Content from Fresh Wave

Leaving music school, the happy-go-lucky Ling returns to Hong Kong to her dementia-stricken father, on whom she tries to conduct music therapy. Her demurer older sister Munn, the caretaker and sole supporter of the family, watches with disapproval. Playing the piano piece her father once taught her, Ling seems to register some change in her father’s condition, a glimmer of hope amidst the abyss of oblivion. However, secret animosity and rivalry eventually leads to open conflict between the two sisters, bringing out long-time family traumas. Will music save them?

Mable, the daughter of HK's infamous rogue cop is at a loss when her father's old debts lead to the murder of her mother. With the help of Inspector Lok and the sage guidance of her God Grandfather, she uncovers a truth she never could have imagined.

Single father Tsui meets university student Gigi who works at an old-fashioned barber shop that Tsui frequents. They bond immediately and begin a profound exchange. The fleeting friendship is a pleasant surprise during times of vulnerability, but does not help to overcome their individual challenges and demons. Tsui continues to put off dealing with a pressing matter that has long been eating him. Amidst the social unrest, Gigi’s outlook and musings on life lead Tsui to reflect on the unsolved matter and he eventually makes an important decision.

Is there eternity in the universe? Five-year-old Ka-wing and his younger sister Ka-yan have been asking this question for all time. From a tumultuous childhood in an abusive household, the siblings are delivered to the HO’s, where they find temporary solace and stability. A brief reunion with their biological parents propels the children back onto a trajectory of precarity and shatters their young dream of home, a shifting idea gradually taking form as they grow up. Featuring Loletta LEE Lai-chun (Golden Horse Awards for Best Actress, Ordinary Heroes, 1999) and David SIU Chung-hang, the short is a narration of childhood through a decade of imaging technology.

Ching’s mother asks Ching to take her grandmother in until she is sent to a nursing home and that makes her ponder over her relationship with her mother. Three generations of women, each has their own share of pain.

Liu Yang He, a landmark in Hunan province, is not only the film’s original title but also a well-known Communist folk song in China. It was written during the Agrarian Reform that precedes the Cultural Revolution. Youngsters were sent to farmlands and factories to experience intense labour. They sang to praise Chairman Mao. Kah-kah (Rain Lau) was permanently injured in an industrial accident during that time. When Kah-kah meets this amputated client (Ko Hon-man), they feel sympathy with each other and turn this sympathy into a possibility of love as if they were flowing into a river of no return. Here, Rain Lau’s sophisticated performance resembles her award-winning role in Queen of Temple Street (1990).

'...is unsuitable for any man's love.' (Xi Xi, A Woman Like Me) Sum-yin patches up wounds, masks scars and performs other beautician services that, when done well - as she always does - bring comfort to her and appreciation from grateful families. But inside she's hurting. Her job as a mortuary cosmetologist makes her self-conscious about the smell of death that seems to be seeping through and under her skin and looming over her stagnant relationship with Kwan, her oblivious boyfriend. No amount of cigarettes and perfume and cleaning will rid of it. At some point, a decision has to be made.

Call girl Ruby dates men for pay. Arrested, she seeks help from a lawyer client. He advises her to seek letters of mitigation from people with high social status, and to play along with the probation officer. By performing an act of penitence, Ruby may be given a more lenient sentence. The lies she tells the officer, initially mere tales to solicit sympathy, slowly reveal a heartbreaking story of someone let down by adults all her life.

Freud once said dreams are disguised fulfilments of repressed wishes. Some recurring dreams may have awakened the unfulfilled desires buried deep inside one’s heart. Ceci has passed away at a young age. At night, when her soul wanders and encounters sleepers deep in their thoughts, she will enter their dreams and listen to their hearts. One night, she meets Kate, who is bothered by mundane matters. She finds Kate’s dreams familiar. As she recalls fragments of her memories, can past regrets between the two of them be fulfilled in dreams? The film connects the dimensions of dreams and reality with the girls’ delicate emotions and sings an elegy of lost youth.

Ms Chan, a social worker who has just returned to work, receives her first case. She pays a visit to Jia, a single elderly who seems to have accidentally dialled the Care-on-Call Service. Jia has suspicious bruises on his face and Ms. Chan senses a possible family abuse situation. However, Jia’s attitude is unwelcoming and he sends her off right away. Since then, a series of peculiar events make Ms. Chan question her own sense of reality and sanity.

Where may one find bliss, in life or in death? Four disappointed young people meet each other at a rave party, finding bliss under the influence of drugs. After sharing a brief night of ecstasy, they are suddenly transported to another realm via a car accident. Stranded and waiting to be delivered, as the lost souls witness the void and pain they leave behind in the world of the living, each must reckon and reconcile their scarred former lives, every unrequited dream and relationship, before they can finally arrive at the real land of bliss.

Ching’s parents are retirees ready to leave for Taiwan where a new chapter awaits them. The only thing holding them back is their daughter’s hesitation to join them. Unbeknownst to them, Ching is stuck in an affair with a married man. She is constantly teetering between trust and distrust, clinging on unfulfilled promises instead of letting go. Life has presented a difficult crossroad to her as she weighs between acting for her own good and following what the heart desires.

The average person’s head has up to 100,000 hairs. Each strand may be unique in length and texture but they are said to bear our memories of sorrow and worry. Neighbors come to the old shop “Barber’s Time” to part with both their hair and bad memories. Although Cantonese style haircutting is on the slippery slope to extinction, barber shop owner Hoi-chuen wishes for his son Cheung-fat to manage the shop. Aspiring to be a writer like J. D. Salinger instead, Cheung-fat takes over “Barber’s Time” when his father had an accident. Just like his father, Cheung-fat develops rapport with the customers and provides guidance. His own life also turns around when a runaway girl comes to the shop. A magical heartwarming tale of community support and kindness, the short features Kaki Shum from the film “Weeds of Fire”.

A time and space that get mixed up, A brother and a sister, One who loves starting fire, Whereas the other loves extinguishing it, An unusual relationship.

18-year-old Shengnan is invited to a mysterious party by her cousin. Upon arrival, Shengnan finds herself surrounded by greasy middle-aged men, with the exception of Jianguo, who is different. Shengnan and Jianguo decide to bail on the party, embarking on a night of adventures in the adult world.

The Winter Solstice has been for the Chinese an important family occasion; however, will this time-honoured tradition become obsolete? The children head back to their family home in the country to see their elderly mother. All seems well on the surface, but each faces their own crisis and difficulty: The eldest brother struggles to raise several kids; the well off second sister plans to leave Hong Kong; estranged from her husband, the younger sister keeps up appearances; and the youngest brother commits to the difficult career as a farmer. The cheerful, animated conversation at the dinner table is overshadowed by simmering anxieties.

Love is a long road with moments of separation and reunion. Even an experienced driver must remember safety first and keep the clutch in check to avoid repeating the same mistakes in love. CHAN, a middle-aged man with several different types of driver’s license, is dissatisfied with young hearse driver Zi-ling’s driving skills, so he takes over the position. Two people who lost their better halves embark on a journey of life and death, healing, guilt, and letting go. The film depicts this road trip romance through a series of analogies related to modes of transportation, filling the screen with scenery on the roads of Hong Kong. The film, with its ambitious production scale, also charts the social changes of Hong Kong since the turn of the century.

Traumatised by the doomed rights movement in Garan, former activist Decem seeks refuge and solitude in the forest, fleeing his homeland and all those he held dear. Relief is however short-lived. As time passes, nostalgia and loneliness creep upon the exiled youth. Decem remains trapped in recurrent nightmares of the past and continues to plunge into despair, living with a constant sense of peril. The challenges of living in the forest along with the wildfire in the mountains eventually make him reconsider the path ahead. Mirroring the disturbed youth’s inner turmoil with the sinister wild nature, the psychological drama relates the tormented state of the exiled body and soul.

Forced to wear dresses and behave in a certain way against her will at her stepfather’s dinners, 13-year-old Ling meets Kitty, a rebellious 17-year-old, and is fascinated by the older girl who seems unfettered by any rule. As the two girls become close, Ling experiences a sexual awakening and wants to play the role of Kitty’s keeper. But things get complicated when Kitty’s former boyfriend appears on the scene. Full of angst, this coming-of-age story traverses the painful rites of passage of adolescent loneliness and sexual longing. The black sheep hark back to all the pure yet misunderstood selves we used to be.

A story taking place in a Hong Kong with a different history. Hong Kong has not undergone a transfer of sovereignty in 1997. In 2003, a teenager, Lap Yan stays at home because of SARS. A girl who is a new neighbor of Lap Yan visits him and stays with him all day. Lap Yan does not realise the outside world is changing, which will affect his own future.