Director Oliver Chan follows STILL HUMAN (2018)

[FWN Adm]

After the box office success of 'Still Human', a film that sheds light on domestic workers in Hong Kong, director Oliver Chan is back with a new movie about the challenges of motherhood in Asia, which is slated for Hong Kong release in early 2025.

"I named myself after the titular character in Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist, which I studied at school, because I had always asked for more," says Hong Kong film director Oliver Chan Siu-kuen. She wasn't referring to gruel. Even as a child, she was eager for opportunities beyond what was obvious and available. "I felt that if I named myself after a boy, it would open doors for me." So has that helped her as an adult? "Not really."

But Chan is not someone who waits for those opportunities to knock at her door. When there isn't an existing way, she carves a path for herself. Her latest feature film, The Montages of a Modern Motherhood, is a prime example. "There aren't any films presenting motherhood in Hong Kong. For sure, there are movies that have a mother figure, but she is only a side character, or is portrayed as naggy, bossy or demanding. But there are so many untold facets of being a mother," she says. "Most of the directors who have made films involving mothers are men, or women who haven't experienced motherhood. If I don't tell these stories, who will?"

Chan herself is a mother, to a five-year-old. While her experiences of motherhood are nothing like her protagonist's tragic story, she is obviously affected by news reports of mothers abusing their infants. "I couldn't understand what they were going through, because there is no way a mother would bear a child for ten months just to bring it to the world and harm it," she says.

The film follows the story of Suk-jing, a 30-something new mother who becomes gradually disenchanted with the lack of understanding from her husband, conflicts with her traditional in-laws, struggles to juggle family and work, coping with her inexperience of childcare, and her own declining mental and physical health.

In August, it was selected as the only Hong Kong film to screen at the prestigious Busan International Film Festival; in September, it entered Tokyo International Film Festival's inaugural Women's Empowerment section. The film premiered in Busan in October and is slated for release in Hong Kong in early 2025.

The Official Trailer for Director Chan's film STILL HUMAN.