HIGH NOON (Hong Kong, 2008)
Directed by: Mak Hei-yan
Starring: Lam Yiu-Sing, Sham Ka-Kei, Anjo Leung Hiu-Fung

Eric Tsang produced the youth film project, WINDS OF SEPTEMBER, which resulted in three feature films about kids coming of age, one set in Taiwan, one set in Mainland China and one set in Hong Kong. Each movie is based on the exact same screenplay, written by Tom Lin who directed the Taiwanese segment, and so you’d expect the same movie three times. Nope. Each movie reflects the film industry in which it’s been shot and audiences and critics agree that the one to see is HIGH NOON. Sure it’s a teen angst movie and we’ve all seen plenty of those before, but few other movies capture the frenetic energy of Hong Kong and few other filmmakers are willing to push the youth movie as far as this flick’s 24-year-old director, Mak Hei-yan.

Set in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, Mak zooms in on seven high school students who spend their time screwing around, eating, playing video games and studying. Shot on DV, the visual style is what keeps things hopping early on, with Mak filling her frame with so much zippy visual panache that you begin to feel like you’re trapped inside a sixteen-year-old’s head while they IM their friends, scan Youtube, watch TV and talk on the phone all at the same time. But then things take a turn for the worse and the movie begins to live up to its tagline: “There’s one ridiculous event after another every day.”

Most Hong Kong movies aimed at the teen demographic are shallow sex comedies, sappy love stories or ponderous lectures about the dangers of one thing or another. Mak eschews all that guff and sprints into Category III territory (Hong Kong’s equivalent of the NC-17 rating) full speed ahead. As the movie turns darker and the unwanted pregnancies, drug addictions and murders pile up you realize that you’ve been tricked into lowering your guard just long enough for the director to get under your skin. Veering wildly between youth drama and exploitation picture, HIGH NOON pulls itself together in the end to deliver a powerful punch. As Variety says, “Young Mak is one to watch.”