Better Days

What this film went through with the censors is more tangled than its own plot. It was to have its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in 2019 and was pulled from the programme days before the screenings, with word leaking that it had not received the necessary approval from China's Film Administration. Director Derek Tsang received direct instructions from both the Chinese investors and the censors on reshaping certain scenes. The June 2019 release was scrapped, with the production companies citing the film's level of completion and pre-market assessments. Then, on 22 October, it was suddenly announced that the film would open three days later, on 25 October. The result was surprising. It took $223m in China and became the first film from Hong Kong in roughly three decades to be nominated for the International Feature Oscar. A high-school girl under the pressure of the gaokao university entrance exam is severely bullied and forms a bond with a boy living on the street. Zhou Dongyu and Jackson Yee star. Who it is not for: anyone disturbed by scenes of bullying and sexual violence. The closing text added after censorship also openly contradicts the film's own tone. Who it is for: viewers who like youth drama pitched as thriller, looking at the exam system and at bullying.