An award-winning Hong Kong filmmaker, who previously directed a documentary on the 2019 social unrest, has said that authorities banned the screening of his new campus thriller, citing national security concerns.
Kiwi Chow Kwun-wai, whose past works include Revolution of Our Times and Ten Years anthology film, revealed in a social media post on Tuesday that he had received an official letter denying approval for the release of Deadline in the city.
The 46-year-old director said his team submitted the film, starring veteran actor Anthony Wong Chau-sang, for review on August 4, adding that it took more than four months for authorities to ban its screening.
He also said that the Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration informed him that, after reviewing all relevant factors, its examiner deemed the overall release of the film detrimental to national security and therefore not suitable for screening.
The office told the Post that it had consistently processed film censorship applications in accordance with the law, but declined to comment on individual cases.
Chow described the decision as painful and unfair, saying the film was intended as a commercial thriller but had “passively become a political incident”.
He said he had considered filing a judicial review, but legal advice he received suggested that it could be pointless to sue the government in what he called an era of “judicial collapse”.
