Not many actors could make that story work. You could almost feel the bottled up tension in the dinner scenes with Simon Yam and his wife and his mother.

Postmodern Life of My Aunt was extremely well made but ultimately soul-crushing. What was the point of that flick? It was like Amelie or Memories of Matsuko without any ray of sunshine at all. And it wasted Vicky Zhao.

Maybe the critics just like to send messages on what kinds of films they would like to see get made instead of what was actually the best film of the year? Like the Oscars, lol.

-cheers-

From a filmmaking perspective, it’s a very accomplished work, and the HKFCS are, by and large, very intellectual and academic about how they go about things (just look at their reasoning for the selection). The film is also wholly unsatisfying from an audience perspective, and has plenty of detractors. Just visit IMDB and you’ll find them.

About Exodus, I’m guessing that it was ignored due to politics. I don’t think that the HKFCS particularly cares for Pang Ho-Cheung. They recognized Men Suddenly in Black but have ignored him every year since. Conversely, they seem to adore Soi Cheang, who they gave props to yearly up until Dog Bite Dog and Shamo. Since that streak includes such titles as Death Curse and Home Sweet Home, one wonders if there isn’t some sort of Home Court Advantage going on.

Also, the Golden Bauhinia Awards, run by the Hong Kong Film Critics Association, have regularly trumpeted the work of Pang Ho-Cheung, while ignoring Soi Cheang, so one wonders if Pang doesn’t have any buddies in that organization.