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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film
LifestyleEntertainment

Review | Once Upon a Time in HKDSE movie review: Hong Kong public exam stress wistfully explored

  • YouTuber Hui Yin is one of the candidates preparing to take Hong Kong’s dreaded university entrance exam in a documentary full of questions

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Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination candidates Tang Ngai-hong (front) and Hui Yin in a still from Once Upon a Time in HKDSE (category: IIB or IIA, Cantonese) directed by Leung Yik-ho.
Edmund Lee

3.5/5 stars

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It is perhaps indicative of what many Hong Kong people think about the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) that a documentary about it should come in two versions: one that includes profanities (rated IIB, for general release) and one that does not (IIA, for school screenings).

The city’s dreaded public exam system has been the source of plenty of traumatic memories for its population over the decades, and Once Upon a Time in HKDSE must be commended for offering as clear-sighted and empathetic an account of the experience as one could expect.

The directorial debut of Leung Yik-ho, the film was initially released as a 10-part web series by the popular YouTube channel Trial & Error before being re-edited into a feature-length documentary under the supervision of celebrated film editor William Chang Suk-ping.

Running at a brisk 90 minutes, the resulting film is at once an on-the-ground look at one current candidate’s stressful last-minute preparations and a wistful look back at what it all meant for another former exam taker.

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The nominal protagonist is Tang Ngai-hong, a candidate for the HKDSE in 2023. When we first meet him, he is just four months away from the exam and the teenager is clearly far too behind in his study progress to have any realistic chance of securing the necessary results to get into university.

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