drama, Edan Lui, Helen Tam, Hong Kong, Jo Koo, movies, Papa, Philip Yung, reviews, Sean Lau, Tai Bo, Travis Choi, true crime, Tsang Sin Tung, Yeung Wai Lun
March 16, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Philip Yung
Cantonese with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in Hong Kong, from 2010 to 2014 (with flashbacks to previous years), the dramatic film “Papa” (inspired by true events) features an all-Asian group of people representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A father struggles with guilt and depression after his teenage son murders the father’s wife and daughter.
Culture Audience: “Papa” will appeal primarily to people who can handle watching tearjerking dramas about families affected by murder.
“Papa” is a beautifully filmed and heart-wrenching drama about a widower coping with his son murdering the father’s wife and daughter. Some viewers won’t like the timeline jumping, but this drama is an impactful portrait of grief and mental illness. At least half of the movie consists of flashbacks to the years before the family was ripped apart by this tragedy.
Written and directed by Philip Yung, “Papa” has a “present-day” storyline that takes place from 2010 to 2014. The flashbacks go back to the 1990s and continue through 2009. “Papa” is based on the real-life Heung Wo Street murder, which happened in July 2010, on Heung Wo Street in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong. A 15-year-old boy named Kan Ka-leung murdered his mother Lam Lin-kam and his 12-year-old sister Kan Chung-yue, by hacking them to death with a cleaver at ther family’s apartment home, while his father Kan Fuk-kui was working the night shift at the family’s diner across the street.
Ka-leung immediately confessed to the crime when he made a 999 phone call to get help. He was later diagnosed with having schizophrenia because he said he heard voices telling him to murder because the world was overpopulated. In his mind, he was helping the environment by reducing the population with these murders. In 2012, after a trial where Ka-leung entered a not guilty plea due to insanity, he was sentenced to live in a psychiatric hospital, where he received treatment and was eventually considered well enough to be released from criminal containment.
“Papa” includes these facts in the story but changes the names of the family members and takes a speculative interior look at the father’s state of mind as he goes through the grieving process. Just like what happened in real life, there also comes a point in time when the son is set for release from the psychiatric hospital, so the father has to decide if he will let the son live with him. This review will not reveal what the father’s decision was, but the movie shows this decision.
“Papa” (which is told in non-chronological order) begins in July 2010, by showing family patriarch Nin Yuen (played by Sean Lau) on the street outside his family’s apartment building in Tsuen Wan. Nin is looking up at his apartment in shock because he can’t quite believe what he has heard. His house is a crime scene because Nin’s loving wife Yin (played Jo Koo) and extroverted 12-year-old daughter Grace (played by Lainey Hung) were found slaughtered inside the apartment. The news media have already been reporting that Nin and Yin’s 15-year-old son Ming (played by Dylan So) confessed to the crime when he called 999.
As the horror continues for Nin, the movie shows snippets of the trial and Ming living in a psychiatric hospital that treats convicted criminals. Nin is allowed to visit Ming four times a month and visits Ming on a regular basis. Helen Tam has a small supporting role as Dr. Lee, Ming’s psychiatrist. At the hospital, Ming keeps mostly to himself, but he strikes up a friendly acquaintance with an elderly man maned Uncle Kim (played by Tai Bo), a fellow patient who is in the facility for murdering his wife.
Nin has memories triggered every time he sees something that reminds him of when Yin and Grace were alive. Nin’s flashbacks go all the way back to the 1990s, when he and Yin met, began dating, and fell in love. On their first date, they went to a karaoke bar. After they got married, Nin worked as a chicken butcher. He then owned and operated a cha chaan teng (a Chinese word for a Hong Kong-styled diner or cafe), which was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Yin and Nin took turns working at the cha chaan teng in 12-hour shifts.
“Papa” shows small slices of life indicating that this tight-knit family was happy for many years. Grace found a stray calico kitten whom she named Carnation, who became the family’s beloved pet. After Carnation became an adult, Nin remembers how Grace lost interest in Carnation, and Ming became the person in the household who ended up taking care of Carnation the most. Carnation is Nin’s only companion at home after the murders.
Nin’s memories of his life before Ming and Grace reached adolescence are all very blissful. It’s the movie’s way of showing how people dealing with a traumatic event tend to selectively remember only the good things that happened before the traumatic event. The cast members who portray Ming at various stages of his life are Travis Choi (Ming at 2 years old); Yeung Taz Hong Cayson (Ming at 5 years old); and Edan Lui (Ming as an adult). Tsang Sin Tung has the role of Grace at 2 years old.
Ming had always been a quiet and obedient child. But as he grew older and approached adolescence, he seemed withdrawn and troubled. Nin thought it had to do with Ming being a loner and bullied by other students a school. Nin found out much too late that Ming had thoughts that were much more disturbing than what the family had ever imagined.
Nin also understandably feels guilt in wondering if he could’ve done anything differently to prevent this tragedy. He has painful memories of Ming complaining that he wished that Nin and Yin could spend more time with Ming at home. A scene in the movie shows that Nin brought up the idea to Yin to reduce the open-for-business hours for the cha chaan teng, but Yin said they should wait until Ming and Grace get older. After the murders, Nin sold the cha chaan teng to a loyal employee named Salty (played by Yeung Wai Lun) and eventually moved to another apartment.
Ming developed in interest in photography and asked Nin if he could have a smartphone. Nin refused this request and gave Ming a digital camera instead. It was a gift that Ming rejected. This digital camera became a symbol of how Ming and Nin had begun to start growing apart. Ming worked part time at the cha chaan teng, where Nin and Ming sometimes clashed over the rigid ways that Nin expected Ming to do the work.
Nin has male friends who try to cheer him up, but Nin remains lost in an emotional fog of grief. Nowhere is this detachment more evident than in a scene where Nin and his friends are at a nightclub. Nin’s friends are enjoying the amorous attentions of younger women in a back room. Nin is the only person in the group who seems completely disinterested in being social. And even though Nin is not alone, he looks very lonely.
Nin isn’t completely removed from his emotions though. There’s a scene that won’t be fully described here but it’s enough to say that Nin has a sobbing meltdown after someone cheats him out of his money. His outpouring of sadness isn’t really about the money but about losing a chance to connect with someone who had promised to spend time with Nin.
Due to the movie’s creative direction and film editing, the narrative structure of “Papa” is like artfully made pieces of a puzzle that are offered out of sequence, and it’s up to the viewers to piece everything together. Ding Ke’s musical score for “Papa” is also quite effective at stirring up emotions. The acting from Lau is superb as grieving father Nin, while So gives a very memorable performance as a teenager who suffers in silence when he begins to feel like he’s losing his grip on sanity.
“Papa” has many sad moments of family heartbreak balanced with uplifting moments of family love. Without being preachy, the movie shows that it’s okay for people to have different ways to grieve, with recovery often being a rough experience with stops and starts. “Papa” serves as a thoughtful reminder about not taking loved ones for granted and giving parents the grace to not have all the answers to life’s problems.
Illume Films released “Papa” in select U.S. cinemas on March 14, 2025. The movie was released in Hong Kong on December 5, 2024.