Local heroes

Pages is never a screed, but it does demand that viewers do some self-introspection. It's an impressive debut, if not particularly easy to watch.

Next up and with a release date still to be confirmed (expect some of these around Lunar New Year) is another FFFI work, Sasha Chuk's Fly Me to the Moon, based on her own semi-autobiographical book. Chuk counted Stanley Kwan and Jun Li as producers on the film, which chronicles the journey of a family from Hunan trying to make a life in the promised land of Hong Kong.

The story is told from the point of view of Yuen as we find her in the years 1997, 2007 and 2017 - played by Chloe Hui, Yoyo Tse and Chuk herself respectively - trying to deal with her constantly shifting identity and well-meaning but drug-addicted father (Wu Kang-ren, Light the Night).

Chuk's debut is a master class in visual storytelling (she had help from production designer William Chang), one that makes the most of Hong Kong's distinctly cramped spaces and unwritten social rules. As a domestic drama, it's a lean, focused piece, dwelling on change, obligation, the cycles of poverty and addiction, reconciliation, and finally, familial bonds.