Latest news with #JunLiJun-shuo
South China Morning Post
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Pro-Palestine speech sparked right-wing threats, Hong Kong director Jun Li says
Hong Kong director Jun Li Jun-shuo has said he received threats and insults from German right-wingers after reading out a pro-Palestine speech by an Iranian actor at the Berlin International Film Festival, which triggered a police probe. He also told the Post that he was not worried about his safety, adding that he planned to watch the German election on Sunday and stay for the entire festival, where his latest film Queerpanorama premiered. 'It will definitely have an impact on the promotion of the film. I believe that the truth will become clearer as it is debated, and I believe that people who hold an open attitude will understand,' he said on Friday. 'I condemn any use of violence against civilians and the systematic injustice that endangers human life.' Videos of Li reading out the speech at the festival last Saturday were recorded and uploaded online. According to German media, the speech was by Erfan Shekarriz, one of the actors in Li's film and who had boycotted the festival, commonly known as the Berlinale. German police confirmed on Thursday they were looking into the incident, but it was not immediately clear whether Li was also under investigation.
South China Morning Post
20-02-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong director Jun Li's pro-Palestine speech in Berlin sparks German probe
German police have launched an investigation after Hong Kong director Jun Li Jun-shuo read out a pro-Palestine speech by an Iranian actor at the Berlin International Film Festival. Local police confirmed on Thursday they were looking into the incident, but it was not immediately clear whether Li was also under investigation. 'The statement [by Li] gives rise to initial suspicion of using symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organisations,' Anja Dierschke, deputy press spokeswoman of Berlin police, told the Post. Hong Kong's Immigration Department also said on Thursday it had sought to understand the situation through the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong and the Chinese embassy in Germany. It added it had not received any requests for assistance from Hongkongers so far over the matter. Videos of Li giving the speech at the festival, where he was premiering his latest film Queerpanorama, were recorded and uploaded online. The director is best known for his 2021 film Drifting , a drama about homelessness, which won best adapted screenplay at the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan. According to German media, the speech was by Erfan Shekarriz, one of the actors in Li's latest film and who had boycotted the festival, which is commonly known as the Berlinale.
South China Morning Post
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
In Queerpanorama, Hong Kong's Jun Li has made his boldest film yet
Ennui is a feeling that can envelop anyone, however creative they are. 'Every day I wake up I think to myself, 'My life is so plain and joyless,'' says Hong Kong filmmaker Jun Li Jun-shuo. 'I mean, people of my age, they do a lot of different stuff. They do pottery. They take up new hobbies. They go hiking. They have this wonderful life on their social media. And every day I wake up … I don't know what I should do today.' If this sounds like he is bemoaning his lot, he is not. When we meet for this interview, the 33-year-old writer-director is sitting in the famed Palast at the Berlin International Film Festival, dressed snappily in a light pink jumper. His third movie, the black-and-white miniature piece Queerpanorama , has just been unveiled, and the buzz about it is already building; trade paper Variety called the film 'sexy' after its explicit trailer was released ahead of the festival. The film concerns an unnamed young man from Hong Kong, played by Jayden Cheung Dik-man, who has one-off sexual encounters with male foreigners; he does not discriminate – Welsh, Thai, and German men are among his hookups. It is an idea that came from Li's own life. 'Because I am a gay director in Hong Kong … [when] I am on the hookup apps, the locals would know that I'm a director,' he explains. 'So to have simply casual sex … that is why I tend to meet foreigners.'
