Lifestyle / Arts & Culture
Topic | Asian cinema
Elaine Yau in Beijing
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Published: 7:15am, 10 Aug, 2021
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Loletta Lee, who made her debut in 1984, hopes gritty Hong Kong films like this year’s Drifting can draw more public attention to the welfare of those in the lowest levels of society.
Drifting, a gritty Hong Kong film about the plight of homeless people in the city’s poorest district, Sham Shui Po, has won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the First International Film Festival in Xining, northwest China.
Loletta Lee Lai-chun,
among a cast of stars including Francis Ng Chun-yu and Tse Kwan-ho
, shines as a resilient dishwasher named Chan who is waiting for a public housing flat. Lee tells the Postthat, before shooting started, she visited the homeless in Sham Shui Po and at the Star Ferry pier in Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon.
“I found out they are no different from ordinary people,” she says. “They just live in a different environment.”
Lee, 55, says she admires Chan’s adaptability and her willingness to come to terms with reality. “Among the homeless people [in the film], she is the only one who is willing to work to make ends meet. I portrayed her willingness to compromise through my eyes and body movements.”
Loletta Lee, famous Hong Kong actress of the 80s and 90s, on her four-decade career, Drifting with Francis Ng and why she’s working again
- Drifting, about Hong Kong’s homeless, just scooped two Chinese film awards – standout performer Lee hopes more films like this can draw attention to social ills
- Looking back on her career, she says she was happiest when she started out in 1984: ‘My job on set was just to be beautiful and smile happily’
Topic | Asian cinema
Elaine Yau in Beijing
+ FOLLOW
Published: 7:15am, 10 Aug, 2021
Why you can trust SCMP
674
1
Loletta Lee, who made her debut in 1984, hopes gritty Hong Kong films like this year’s Drifting can draw more public attention to the welfare of those in the lowest levels of society.
Drifting, a gritty Hong Kong film about the plight of homeless people in the city’s poorest district, Sham Shui Po, has won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the First International Film Festival in Xining, northwest China.
Loletta Lee Lai-chun,
among a cast of stars including Francis Ng Chun-yu and Tse Kwan-ho
, shines as a resilient dishwasher named Chan who is waiting for a public housing flat. Lee tells the Postthat, before shooting started, she visited the homeless in Sham Shui Po and at the Star Ferry pier in Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon.
“I found out they are no different from ordinary people,” she says. “They just live in a different environment.”
Lee, 55, says she admires Chan’s adaptability and her willingness to come to terms with reality. “Among the homeless people [in the film], she is the only one who is willing to work to make ends meet. I portrayed her willingness to compromise through my eyes and body movements.”
