The Art of Unrest: Interview with Leung Ming Kai and Kate Reilly
By Jaime Chu
Portrait of LEUNG MING KAI and KATE REILLY. Courtesy the directors.
How should Hong Kong define itself beyond its colonial past? This question for the city’s political future has gained urgency since the Umbrella Movement in 2014. Conceived in the wake of the pro-democracy protest, Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down (2019) is a cycle of four short films that zooms in on the peculiar tensions that arise across class and language divides with regards to this question. Co-directed by award-winning cinematographer Leung Ming Kai (LMK) and writer and actress Kate Reilly (KR), the series subverts the traditional form of the epic family saga by breaking it down into four inconspicuous pairings. Forbidden City focuses on a grandma with dementia and her Indonesian domestic helper; Toy Stories stars two estranged brothers who reluctantly reunite at the family toy shop they grew up in; for Yuen Yeung, a local teacher and a foreign teacher become friends while heading towards different futures; and in the documentary segment it’s not gonna be fun, an idealistic but hilariously misanthropic young district council candidate faces the precarious political future of Hong Kong and her own existential crisis.
