Film Screening:

Boundary
(Ben WONG King-fai, 2015, 138 min, Hong Kong, in Chinese w/ English subtitles, Color, Blu-Ray)

-- Q&A to follow w/ director Ben WONG King-fai and producer Mary WONG Shuk-han!

Hong Kong writer Ye Si's cultural insights are evident in his works, which reflect an era of Hong Kong's history. His oeuvre spans the genres of poetry, prose, fiction and critique, with each genre exhibiting a facet of his literary excellence. When the documentary, Boundary, was initiated in 2009, Ye Si suggested to the film crew, "If you want to understand me, you should get acquainted with my friends. You will find parts of me in each of them".

Following Ye Si's suggestion, the production team embarked on an exploratory journey into his life from 1950 through the 21st century, over the course of a series of interviews. The interviewees include scholars, writers, artists, fashion designers, and food connoisseurs, as well as Ye Si's family. This documentary has captured rare footage of Ye Si's last years of life.

Beautiful and poetic, the film also epitomizes the vibrant culture of Hong Kong, a mecca for interdisciplinary collaborations and the exchange of ideas.

About the filmmakers:

Focusing on research and the making of literature and cinema, director and screenwriter Ben WONG King-fai experiments with and specializes in the incorporation of literary theories into movie making. His screenplay for Life without Principle (2012), which draws on multiple storylines and points of view, won the 2012 Golden Horse Award for Best Original Screenplay, in addition to winning for Best Screenplay at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards and the Chinese Film Media Awards. Life without Principle also won for Best Picture at the Asia Pacific Film Festival. Wong’s earlier screenplays include Wu Yen (2001) and Help!!! (2000). The former was a box-office success and the latter screened out of competition at the 50th Berlinale.

Mary WONG Shuk-han is an associate professor in the Chinese Department at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. Her research interests focus on the comparative study of literature and cinema, Hong Kong Cinema and World literature, and Hong Kong Literature.

Cost: Free and open to the public

Sponsors: Asian Pacific Studies Institute (APSI), the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI), the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), and the Critical Asian Humanities Program.