Screenshot from video “杜琪峯導演專訪：我和香港失去靈魂——人權與自由－ BBC News 中文” on the BBC Chinese channel on YouTube. Fair use.

This report was written by Kelly Ho and published in Hong Kong Free Press on November 6, 2024. The following edited version is published as part of a content partnership agreement.

Two Beijing-backed newspapers in Hong Kong have slammed award-winning filmmaker Johnnie To, who said in an interview with BBC News Chinese that the city no longer had free speech and human rights.

In an editorial published on November 4, Chinese state-backed newspaper Ta Kung Pao said To was being “unfair” to local filmmakers by simplifying the predicament of Hong Kong’s film industry as merely a political matter and saying the city had “no soul”.

Titled “Johnnie To should respect Hong Kong film”, the editorial criticized remarks made by the three-time Hong Kong Film Awards winner in a 51-minute interview with BBC News Chinese which aired on November 2.

To spoke about a range of topics, including his recent creative impasse, the industry’s “red lines”, and why he refuses to take part in Chinese films described as amplifying Beijing’s ideologies.

When asked if he had been working on any films recently, To said he was experiencing “the lowest point in life” because of the “impact of the environment”. When asked to clarify what kind of impact he was referring to, the director replied: “I think you know better than I do.” The director said in Cantonese:

I have always insisted on filming in Hong Kong. In fact, Hong Kong is very important to me. I think there is no soul now, including [in] myself and Hong Kong.

When asked what was “lost” from Hong Kong’s “soul,” To said it was freedom of speech and human rights.

The interviewer brought up the prominent Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival, a project that supports young talents in the film industry, which saw its funding cut by the government’s Hong Kong Arts Development Council last year. To founded the festival 19 years ago to offer rising filmmakers funding and a platform to showcase their work.

Despite the funding cut, To said that he would continue supporting the initiative. The director told BBC News Chinese that the cutting of government funding showed that the authorities had “no confidence in its people”.

The director was also asked if he would consider himself “outspoken” among other well-known filmmakers in Hong Kong. He laughed and said:

I think so. In fact, after you asked, I will need to think about whether or not to do interviews in the future.

To’s interview garnered over 820,000 views on YouTube in less than four days, with some viewers expressing respect for the director and praising him for “speaking the truth.” But his remarks drew criticism from pro-Beijing media, with Ta Kung Pao’s editorial urging To not to “politicize” the film sector. The editorial read:

Hong Kong still saw many outstanding drama films released in recent years, including ‘A Guilty Conscience’, ‘In Broad Daylight’, and ‘Time Still Turns the Pages’, which sharply highlighted existing issues in Hong Kong society and offered candid criticism. […] If Hong Kong is truly a society without freedom of speech and human rights, then where do these films come from? Does the Hong Kong presented in the films have no ‘soul’ in the eyes of Johnnie To? His comments are clearly unfair to the film production team and the actors.

Another Beijing-backed newspaper, Wen Wei Po, also published an article on the same day citing “several prominent figures in the Hong Kong film industry”, who said the creative freedom in Hong Kong “did not have any change”.

Director Wong Jing told the newspaper that 90 percent of To’s previous work would not face any limitation if they were shot today. When asked which 10 percent of topics may be restricted, Wong said it would be the films that were “too gangster”.

Since the enactment of the Beijing-imposed national security law in June 2020, there have been more reports of filmmakers being asked to cut scenes from their movies, including one that showed a 2014 Umbrella Movement scene that lasted less than a second.

Some directors gave up on releasing their work in Hong Kong after the amendment of the Film Censorship Ordinance in 2021, which enabled the government to ban films deemed contrary to national security from being screened.