Inside a cha chaan teng in Prince Edward district in Hong Kong, Stan Chan unfurled a large white cloth and hung it from the ceiling in front of a kitchen counter. The center of the room was cleared to make space for bright orange dining chairs, which were rearranged in rows facing the fabric.
Stan Chan (right) sets up a white cloth as a makeshift screen at a cha chaan teng in Prince Edward, Hong Kong on February 17, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
The Hong Kong-style restaurant was one of many unconventional venues where Chan had set up a screening for independent film The Perks of Being Wild. The one-hour feature, directed by Benson Koo, was never shown in cinema.
Instead, Koo, Chan, and the rest of the production team at Wave Pictures criss-crossed the city to host 100 community screenings between last October and February this year.
The film premiere was held in mid-October on a beach on Cheung Chau, the outlying island where the movie about childhood and friendship was shot in 2023. Between 20 and 30 people watched scenes of three boys idling on the beach during their summer vacation, projected onto a makeshift screen, occasionally interrupted by the sound of waves gently crashing on the beach.
Chan, who was the sound designer for the film, earned a new title, “movie screener,” due to the sheer number of screenings he helped organise. The 40-year-old had to run around the city with a suitcase full of portable equipment, rushing from one screening to another, sometimes in the same day.
Stan Chan adjusts a portable projector during a screening inside a cha chaan teng in Prince Edward on February 17, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Chan told HKFP in an interview in February that he was surprised by the age range of people who turned up at their events, which were mainly promoted on social media.
“I was most surprised to see an elderly woman with a cane come to watch the film with her helper. After that, we met a dozen more elderly people, who said they came because a friend told them the film was very nostalgic,” Chan said in Cantonese.
‘Another option’
Filmmaker Koo was no stranger to showcasing his work in unusual places. In 2022, he directed a short film about the Cheung Chau Cinema, which had been largely abandoned and left to decay following its closure in 1997.
Intrigued by the relationship between films and public spaces, Koo initially had an idea to host a screening inside the Grade III historic building. Due to safety concerns, however, he organised 20 screenings outside the pre-war cinema instead.
Hong Kong director Benson Koo (right) and sound designer Stan Chan. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
When Koo completed The Perks of Being Wild, he and his crew decided to explore other possibilities beyond showcasing the film on a big silver screen. They wanted the film to be shown from one place to another, echoing the “vast growth of wild grass.”
“We are not trying to resist the cinema industry. We just want to provide the public with another option for watching a film,” the 37-year-old director told HKFP.
‘New path’
Apart from inviting people to enjoy his work in various community spaces, Koo also wanted to remove some cinema rules that he said had made watching films “way too serious.”
At the start of each screening, audience would hear a sound recording telling them to “destroy your mobile phone” and asking them to “fart” during the show. These “rules” were set by the two young narrators, a pair of siblings who acted in the film.
A screening of “The Perks of Being Wild” inside a cha chaan teng in Prince Edward on February 17, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.A screening of “The Perks of Being Wild” at Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre on February 8, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Koo’s team also asked participants to bring their own snacks or drinks, or to feel free to take the ones the team had prepared. The goal was to provide the audience, who were invited to donate some money – if they wished to do so, with a casual and enjoyable experience, the director said.
The earnings from the 100 community screenings covered the film’s six-digit production cost, but they were not sufficient to pay the wages of Koo and the six crew members.
When asked if he felt that the time and efforts spent on organising the screenings were cost-effective, Koo said it was “worth it” for the ideology behind it and the potential impacts such a film-screening model would have in the long run.
Screening tickets of “The Perks of Being Wild.” Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
“You may even say what we did over the last four months was stupid,” Koo said. “It was very exhausting, but we forged a new path.”
From gloom to ease
For Koo, the film was an ode to the carefree days of his childhood. It also celebrated the beauty and rare serenity of Cheung Chau, a local tourist destination where he has resided since 2018.
The director said he initially thought his film would end on a gloomy note, as the three main characters parted ways when their holiday was over, and one of them had to move abroad.
During the filming process, however, Koo learned that the young actors had bid farewell to friends who had emigrated. The way they handled parting with ease changed his perspective and the tone of the film, the director said.
“I always thought that grief from separation was something only experienced by adults. But the kids made peace with it so easily, and I realised that as adults, we can also face anything with such ease,” he said.
After four months of visiting different corners of the city and meeting around 2,000 audience members, Koo and his team concluded their screening run at the director’s home on February 22, where they shot parts of the film.
A final screening of “The Perks of Being Wild” in director Benson Koo’s home in Cheung Chau on February 22, 2025. Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Sound designer Chan – who said he decided to quit the film industry because he found it taxing, both physically and mentally – brought his own guitar and performed songs from the film for the crowd.
He would only “come out of retirement” when Koo begins a new filming project, Chan said.
“I find myself unsuitable for film productions that involve dozens of people and millions of dollars. I was very lucky to have joined this crew, which made me realise that there are many ways to complete a project,” he said.
Moving Cinema Film Festival
Asked if the experience organising community screenings had taught him anything that could be passed on to other up-and-coming filmmakers, Koo said they should find their own path and not look back on or try to replicate the “golden era” of Hong Kong films.
Hong Kong director Benson Koo (left) and sound designer Stan Chan. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
In an effort to promote independent film in the city, Wave Pictures is organising the Moving Cinema Film Festival next month to showcase short films and work by recent film graduates.
The team led by Koo will collaborate with some of the venue providers they had worked with for the screenings of The Perks of Being Wild and turn unusual places into a mobile theatre again.
It is an event open to anyone who is confident and brave enough to present their film, regardless of their background, Koo said. The only “criteria” is that the applicant must have watched his film to show that they have “good taste,” the director said jokingly.
“I think we must have imagination. If the film industry is not doing so well now, we should not follow the paths taken by the previous generations,” Koo said. “We should create an era that belongs to us.”
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