Bill Kong‘s Edko Films has come on board to represent “We Are Born Good,” the debut feature from Hong Kong writer-director Yeung Leung Chuen, handling world sales on the Cantonese-language drama.
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The film will have its world premiere in the Discovery section of the Toronto Film Festival.
Chung Suet Ying, who won best leading actress at the 61st Golden Horse Awards for “The Way We Talk,” plays Zoey opposite Yeung Wai Lun – who received a best actor nomination at the 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards for “The Sparring Partner” – in the role of Wing-kat. The story begins with a restaurant mishap that ignites a feud between the two characters, both already navigating difficult lives. Their cycle of retaliation deepens until each discovers that the greater threat comes from the people closest to them. Rivals at the outset, Wing-kat and Zoey gradually become the only people who genuinely understand one another.
The supporting cast includes Kearen Pang, Lo Chun Yip, Ng Wing Sze and Yan Yuk Yu. Patricia Cheng, a veteran Hong Kong producer with more than two decades of experience whose credits include multiple films directed by Sylvia Chang, produces.
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Yeung Leung Chuen drew the film’s premise from a viral CCTV clip that circulated widely in Hong Kong, showing a market customer and a vendor escalating a minor physical collision into an all-out altercation. “When I first saw this footage, I also found it ridiculous and amusing; but then I thought: why? Why would these two individuals escalate a trivial matter into a full-blown fight? What kind of people are they? What are their lives like off-camera?” he said in a director’s statement. He tied that incident to the pressures of contemporary city life. “In today’s rapidly changing and unpredictable world, urban work is high-pressure and fast-paced, making life difficult,” Yeung said in the statement. “‘We Are Born Good’ aims to depict the stories behind those living restlessly in our city.”
Before his feature debut, Yeung won best director at the 12th Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival for “The Bridge,” and his screenplay for “Hong Kong Family” was selected for the 27th Busan International Film Festival.
The crew includes production designer Jasper Tsang Ka Pik, nominated for best art direction at the 44th Hong Kong Film Awards; costume designer Dora Ng, an eight-time Hong Kong Film Awards winner in her category and a two-time Golden Horse Award winner for best costume design; editor Wenders Li, a longtime collaborator of director Pang Ho-cheung; and sound designer Duu Chih Tu, a 13-time Golden Horse Award winner whose past collaborators include Wong Kar-wai, Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien. Original music is by Wong Hin Yan, who won best original film score at both the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards and the 59th Golden Horse Awards for “The Narrow Road.”
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