Malinois’ Gaze

All clothes have a story to tell. Ma was about to close the Angela laundry shop for the day when Shum appeared. A young man with a head injury and handful of dirty clothes from his stay at the street during the Umbrella Movement, Shum needs his clothes washed. Full of passion for the social cause, Shum initially chided Ma for staying in the comfort of the shop. However, these two strangers slowly opened up to each other when a number of characters passed by the shop, revealing the tumultuous world behind Ma’s stoic silence. Shum also gained new insight on meaningfulness, which exists not only within a worthy cause but also at seemingly abandoned clothes.

This Anti-ELAB (Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill) Movement documentary short takes us back to the airport occupation on 12 August 2019. Although this new form of protest soon turned into a crisis, it became an important lesson for the protesters. Compared to the tension inside the airport terminal, the long walk home at sunset on the Lantau highway, which connects the Hong Kong International Airport to the residential areas, felt like a reminiscence of a school field trip.

A property management corporation, which outsources its security service, has recently changed its contracted service provider. Having discovered that the scheme involves nepotism, the supervisor of the corporation exposes the hidden truth, which provokes huge tumult.

On the small isle of Tap Mun, the ocean breeze gently lifts up strands of grey hair on Lai Lin-shau’s head. He quietly sings in the characteristic tones of the fisherman’s ballads. Seemingly without rules, the pitch and tones alternate and repeat themselves as if they were synchronising with the ocean waves. Lai is one of the few people alive who knows the fisherman’s ballads intimately. None of his children experienced the harsh and unforgiving life at sea. They are not even aware of his priceless knowledge of the ballads. As the fishing community shrinks, old fishermen found new ways of life on land. One performs and teaches the ballads to young children; another uses the ballads to spread her Christian faith. The ballads have become a spiritual harbour for these landed fishermen. But deaths come brutally. Lai loses his listeners and his memory of the ballads. A precious part of him is dying.