanding and expecting audience. Cutting this kind of superficial entertainment value, the film is rather tame in its message of alluding hope, dreams and pursue of what people wanted in life with some famous events like the Chinese Space expedition. The reality is life sucks and it sucks more if you work in the sex industry, but somehow you can still dream in Sauna on Moon. In other words, keep dreaming…
Neo rates it 6/10