CLICK HERE TO BOOK

SYNOPSIS

As the face of the Umbrella Movement, Joshua Wong flies around the world advocating and being celebrated for his activism; back in Hong Kong he hopes to convert his popularity into an election win. But the threat of jail for role in the Umbrella Movement is never far away.

Canto-popstar turned democracy activist, Denise Ho parts ways with her record company and struggles with the transformation from Cantopop queen to an independent politically conscious rock musician.

L’enfant terrible of Hong Kong’s democracy movement, Wong Yeung Tat, is challenged to a boxing match by a pro-establishment goon who has taken exception to Tat’s rhetoric online. The resulting boxing match descends into the absurd and darkly comic.

Third culture kid, Ed Lau, watches his mother die from cancer and resolves to do something of meaning to combat his nagging sense that his involvement in the Umbrella Movement was all for nothing. Using his inheritance to fund his campaign he launches a bid to run for public office.

Longtime right-hand man to Joshua Wong, unlikely theology student and part-time talk radio DJ, Derek Lam, struggles to earn a living and to find his way in life. His activism having stymied his job options, to make ends meet Derek slaves for Joshua’s new political party and persuades Ed Lau to finance his local Hong Kong craft beer social initiative.

Kaleidoscopic and kinetic, this is cinema vérité at its very best.

This transgressive gonzo doc paints an epic vision of Hong Kong S.A.R. as it comes of age.

DIRECTOR STATEMENT

Beginning work on this film I knew I wanted to make something quite different in terms of style, something that would confound those who had seen my previous work and something that would reflect the variety of voices within Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp.

I set out to make a film that was not about the Umbrella Movement, but rather of the Umbrella Movement. ‘Last Exit to Kai Tak’ does not address the Umbrella Movement directly, but rather it attempts to explore its consequences at a human level.

I set out to make a documentary that was not like traditional documentaries. I wanted to eschew the interview-driven documentary, but also the cold supposed objectivity of cinéma vérité or direct cinema. I wanted to convey to the viewer not just what I saw but how I felt as the events unfolded in front me. Instead of striving for a forever just out of reach objectivity, I wanted to embrace the subjectiveness of documentary. Celebrate it even. I later came to realise, what I was trying to make was a gonzo documentary.

In an attempt to reflect the multitude of voices within the Umbrella Movement I knew I needed multiple characters. During the time this film was coming into focus, I was heavily influenced by multi-storied, ensemble cast films, such as Robert Altman’s ‘Short Cuts’ (1993). I liked that these films were less about the individual people and more the cast of characters as a whole and the environments that they operate in. This struck a chord with me as its always been the city, Hong Kong, and its people as a whole, rather than individuals, that have inspired me. It’s vast energy and spectacular contradictions grabbed me many years ago and have never let go. My work is an ethnographical attempt to capture this energy and its contradictions, try to make sense of them and in return offer it back to the city and its inhabitants.

FILMMAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Matthew TORNE – Director, Producer

Matthew Torne is best known for producing ‘Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower’ a feature-length documentary that won the Audience Award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for a Producer’s Guild of America Award. Prior to producing ‘Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower’ Matthew produced and directed the feature-length documentary ‘Lessons in
Dissent’ (2014), which premiered at the 38th Hong Kong International Film Festival and was an Associate Producer on the Emmy winning Enemies of the People (2010). He was recently inducted into the Producers Guild of America and has recently finished shooting a new documentary in Vietnam.

Jonathan YOUNG – Cinematographer, Producer

Jonathan Lele Young has been the Director of Photography on six feature-length documentaries. Jonathan was the director of photography for the Sundance Award-winning documentary ‘Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower’. In early 2017 he filmed ‘Operation Red Sea’ a Chinese action movie, which has grossed over USD$570 million. He has worked in the camera department on over fifty films and documentaries working with some of the biggest names in Hong Kong cinema, such as Johnnie To, Wong Jing and Christopher Doyle as a camera operator. He holds an MA with distinction in Cinematography from the prestigious Polish National Film School in Lodz. He is a member of the Hong Kong Professional Filmmakers’ Association.

CREDITS

CAST

Last Exit to Kai Tak Press Kit

MUSIC