Mok Chiu-Yu

Ordinary Heroes is a narration about the life stories of an advocate, a prostitute, a social worker, and a priest during the social movements from 1970s to 1980s in Hong Kong. The film is based upon true stories.

Student rebels, labor organizers, Trotskyites, anarchists, sojourners in Paris, and human rights activists are the cast of real-life characters featured in THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WU ZHONG XIAN. Based on a stage play, this DV feature traces the poignant trajectory of a rebel whose dream of world revolution first landed him in battles against British colonialism in the 70s, and later on his deathbed in the mid-90s, in agonies over the uncertain fate of a revitalized China. Revealing a little-known chapter of rebellion and idealism, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WU ZHONG XIAN is a timely, resonant docu-drama for today's Hong Kong, China, and our ideologically-disillusioned era.

Story: ‘1. We must make political films. 2. We must make films politically.’ Mok Chiu-yu’s allusions to Godard’s 1970 ‘What is to be done?’ manifesto are active in his wandering exploration of locations such as Hong Kong’s then newly opened City Hall and Café do Brazil. Punctuated with jump cuts and graphical interventions onto the film strip itself, An Open Letter not only critiques the trappings of intellectual life, but also questions the role of an activist-filmmaker in Hong Kong society.

Letter to the Young Intellectuals of Hong Kong is a 35mm film that utilised and appropriates footage from a documentary Henry Moore exhibition in Hong Kong, through over-dubbing, painting directly onto the film and other gestures, Mok turns the material into an incendiary address to Hong Kong's youth. Intercut with newly filmed material creates, the film also functions as a personal diary of Mok's political activity throughout the 1970s.

Student rebels, labor organizers, Trotskyites, anarchists, sojourners in Paris, and human rights activists are the cast of real-life characters featured in THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WU ZHONG XIAN. Based on a stage play, this DV feature traces the poignant trajectory of a rebel whose dream of world revolution first landed him in battles against British colonialism in the 70s, and later on his deathbed in the mid-90s, in agonies over the uncertain fate of a revitalized China. Revealing a little-known chapter of rebellion and idealism, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WU ZHONG XIAN is a timely, resonant docu-drama for today's Hong Kong, China, and our ideologically-disillusioned era.