>> Catalog 2003

The Circle’s Corner

HONG KONG, USA / 2002 / Cantonese / Color / Video / 31 min

Director, Script, Editing, Producer: Lam Kin-hung
Photography: Ellis Yip
Narrators: Lam Poon-kwai , Chloe Lee
Source: Lam Kin-hung
2/F, 23 Hak Po Street, Mongkok Kowloon HONG KONG
Phone: 852-9217-6807
Fax: 852-2384-3291
E-mail: squarebowl@yahoo.com.hk

Previously a still photographer, the director captures images of Hong Kong with a fixed camera. It gazes on the city from a tram, from an observatory overlooking the bay, under a viaduct, in a corner of a bookstore, from a graveyard. Sounds of the city accompany photogenic scenes of Hong Kong during the daytime, nighttime, and moments in between. Sometimes you can catch narration by a deaf man, a mute young man and a blind girl describing their impressions of Hong Kong from different angles. The restrained tone is broken by a piece of mischief near the end. It’s the appearance of a new circle. The film was shot on 16mm film and completed on video.

[Director’s Statement] This film presents a familiar place from the perspectives of three people who are respectively born blind, mute and deaf. Representing the old, middle-aged and young, they share their life experiences with the audience, and lead them to a brave new world of cinematic experience. The Circle’s Corner has no specific dramatis personae, not even visible actors; however, it presents the audience with familiar landscapes. With down-to-earth but unusual shooting techniques, voiceover, location sound and bilingual subtitles in Japanese and English, it brings in a new angle to film presentation.

Lam Kin-hung Born in Hong Kong. Worked as photojournalist after finishing degree in photographic design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1995. Earned master’s degree in film and video from California Institute of the Arts in 2001. The Circle’s Corner is his first documentary film.