The Brief Life of Fire

Many, as you can tell, are not first-timers to animation and would not hesitate to comment or express their viewing experiences. For example, the Cantonese expression, "qi xin," (meaning madness/ridiculous), can be heard if viewers dislike or do not understand the animation shorts. "How could the programmer has selected this?" the audience could be heard whispering. On the other hand, they did not hesitate to clap or show a rupture of joy to express appreciation of some films. Among the 17 animation films shown, Hubert Sielecki's Air Fright, Janet Perlman's Dinner For Two, Andrew Higgins' The Gourmand, Lasse Persson's Hand in Hand, Chris Backhouse's Lovely Day and Michaela Pavlatova's Repete had the audience chuckling loudly and hungry for more. This year's Oscar winning film,Quest, was also shown to an eager audience which grinned, grasped and sighed at the sandman's fateful end, while Bill Plympton's How To Make Love To A Woman was very popular too.

The Brief Life of Fire, Act 2 Scene 2: Suring and the Kuk-ok was the only Asian/Southeast Asian entry. Directed by Auraeus Solito from Philippines, the story is based on a Palawan myth. For once, city-slick Hong Kongers are transported into a tropical jungle of spells and plant-like creatures.

Local animation appeared in the Independent Film and Video Category. They were award winners from the recent 1996 Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards: Chang Tze-hin's (#01), Ellen Yuen's iD and Yuen Kin-to's Foul Ball. Perhaps I am too new to Hong Kong's cultural psyche, but I found it hard to find the actual themes or content expressed in these films. But in terms of technicality, there were some lasting impressions. "They are not perfect," one local film critic puts it aptly, "but are a delight to the heart, each possessing a different quality."

Chang Tze-hin's (#01).

It is a covert knowledge that the Hong Kong Film Festival has been instrumental in introducing non-Disney animation films to Hong Kongers. Animation director Hayao Miyazaki now has a huge following in Hong Kong, since his films were first shown at the festival in 1987. Ironically, his films have recently been acquired by Disney for video distribution.

Supported by the Urban Council, the film festival is efficiently run and lives up to its international reputation as a premier Asian film event. Pioneer managers and programmers are still holding on to their torches with unflagging enthusiasm. One can only congratulate their efforts in bringing in a wide repertoire of international and local films, old and new, archival or censored, 35mm or Betamax, and of course not forgetting the animation category.

Gigi Hu is now a Ph.D. student based at the University of Hong Kong, Department of Comparative Literature. Prior to this, she was a media and cultural studies lecturer at Temasek Polytechnic, School of Design, Singapore. Last year, with Lilian Soon, she organized Singapore's Animation Fiesta.