Why Sons of the Neon Night, new Hong Kong crime movie from Juno Mak, took 8 years to make
For someone who barely slept a wink the previous night, Juno Mak Chun-lung seems to be in surprisingly high spirits. Then again, how could he not be, having just seen his latest movie making its bow at the most important film festival in the world?
The premiere of Sons of the Neon Night at Cannes on May 16 was the culmination of nearly eight years of work, says the 41-year-old Hong Kong musician-filmmaker, and he was relieved to see the film play at the Lumiere Theatre, the main venue of the festival held annually on the French Riviera.
Principal shooting for the film had already finished by the time Christian Jeune, director of the festival's film department, came to Hong Kong in 2018 for a preview, Mak says, but because editing had not begun, Jeune was only shown 'dailies' - raw, unedited footage.
Post-production was completed during the pandemic, after which the film's distributor - Distribution Workshop, co-founded by veteran Hong Kong industry mover Nansun Shi - began reaching out again to film festivals.
'We finally got the call from Cannes in March about the selection of the film at the festival this year,' Mak tells the Post.
Juno Mak (second right) poses with (from left) Louis Koo, Gao Yuanyuan and Tony Leung at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2025. Photo: AP
Sons of the Neon Night was screened as part of the festival's 'Midnight Screenings', a section mostly dedicated to envelope-pushing, action-heavy genre movies. Soi Cheang Pou-soi's
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In received its international premiere in the same section in 2024.
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