When Khalif Cheong was growing up in a working-class family in Hong Kong, no one in her family went to the cinema. But Stephen Chow’s comedy changed everything for her.
“I thought, oh my God, how cool would it be if I could be a female version of Stephen Chow?” Chong recalls. “You make everyone laugh. You make everyone love movies.”
Now, with the world premiere of his feature debut High Wire at the BFI London Film Festival, Chung has achieved something equally ambitious. It’s about creating a comedy-drama that speaks to the immigrant experience while making audiences laugh and move.
“High Wire” is the story of Gou Wing, a British-Chinese takeaway girl who discovers her inner strength and artistic courage when a circus comes to her small English town. The film stars Isabella Way, best known for her breakout role in Netflix’s “1899,” alongside Hong Kong actor Dominic Lam.
For Chung, the project represents a deliberate choice to make his debut work a comedy. “My short film (‘Underneath’) is a really intense drama and it was really difficult to make,” she explains. “We wanted this feature film to be enjoyable for everyone who makes it, plays it, and edits it. We try to make people laugh. That’s our goal.”
But beneath the humor lies something deeper. The film explores family dynamics within the Chinese community, a subject that Chung feels is not portrayed with enough nuance on screen. “Family relationships are still very complex in the Chinese community, but they are not portrayed well,” she says. “I’m always a little sad. I come from that background, so I know there’s a lot of trauma, but for my debut I wanted to mix not only hard drama but also comedy.”
Chong’s path to filmmaking was unconventional. She started as a creative trainee at TVB, Hong Kong’s leading television network, and worked as a junior scriptwriter for two years. She then collaborated with director Lawrence Lau on a film script, but the economic realities of Hong Kong’s screenwriting industry proved difficult.
“I really couldn’t afford to live like that, so I had no choice but to work,” Chong explains. She got a job at RTHK, Hong Kong’s equivalent of the BBC, and worked in documentary filmmaking before eventually winning a pitch competition at the Berlin Film Festival. This success inspired her to pursue international opportunities.
She moved to London to study at the London Film School, but incurred a large amount of debt to do so. “Me and my mom made it work,” she says. “Yes, here I am. I made my first feature film and screened at the London Film Festival.”
Casting the lead role presented unique challenges. Mr. Chong needed someone who could speak English and Cantonese fluently, read a Chinese script, dance professionally, and rollerblade. It turns out that Wei, a Hong Kong actress and dancer who made her TV debut in Netflix’s 1899, was a perfect fit, a particularly niche skill set in the UK. “She’s just perfect. She ticks all the boxes,” Chong says. “She’s bilingual, can read Chinese, and her acting skills are great.”
What surprised Chung was how Wei’s interpretation gave the character unexpected depth. Director Chung originally envisioned Go-wing as a cheerful, extroverted character, but director Wei brought an introverted personality that resonated deeply with the director’s own experiences.
“I see myself in that,” Chong recalls. “When you’re put in a foreign place, I’m not an extrovert. You’re kind of timid in a way, you’re second-guessing yourself in a way, you’re kind of worried that you won’t fit in. Portraying her in a different way kind of brings more complexity, which I never imagined.”
The circus element came about through a connection with Silent D Pictures producer Johnny Chen, who quickly saw its potential as a metaphor for the immigrant experience. Working with Circus Extreme, she was struck by how modern circuses push human boundaries in the same way that immigrants resist society’s constraints.
“For some reason, people don’t see it as an art form,” she points out. “It’s similar to the Western world’s misconceptions about Asians. They don’t understand Asian culture, but they portray Asians a certain way on screen.”
Director Chong worked with cinematographer Matthew P. Scott to create a unique visual language for Go-Wing’s two worlds. At the point, the camera movement is static and stationary, reflecting the constraints. In the circus, everything flows in a circle, reflecting freedom and possibility.
The North Yorkshire landscape also became a character itself. “Hong Kong is very crowded and it feels very stuffy,” Chong explains. “Whereas in Yorkshire it’s the opposite. It’s so vast and there’s nothing else. It’s Mother Nature.”
Portraying racism proved to be one of the film’s most sensitive challenges. Director Chung, who experienced racism firsthand after moving to Britain, was determined not to make “High Wire” a message film.
“I really wanted to play it as a comedy,” she explains. “There were some racial slurs written, but they were real. I didn’t make them up. But the most important thing is that we don’t dig into them. We don’t focus on hatred against us.”
The film intentionally features white British friends to reflect the reality of true cross-cultural friendships. “That’s the reality. We make friends,” Chong says. “We can’t just focus on the few people who don’t know us. We focus on the people who want to know.”
Recent events in the UK, including anti-immigration protests, make the film even more tense. Ms Chong described a harrowing incident where she heard anti-immigrant rhetoric on the London Underground. “Sometimes your reality is one thing, but the people around you can make you feel like you’re one thing,” she reflects. “We feel like we’re still in a different group.”
Director Chung hopes to bring “High Wire” to Hong Kong audiences beyond its London Film Festival premiere. She’s already working on her next project, which explores the realms of thrillers and dark comedy, and is also interested in directing for television, citing shows like “Slow Horses” and “The Gentlemen” as inspirations.
“I love those shows,” she says. “I want to see these really male-driven stories directed by women.”
For now, Chung hopes “High Wire” resonates around the world. “We want it to be really affordable and accessible. It can be seen by anyone, not just British Hong Kong immigrants, not just Asian immigrants, but I think it should appeal to all immigrants,” she says. “I hope that the film will bring us together and that we can welcome each other.”
