Papa () is a 2024 Hong Kong family drama film directed and written by Philip Yung. Produced by Word by Word and distributed by , it is based on the real-life 2010 Heung Wo Street Murder, in which a mentally unstable son killed his mother and sister, leaving his father as the sole survivor. With Sean Lau, Jo Koo, , and Lainey Hung portraying the family, the film is set in the aftermath of the murder and follows the father (Lau) as he navigates survivor guilt and seeks reconciliation with his son (So).
Philip Yung was initially attached to the adaptation of the Heung Wo Street Murder as the screenwriter in 2011, interviewing the surviving father Kan Fuk-kui in person and beginning to write the screenplay in 2012. Development stalled when the director dropped out of the project after 2013. Yung later bought the screenplay and took on the role of director after filming Port of Call (2015). Pre-production and rewrites continued until 2022, when investment was secured. Principal photography commenced in March 2023, shot in a 4:3 aspect ratio, primarily in To Kwa Wan, with additional filming in Tsuen Wan and Sham Shui Po.
Papa had its world premiere in competition for the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix at the 37th Tokyo International Film Festival on 31 October 2024, followed by a theatrical release in Hong Kong on 5 December. The film became the ninth highest-grossing Hong Kong film of 2024 and received generally positive reviews from critics, particularly for Sean Lau's performance and the emotional depth, but its fragmented narrative elicited both praise and criticism. It garnered various accolades, including 11 nominations in the 43rd Hong Kong Film Awards, and Lau won a Hong Kong Film Award, an Asian Film Award, and an Asia Pacific Screen Award for his performance.
Plot The film adapts a nonlinear narrative: Nin starts a usual work day at his cha chaan teng, a Hong Kong restaurant he owns, interrupted by the revelations delivered by his colleagues and neighbours that his son Ming has murdered his wife Yin and daughter Grace, and subsequently turned himself in to the police. Sometime later, Nin sells the cha chaan teng to one of his waiters, no longer wanting to see the place that brings back painful memories. He attends his son's trial, where Ming confesses and reveals that he committed the murders because he heard a voice telling him he has a mission to eliminate a portion of the population and save the world. One night, Nin has dinner with his mother and his sister's family, where he lies about his family to his mother, saying that they are busy, but his mother reveals that she has known what happened all along. Nin recalls meeting Yin in 1993, when both families object to their engagement. Despite this, Nin insists on marrying Yin, and they soon welcome their first son.
Nin visits Ming in prison. He asks him to apply for a pardon to increase the number of visits he can have, but Ming refuses. Lonely at home with their house cat Carnation, Nin tries to hire a door-to-door prostitute, but after she deceives him and sneaks away with his payment, he becomes frustrated and experiences an emotional breakdown. During a family therapy session, Nin and Ming talk under the guidance of a psychiatrist. Nin demands an explanation from Ming for why he killed their loved ones, while Ming finally reveals his true thoughts, admitting he thinks Nin never listened to what his family wanted to say.
Before the murders, Yin asks Nin to stop running their restaurant 24/7, but he refuses. One day, Grace brings home a stray cat, naming it Carnation, and insists on keeping it despite Ming's objections toward limiting the animal's freedom. However, Grace soon loses interest in Carnation, and their busy parents leave Ming to take care for it. Carnation goes missing once, and Ming, worried, carefully rescues it after finding it on the edge of the corridor window. During summer, Ming works at Nin's restaurant clashing with Nin when he refuses to use the packing method his father's staff taught him and causes a mess. Ming asks Nin to buy him a new phone with photography functions, but Nin refuses, claiming multifunctional phones are prone to malfunction. Instead, he buys a camera, which Ming insists he does not want. Using his summer job salary, Ming buys the phone himself. During a family trip to Hainan, his mother discovers the phone and gives him back the money he spent on it, but only waits until Nin is asleep, as she does not object to Ming's purchase but avoids to go against her husband, leaving Ming puzzled as to why she will not just discuss it with Nin.
By 2013, Ming has been locked in the psychiatric hospital for four years. His request for early release is denied, even though Nin wishes to reunite with his son and expresses his willingness to care for Ming full-time now that he is retired. Realizing he may not be released anytime soon, Ming writes a letter to Nin, apologising for his actions and asking his father to visit him on his 18th birthday, which Nin does but refuses to discuss the murders during their reunion. Years later, when Ming is finally released, he is already an adult. He returns to his old home and has lunch with his father, with the film ending as Ming looks at their family photo.
Cast Sean Lau as Nin Yuen, a 24-hour cha chaan teng owner whose wife and daughter were murdered by his son Jo Koo as Yin, Nin's Hakka wife and Ming and Grace's mother as Ming, Nin's son who has schizophrenia Lainey Hung as Grace, Nin's daughter and Ming's younger sister
Also appearing in the film are Yeung Wai-lun as Salty, a waiter at Nin's restaurant; Helen Tam as Dr. Lee, Ming's psychiatrist; Law Wing-cheung as Keung, Nin's brother-in-law; Chan Lai-wun as Nin's mother; Mak Pui-tung as Mr. Lee, Ming's liberal studies teacher; and Tung Fong-shing as Junior, a fellow restaurant owner acquainted with Nin. Cameo appearances include as Uncle Kim, Ming's fellow inmate; as a fishmonger, Edan Lui as the adult version of Ming; and John Shum as the chairman of the prison sentences review board. The house cat Carnation was portrayed by director Philip Yung's pet cat Siufa.
Production Background
The story of Papa is based on the 2010 Heung Wo Street Murder. On 22 July 2010, a 15-year-old teenager Kan Ka-leung murdered his mother Lam Lin-kam and his younger sister Kan Chung-yue at home, before turning himself in to the police after wandering the streets for a short period. The family, which included the father Kan Fuk-kui, lived together on Heung Wo Street in Tsuen Wan. Kan Fuk-kui used to work as a chicken butcher before opening a cha chaan teng called Fan Fan Ho Restaurant in 2004 directly opposite their apartment. After having a family dinner at their restaurant on the night of the murder, the mother and children returned home while Kan Fuk-kui stayed behind to run the restaurant, thus escaping the murder. Kan Ka-leung was tried and convicted for manslaughter in 2012. His psychological assessment diagnosed him with schizophrenia and revealed that he suffered from auditory hallucinations during the murder, hearing voices told him to eliminate part of the population on a mission to solve the problem of overpopulation, resources waste and harm to environment. Before Papa release, Kan Ka-leung's mental condition had improved following years of therapy, and he was released from detainment at the , continuing his treatment at Castle Peak Hospital. Kan Fuk-kui had sold the restaurant in August 2012 and moved out of the apartment where the murder occurred.
Conception
In 2011, Philip Yung was invited to join the adaptation of the Heung Wo Street Murder as the screenwriter, after an undisclosed director was impressed by his screenplay draft which later evolved into Port of Call (2015). Yung, who grew up in Tsuen Wan and lived nearby Heung Wo Street, was already familiar with the murder case before the film's production and cited his familiarity with the crime scene as essential for capturing the film's sense of place. To research the screenplay, Yung personally approached the surviving father Kan Fuk-kui with assistance from then-district councilor Leung Yiu-chung and solicitor Mary Jean Reimer to hear his story. Yung felt that Kan initially was defensive and reluctant to have his story adapted, as he did not want the public to cast judgement on his son. Originally, Yung planned to adapt the murder into a true crime film involving mysticism, as he found newspaper articles that mentioned occult symbols being found outside the Kans' apartment. However, he scrapped this idea after speaking with Kan, realising that there were no mysteries in the murder, but rather "the devastation of a father unable to understand his son".
Kan eventually softened his stance upon finding that Yung was more interested in adapting the film as a personal story from the father's perspective rather than focusing solely on the murder, and was willing to listen to Kan's inner thoughts. He later agreed to have his story adapted and provided necessary details to the production team. For instance, the film included scenes of the father writing letters to his deceased wife, inspired by real advice from psychiatrist to Kan as a form of narrative therapy. Yung stated that his motivation for creating the film was to raise awareness of families affected by mental disorders and to demonstrate how to process emotions for Hongkongers. Au Cheuk-man, a filmmaker and friend of Philip Yung, accompanied him in the interviews with Kan and contributed to the scriptwriting process, suggesting the inclusion of a birthing scene and a funeral scene. Yung credited Au as co-director in recognition of his contributions to the film. Yung also interviewed several experts and researched materials related to mental disorders, even though it was not a theme explored in depth in the film, to accurately depict it and avoid stigmatisation or discrimination against those affected.
Pre-production
The screenplay began development in 2012. Adopting a narrative style similar to that of Port of Call and Where the Wind Blows (2022), Yung used a stream of consciousness and wrote the screenplay from the father's perspective, focusing on his navigation of the aftermath of the murder while the arcs of the other characters unfolded around him. Disjointed flashbacks were incorporated into the screenplay, as Yung aimed to replicate human memories that "do not function linearly and can be fragmented". Instead of fragmenting the narrative in post-production editing, he opted for a nonlinear structure during the scripting stage, as in his interviews with Kan Fuk-kui, Kan spoke about his experiences in a fragmented manner, which Yung described as "pieces of a puzzle", with each piece offering a different view of time and fate. Yung characterised Papa as a "family story", using murder only as a means to explore human nature, citing Seichō Matsumoto's novels as an inspiration for the film's genre approach, where he aimed to incorporate elements of social school mystery to examine familial relationships and values within Hong Kong society. Mikio Naruse's Mother (1952) was also cited as an influence on both the film's aesthetics and the subtle emotions translated through family members' interactions. Yung included a house cat in the story, drawing from his personal experiences of having a cat, and he believed that keeping a pet would enrich the father's life. Writing was completed in 2013, but the project was subsequently stalled in development when the director dropped out to work on a Hong Kong-Chinese film. Yung, still fond of the screenplay and feeling confident in his filmmaking skills after making Port of Call, reached out to the director and had been in talks for seven to eight years to buy back his script.