THE NARROW ROAD

Official Selection, 2022 Edinburgh International Film Festival

Nominations for Best Actor and Best Actress, 2022 Golden Horse Awards

Hong Kong’s empty streets in 2020 reflected a special despondency: businesses were padlocked, those who could leave fled the city, and those who couldn’t made do in a shuttered economy. Director Lam Sum is interested in that last category—those who, as one character puts it, are “smaller than dust.” We meet Chak, whose cleaning business can convert to a virus disinfecting one if he could hire more help. Enter Candy, his fanciful single mom neighbor, who could use the work so she no longer needs to shoplift to feed her 7-year-old. He brings her opportunity; she brings him the street smarts to fish for every edge.

With a refreshingly tender touch, THE NARROW ROAD brings to this tale of have-nots the pleasure of seeing coworkers become friends and maybe more. Still, this is a sharp critique of social stratification, and that boundary between those who stockpile masks and those who reuse them. Whether hard worker or hustler, neither are set up to win in one of the world’s most economically unequal cities. And yet, Hong Kong keeps fighting on. THE NARROW ROAD begins with a handwritten post-it someone affixed to a door: “Stay healthy. God bless Hong Kong.” In the darkest nights, Chak and Candy will decide who they want to walk with, hand-in-hand, on the narrow road to happiness.

—Brian Hu

Co-Presented by The Hong Konger Club & 21st Century China Center, UC San Diego School GPS.