Hong Kong singer and filmmaker Juno Mak talks Project Mayhem, his coming multimedia, multi-group hip-hop concert and drama event
- Juno Mak wrote the script for Project Mayhem during the pandemic, a multimedia concert with gangster movie nostalgia and Chinese principles of morality mixed in
- The event will include new arrangements of Mak’s old songs and performances from rappers and singers including 24Herbs, Matt Force and Novel Fergus
Based on an unused script, Hong Kong singer and filmmaker Juno Mak Chun-lung is staging a concert that fuses Hong Kong hip hop music with gangster movie nostalgia.
The one-off concert, “Project Mayhem”, at AsiaWorld-Expo in Lantau, on February 22, will feature a large and diverse ensemble that includes members of veteran rap group 24Herbs, as well as indie rappers Matt Force and Novel Fergus, who are both under 30, and well known in the city’s underground music scene.
“Project Mayhem” revolves around a gang, explains 39-year-old Mak, but it is also “an exploration into humans” based on chung hao yan yi and “the grey area within”.
Elements of the ancient Han Chinese principles of morality, chung is loyalty, hao filial piety, yan benevolence and yi righteousness. They are often referenced in Hong Kong crime dramas, especially when triads are involved.
“The classic Cantonese [film] genre is usually about the newcomers and the rascals. But for this show, I wanted to give a heavier and darker level [to] their positions,” Mak tells the Post.