Hong Kong International Film Festival 2023: 10 must-see films and programmes, including local hits Mad Fate and Vital Sign

Hong Kong stars Lam Ka-tung and Louis Koo, and Mirror’s Lokman Yeung, feature in two must-see films showing at the 47th Hong Kong International Film Festival

The 12-day event features local hits, retrospectives, restored classics and some of the best films of the past 12 months, such as Aftersun starring Paul Mescal

4-MIN READ4-MIN

Lam Ka-tung (front) and Lokman Yeung in a still from “Mad Fate”, one of the films showing at the 47th Hong Kong International Film Festival. Photo: Handout

Published: 5:15pm, 22 Mar 2023

The 47th Hong Kong International Film Festival begins on March 30, in a return to normality following three years of intermittent disruption to film-going because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As ever, the 12-day event provides a vital launch pad for Hong Kong filmmakers’ latest projects, as well as featuring filmmaker retrospectives, restored classics of world cinema, and close to 200 of the best films from the past 12 months.

Here are 10 highlights from the festival not to be missed.

1. Mad Fate (opening film)

In this gripping new Hong Kong thriller, marking director Soi Cheang Pou-soi’s latest descent into the city’s seedy underworld, a fortune-teller, played by Lam Ka-tung, attempts to stop a delivery boy – Lokman Yeung of Cantopop boy band Mirror – becoming the next victim of a vicious serial killer.

Exposing the less glamorous side of Hong Kong is a recurring theme for Cheang, who is being honoured by the festival as this year’s Filmmaker in Focus.