Ten Years
Ten Years
| 15 November 2015 (USA)
Ten Years Trailers

Five shorts reveal a fictional Hong Kong in 2025, depicting a dystopian city where residents and activists face crackdowns under iron-fisted rule.

Reviews
ruruki

I love Hong Kong movies because they are not normal and always open to interpretation. They have a lot of talented directors and actors who end up in Hollywood. But everything gone when China says 'everything offends us'. Now Hong Kong love to lick mainland butt and now they were making so so movies. Watch out, Hollywood. Many blames no one want to invest in film industry but back then Hong Kong movies always low in budget and turn out really good. What I can blame is china. So when this movie came out and turned to be weird as luck, it feels like Hong Kong movie finally come back. What amazes me they show things that Chinese gov hate but this movie like giving middle finger to them. Government conspiracy to support mainland, check. I think the second one is about that organ looting of Falun Gong or that melamine baby milk, not sure but check. Forcing unification, check. Protesting for democracy, check. Cultural revolution (wow), check. Hong Kong movies try to enter mainland market due to its high grossing but this movie like the total opposite. It is purely nuts

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euroGary

Made in 2015, 'Ten Years' is a collection of stand-alone stories from different directors that speculate what Hong Kong might be like one decade hence. As such it is surprising the self-imposed authorities in Beijing allowed the film to be made, let alone screened, as most of the stories take a dim view of the Chinese Communist Party's stewardship of the former British territory.Four of the five stories are interesting and enjoyable, so let's get the dross out of the way first: 'Season of the End', in which a dreary young couple collect specimens of smashed pottery, ash and the like in order to preserve them. Whether this refers to a fad in current-day Hong Kong I do not know, but there seems little purpose to the film, which meanders all over the place, including some ramblings about a holiday the pair took in New Zealand. Perhaps that is the last time they were happy; after sitting through this story, I know how they feel! It is interesting that the least political of the stories is the dullest.Okay, on to the good stuff: In 'Local Egg' a shopkeeper wonders from where he will source his eggs following the closure of Hong Kong's last poultry farm, and also has to contend with his son's membership of a young communist group that reports deviations from approved labelling in shops. The prospect of children being used to inform on their elders is chilling but all too believable, and the actor playing the everyman grocer gives a nice performance of a man frustrated by petty regulations.Another nice everyman performance comes from the lead actor in 'Dialect', in which a taxi driver finds his business shrinking because he does not speak well enough the officially-sanctioned Mandarin (Hong Kong's traditional language being Cantonese). This is another example of the Beijing authorities seeking to stamp out local distinctiveness (for an extreme example today, see Tibet). It is enjoyable, but for the viewer who speaks neither Cantonese nor Mandarin and is relying instead on the English sub-titles the full impact was probably lost.'Extras' follows a plot by members of the Hong Kong elite to pave the way for Beijing to introduce a (presumably restrictive) national security law. Their plan is to shoot one of two politicians appearing at a neighbourhood rally. While discussions continue as to which politician to attack, the ethnic-Indian gangster charged with carrying it out tries to convince himself it will be a success. Shot in black-and-white, this is a suspenseful work.'Extras' is very enjoyable, but it is beaten by a whisker as the best contribution by 'Self-Immolator', which seeks to assign responsibility for its former territory to the United Kingdom. As the story begins, we see the smoking remains of someone who has set themselves alight outside the British Consulate-General as part of a campaign to force the UK to challenge the Chinese authorities' behaviour. Using a mixture of straight drama and mock interviews, the film then goes back in time a few days, following the lives of various characters (including another ethnic Indian, this time a female student) one of whom, we are led to believe, is the suicide. There's a heart-breaking twist to this tale.Overall this collection is politically rather one-sided: the only real acknowledgement that some Hong Kongers support Chinese control of the territory is in 'Extras', and I assume a bunch of people plotting assassination are hardly representative of most citizens of HK! But as long as the viewer accepts that (completely understandable) bias, this is - 'Season of the End' aside - a terrific collection of stories.

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rockmt

A futuristic Hong Kong no one wants to fathom! The whole premise of the five clips that make up this film is bold. Having said this, there is a mix of good and bad in this film.The first clip starts off too slowly. The dialogue is too full of British influenced Hong Kong slang and at times it is hard to understand, even for Cantonese speakers who do not reside in Hong Kong like myself although those reading English subtitles will have no problem. Too bad because the plot was a good one but it was just not well acted or scripted.The second clip is almost unbearable to watch. It was too far into the sci-fi mode that it made the story unbelievable. The acting was wooden, the story line was wandering, the filming looked cheap, and overall it just looked amateur. Fast forward if you wish, nothing missed here.The final three clips are why you should watch this film. All are spoken in standard Cantonese, all are well acted, the scripts all make sense, and the viewer ought to leave with a sense of wonder and amazement. I liked the fourth clip the best with superb directing, acting, and filming and this clip alone can carry the whole film.Definitely a must watch but skip over the boring parts after the first time.

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Stephan Ortmann

This collection of five short films is an amazing selection of dystopic visions that explore the worries of Hong Kong citizens. Driven by the growing intervention of China in the former British colony, many are worried about the destruction of their way of life. Each of the films uses this general theme differently from conspiracies to the Kafkaesque, the shorts tell the story of the less fortunate, the scientists, the food sellers, the taxi drivers, and the localists who are fighting for the autonomy or even independence of China's special administrative region. Each of the episodes move the audience deeply. As the movie paints an increasingly negative picture of Chinese rule over the city, it is not surprising that articles in official Chinese government mouthpieces have chastised the movie. Even in Hong Kong, many movie theaters did not show this film, which is a true shame, considering that the others were often sold out. I am truly hoping for a DVD soon! This is a movie I must own.

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