"In a corner of the stardust" Director Ram Sam How can people trust each other again [Director's Interview Vol.334]

It seems that a new wave is emerging in the Hong Kong film world. A new generation of directors is emerging, releasing ambitious works that reflect the people living in Hong Kong and the current social situation, and they are said to be a great success at the box office. In fact, at the 2023 Osaka Asian Film Festival, a variety of films by new directors were screened, from the opening film "Forty-Four and Dead," to the competition films "Youth in the Daylight" and "Hong Kong Family," attracting a lot of attention.

Director Lam Sam, whose film "In the Corner of Stardust" (film festival title: "Narrow Road") was also screened in the Osaka Asian Film Festival Competition and will be released in theaters soon, is also one of the representatives of the new generation of Hong Kong movies. For Lam Sam, who co-directed "Teenager Revolution" with director Rex Leng, this is his first feature-length film, but it was a huge hit in Hong Kong. It was nominated for three awards at the Taiwan Academy Awards and ten awards at the Hong Kong Academy Awards.

Set in Hong Kong in 2020, "Stardust Corner" captures the cityscape that has become quiet due to the spread of the coronavirus, and depicts the hardships that ordinary people were in at the time and their struggles to overcome them without turning away from them. We spoke to director Lam Sam, who currently lives in the UK, about the background to the production of this film and the thoughts he put into it.

Synopsis of "In the Corner of Stardust"

In 2020, in the streets of Hong Kong, where people have disappeared due to the pandemic, Zak (Louis Cheung), who runs a cleaning company called "Peter Pan Cleaning," is busy with disinfection work every day. One day, a young woman, Candy (Angela Yuen), comes looking for work. Zak immediately refuses, saying that he cannot afford to hire an amateur, but when he learns that Candy is raising her daughter, Zhu (Tong On-na), alone and is seriously looking for work, he officially hires her. Before long, Zak, Candy, and Zhu become close like family, but a small accident leads to a major tragedy...

Index

• Changes made to the script due to the pandemic
• Documenting a pivotal moment in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic
• How to portray a young single mother
• How can people trust each other again?

Changes made to the script due to the pandemic

Q: I understand that the idea for "Stardust in the Corner" originally started in 2018. The finished film depicts workers like Zak and Candy falling into great hardship as the COVID-19 pandemic begins to spread in 2020. How did the story change through the pandemic?

Lam Sum: The idea of ​​setting the story in a cleaning company was already decided in 2018. When I was meeting with the screenwriter at the time, large-scale demonstrations were taking place in Hong Kong by cleaners demanding improvements in wages and working hours, and I really wanted to write a story about them. So the general story itself, that there is a main character named Zak who runs a cleaning company called "Peter Pan Cleaning" and meets Candy and Zhu, a mother and daughter, has not changed since the beginning. However, various changes have been made to the specific scenes and settings through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The best part is the disinfection scene. Zak, played by Louis Cheong, takes on jobs from companies and stores to disinfect, a scene that we hadn't thought of at all in the beginning. Also, in the film, there is a problem with not being able to get disinfectant, which becomes a major factor in the story, but this was also added based on the real-life logistics problems that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In a Stardust Corner” (C)mm2 Studios Hong Kong

As for the characters of Candy and her mother, various elements were added and changed in small details. There is a plot where they fall behind on their rent and are forced to move out of their original place of residence and move into a hotel. Some people may wonder how they could stay in a cheap hotel when they can't even pay the rent for their apartment, but this is actually what happened in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were no tourists in Hong Kong at the time, so hotel rates dropped rapidly and sometimes they even offered rooms to homeless people for almost free. At that time, there was a special situation where people who didn't have money were the ones who could stay in hotels, and this was reflected in the film.

Documenting a pivotal moment in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic