{"id":509712,"date":"2025-10-18T15:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T15:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/509712\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T15:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T15:21:11","slug":"the-circus-comes-to-rural-england-in-calif-chong-film-high-wire-lff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/509712\/","title":{"rendered":"The Circus Comes to Rural England in Calif Chong Film ‘High Wire’: LFF"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA small circus coming to rural England turns out to open up new opportunities and perspectives for a young woman in Calif Chong\u2019s feature film High Wire, which world premiered at the 69th edition<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0BFI\u00a0London Film Festival<\/a>\u00a0(LFF), which wraps on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGo-Wing\u2019s future feels predetermined,\u201d reads a synopsis for the movie, which Chong co-wrote with Jackie Lam. \u201cDays are filled with working at her father\u2019s Chinese takeaway and studying. Beneath her sense of duty is a crushing loneliness and the prospect of a life unfulfilled. So, when an acrobatic circus comes to town, with a little accidental blackmail, Go-Wing is able to join them and finds the promise of community, artistic release, and a fulfilling future lived on her own terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIsabella Wei, Dominic Lam Kar Wah, and Jose Palma star in High Wire, a Silent D Pictures production in association with Make a Difference Films and Ajamax Productions. The cinematography was handled by Matthew P. Scott. Check out a film clip here for a first taste of what to expect. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film marks the feature directorial debut for Chong, who has mostly worked as an editor.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe, Wei, and Scott talked to the press at a LFF afternoon tea event this week.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe circus was the perfect place for my dream to tell an immigrant story that\u2019s set in the food business environment, because I myself experienced working in a restaurant in Chinatown in Manchester,\u201d Chong told THR. \u201cI felt very weird because I was there to chase some sort of dream. I hate this word, by the way. People say dream. I\u2019m here to make a career, and it\u2019s not meant to be a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWei recalled going for the lead role. \u201cI submitted a self-tape audition, and I think just a few hours later, I heard back from them that I was cast in a role,\u201d she told THR. \u201cSo, it was super-exciting. And it was such a beautiful role.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tShe didn\u2019t audition locally, though. \u201cI was in Hong Kong at the time, but it was really nice to be telling the story of someone from Hong Kong, or ethnically Hong Kong, in the U.K., which is where I spend some of my time,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it incorporated a lot of really creative, expressive, especially physically expressive, outlets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore she found Wei, Chong realized the challenges of casting for a circus performer role. \u201cIt was a hard casting. At some point, I thought, \u2018Why did I write this?\u2019 The bilingual ability was one thing,\u201d she recalled. \u201cBut they also had to be able to dance and rollerblade,\u201d and more. \u201cSo, when I saw her tape, I was like, \u2018Oh, god is saving me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Chong\u2019s partner, Scott had the advantage of being part of planning discussions, which allowed him to be ready for many scenes. \u201cBut, technically, probably the hardest scene was the final high wire act, because it\u2019s very hard on set doing that much visual effects work,\u201d he told THR.<\/p>\n

\n\tWei found other parts more challenging. \u201cFor me, some of the hardest scenes were probably in the takeaway,\u201d explained the star. \u201cBecause we needed that relationship between me and my dad, and I think creating that relationship or dynamic to make it look like we have been living together and coexisting in this really tight, narrow space for so long was quite a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A small circus coming to rural England turns out to open up new opportunities and perspectives for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[121444,127516,77,522,3943,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-509712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-bfi-london-film-festival","9":"tag-bfi-london-film-festival-2025","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-international","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115395853257011153","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}