My Prince Edward

Best New Director award-winner Norris Wong elevates the genre with an irresistible romantic comedy featuring actor-musicians Stephy Tang and Chu Pak Hong.

Australian premiere

Fong (Stephy Tang) and Edward (Chu Pak Hong) have been together for seven years and eight months. They share a cramped apartment in Hong Kong’s Prince Edward district – Fong dreams of moving to Ho Man Tin – and both work in the wedding industry; Fong in a bridal-wear shop and Edward for a wedding video business in the Golden Plaza mall. When Edward proposes marriage with a keen appreciation for the social aspirations of his mother, Mrs Yan (veteran television and film actress, Nina Paw Hee-Ching), Fong reacts with an inscrutable lack of enthusiasm, though she accepts.

For a bride-to-be, living in a neon-lit city that might well evoke fleeting images of the cinematic voluptuousness of Wong Kar-wai’s languid romantic drama, Fong seems decidedly not in the mood for love. When she learns that she is still married to a mainland Chinese man she married ten years earlier in a sham marriage and hasn’t seen since, Fong and Edward’s relationship becomes even more strained, particularly given Edward’s inclination to track Fong’s every move via WhatsApp.

Writer-director Norris Wong’s award-winning screenplay astutely teases out the myriad sources of Fong’s romantic misgivings while also creating a layered, inclusive portrait of the dreams and desires of supporting characters in Fong’s friendship circle, such as her loyal friend, Yee (Eman Lam). Doing double duty as actress and composer, Lam’s lyrical score, which features talented lead actress Stephy Tang – former lead singer of Cantopop band, The Cookies – on vocals, deservedly won the award for Best Original Film Score at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Sessions feature a pre-recorded Q&A (15 mins), in Cantonese with English subtitles, with director Norris Wong and Kiki Fung (HKIFF). Q&A screens following the film.

Roberta Ciabarra - Curator, Film