Drifting

Jun Li's 2021 Hong Kong film follows Fai, who leaves prison and joins the people sleeping rough in Sham Shui Po. Soon afterwards the authorities and the police clear the area, and everything the street sleepers own goes into a rubbish truck. For Fai that includes a photograph of his dead son. A young social worker persuades the group to sue the government. From there the film covers not the legal process but what the process does to people: the waiting, the obligation to testify, and the difference between an apology and compensation. The screenplay was adapted from a real case in Sham Shui Po in 2012. Francis Ng's performance is at the centre. The telling does not romanticise the street; addiction, fights and filth stand as they are. Who it's for: those who like socially realist Hong Kong cinema. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a hopeful outcome; the film shows how late and how symbolic justice arrives.