''Find Your Voice'' is a 2020 Hong Kong

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by Adrian Kwan, produced by and starring

Andy Lau Andy Lau Tak-wah (; born 27 September 1961) is a Hong Kong actor, singer-songwriter and film producer. He has been one of Hong Kong's most commercially successful film actors since the mid-1980s, performing in more than 160 films while maint ...

as a former internationally renowned conductor who resides in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, returns to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

lead a pessimistic group of choir students. The film was theatrically release on 26 November 2020.

Plot

Form 4 student Fung Sun-hei of a Band 3 secondary school is a well known typical neet who is bad-tempered and performs poorly in academics. One day, Sun-hei gets in trouble for causing major havoc in school. However, headmaster Lo (

Lowell Lo Lowell Lo Kwun Ting (, born 12 October 1950) is a Hong Kong singer-songwriter, actor and film composer. He wrote the film scores to many Hong Kong films. He is now also an environmental activist. Early life Lowell Lo Kwun Ting was born on 12 ...

) gives him a final chance to redeem himself by requesting him to participate in the "Find Your Voice Trial Program" (熱血合唱團試驗計劃), a project which involves forming a classical music chorus composed of three Band 3 students who go in to nine months of special training to compete in the Intercollegiate Chorus Competition (校際合唱團比賽) afterwards. Without a choice, Sun-hei reluctantly accepts the offer. The outside world views this project as one that is more difficult than reaching to the skies and teases them as the "Rotten Orange Chorus" (爛橙合唱團). However, unexpectedly, renowned Hong Kong-American conductor Joseph Yim (

), dubbed the "Iron-Blooded Instructor" of the music industry, who have been living seclusion for a year, returns to Hong Kong to be the conductor of the chorus.

Cast

as Joseph Yim (嚴梓朗), an internationally renowned conductor *

as Headmaster Lo (盧校長) *

Mark Lui Mark Lui (, born 9 July 1969) is from Hong Kong. He is a composer and producer of Cantopop music with the "On Your Mark" creative team, and part of the Artists and Repertoire team at East Asia Record Production Co., Ltd. Notable works include ...

*Hugo Ng as a chancellor *

E Jingwen E Jingwen (; born February 15, 1989), also known as Vin E or E Bo (), is a Chinese actress. E is considered a " Sing girl"—an actress who first received media attention through starring in the movie directed by Stephen Chow, after she has know ...

Tse Kwan-ho Tse Kwan-ho (born 23 March 1963) is a Hong Kong actor, professionally also known as Gardner Tse. Originally a nurse, Tse Kwan-ho rose to prominence in the stage play ''The Mad Phoenix'' (), this was later remade into a feature film of the sam ...

* Rachel Lee *

Paulyn Sun Paulyn Sun (born Suen Kai-kwan; 11 September 1974), also known as Alien Sun and Pauline Suen, is a Hong Kong-based Singaporean actress. Background She became a Champion of the Miss Singapore Universe and represented Singapore at the Miss Universe ...

*Eddie Kwan *

Wan Yeung-ming Vincent Wan Yeung-ming (, born 2 February 1958 in Macau) is a Hong Kong actor. Filmography * '' Find Your Voice'' (2017) * ''Shock Wave'' (2017) * ''Guia in Love'' (2015) * '' Imprisoned: Survival Guide for Rich and Prodigal'' (2015) * ''IPCC Fi ...

as a parent

Production

''Find Your Voice'' was filmed primarily in

and partly in the

, with the latter location shoot taking place in January 2017 where producer and star

took part. Lau stated he originally was only going to serve as the film's producer and his role was to be played by an little-known actor, but director Adrian Kwan and screenwriter Hannah Cheung persuaded him to take the role as his image suited that of a conductor. Therefore, Lau trained three months with a real conductor of a children's choir in order to convincingly portray the role. Production for the film wrapped up in March 2017.

Music

The film's ending theme song is a cover of the 1993 song, ''Whom Will Understand Me'' (誰能明白我), sung by

. The song was composed by

George Lam George Lam Tsz-Cheung (born 12 October 1947), also known professionally by his surname Lam, is a Hong Kong-based veteran Cantopop singer, singer-songwriter, music producer and actor, with a career that has so far lasted more than four decades. Lam ...

, who is also the original singer, with lyrics written by Cheng Kwok-kong. The film's insert theme song is a cover of the classic song, ''

Below the Lion Rock ''Below the Lion Rock'' () is a TV show about the lives of Hong Kong citizens. It was broadcast five times, each forming its own series, from 1972 to 1979, 1984 to 1988, 1990, 1992 to 1995, 2006, 2014 to 2020. Each series was a collection of unrel ...

'' (獅子山下), also sung by Lau. The song was composed by

Joseph Koo Joseph Koo Kar-Fai, MBE, GBS (born 3 February 1933), is a Hong Kong composer, who is considered one of the most respected composers in Hong Kong. He used the pen name Moran (莫然) for Mandarin songs early in his career. Early life Koo has ...

, with lyrics written by James Wong and was originally sung by

Roman Tam Roman Tam Pak-sin (; 12 February 1945– 18 October 2002), known professionally by his stage name Law Man (), was a Hong Kong singer. He is regarded as the "Grand Godfather of Cantopop". Career Born in Baise, Guangxi, China, with family root ...

Release

''Find Your Voice'' was theatrically release in Hong Kong on 26 November 2020.

Promotion

On 20 March 2019, a press conference for the film attended by the cast and crew was held at the 2019 Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (FILMART), where it also unveiled its first teaser trailer.

Reception

Box office

''Find Your Voice'' debuted at No. 2 on it opening weekend, grossing HK$830,904 after its first four days of release. On its second weekend, the film grossed HK$212,178 and remained at No. 2, having grossed a total of HK$1,043,082 so far. The film's theatrical run is temporarily suspended in Hong Kong due to cinema closures from 2 to 23 December 2020 amid the fourth wave of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong The COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Hong Kong on 23 January 2020. Con ...

Critical reception

Lim Yian-lu of ''

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...

Lifestyle'' gave the film a score of 3/5 stars, praising the positive and positive vibes the film gives out, but notes some logic issues in the ending. Edmund Lee of the ''

South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...

'' gave the film a score of 2.5/5 stars, complementing its inspiration story, but notes its shortcomings in the script.

References

{{Andy Lau 2020 films 2020 drama films Hong Kong drama films 2020s Cantonese-language films Films produced by Andy Lau Films about classical music and musicians Films about musical groups Films set in Hong Kong Films shot in Hong Kong Films set in the United States Films shot in the United States