Facing the Invisible Tank: Blacklisted Hong Kong Filmmaker on 'Freedom of the Soul'

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In this five-part series, JAPAN Forward profiles individuals in Hong Kong who continue to resist the sweeping effects of the National Security Law. Part 3 features filmmaker Kiwi Chow, who gained international recognition for his 2021 documentary "Revolution of Our Times." Despite increasing censorship and pressure, he remains in the region, determined to tell the stories others fear to touch.

As books related to the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident disappear from bookstore shelves in Hong Kong, a similar silencing is unfolding in the film industry. Some directors are being quietly blacklisted. Screenings and talks featuring their work are regularly canceled, often after a single phone call from the authorities.

Most investors and actors avoid working with such filmmakers. And yet, Kiwi Chow remains in Hong Kong.

When we met in his Kowloon office, Chow didn't come across as a defiant hardliner. Calm and soft-spoken, he smiled easily.

"You could say my name is taboo in the film industry," Chow said.

Chow drew international attention for his documentary "Revolution of Our Times," which chronicles the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The film is banned locally.

In 2020, Hong Kong enacted the National Security Law. A year later, authorities tightened censorship rules, allowing films to be banned on national security grounds.

*A protest held in Hong Kong on June 16, 2019. (©Sankei by Kinya Fujimoto)*

'The Right Thing to Do'

Chow's troubles began in 2015 with his short film "Self-immolator," one of five segments in the anthology film "Ten Years." Each director imagined what Hong Kong might look like in 2025.

Chow's vision was bleak: in a city increasingly under the control of the Chinese Communist Party, pro-independence youth are arrested and die on hunger strikes in prison. One of them sets himself on fire, sparking mass protests. Eventually, the Hong Kong government calls in the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

Reflecting on the film, Chow said: "When I made it, the [2014] Umbrella Movement had just collapsed, and people didn't know what direction to take. I wanted to ask: How much are we willing to sacrifice for Hong Kong?"

In one scene, a young pro-independence activist says: "It's not about whether we can achieve independence, but whether it's the right thing to do."

'Freedom of the Soul'

After the film's release, someone in the industry advised Chow to write a self-criticism and submit it to Beijing. He dismissed the suggestion, but was still surprised by the intense backlash.

Then, in 2019, protests erupted across Hong Kong. Thousands of young people threw themselves into the streets, clashing with police, getting injured, arrested, and charged.

Chow released "Revolution of Our Times" in 2021. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, earning global recognition. Friends urged him to leave Hong Kong for his own safety. He had two small children and seriously considered it with his wife.

But as many Hongkongers emigrated in search of lost freedoms, Chow decided to stay.

"To face today's Hong Kong is to face myself," he said. "Only by staying — not running away — can I preserve inner peace and freedom of the soul."

Even if he's imprisoned one day, he said, "my heart will be at peace."

Chow is now working on a new film, tentatively titled "Deadline," which explores the issue of child suicide. As expected, no school in Hong Kong would agree to filming. He had to shoot the film in Taiwan instead.

Censorship Culture

When asked to describe Hong Kong five years after the National Security Law, Chow answered, "It's a society that's lost its vitality and is deeply demoralized."

He said fear has taken hold. Self-censorship has deepened, and a full-fledged culture of censorship has taken root.

Still, he added, "What gives us strength in this lifeless society are the political prisoners" — those arrested during the protests and pro-democracy movements.

For Chow, sacrificing oneself in the name of justice is unquestionably "the right thing to do." And so, he stays — committed to making films that pursue justice in Hong Kong society.

That, in itself, is Kiwi Chow's personal answer to the question he posed to the people of Hong Kong in "Self-immolator."

(Read the article in Japanese.)

Author: Kinya Fujimoto, The Sankei Shimbun

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