Film zooms in on topical tales

A silver lining

One month before Chen, director Sylvia Chang also received an invitation phone call from producer Dong.

A veteran who's also a well-known actress, singer and scriptwriter, Chang won dozens of top awards. She was twice named best actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards, for Passion (1986) and Forever and Ever (2001).

A prolific filmmaker who has also enjoyed international fame, Chang once served as a jury member at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival in 1992 and the 75th Venice International Film Festival in 2018.

Then just returning from her hometown in Taiwan to Hong Kong after the Spring Festival holiday, Chang recalls that she found the city had almost ground to a halt due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

A cooking enthusiast, Chang recalls that, during the outbreak, all the cinemas were closed and almost all cinematic projects were suspended. Chang, optimistically, depicts the special period as having a silver lining－giving her time to spend with her family.

"After I decided to direct the short film for Hero, I collected a lot of newspapers, picking out all the photos that attracted me. Then I suddenly got an idea to tell a tale about a female photographer," says Chang.