How Hong Kong’s First Feature Film Initiative subsidies helped a new generation of directors – and how every movie from scheme’s first 10 years fared
- Hong Kong’s First Feature Film Initiative was set up in 2013 to identify new directing talent and help finance their first films
- We look at every film the FFFI has funded, and evaluate the performance of each one at the box office and on award nominations and awards won
Anyone interested in the new Hong Kong cinema must have heard of the government’s much heralded First Feature Film Initiative (FFFI), launched in March 2013 to identify new talent and help finance their first feature films as directors.
1. Weeds on Fire (2016)
Produced by: Chan Hing-kai, O Sing-pui
Box office: HK$4.6 million (US$589,000)
2. Mad World (2017)
Produced by: Derek Chiu, Heiward Mak
Box office: HK$16.9 million
3. In Your Dreams (2018)
Produced by: Carina Lau
Box office: HK$475,000
4. Somewhere Beyond the Mist (2018)
Produced by: Derek Yee
Box office: HK$771,000
Sadly, there is a real disconnect between artistic merit and commercial acclaim when it comes to this fact-based murder mystery directed by documentary filmmaker Cheung King-wai whose best-known work, KJ, was a much bigger box office hit.
5. G Affairs (2019)
Produced by: Titus Ho, Flora Goh
Box office: HK$1 million
This utterly idiosyncratic tale of gruesome death, wasted youth, gratuitous sex and provocative political gestures was directed by Lee Cheuk-pan and executive-produced by Herman Yau Lai-to.
6. Still Human (2019)
Produced by: Fruit Chan
Box office: HK$19.8 million
7. Apart (2020)
Produced by: Herman Yau
Box office: NA
8. My Prince Edward (2020)
Produced by: Chan Hing-kai, O Sing-pui
Box office: HK$5.2 million
Screenwriter Norris Wong Yee-lam made her directing debut with this understated drama set in the working-class neighbourhood of its title and revolving around familiar topics for women in conservative Chinese society: marriage and personal freedom.
9. Elisa’s Day (2021)
Produced by: Wong Yat-ping
Box office: HK$704,000
The second worst box office performer on this list may have been a victim of its own ambition. Writer-director Alan Fung Chi-hang’s portrait of loneliness was told as a fragmented, decade-spanning story. Mention of its inspiration – a crime of passion from the 1990s – might constitute a spoiler.
10. Hand Rolled Cigarette (2021)
Produced by: Lawrence Ah Mon
Box office: HK$8 million
11. Hong Kong Family (2022)
Produced by: Patricia Cheng
Box office: HK$12.7 million
It might seem odd to call this moderate box office hit underappreciated, but that’s arguably the case, considering that Hong Kong Family stars two members of the popular boy band Mirror (Edan Lui Cheuk-on and Anson Lo Hon-ting) and was released when local box office records were being broken left and right.
12. Lost Love (2023)
Produced by: Katherine Lee
Box office: HK$7.3 million
This affecting drama about a grieving mother who embarks on foster care, directed by Ka Sing-fung, is an artistically accomplished and emotionally resonant film that doesn’t conform to mainstream narrative conventions – and is all the better for it.
13. A Light Never Goes Out (2023)
Produced by: Saville Chan
Box office: HK2.2 million
It would be hard to imagine a purely commercial production showing quite the same enthusiasm for preserving local culture as Anastasia Tsang Hin-ling’s film does for Hong Kong’s rapidly fading tradition of neon sign making.