22nd New York Asian Film Festival

Jul 14-30, 2023

Photo: ©️mm2 Studios Hong Kong

World Premiere

Back Home

七月返歸

Heung Wing (Anson Kong of Cantopop sensation Mirror) left his native Hong Kong for Canada long ago, hoping to escape his ability to see ghosts. When his mother’s suicide attempt leaves her in a coma he must return to the unstable place he once called home. Back in the shoddy apartment complex where he grew up, disturbing childhood memories start flooding his mind while the tangible apparitions appear more frightening than ever. As Heung Wing witnesses more and more eerie happenings, he starts to question his own sanity while also suspecting a macabre conspiracy at work. Combining classic horror tropes with southern Chinese mythology to blur the lines between the lands of the living and the dead, director Nate Ki’s accomplished feature debut is a baroquely grotesque affair replete with spooky children, self-mutilations, human sacrifices, black magic, and other visceral manifestations of the protagonist’s troubled psyche.

Director: Nate Ki
Cast: Anson Kong, Bai Ling
Languages: Cantonese with English subtitles
2023; 102 min.

SCHEDULE:

Tuesday July 25, 9:00pm
Film at Lincoln Center

Intro & Q&A with director Nate Ki and actor Anson Kong.

Nate Ki

A novelist, scriptwriter and director, Nate Ki has directed several horror short films that have been invited to international festivals, including Horror Short Film in Hong Kong and the award-winning Once Upon a Time in Sai Wan (2019). After winning the mm2 Movie Maker Awards in 2017, he started developing his feature debut, Back Home. The film was also selected for the Far East Film Festival Focus Asia project market.

Anson Kong
江𤒹生

Anson Kong, also known as AK, started chasing his dream to be a performer as a teenager. Training as a singer and dancer, he landed a contract and was sent to Korea where he was groomed for a singing group. He then returned to Hong Kong and worked as a backup dancer. His big break came in 2018 when he won 5th place in ViuTV’s talent program Good Night Show – King Maker. This secured him a place in the boy band Mirror, which became an overnight sensation. The following year Kong made his acting debut on television. In 2020 he released his first single as a solo singer. Kong’s music career, both in the band and on his own, has continued to boom while his popularity as an actor, including roles in various TV genres from drama to martial arts, has risen as well. Back Home marks his first starring role in a feature film.