Citizen Hong Kong

CITIZEN HONG KONG

In 1997, on the eve of Hong Kong's handover from British colonialism to mainland China, filmmaker Yang journeyed back to the city of her birth to document not only the political changeover itself but also its inescapable impact on five young people just starting out in the midst of one of HK's most volatile times. Filming the five -- a marginally antisocial pop-culture vulture whose most important possession is a plastic mask of Darth Vader, a pair of British-educated returnees, a struggling high school student, and an estranged collegiate -- she finds the heart and soul of old Hong Kong has been replaced by a new awareness of the fragility of The City. Yang scores high when she hands over the camera to the youngsters and lets them document their own daily rituals. Personal and personally affecting, it's a portrait of both societal and emotional upheaval and lives in transition.