KJ
Director：CHEUNG, King-wai
KJ is a 17-year-old music prodigy from a well-to-do family, and lives an inexhaustible life provided by his doctor father. At the age of 11, he won his Best Pianist title at the Hong Kong Interscholastic Competition in Music and the opportunity to play Beethoven’s Concerto for Piano No. 1 with a professional orchestra in Czech.However, in the mind of the young talent, he began to question incessantly about his life, about “why piano?”, and “what is in life, if not music?”
There since, he who is turning 17 this year has not made much substantial achievements in terms of awards and performance opportunities, other than his temporary drop-out for two years. Sometimes, he is not happy ... tormented by reflections on a utilitarian reality and more.
This documentary goes deep down to one's mind: his thoughts, his struggles and his choices. It is a story of a genius, but also a story of everyone, lamenting over our unrecognized talents while brewing one's dream-come-true. Just as what we do in our daily life...
KJ FB：www.facebook.com/kjmusicandlife
Director
CHEUNG, King-wai
Born in Hong Kong, King studied cello since young and pursued music in Brooklyn College, City University of New York, but after touching various other subjects, he ended up being graduated with a degree majoring in film production and philosophy. He produced 4 short fiction films and 1 short documentary film, and his works have participate and won prizes in many international film festivals. His first feature-length script, “God’s Apple”, has won him the Excellent Prize in the Mainland, Hong Kong & Taiwan Myth Script Creation Contest 2001, while his second script, “The Way We Are”, was also awarded the Best Story Prize in Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum 2005. The film based on this script is on its way, produced by the director Ann HUI. His feature documentary films include:
All’s Rights with the World (73mins, 2007)
KJ : music and life (93mins, 2008)
From the Director
I used to play the cello and wanted to be a Yo-yo Ma. But all those years of my enduring hard work went to an end, when I men this Japanese violinist at the age of 26, and we soon got married. I finally came to realize from her shine what “talent” means. So, forget about it. No more cello. Instead, the years in college drew me into lots of things, that is, film making, at the end of it.
I first met WONG Ka-jeng in 2002 when he was 11 and playing Beethoven’s Concerto for Piano No. 1 with some Czech orchestra. I love the way he played the music, so charming. I've been listening to his music since then and he is now 17. I envy him. He is a genius.
But he is not so happy sometimes.
Nothing goes easy in life.
It is hard to be and it is even harder to be a super-duper genius raised above everyone.
As much as the poet, SU Dong-po, once disheartened “Every one wants his child to be clever,” who doesn’t want to be the dragon flying in the universe above the clouds, as described by CAO Cao in Romance of the Three Kingdoms?
People, that is everyone who believes in a reason for his living in the society, are thus caught in the tangled dilemma trying to find their dreams and hopes.
Film Festival
※ Best documentary, best editor, Best music, The 46th Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Award
※ Best Film, The 16th Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award
※ Best documentary, The 54th Asian Pacific Film Festival
※ The 33rd Hong Kong International Film Festival
※ The 11th Seoul International Youth Film Festival
※ Yunnan Multi Culture Visual Festival, 2009
※ The 6th China Independent Film Festival
※ The 7th GZ Doc, competition
※ 2009 Asia Pacific Award, competition
※ The 29th Hong Kong Film Awards, Best New Director, and nominee of the Best Film Editing, Best Sound Design, Best Film
※ The 16th Shanghai TV Festival, competition
※ The 19th China Golden Rooster&Hundred Flowers Film Festival
※ The 1st Beijing International Film Festival, Documentary Top20, 2011