The Grass is Greener on the Other Side
Crystal WONG
- Hong Kong, UK
- 2022
- 72min
- 12 +
- DCP
- color
KP
Synopsis
For many HongKongers, protests against the Chinese Extradition Law in 2019 is still an ongoing process. Hongkong is changing into a whole new place leaving the people with the greatest concerns. Should they stay? Or should they leave? Some of them decide to leave their hometown and move to England to find their freedom, but question mark still remains. Will there be true freedom? Will they still be HongKongers? Will there be a new hometown somewhere?
Review
After protests over the 2019 extradition law amendment, many are leaving Hong Kong to find political freedom and hope for the future in a place other than the homeland where the promise of democracy is being undermined. As most would guess, most of them are headed to England. Hong Kong-born journalist/director Crystal WONG once left Hong Kong to study but returned in 2019 to document the fierce protests. She now follows the journey of those who decide to flee to England, capturing the anxieties and doubts they share. When they settle in a new land and find freedom, can they call themselves Hong Kongers? If “Hong Kong” only remains as a name of a place, where should the identity of “Hong Kong people” be found? The sense of instability and opulence that Hong Kong films in the 20th century have had for a long time continues into the 21st century—this time, in a documentary, not a feature. The Grass is Greener on the Other Side is the most desperate document of the Hong Kongers in exile, the new diaspora of the 21st century.
Director
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Crystal WONG
Crystal Wong is a documentary filmmaker. Born into the Handover period of Hong Kong, her identity is, likewise, fluid and in question. Her first documentary The Grass is Greener on the Other Side sparked her interest in the evolving identity of Hongkongers and the Hong Kong diaspora, which is becoming the central theme of her work.