Hong Kong authorities have banned the screening of director Kiwi Chow Kwun-wai's latest film, the campus thriller Deadline, citing national security concerns. The 46-year-old award-winning filmmaker, known for previous works on social unrest, described the decision as “painful and unfair” in a social media post on Tuesday.
Director Kiwi Chow Kwun-wai, 46, is known for Revolution of Our Times, a documentary on Hong Kong's 2019-2020 anti-government protests that was also barred from cinemas, and the anthology film Ten Years. His team submitted Deadline, starring veteran actor Anthony Wong Chau-sang, to the Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration for review on August 4. After more than four months, authorities issued a decision denying approval.
The office stated that, after considering all relevant factors, assessors deemed the film's general release detrimental to national security and thus unsuitable for screening. The office told the South China Morning Post that it regularly assesses film screening licence applications in accordance with the law but declined to comment on individual cases.
Chow described the ban as “painful and unfair,” noting that the film was intended as a commercial thriller but had been “passively turned into a political incident.” He considered a judicial review but received legal advice that suing the government might be pointless in an era of what he called “judicial collapse.” Revolution of Our Times premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021 and was released in Taiwan and France but not approved in Hong Kong.
The ban highlights Hong Kong's stringent film censorship, particularly for works touching on sensitive topics.
