Hong Kong authorities have banned director Kiwi Chow Kwun-wai’s latest film, the campus thriller Deadline, citing national security concerns, according to the award-winning filmmaker, whose previous documentary on the 2019 social unrest was also barred from cinemas.
Chow, whose past works include Revolution of Our Times, a documentary on the 2019 and 2020 anti-government protests in Hong Kong, and Ten Years, an anthology film, revealed in a social media post on Tuesday that he had received an official letter denying approval for the release of Deadline in Hong Kong.
The 46-year-old director said his team submitted the film, starring veteran actor Anthony Wong Chau-sang, for review by the Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration on August 4, adding that it took more than four months before authorities issued their decision.
The office informed him that, after reviewing all relevant factors, assessors deemed the general release of the film detrimental to national security and therefore unsuitable for screening.
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The office told the Post that it regularly assessed film screening licence applications in accordance with the law, but declined to comment on individual cases.
Chow described the decision as painful and unfair, saying the film was intended as a commercial thriller but had been “passively turned into a political incident”.
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He said he had considered filing a judicial review, but received legal advice suggesting it could be pointless to sue the government in what he called an era of “judicial collapse”.