Nice effects though.

Charming and brutal

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

I love Hong Kong movies because they are not normal and always open to interpretation. They have a lot of talented directors and actors who end up in Hollywood. But everything gone when China says 'everything offends us'. Now Hong Kong love to lick mainland butt and now they were making so so movies. Watch out, Hollywood. Many blames no one want to invest in film industry but back then Hong Kong movies always low in budget and turn out really good. What I can blame is china. So when this movie came out and turned to be weird as luck, it feels like Hong Kong movie finally come back. What amazes me they show things that Chinese gov hate but this movie like giving middle finger to them. Government conspiracy to support mainland, check. I think the second one is about that organ looting of Falun Gong or that melamine baby milk, not sure but check. Forcing unification, check. Protesting for democracy, check. Cultural revolution (wow), check. Hong Kong movies try to enter mainland market due to its high grossing but this movie like the total opposite. It is purely nuts

Made in 2015, 'Ten Years' is a collection of stand-alone stories from different directors that speculate what Hong Kong might be like one decade hence. As such it is surprising the self-imposed authorities in Beijing allowed the film to be made, let alone screened, as most of the stories take a dim view of the Chinese Communist Party's stewardship of the former British territory.Four of the five stories are interesting and enjoyable, so let's get the dross out of the way first: 'Season of the End', in which a dreary young couple collect specimens of smashed pottery, ash and the like in order to preserve them. Whether this refers to a fad in current-day Hong Kong I do not know, but there seems little purpose to the film, which meanders all over the place, including some ramblings about a holiday the pair took in New Zealand. Perhaps that is the last time they were happy; after sitting through this story, I know how they feel! It is interesting that the least political of the stories is the dullest.Okay, on to the good stuff: In 'Local Egg' a shopkeeper wonders from where he will source his eggs following the closure of Hong Kong's last poultry farm, and also has to contend with his son's membership of a young communist group that reports deviations from approved labelling in shops. The prospect of children being used to inform on their elders is chilling but all too believable, and the actor playing the everyman grocer gives a nice performance of a man frustrated by petty regulations.Another nice everyman performance comes from the lead actor in 'Dialect', in which a taxi driver finds his business shrinking because he does not speak well enough the officially-sanctioned Mandarin (Hong Kong's traditional language being Cantonese). This is another example of the Beijing authorities seeking to stamp out local distinctiveness (for an extreme example today, see Tibet). It is enjoyable, but for the viewer who speaks neither Cantonese nor Mandarin and is relying instead on the English sub-titles the full impact was probably lost.'Extras' follows a plot by members of the Hong Kong elite to pave the way for Beijing to introduce a (presumably restrictive) national security law. Their plan is to shoot one of two politicians appearing at a neighbourhood rally. While discussions continue as to which politician to attack, the ethnic-Indian gangster charged with carrying it out tries to convince himself it will be a success. Shot in black-and-white, this is a suspenseful work.'Extras' is very enjoyable, but it is beaten by a whisker as the best contribution by 'Self-Immolator', which seeks to assign responsibility for its former territory to the United Kingdom. As the story begins, we see the smoking remains of someone who has set themselves alight outside the British Consulate-General as part of a campaign to force the UK to challenge the Chinese authorities' behaviour. Using a mixture of straight drama and mock interviews, the film then goes back in time a few days, following the lives of various characters (including another ethnic Indian, this time a female student) one of whom, we are led to believe, is the suicide. There's a heart-breaking twist to this tale.Overall this collection is politically rather one-sided: the only real acknowledgement that some Hong Kongers support Chinese control of the territory is in 'Extras', and I assume a bunch of people plotting assassination are hardly representative of most citizens of HK! But as long as the viewer accepts that (completely understandable) bias, this is - 'Season of the End' aside - a terrific collection of stories.

A futuristic Hong Kong no one wants to fathom! The whole premise of the five clips that make up this film is bold. Having said this, there is a mix of good and bad in this film.The first clip starts off too slowly. The dialogue is too full of British influenced Hong Kong slang and at times it is hard to understand, even for Cantonese speakers who do not reside in Hong Kong like myself although those reading English subtitles will have no problem. Too bad because the plot was a good one but it was just not well acted or scripted.The second clip is almost unbearable to watch. It was too far into the sci-fi mode that it made the story unbelievable. The acting was wooden, the story line was wandering, the filming looked cheap, and overall it just looked amateur. Fast forward if you wish, nothing missed here.The final three clips are why you should watch this film. All are spoken in standard Cantonese, all are well acted, the scripts all make sense, and the viewer ought to leave with a sense of wonder and amazement. I liked the fourth clip the best with superb directing, acting, and filming and this clip alone can carry the whole film.Definitely a must watch but skip over the boring parts after the first time.

This is not one film but five, each a self-contained depiction of Hong Kong in the year 2025. While #3-#5 are well worth your time, you are advised to skip the first two.Below is a rundown of the five films.#1. Beijing wants to stage a political assassination to stir fear in Hong Kong. Now, if manufacturing fear is your goal, would you rather the incident take place at a rally in Victoria Park attended by thousands of people, or at a holiday celebration in a school auditorium with a few dozen senior citizens? The screenwriter prefers the auditorium. Then about 2/3 of the film is spent discussing which of the two possible targets should be shot in order to maximize the terror-inducing effect, and the conclusion reached at long last is that -- why didn't we think of that? -- BOTH should be shot. The plan is carried out, ending in what's supposedly a twist of fate for the assassins, but by that time if you're still watching, you will hardly care.#2. Probably not the most pretentious film you'll ever see, nor the most unintentionally funny. But you get a bit of both. Man and woman have a job no real people have, talk like no real people do, and come up with an idea no real people (I hope) ever tried. At one point, the man ingests coagulant (that's THE IDEA), and somehow starts to feel like taking a walk, but finds his room locked. In a fit of anger he punches and shoves a cupboard so very gently that nothing breaks and a 1.5-meter-long ax sitting precariously on top of the cupboard does not fall. Then, still angry, he grabs the ax and judiciously chops away a tiny patch of wall between the cupboard and a full-length mirror, hitting neither the cupboard nor the mirror in the process. "Why is everything like this?" he protests. Indeed, why is everything in this film like this?#3. We finally get to the better part. There is not a lot of story here -- just a cab driver's struggle with Putonghua -- but what there is, is quite realistic, and told in a natural, restrained tone without unnecessary fanfare. There is a poignant moment when another cabbie observes that Cantonese has never been the privileged language -- before Putonghua it was English. That's today's Hong Kong writ small: the absence of that which has never been, is now more acutely felt than ever.#4. Arguably the best of the bunch, or at least one of the best, on a par with #3, but with a major flaw. The format (mockumentary) is prefect for the subject matter (a growing movement that calls for Hong Kong's independence). The premise -- after an activist died in a hunger strike, someone burnt him/herself in front of the British Consulate -- while bold, is not far-fetched. The voice of the majority of Hong Kong people (majority in real life now, and still majority in the film) who either oppose independence or do not really care -- this, however, is conspicuously missing. The only representative of such people is a racist store keeper who expresses himself primarily by throwing eggs.#5. Not what I'd call a credible story (boy scouts turning into Red Guards?), but if you take it as a big metaphor for something untold in the film itself, it can be rather revealing. And no doubt it manages to capture the fear of many Hong Kong people. But to those who do not share the same fear, it may come across as contrived and paranoid.Overall:Worth watching, though more for the political perspective than for the aesthetic pleasure. And only for the last 53 minutes (thus just 6 stars for the whole thing) -- as is sometimes said in times of turbulence and uncertainty, it has to get worse before it gets better.