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Limbo

Berlinale Special 2021
© 2021 Sun Entertainment Culture Limited
Rookie policeman Will Ren and his partner, the veteran cop Cham Lau, are pursuing an obsessive and especially brutal murderer of women. To lure this “hand-fetish” ripper, they use the criminal Wong To, who needs to atone for causing an accident involving Cham’s family, as bait. But this young woman is both unpredictable and insubordinate. Surrounded by ever more insane bouts of violence and increasingly in danger of falling victim to the bestial serial killer herself, she fights the traumas of the slums by her own means. The ultra-long showdown really packs a punch: if you don’t shudder, you’ll scream.
Alongside the great cast, the trademarks of Hong Kong genre filmmaker Soi Cheang (Dog Bite Dog) include his brilliantly cool observation of well-honed cop rituals – at times condensed into a one-shot-per-second montage, at others edited at a more leisurely pace – as well as close-ups of those struggling to survive amid the city’s trash heaps. Making use of monochrome, “hidden object” aesthetics, the film probes the boundaries of the bearable, traversing them experimentally with excesses of violence, subtle gender-bending and tender gestures in a world that has lost its humanity.
by Soi Cheang
with Lam Ka Tung, Liu Cya, Mason Lee, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi Hong Kong, China / People’s Republic of China 2021 Cantonese 118’ Black/White

With

  • Lam Ka Tung (Cham Lau)
  • Liu Cya (Wong To)
  • Mason Lee (Will Ren)
  • Hiroyuki Ikeuchi (Akira Yamada)

Crew

Director Soi Cheang
Screenplay Au Kin Yee
Cinematography Cheng Siu Keung
Editing David Richardson
Music Kenji Kawai
Sound Design Likitwong Nopawat
Sound Nurnsai Sarunyu
Production Design Kenneth Mak
Art Director Mak Kwok Keung
Costumes Bruce Yu
Make-Up Yung Ka Chai
Assistant Director Cheng Wai Kei
Production Manager Eddie Wong
Producers Wilson Yip, Paco Wong
Executive Producer Alex Dong
Co-Producers Kevin Tse, Jiang Defu, Stanley Tong
Co-Production Bona Film Group Beijing
Er Dong Culture Beijing

World sales

Sun Entertainment Culture

http://www.suneg.com http://www.suneg.com

Produced by

Sun Entertainment Culture

http://www.suneg.com http://www.suneg.com

Soi Cheang

© Soi Cheang

Born in Macau in 1972, the Hong Kong filmmaker, actor and screenwriter made his directing debut with Our Last Days. His films have screened at numerous festivals: Motorway screened at the Locarno Film Festival, SPL2: A Time For Consequences screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and Accident was in competition at the Venice International Film Festival. His greatest commercial success, The Monkey King series, achieved total box office returns of over 440 million US dollars.

Filmography (selection)

1999 Our Last Days 2012 Che sau (Motorway) 2014 Xi you ji: Da nao tian gong (The Monkey King) 2015 SPL2: A Time for Consequences 2016 The Monkey King 2 2018 The Monkey King 3: Kingdom of Women 2019 Accident 2021 Limbo

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2021