Blog
Adding Colours to Our Life
Today is Father’s Day. I wish you all a happy time on this special day. For many fathers, they are too busy with work during weekdays and don’t have much time to play with their children. This weekend, I took the opportunity to play football with a few fathers and sons together. I think all football lovers would agree that it is a truly enjoyable experience to work together as a team to strive for a common goal. It would be particularly memorable for a father and son to play together on the same team.
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| Enjoying sports on the eve of Father’s Day in a football game with a few fathers and sons. |
But the weather doesn’t always follow our plans. Rain showers before the game yesterday morning brought to mind the famous ad line “It just rains on a football day”! Yet, playing in the subsequent breeze and gentle sunlight turned out to be a refreshing and joyful experience.
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| Enjoying sports on the eve of Father’s Day in a football game with a few fathers and sons. |
Over the past few years, the Government has invested a good amount of resources in enhancing sports and recreation facilities, such as 5-a-side football pitches, for public use. The Kai Tak Sports Park, the largest sports infrastructure project in Hong Kong’s history, will be opened in the first half of 2025. This development will not only provide quality, multi-purpose sports and recreation facilities for the public, but also support Hong Kong in hosting more international sports and cultural mega events. As a result, more residents and visitors will have the opportunity to enjoy quality matches and performances. And more business opportunities will be brought to the retail, catering and tourism-related industries.
Our recreational, sports, arts and cultural programmes, which beautifully blend Eastern and Western elements, are rich and diverse. We aim to offer the public a wide array of leisure, arts and cultural options. Films hold a significant place in our cultural life. Hong Kong films, in particular, vividly depict the city’s urban development and unique characteristics.
I recently watched two Hong Kong films, and one of them was “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In”. It features many thrilling fighting scenes that re-create the environment of the Kowloon Walled City, and depicts some of the social situations of those days. One memorable scene, showing a plane flying over the rooftop of an old building, brought back memories of the old Kai Tak Airport. When this film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, it received resounding applause from the audience, clearly demonstrating that cultural messages in films could resonate across time, space and regions.
Box office success reflects public’s recognition of Hong Kong films. “A Guilty Conscience”, which was screened last year, and “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In”, were the first two local films in Hong Kong’s history to gross over $100 million. In recent years, the themes of Hong Kong films have become increasingly diverse, with new directors, actors and talents emerging in large numbers. The film industry, with its profound heritage and unique sense, is poised for more innovation, allowing more local and international audiences to appreciate the cultural charm of Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong Film Development Fund (FDF) has been supporting the innovation and production of Hong Kong films for over two decades. The HKSAR Government has also continued to support FDF, with $1 billion injection in the 2019 Budget and an additional $1.4 billion announced in the Chief Executive’s 2023 Policy Address. FDF has launched various new schemes to support the film industry, such as “Directors’ Succession Scheme”, where veteran directors partner with young directors in a spirit of mentorship; and a funding scheme to nurture production teams for developing new content for streaming platforms. To date, over 100 emerging directors and producers had worked on some 100 films funded by FDF, which had discovered a large number of young actors and created thousands of jobs. These films had won more than 160 local and international awards. New funding schemes have been launched to help Hong Kong filmmakers and producers explore the Mainland market and exchange with film industries in Europe and Asia. The HKSAR Government has also been actively leading delegations to participate in world-renowned international film festivals such as those held in Cannes, Berlin, and Venice. In the future, the Government will also actively participate in international film festivals held in Toronto, Busan, Tokyo, etc., aiming to help local films enter more overseas markets and reach international audiences.
Let me give you a preview of one of the latest films to be released in the coming summer peak season – “Customs Frontline”, which will be shown in local cinemas in early July. It had its world premiere as the closing film of the 26th Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy on 2 May, and received enthusiastic responses from the audiences. I sincerely hope that more local films will receive attention and support from the public in the future.
June 16, 2024
