Beyond Hong Kong’s cop films and rom-coms: How director Oliver Chan brings social issues around motherhood and domestic workers to the screen

In 2019, when she wrapped up work for her first film Still Human (2018), she began developing the script for Montages. She dug into reports of these abuse cases, attended court hearings and read online forums where struggling mothers shared what they were going through. This research became the materials—“a montage”—for her script.

Over the next four years, her personal experience of raising her child would also play a crucial part in developing the film’s perspective. “Before I got married and became a mother, I used to be very judgmental towards mothers. When I saw a child misbehaving on the MTR and the mother couldn’t control his or her behaviour, I would blame the mother. When I saw news of a mother hurting her child, I would think it was totally unfathomable and wicked. But becoming a mother gave me a whole new viewpoint,” she says.

As well as all the physical and mental energy required to care of, worry about and make the best decisions for her son, Chan is also aware of how drastically society’s perception of her changed. “Some of my previous employers said that they didn’t reach out to me because they thought I had to stay home to take care of my child. When I worked, they questioned why I was working. When I was writing the script for Montages [and didn’t appear much in public], they thought I quit filmmaking,” she says. “Luckily, I have a supportive husband. Still, it hurts to hear these comments. Making this film makes me reflect what values marriage actually brings to women.”

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Such prejudices are common for women in every industry and Chan is no exception. When she was studying film, a male director, who was a guest lecturer, told her that if a career in movies didn’t work out, she could always get married and be a stay-at-home mother, and that men didn’t have that option, as it’s their duty to provide for the family. While at university, she set up her own company, shooting videos for clients’ advertising campaigns and writing scripts for television series. The agencies she worked with saw this business as merely a way for her to earn extra money “to spend on pretty things”. And while the sight of a film crew sitting on their toolboxes during a shoot is common on set, some of the male crew told her women couldn’t do this, as it would bring bad luck to the production.

“You feel the world sometimes doesn’t take you seriously,” she says. In a similar way, though, she refuses to take such discrimination to heart. “Overall, these experiences don’t affect me that much, because when I have to stand firm in the studio and make my demands and decisions as a director, I just do it.”

Montages is her response to all these experiences and challenges faced by women, and in particular women who are mothers. “I hope that my film can make all the mothers out there feel supported, and let them know that they’re not alone if they’re facing hardships similar to those portrayed in the film, and that there can be joy and sweetness in this special life stage of motherhood,” she says. “I’ve had so many ethical dilemmas—I don’t want to trigger mothers, but I also want to make sure the film is realistic and creates space for the public to discuss these unspoken issues.”

She says her starting point when it comes to making films is never to fight for a cause. “It’s more about discovering a new perspective and telling stories that no one has talked about, be that the voices of domestic workers or people with disabilities in Still Human or mothers in Montages.”

It is also this love of storytelling that directed her towards a life in filmmaking rather than finance; Chan had earned a place at The Chinese University of Hong Kong to study global business, one of the most competitive degrees in the city at the time. After graduation, she was offered a place on a three-year programme as a banking management trainee. “My career was all mapped out. Once I was done with the training, it would come with a bright future of financial stability and promotion,” she says. “But I asked myself if I would have the enthusiasm for that path for the rest of my life.”

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Until that moment, she had always put her passion for filmmaking aside, striving instead towards a “proper, serious profession”. But, she says, “I knew, if I didn’t take the chance to try filmmaking, I would never have another.” She quit the bank job and enrolled in a three-year master’s fine arts degree in 2012, majoring in scriptwriting. “My former employers and colleagues in banking thought I had gone mad.”

And while her decision hasn’t been as financially or professionally secure as the alternative, Chan has made the most of every opportunity that’s come her way. In 2015, her short film Children was selected in Hong Kong’s Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival’s student category. In 2017, she won the First Feature Film Initiative for the concept of Still Human, receiving HK$3.25 million to make the film a reality. She went on to receive Best New Director for that film in 2019 at the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Asian Film Award.

Then came Busan for her second feature film. “The first two films are very important for any filmmaker because film festivals look at them as a measurement of your abilities,” she says. “As a director, it’s natural that investors would question your abilities and vision, and I had a lot of self-doubts too when I worked on Montages. So Busan means so much to me, because it indicates my progress from showcasing my work in smaller or local film festivals to the world stage. It is a seal of confidence.”

Chan also sees the recognition garnered by inclusion in global film festivals as an important milestone for small-budget productions outside the commercial Hong Kong canon. “Hong Kong’s cop films and rom-coms have always stood out. These days, rising directors are becoming increasingly visible, bringing overlooked social issues and new perspectives to the screen.” she says. “My goal to be one of the Hong Kong filmmakers whose work the world feels confident about; together with my fellow new directors, we can introduce more artsy, issue-focused films to the world and draw more international support for the city’s cinematic works.”

Chan has already finished two new scripts and is developing three others. While some of these are centred around female figures, she says she doesn’t limit herself to writing about women’s experiences. She is—and has always been—mainly drawn to perspectives and stories of communities that are overlooked; it just so happens that so many of those groups are made up of women. “They are all part of our lives, but we never get to understand them, and they have always been a side character. It’s time they become the lead.”

Credits

Senior photographer Zed Leets

Photographer assistant Carlos Hui

Wardrobe Charles & Keith, Lapeewee

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