Home / Arts and Entertainment / Filmmakers Unravel Hong Kong's Coldest Case in New Thriller
Filmmakers Unravel Hong Kong's Coldest Case in New Thriller
21 Jun
Summary
- Film revisits Hong Kong's 1974 Happy Valley Box Murder.
- Case was solved solely by forensic evidence, no eyewitnesses.
- Actor Zhang Songwen uses Cantonese for first time on screen.
At the 28th Shanghai International Film Festival, director Frankie Tam Kwong-yuen and lead actor Zhang Songwen presented "Secret in the Box." This period thriller revisits Hong Kong's 1974 Happy Valley Box Murder, a landmark case solved exclusively with forensic evidence and no eyewitnesses.
The film explores the darker aspects of human behavior against the backdrop of 1970s Hong Kong. Zhang Songwen delivers his first full Cantonese-language performance, portraying a man caught between realities. He stressed that authentic dialect was crucial for embodying a local character.
Director Tam described the editing process as akin to criminal investigation. The filmmakers intentionally avoided delivering a definitive verdict on the 50-year-old cold case, opting instead for a "parallel universe approach" to allow audiences to form their own conclusions about the truth.
