Blue Island

10/23/2022

Tze Woon Chan sets out to depict the current state of affairs in Hong Kong as the Chinese Communist Party continues to rewrite the treaty that saw it transfer from British rule in 1997 in this interesting but rather poorly constructed documentary. It follows a group of activists - old and young - as they try to fight for democracy against an overwhelming political and authoritarian regime and at times it uses actuality to potently illustrate the dangerous predicament faced by those opposed to the increasing limitation of their freedoms. The thing about the actual documentary, though, is that is mixes fact and "faction" in a way that is sometimes none too clear. The camera work is intimate amidst the scenes of protestation, but it isn't always obvious what is real and what is staged. The na