Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down (2019)

• 63%
• 2019
• Comedy
• Documentary
• Drama
• Leung Ming-kai
• Kate Reilly
• Mia Mungil
• May Leong
• Lam Yiu-Sing

This anthology film, whose Chinese title begins with a romantic name for human excrement, premiered internationally at Rotterdam and won Best Screenplay from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society. Bittersweet stories of Hong Kong people contending with nostalgia and an uncertain future give way to a comical documentary assault on sentiment. Two immigrant Hong Kong women - one from mainland China, one from Indonesia - live together in a little village. They battle wits on an epic journey to the big city. Brothers return to their working-class neighborhood for one last hangout in their mother's toy store. With new responsibilities looming, they take refuge in behaving like children. A local economics teacher and a "native English-speaking teacher" from the States spend one school year crisscrossing Hong Kong. As they say goodbye, they recall connecting and disconnecting over after-school snacks. A young barista and music-video star puts aside her many interests to run for political office. She fights both the establishment and her own disdain for human interaction.