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Filmstill An Asian Ghost Story

An Asian Ghost Story

An Asian Ghost Story
Bo Wang
International Competition Documentary Film 2023
Documentary Film
Hong Kong,
Netherlands
2023
37 minutes
Cantonese,
English
Subtitles: 
English

Narrated by the incarnate ghost of a deceased real hair donor. In the post-war era, the export of real hair wigs contributed to Asia’s economic development, with Hong Kong as a major hub. In its heyday in the 1960s, “Asian real hair” was popular with wealthy U.S. women, but then the USA imposed an embargo on the product, now classified as “communist hair”. This is where the intricate and innovatively realised story begins: Starting with complex economical and sociopolitical contexts, it weaves a thread that runs through various historical and dreamlike staged levels.

Hong Kong was and is a space of in-between-ness – between East and West, between communism and capitalism. Perhaps that is why there are so many spooks in the city, one protagonist speculates. Just like the well-travelled ghost, an eternally wandering entity and contemporary witness of an imperial and colonialist past.

Annina Wettstein

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Bo Wang
Script
Bo Wang
Cinematographer
Yavuz Selim Isler, Fai Wan
Editor
Bo Wang
Producer
Ruoyao Jane Yao, Jia Zhao
Sound
Franco van der Linde
Sound Design
Jeroen Goeijers
Narrator
Jia Zhao, Hamza Junaid, Tommy Tse
Winner of: Golden Dove Short Film (International Competition Documentary Film)