The famous screenwriter Ivy Ho Sai-Hong's first directed film "Claustrophobia" (2008) was produced by the Hong Kong Film Development Fund and Irresistible Films, which is a combination of Edko Films and Japanese and Korean filmmakers. The film is funded by the Film Development Fund. The government provides funds for the sluggish film industry to "save" some small and medium-sized productions in the industry. Such productions have always played an important role in promoting new directors and providing employment opportunities for local grass-roots film workers. Since the Mainland China has become the main market for Hong Kong Cinema, it has become a general trend to co-produce large-scale productions. Most of the powerful filmmakers have gone to the Mainland to start large-scale productions. Local filmmakers have become victims of this trend, and it is even more difficult for new directors. It is even more difficult for new directors to start making films, so the industry has appealed to the government for many years to subsidize film production, in order to inject new impetus into Hong Kong Cinema.
As a famous screenwriter, Ivy Ho has won the best screenwriter at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Her screenwriting talent has long been recognized in the industry, but this time she is determined to become a director, and she have a first try. She has chosen a very ambitious narrative method, using a flashback structure of an office affair, revealing the reasons for the relationship layer by layer. The film focuses on Karena Lam Kar-Yan's psychological state. The first scene reveals her ambiguous relationship with her married boss, Ekin Cheng Yee-Kin, and then takes a week, a month, three months and six months to tell the relationship between the two and other characters. The demand for the audience and the intention to challenge their viewing experience, breaking through the inertia of Hong Kong Cinema and the "conformity" narrative style in terms of artistic orientation. However, the film only uses the relationship between Karena Lam and Ekin Cheng, as well as the three colleagues and taxi driver Andy Hui Chi-On, as the content of the story, and adopting this narrative structure does not give deeper meaning to the pale plot, but wastes such "brilliant" narrative structure.
Another fatal weakness of the film is the performance of the actors, which failed to meet the requirements of such an artistic tone of the film. Karena Lam's gloomy performance failed to express her mental state of loving her boss. Ekin Cheng faced the company crisis and the subordinate's the ambiguous show of love, the kind of dilemma between the two, their performances are not subtly displayed. As for the performances of other characters, they seem to lose focus and lack harmony with the style and rhythm of the film. On the contrary, Eric Tsang Chi-Wai who made a cameo appearance, played Karena Lam's mother's lover with his rich performance experience. The helplessness performed by Karena Lam's questioning in that scene is the most satisfying scene in the film. This may also be the first time that Ivy Ho has directed, and he is inexperienced in directing actors. This is also a common phenomenon for directors who are screenwriters. Therefore, some filmmakers who are screenwriters will find an experienced director to cooperate, such as Chan Hing-Ka co-directed with Dante Lam Chiu-Yin and Patrick Leung Pak-Kin. The name of the film, claustrophobia which describes Karena Lam psychological state, including recalling the fear of her mother reading next to her while she slept, as well as her and Ekin Cheng's hidden emotional state in the "shady place".
By Kam Po LAM (original in Chinese)
As a famous screenwriter, Ivy Ho has won the best screenwriter at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Her screenwriting talent has long been recognized in the industry, but this time she is determined to become a director, and she have a first try. She has chosen a very ambitious narrative method, using a flashback structure of an office affair, revealing the reasons for the relationship layer by layer. The film focuses on Karena Lam Kar-Yan's psychological state. The first scene reveals her ambiguous relationship with her married boss, Ekin Cheng Yee-Kin, and then takes a week, a month, three months and six months to tell the relationship between the two and other characters. The demand for the audience and the intention to challenge their viewing experience, breaking through the inertia of Hong Kong Cinema and the "conformity" narrative style in terms of artistic orientation. However, the film only uses the relationship between Karena Lam and Ekin Cheng, as well as the three colleagues and taxi driver Andy Hui Chi-On, as the content of the story, and adopting this narrative structure does not give deeper meaning to the pale plot, but wastes such "brilliant" narrative structure.
Another fatal weakness of the film is the performance of the actors, which failed to meet the requirements of such an artistic tone of the film. Karena Lam's gloomy performance failed to express her mental state of loving her boss. Ekin Cheng faced the company crisis and the subordinate's the ambiguous show of love, the kind of dilemma between the two, their performances are not subtly displayed. As for the performances of other characters, they seem to lose focus and lack harmony with the style and rhythm of the film. On the contrary, Eric Tsang Chi-Wai who made a cameo appearance, played Karena Lam's mother's lover with his rich performance experience. The helplessness performed by Karena Lam's questioning in that scene is the most satisfying scene in the film. This may also be the first time that Ivy Ho has directed, and he is inexperienced in directing actors. This is also a common phenomenon for directors who are screenwriters. Therefore, some filmmakers who are screenwriters will find an experienced director to cooperate, such as Chan Hing-Ka co-directed with Dante Lam Chiu-Yin and Patrick Leung Pak-Kin. The name of the film, claustrophobia which describes Karena Lam psychological state, including recalling the fear of her mother reading next to her while she slept, as well as her and Ekin Cheng's hidden emotional state in the "shady place".
By Kam Po LAM (original in Chinese)