Weeds on Fire

It’s not that unusual to see baseball bats in Hong Kong movies, but they’re usually used to crack heads. But bats are sometimes used for their intended purpose, as evidenced by Weeds on Fire, a fantastical retelling of one of the most legendary baseball games in Hong Kong history. In the mid-1980s, a school principal in Shatin, one of the “new towns” hurriedly constructed to combat overpopulation, defied all logic to form Hong Kong’s first youth baseball team. Not surprisingly, the team was dreadful at first, but through the will of their principal/coach and the golden arm of one player, they eventually made it all the way to the championships to face the baseball juggernaut of Japan. Although based on actual events, the film is not constricted by the bounds of reality, as first-time feature director Chan Chi-fat freely incorporates elements of fantasy to create a memorable coming-of-age story. And don’t worry, Hong Kong film fans, there’s still room for a machete fight. Presented with the support of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York.