“If you are willing to fantasise, [that] fantasy will bring hope,” one character in Ciao UFO says. The Hong Kong science-fiction film had a theatrical release in March. Just a month later, it swept the 44th Hong Kong Film Awards, scooping up best screenplay, film and director.
“Ever since I was a child, I’ve always loved reading … My childhood dream was to be a storyteller,” Kong Ho-yan said. The 37-year-old, a lifelong fan of science fiction, co-wrote the film with producer Amy Chin Siu-wai.
The layered screenplay interlaces one of Hong Kong’s most enduring urban legends – reports of unidentified flying objects hovering over Wah Fu Estate in Pok Fu Lam in the 1970s and 1980s – to tell a story about dreams and destinies, friendship and a changing city.
A bird, a plane – or a UFO?
Kong’s screenwriting career began with The Midnight After. The 2014 horror comedy film was based on the 33-chapter series Lost on a Red Mini Bus to Tai Po that Kong released online under a pseudonym.
The series, later edited and published as a book, mixed mystery, the supernatural and local elements. So when Kong and producer Chin began discussions of writing a uniquely Hong Kong film in 2016, they looked to popular urban legends: in particular, a giant spaceship sighting over a public housing estate in 1985.
“We tracked down local residents who claimed to have seen UFOs in Wah Fu Estate and asked them to tell us their stories,” Kong said.
But as they researched, the duo found that the most compelling part of the story was not the mysterious object in the sky. “The stories of the people seemed more interesting than the UFOs themselves,” Kong said.
Coming of age in Hong Kong
The film follows three childhood friends – Kin, Heem and Hoyi – who witness a mysterious light from the rooftop of their home in Wah Fu Estate.
Years later, Hoyi’s wedding reunites the old friends, and they confront how much they have changed since that starry night.
While the film intertwines science-fiction elements, Kong said much of the protagonists’ stories is true.
“Almost all the main characters in this film have real-life prototypes, people we know personally or stories we’ve heard,” Kong said. “[Humans] might live very humble, modest lives, with nothing particularly praiseworthy. But those lives are actually the source of many stories.”
Kin was partly inspired by Kong’s father, who nurtured his fascination with astronomy and the unknown.
“When I was a kid, he often talked to me about these things, which probably influenced my curiosity about the world beyond,” Kong said.
Other aspects of Kin’s character came from a former colleague. He worked multiple jobs and obsessively saved money, but could not explain what he was saving for.
“We felt that was very much a Hong Kong kind of mentality,” Kong said.
The character Heem was inspired by a friend of Kong’s who had a genetic disorder. He was once told by doctors that he would not survive past the age of 11, but beat the odds and lived into adulthood.
Hoyi was based on an auditor friend of Kong’s who worked long hours and had little time for her personal life.
“When [Hoyi, the female lead] gets married, she realises that the highlight of her life is already behind her. From now on, things will only go downhill. How should she face that?” Kong said.
The city as the fourth main character
The film had an impact on people who grew up in Wah Fu Estate. Kong remembered receiving messages from audience members who drove to the seaside housing estate after watching the film, revisiting childhood memories and unexpectedly finding themselves in tears.
“Your creation can touch a certain corner of someone’s heart,” he said. “That is the most important thing.”
A local connection was hugely important for the film. Alongside the film’s protagonists, Kong said he believed the city played an equally important role: “The kids are the three main characters, and the fourth is Hong Kong.”
The film tracks momentous parts of the city’s history, starting from the stock market boom in the 80s, visiting the 1997 financial crisis and Hong Kong’s handover, and ending on April 1, 2003, with the death of Cantopop legend Leslie Cheung and the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).
To recreate those decades, Kong relied not only on research but also on conversations with people who lived through them.
“The psychological state of the people back then or the social mood and atmosphere, what they were thinking – those are things you can’t find in data or research materials,” he said.
Kong is from a younger generation than his characters, but he identified with Hoyi’s younger brother, who closes his eyes during the UFO sighting and misses it entirely.
“For people of my generation, we seem to have lived through this legendary era, but we didn’t really feel it because we were young and we didn’t see it,” Kong said, noting that he was only in primary school in the 90s.
Still, he believes the film’s themes will resonate with modern audiences.
“Economic downturns, the pandemic or the life trajectories of these people – as they encounter mistakes [and] climb up from rock bottom – these things happen repeatedly across different generations,” he said.
Always learning and growing
Even with the prestigious award in hand, Kong admitted he still hesitated to view himself as part of the film industry.
“I often feel I haven’t reached the professional level I aspire to. I’m still a student learning this craft … so I keep learning as I go,” he shared.
He said he saw screenwriting as a craft that requires constant learning.
“Discipline means you have to sit down and write for long periods,” Kong said. “To obtain more information, to feel the climate of the cities in this world … or to discipline yourself to absorb many of the stories you hear – actually, all of these are useful for your creative work.”
His discipline is guided by his passion, which first appeared through books, science fiction and childhood daydreams about worlds beyond our own.
“I think my favourite thing to do is create,” he said. “When you find something that really speaks to you, and you think you can do it more naturally than others, that perhaps is the soul, the soul that you belong to.”
