Hong Kong movie brings ‘City of Darkness’ back into light at Cannes Film Festival, with makers hoping to boost tourism
- Soi Cheang Pou-soi’s Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In and its depiction of historic Kowloon Walled City earn standing ovation at screening in Cannes
- Filmmakers say they hope viewers can ‘feel our love for Hong Kong’ and that movie can help to promote local tourism trade
A Hong Kong martial arts film featuring the Kowloon Walled City has made a splash at the Cannes Film Festival after its screening won a standing ovation, while its makers have said they hope the movie can boost local tourism.
The Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In was met with cheers and applause that lasted for minutes after award-winning Soi Cheang Pou-soi’s mega-budget production played at the event’s Midnight Screenings section on Thursday night in Cannes.
“The fact that we can put together so many talented Hong Kong artists for this Hong Kong story is a very meaningful and magnificent thing to me,” Cheang said afterwards, expressing his gratitude to the festival for screening the local action film.
“I hope overseas audiences will also feel our love for Hong Kong.”
“I hope this movie can introduce the Kowloon Walled City to tourists that once stood there,” he said.
A troubled youth stumbles into the sprawling neighbourhood, learning important life lessons, making friends and fighting in a series of battles to defend his new home from a notorious crime lord.
The Kowloon Walled City, known informally by some as “the City of Darkness”, was once considered the densest settlement in the world and often characterised as a lawless enclave with poor living conditions, criminal activity and a thriving black market, trading anything from pirated goods to narcotics and sex.
The densely packed warren of 300 interconnected buildings in Hong Kong’s Kowloon City district was later demolished in 1994.
