Happy Friday

Single-gender schools allow few chances for campus romance. Will inter-school activities provide the right opportunity? Ryan is both eager and afraid of mingling with the opposite sex after studying in an all-boys school for years. One day his friend Jayden makes him join a mixed choir formed with an all-girls school. There, he meets the enthusiastic singer Carol. Unexpectedly, Cupid’s arrow carries more than love itself. Ryan will also have to face life lessons such as a test of friendship and the unfairness of the school system. The film’s manga-like style and humourous scenes establish perfect comic timing. The innocence and ignorance of youth come alive while the ending suddenly turns into an anti-climax that reveals the bitterness of growing up amidst shattered ideals.

Single father Tsui meets university student Gigi who works at an old-fashioned barber shop that Tsui frequents. They bond immediately and begin a profound exchange. The fleeting friendship is a pleasant surprise during times of vulnerability, but does not help to overcome their individual challenges and demons. Tsui continues to put off dealing with a pressing matter that has long been eating him. Amidst the social unrest, Gigi’s outlook and musings on life lead Tsui to reflect on the unsolved matter and he eventually makes an important decision.

The matter of growing, which we always understand afterward, is driving us far away enough to not having a good farewell. The story begins with a day that Hong Kong experiences a magnitude 4.5 earthquake. It brings almost no impact to the city but a beautiful yet untouchable year to a form-one boy name Kwok Pak Chi. Due to the unadaptable school life and his introspective character, he starts to imagine animals escaped from the earthquake as his friends. However, the more he immerses in his fantasy, the more he is pushed by the reality. With the pressure from his unsatisfying homework, schoolmates’ opinions and caring from others, how should Pak Chi confront himself and his imaginary friends?

Ah Choi has a complicated relationship—she is attached to her boyfriend, Ah Wood, yet weary of their daily interactions, and is drawn to new and fresh ideas. Though she feels lonely, she also cherishes solitude, caring for her own solitary shadow, drifting between two extremes. Wah Chi teaches at an international school and enjoys writing poetry. After her family emmigrated abroad, she lives alone in her old home, accompanied only by a cat. Dreams, daily life, and poetic sensibility gradually blur together, turning into a series of images. The diversity and fleeting nature of modern society have caused them to lose their sense of time and connection.

Kwong is a child longing for parental attention. To see his mother, who works in a department store, Kwong often pretends to leave his keys at home, compelling her to return home to let him in. While waiting for his mother to finish work, he frequently observes her assisting lost children in the store. Kwong imagines himself as one of those children, craving similar attention from his mother. Meanwhile, rumors of an impending earthquake stir anxiety across Hong Kong...

Yunnan girl Xiangnan, coming from a poor family, was married off to Hong Kong in exchange for a generous dowry. She lives in the remote area of Lau Fau Shan with her elderly husband. As a stranger in a foreign land, Xiangnan feels lost both in Hong Kong and back home, unable to find a space of her own. She dreams of escape, yet feels trapped like a small boat adrift in the sea, tossed by the waves with no way forward or back. In her helplessness, Xiangnan begins to converse with different versions of herself, searching for a place to coexist with herself. Birth and death, unity and separation, living and survival—all dissolve into silence. The story unfolds in scattered, fragmented memories, mostly reflecting Xiangnan’s daily life. The narrative shifts between the perspectives of her mother, Xiangnan as a child, and Xiangnan herself, moving through different spaces in Lau Fau Shan—sometimes in contrast, sometimes in harmony.

Like a cactus, a marriage is expected to last but not without a few prickly details. While the bride's mother is in bliss over her elder daughter's upcoming marriage, the bride's sister is doubtful after witnessing the groom on the street with another woman. As the bride discovers her fiance's affair, the torrent of events prompts a pointed conversation between the three women, highlighting their contrasted views on marriage and fidelity. The bride is veering towards a meltdown while her sister grows more skeptical of marriage.