Ten Years

Five short stories from five different directors set ten years in Japan's future.

A collection of short films by five Thai directors imagining their country ten years into the future.

What will our lives be like 10 years from now? Five up and coming Taiwanese directors each offer their own take in answering this question. In 2028, Taiwan is suffering from nuclear waste (“The Can of Anido”), migrant workers (“942”), industrial collapse (“Way Home”), low birth rates and diversity in families (“A Making-Of”), and insomnia (“The Sleep”).

Ten Years Myanmar, an omnibus film depicting a dystopian future 10 years later, tells five stories by five directors.

In our daydreams, we always dream about who we can be and what we can do. Chak is always living between his dream state – where he is admired and can get any girl he wants – and the reality – where he is constantly teased by his sexually frustrated, foul-mouthed friends. One day, Chak's dream becomes reality when he finds the acceptance of a girl he likes, but cruel reality eventually stops him once more. Instead of running away, Chak must face the real world head-on this time around.

Call girl Ruby dates men for pay. Arrested, she seeks help from a lawyer client. He advises her to seek letters of mitigation from people with high social status, and to play along with the probation officer. By performing an act of penitence, Ruby may be given a more lenient sentence. The lies she tells the officer, initially mere tales to solicit sympathy, slowly reveal a heartbreaking story of someone let down by adults all her life.

The poignant drama centers on Mr. Chan, a passionate secondary school teacher dedicated to students with special educational needs (SEN). Adapting the approach of inclusive education by placing SEN students in mainstream schools, Mr. Chan's unwavering dedication is challenged by those around him including the largely indifferent principal who scoffed at the name of the symptoms, the vice-principal who is more a deal maker than an educator, fellow bullying students and the parents who face numerous hurdles with strength derived solely from their enduring motherly love. An unflinching look of Mr. Chan's and the mother of a SEN student raise the question: how to care for the SEN students without leaving them high and dry?

A seven-part anthology film exploring the history of Hong Kong from the 1940s to present day.

Seated in the front row of a funeral hall are a boy and a teenager, the picture of the deceased yet to be placed. A florist, Tung (Ai Wai), is consumed by grief but puts on a front for others. The boy drops by at the florist and orders a custom floral arrangement - a teddy bear-shaped wreath with his favourite yellow flowers — to be readied in three days' time and paid with money saved up in his piggy bank. Tung forges an unlikely friendship with his young customer, an encounter that releases bottled-up emotions so that healing process can begin.

Although 15-year old Wing is bounced around in foster homes, he forms a genuine sibling relationship with 9-year old Hoi Lam and the mentally challenged Chi Yan. They are cared for by Chi Yan's grandmother who heads up this makeshift family. Occasionally full of teen angst and bordering on delinquency, Wing nevertheless showers Hoi Lam and Chi Yan with brotherly care. Cheerful Ho Lam dreams of reunion with his mother. Wing, more world-weary, ends up transferring to a youth hostel. In their brief days together, the trio formed a true family bonded by love instead of blood. The immensely likeable and talented trio of actors shines in this poignant and heartwarming tale on how children find strength in each other.

Behind Mongkok’s Portland Street where French music plays in cute little artsy cafés, the back alley is a totally different world. Sister Kam washes dishes in the alley every night. She fights with the workers at the rubbish collection point and proudly boasts to the waiters how she could slaughter a pig on her own. She works till midnight and gets up at 5:30am, day after day. In the thousands of alleys in Hong Kong, stories that speak of life’ struggles wait to be told.

Luggage? Check. Travel document? Check. Keys? Check. The Year is 2040 and Ching is all set to embark on a mission to track the whereabouts of a dog and its owners which will transport her back in time before she was even born. In 2013, an age of mobile phones and Google Maps, the time-traveller meets a painter and piques his curiosity to join in her quest. Can she reach the parents she never had the chance to get to know and will he find a purpose in life after tempting fate and death? Will the mementos of their brief encounter – a painting that crystallises the artist’s feelings for her and a keepsake pendant that has been passed down for generations – survive the time and reconnect the two?

In the pitch-black night, a thread of light slowly appeared on the horizon, reflecting shimmering patterns on the waves; it was the dawn wandering and drifting across the ocean, illuminating the path for sailors returning home. Before navigation systems existed, those who went to sea relied on lighthouses to recognize each coastline. By the frequency of a lighthouse's flashing, sailors knew land was nearby, and home was not far away. With a glance, they could tell the direction of home. The lighthouse has stood on the island for over a hundred years, always lighting the way for those returning. To the wanderers far away, and to the lighthouse guiding the way by the shore.

It was the time when thousands of families left Hong Kong to look for a ‘better future’. After almost 20 years of separation, here comes the reunion dinner for a father and his daughter. The awkward distance between the two make them seem like strangers, but deep in their hearts hide their missing for each other. Memories intertwined with the present, both of them know that what really matters is your beloved ones are all well.

The understanding of time is dependable to the person’s perception. For elders, the seemingly overdued life experiences were their golden ages. This is a life story of an individual in highspeed. Beginning as an infant, the elder was like any of us, who was young and was beaten by his mom, experienced his first love, out of love, holding someone’s hand for the first time, feeling the warmth while holding his first born… And the one who lives with him all along might be his "pair".

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.