ANTHONY WONG

SEN LAM, ANTONIO TAM: VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 不赦之罪 (2024) New York Asian Filn Festival 2025

Christian anguish and hypocrisy in Hong Kong

This anguished and austere drama about guilt and forgiveness seems at first to be veering almost into Carl Dreyer territory. But it's plot line is more lurid than that, and it indulges in more modern formal experimentation - time shifts and sudden flashbacks. It pushes toward the lurid when it gets to the moment when the repentant young rapist Chan Taz Lok (George Au) goes up to be baptized by Pastor Paul Leung (Anthony Perry Wong), father of. the girl,who subsequently committed suicide, and Pastor Leung tries to drown him.

The other factors are the Pastor's wife (Louisa So), who's lost her faith. (Pastor Leung merely switched to a more born-again sect, apparently). And of course the daughter, Ching (Sheena Chan). And we find out about her from flashbacks. Apparently the Pastor and his grim wife never learn how reprehensible their daughter was, that she provoked Lok, had him send shots of his genitals and then exposed him; or that Lok, a classmate, was a sensitive kid, an artist who is always drawing, who was bullied and beaten by other boys at the school. On the other hand we never get a good look at the rape. And we don't learn the steps that led to her suicide, but it seems not simply a reacrtion to being raped.

Hayley Scanlon in his Windows on Worlds review of this film describes the truths it unravels. He says it examines whether the pastor "is merely a hypocrite who expounds on 'the beauty of suffering,'" (he's written a pamphlet on that) while "wallowing in his grief" but unable to practice what he preaches. As Scanlon puts it, we learn that the pastor's "religiosity" and its "oppressive qualities and implacable rigidity also contributed to his daughter’s death," and for him shifting all the blame to Lok is just an escape - one his wife didn't have, hence her loss of faith.

This is a lot to unlock in a film of only moderate length, and the filmmakers' exposition is lacikng at some points. What exactly did Lok do prison time for and how did it come about? Does the pastor ever find out more of the truth? Apparently not, because he never accepts Lok's revelation that he is learning to forgive the girl.

This is a strong performance by Anhony Wong, but if anything George Lau as the boy has a better role. He seeks salvation in the church and really forgives. The actor cast for the role is actually unusually pure looking, and exudes a rawness that jumps off the screen, making him a counterweight for the powerful Wong. You almost come out of the film thinking the girl raped him. It's an intense role for Wong, but he's a bit stiff, harsh, and shrill. And it's not clear how sympathetic he's meant to be. If as little as it seems, he's not a very three-dimensioonal character. But then Carl Dreyer characters can seem like that too. This genre of religious torment drama isn't for everyone. This certainly takes us somewhere Hong Kong cinema doesn't usually go.

Valley of the Shadow of Death 不赦之罪 ("mortal sin"), 84 mins., premiered at Tokyo Oct. 31, 2024, showing also at HogKong April 2025 IT reportedly won the Keep Rolling, Keep Running program hosted by the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers, was nominated for the Firebird Award at the Hong Kong and was featured in the Asian Future competition at Tokyo. Screened for this review as part of the 2025 New York Asian Film Festival. Showtime:
Sunday July 13, 3:30pm
Film at Lincoln Center
Intro and Q&A with directors Jeffrey Lam Sen, Antonio Tam and actor George Au.


GEORGE AU

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.