10 Years

How does an omnibus film produced for less than $100,000 become a tremendous box-office phenomenon (outgrossing Star Wars: The Force Awakens), the Best Picture winner at the Hong Kong Film Awards, and perhaps the most important Hong Kong release of 2015? Simple—by dealing in shock and risk, and in the stuff of political provocation and imagination. 10 Years is a dystopian portmanteau comprised of five fascinating stories depicting the (not-so)future of Hong Kong under Chinese rule in the year 2025. The government hires two low-level gangsters to stage an assassination attempt in order to justify stricter “security” measures; two archaeologists try to document their vanishing landscape by collecting specimens from present-day demolition sites; a taxi driver loses his livelihood when Mandarin replaces Cantonese as the official language; a faux documentary investigates a case of self-immolation in front of government offices; and a local grocer finds himself at odds with his son’s Youth Guard over the locally produced eggs he sells at his stall.