Bak yat ji ha

In Broad Daylight - 7.5/10

A Hong Kong set Chinese film about systemic abuse in care homes. It's an investigative journalism procedural and it ticks all the boxes you expect. It's very similar to the Weinstein exposé film She Said and follows more of less the exact same template.

I expected the horrors of the care home abuse to be frequent and harrowing, but it instead focuses more on the human relationships between the various residents that occupy the home. It is at its best in the quieter moments when human emotion is allowed to bubble up to the surface. The score and cinematography kick in, and you get way more heart-warming moments than I expected.

Towards the end the focus on the abuses does ramp up, but it is handled tastefully and doesn't contrive any unnecessary shock tactics to convey its message. Some of the subtitles moved extremely fast so there are a few snippets of info I didn't fully take in. It touches on the widespread scale of the abuse throughout the country and given that it has only recently been exposed the mainstream media, it makes it all feel extremely prescient.

An important film that approaches its difficult subject matter with respect, but perhaps in the hands of a better storyteller it could have been more impactful.

Much like the Anthony Hopkins film One Life that I saw a few weeks ago, at the end of the film everyone remained seated till the very end of the credits as a mark of respect for the subject matter.