VIFF Review: Winter Chants

A record of village life in Ho Chung

Since she was a teenager, Tsang Tsui-shan has wanted to preserve the culture and stories of Ho Chung, the Sai Kung village she was born and grew up in, in Hong Kong's New Territories.

She became a documentary filmmaker and Winter Chants is her latest work recording the Peace and Light Festival that pays tribute to the village, those who have passed, and thanks the gods for protecting them. It is an event that is only held once every 10 years and those living overseas use this as an opportunity to return and hold family reunions.

Tsang returned to her village in early 2020 to begin documenting the preparations for the event, but then Covid-19 began to spread, and while it was relatively contained in Hong Kong, the government did not want large crowds to gather which put the festival organisers in a difficult situation...

The simplicity of life in Ho Chung village

In Winter Chants, she uses a lot of archival footage and photographs to demonstrate not only how large scale the event was and what performances and rituals were held for several days, but also how Tsang herself participated as an emcee for one or two events. While she doesn't reveal her face explicitly, Tsang narrates the documentary.

She also shows how the next generation is keenly aware of how important it is to preserve the village's culture through fraternal twins who create and publish a magazine about villages in Sai Kung. They note how Westerners have a publication called "Sai Kung", but even though it's about the same district, the local twins can't relate to the stories at all.

Their own magazine talks about village life in Chinese, and the twins deliver a copy to every mailbox and leave several copies in various business establishments. It's heartening to see young people in their 20s very passionate about where they come from, not necessarily from a political standpoint, but a cultural one, with making money not the priority.

Another man with an artistic bent paints murals on the wall bordering the village to welcome back the diaspora to the festival, and he even encourages young children to help him paint. It's a lovely way to encourage inter-generational participation, and the end result reflects activities and culture of the village.

The multi-day festival appeases the gods

Meanwhile the village elders are trying to organise the festival, but have to keep watching the government regulations change constantly, with then Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's voiceover explaining how people need to wear masks, keep their distance, and how people will be fined if too many people gather together.

The pace of the documentary is slow, much like village life in Ho Chung. Children play in the narrow paths, elderly people chit chat outside, but it isn't bogged down either. Winter Chants is like a poetic love letter to Ho Chung village and its people, documenting this important cultural event that brings the villagers together in a bid to appease the gods to protect them from, ironically, disease!

One gets the sense that Ho Chung will continue to thrive despite what is going on around it, thanks to young people who are willing to continue traditions forward, and to record and document the past to ensure a smooth continuum. 

Winter Chants

Directed by Tsang Tsui-shan

102 minutes