Following the 2019 protest movement, Hong Kong movie director Kiwi Chow became a target in a political crackdown under the National Security Law.
The director, who co-directed the 2011 dystopian comedy "10 Years" that was pulled from Hong Kong movie theaters after it showed scenes of authoritarian rule by Beijing, says the crackdown has messed with his career.
But despite the threat of further political censorship, or worse, Chow can’t leave the city where he made his name.
“Just because it wasn’t the worst-case scenario doesn’t mean things didn’t get worse,” he told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview while filming on location in the democratic island of Taiwan.
“When we were shooting Say I Do To Me (2023), we wanted to use this location – it was a church. My staff hadn’t told them it was me directing the movie, but even so, the church said they would need us to sign a pledge that nothing in the finished movie would breach the National Security Law.”
The 2020 National Security Law was imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing in the wake of the 2019 mass protest movement against the erosion of the city’s promised freedoms, and ushered in an era of political mass arrests, “national security” thought crimes, and potential informants in every school and workplace.
In March, the government followed it up with an even more stringent law, known as Article 23, boosting penalties for crimes like subversion, secession, sedition and “collusion with a foreign power.”
Many of Chow’s friends and colleagues went to jail, including actor Gregory Wong, jailed for 74 months for taking part in the storming of the Legislative Council on July 1, 2019, in protest at plans to allow the extradition of alleged criminal suspects to face trial in mainland China.
More than 100 opposition politicians, activists and protesters have been arrested so far on charges under the national security law, including allegations of secession, subversion and terrorist activities, with more than 10,000 arrested under pre-existing laws for their part in the protest movement.
‘I’ll never kowtow’
“A lot of activists, and friends I know who’ve wound up in prison have gotten phone calls from the police and the national security police, hauling them in for an interview to step up the pressure on them, telling them what they can and can’t do,” Chow said. “That’s happening to a lot of activists.”
“I’ve had people ask if that’s happened to me, but it hasn’t. Not so far,” he said. “Not when we made ‘10 Years’ (2011) with its self-immolation scene, nor during the protests.”
“I haven’t yet had a single phone call.”
Chow is glad of that fact, because he’s not one to play along, plead guilty and write statements of repentance in the hope of a more lenient sentence.
“Maybe they think I’ll never kowtow to them; that I would never compromise,” he said.
But he has still run into trouble at every turn as he tries to carry on making movies despite the huge paradigm shift in his home city.
“They may not have arrested me and I’m still not regarded as a criminal, but they have messed with my future,” he said. “I’ve definitely been a target for suppression.”
“In Hong Kong right now, it’s not about what you do, but who you are and I’m a good example of that [although] of course I’m not alone,” he said.
Locations have turned him down, funding is hard to come by, and actors are reluctant to touch his films with a 10-foot pole.
When his 2019 film “Beyond the Dream” was due to be screened at a movie theater, the venue backed out at the last minute.
“They pulled the plug on that one after everyone had bought tickets,” he said, ruefully.
“Most people figured it was because these films had my name on them, so that’s how I’ve been targeted.”
‘Worried and pessimistic’ about Hong Kong
And the political pressure hasn’t let up in recent months either.
“Over the past six months, a lot of movies and events, not just in Hong Kong but internationally have been canceled suddenly after getting phone calls from the Hong Kong authorities,” Chow said.
“Meaning that months of shooting and other work goes down the drain – it’s extremely depressing,” he said. “The current situation in Hong Kong makes me miserable, it makes me angry and frustrated.”
“I am very worried and pessimistic about the future of the film industry in Hong Kong.”
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Chow said he is full of admiration for all those who have been jailed for their peaceful activities in favor of democracy, free speech and the city’s former freedoms.
“Every single political prisoner who is currently behind bars is an embodiment of Lion Rock, standing tall,” he said. “They are the rock on which we stand. They’re a light in the darkness.”
“Everything they go through, everything they suffer is lit up by that light.”
Under what Chow terms an “evil” regime, shining a light into that darkness feels like a supremely positive move.
“It forces those who do evil to feel shame, not those who are oppressed,” he said.
‘There’s still hope’
He has no idea why he’s still free and so many others are not.
“A lot of people in jail right now, Hong Kongers, are there for something they said publicly or wrote online, so why am I still here?” he said.
But he can’t afford to worry himself too much.
“If I think too much along those lines, I’ll never do anything and I wouldn’t stay in Hong Kong,” he said, adding that leaving is still not an option.
“Even if I did leave, I still wouldn’t be free, because I’d be leaving out of fear, and I would still be held hostage to that fear,” Chow said. “The only way forward for me is in Hong Kong facing that fear. The only way I can be at peace with myself is if I resist that fear and defeat it.”
Instead, he plans to boost morale by keeping on doing what he’s been doing all along – scrambling for funding, actors and locations to make the movies that define his vision of home.
“If the only cause for optimism is that there are still people carrying on despite everything, then I’ll be very happy to be one of them,” he said.
“Hong Kong hasn’t died a total death. Not yet,” Chow said. “There’s still life and there’s still hope.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie.