The double-edged sword of working with ‘the master’

The three directors of the opening film of the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) “Trevisa,” produced by Johnnie To and Yau Nai-­hoi, have revealed to the Times that working with such an esteemed auteur was lengthy and acutely demanding. For Au, working with To was an exceptional education “from the master, his vision and his thoughts.” The feeling was likewise for Yau Nai-hoi, who is a co-producer, a longtime To collaborator, and also a renowned screenwriter and director. “It was a challenge for us to curate a film over three and a half years and to write the story” through rewrite after rewrite, he said.
Wong said the “dream” turned to “nightmare” because “the expectations were extremely high,” not least because none of them had worked on a character-driven movie before. Nevertheless the change in tack “is already in our blood.”
Hui said it was a great “pleasure” to work with the two hotshot producers. “They are our idols for our generation. They kept telling us to look for our own vision,” to be original, “pushing us over the limit and to the next level.”
Wong said the end result is “a new-­generation director’s story. It’s a different angle to watch this world.” The film stands out for Hui because of “our angles on the characters and Hong Kong and the story,” and for Au because “it’s a fresh idea, a fresh narrative structure.”
Au is known as one of the directors of “10 Years,” which was a Best Film contender at the 2016 Hong Kong Film Awards. The critically acclaimed dystopian vision of Hong Kong in 2025, which satirized local fears of increasing Chinese control, was a smash hit locally, despite being condemned by the Chinese government newspaper Global Times as spreading a “thought virus,” and being banned from broadcast in the mainland.