# Trivisa (树大招风)
**Trivisa** (树大招风) is a 2016 Hong Kong crime drama directed by Frank Hui, Jevons Au, and Vicky Wong and produced by [Johnnie To](https://www.edgepedia.org/johnnie-to) and Yau Nai-hoi for Milkyway Image. Set in Hong Kong in 1997 on the eve of the handover to China, it intercuts three story strands about notorious criminals, each based on a real figure, who hear a rumor that they are planning a joint heist[1](https://www.mediaasia.com/En/Movies/Info/17/). The film won five awards at the 36th Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Film, and was not approved for release in mainland China[2](https://www.concentric-literature.url.tw/issues/Genre%20in%20Asian%20Cinema/2.pdf).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | 树大招风 (Chu tai chiu fung); "Trivisa" comes from the Buddhist "three poisons" of greed, anger, and ignorance[3](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/trivisa-berlin-review/5100883.article) |
| Directors | Frank Hui, Jevons Au, and Vicky Wong, each filming one strand; produced by Johnnie To and Yau Nai-hoi[1](https://www.mediaasia.com/En/Movies/Info/17/) |
| Release | 7 April 2016 in Hong Kong; 97 minutes; Category IIB; Cantonese[4](https://www.fdc.gov.hk/tc/publication/HK_Film_Industry_Info2016_Preview.pdf) |
| Hong Kong box office | HK$9,247,902 cumulative over its run from 7 April to 18 May 2016[4](https://www.fdc.gov.hk/tc/publication/HK_Film_Industry_Info2016_Preview.pdf) |
| Hong Kong Film Awards | Five wins at the 36th edition (2017): Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Film Editing[2](https://www.concentric-literature.url.tw/issues/Genre%20in%20Asian%20Cinema/2.pdf) |
| Mainland status | Screenplay not approved by the SAPPRFT censorship system; not screened in mainland China[2](https://www.concentric-literature.url.tw/issues/Genre%20in%20Asian%20Cinema/2.pdf) |
| Lead cast | Gordon Lam Ka-tung, Richie Jen, and Jordan Chan as the three criminals[1](https://www.mediaasia.com/En/Movies/Info/17/) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and structure
The film follows three men, each called a "King of Thieves", who have never met despite sharing the same notoriety. Cheuk Chi-keung (Jordan Chan) has just collected a HK$200 million ransom for kidnapping the son of a Hong Kong tycoon without firing a shot and yearns for a greater challenge. Yip Kwok-foon (Richie Jen) has escaped a shootout with the police after a bank heist and is lying low in China, smuggling electronic goods and clashing with corrupt bureaucrats. Kwai Ching-hung (Gordon Lam) is a cautious chameleon who keeps below the police radar with small heists[1](https://www.mediaasia.com/En/Movies/Info/17/). In early 1997 the three happen to be present at the same restaurant in China, and an underworld rumor spreads that they are planning a spectacular joint crime; each eventually decides to act on it[1](https://www.mediaasia.com/En/Movies/Info/17/).
The three strands were shot separately by the three directors and only combined in the edit by Allen Leung Chin-lun and David Richardson, frequent Johnnie To collaborators[2](https://www.concentric-literature.url.tw/issues/Genre%20in%20Asian%20Cinema/2.pdf) • [3](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/trivisa-berlin-review/5100883.article). The directors said they did not know until after filming that the material would be cut into one interwoven feature rather than told sequentially[5](https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/film/interview-the-directors-of-trivisa-on-their-award-winning-film). The film's structural conceit is revealed only at the end: the three restaurant scenes, shown apart, turn out to occur at the same place at the same time, and the film closes on television news footage of the handover followed by static[6](https://www.adrianmartinfilmcritic.com/reviews/t/trivisa.html).
## Real-life sources and the title
The three protagonists are drawn from real Hong Kong criminals of the 1990s. The screen Yip Kwok-foon is based on Yip Kai-foon, famous for jewelry-store robberies and street gunfights with police while wielding an AK-47; Cheuk Tze-keung is based on Cheung Tze-keung, who kidnapped the son of Hong Kong's richest man and was later executed in China; and Kwai Ching-hung is based on Kwai Ping-hung, once called Hong Kong's most-wanted criminal, who at one point had a HK$2 million bounty on his head[7](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/trivisa/) • [5](https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/film/interview-the-directors-of-trivisa-on-their-award-winning-film). The rumor that the three were joining forces is the film's starting point; the story of their coming together is a fantasy, while the men themselves were well known at home[3](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/trivisa-berlin-review/5100883.article).
The English title comes from Sanskrit via the Buddhist notion of the "three poisons" that lead to suffering, rendered variously as greed, anger, and ignorance or delusion, desire, and fury[3](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/trivisa-berlin-review/5100883.article) • [7](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/trivisa/). Producer Yau Nai-hoi noticed a connective thread among the three finished storylines relating to these teachings partway through filming, and the Buddhist framing was then worked into the films[5](https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/film/interview-the-directors-of-trivisa-on-their-award-winning-film).
## Production
Johnnie To initiated the project after hearing the rumor that the three crime lords had plotted a joint heist. He picked three former winners of the Fresh Wave Short Film Festival, a competition he founded in 2005 to support emerging local talent, and assigned each director one criminal: Kwai to Frank Hui, Yip to Jevons Au, and Cheung to Vicky Wong[5](https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/film/interview-the-directors-of-trivisa-on-their-award-winning-film). To and Yau advised the directors during shooting on how to connect the characters through plausible scenarios so the separately filmed stories would not have gaps[5](https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/film/interview-the-directors-of-trivisa-on-their-award-winning-film).
To's intention, according to Vicky Wong, was a character drama rather than an action thriller; when the directors proposed having the three criminals actually team up for a big heist, To signaled his disapproval, and the film instead leaves the collaboration unrealized[5](https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/film/interview-the-directors-of-trivisa-on-their-award-winning-film). Reviewers noted the resulting absence of a large ensemble climax, with action on the light side and the characters built through acting and visual storytelling rather than exposition[8](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/trivisa.html).
## Reception and awards
Trivisa screened in the Forum section of the 2016 Berlinale and opened the Hong Kong International Film Festival in March 2016[3](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/trivisa-berlin-review/5100883.article). The Hong Kong Film Critics Society voted it the best Hong Kong film of 2016, with Gordon Lam named best actor; it was the third consecutive year the society's top pick had not been granted wide release in China, after *Port of Call* and *The Midnight After*[9](https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2062570/film-not-released-china-named-best-picture-hong-kong-film-critics). At the 53rd Golden Horse Awards in 2016 it won Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing, and was nominated for Best Feature Film[10](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1408) • [11](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4379800/awards/). At the 36th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2017 it won Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor (Gordon Lam), and Best Film Editing[2](https://www.concentric-literature.url.tw/issues/Genre%20in%20Asian%20Cinema/2.pdf).
Critics read the film as a political allegory in which the three criminals' fates on the eve of the handover mirror Hong Kong's own drop in standing under Chinese rule; the SCMP described it as bookended by 1997 news footage and subtle in its allegory[9](https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2062570/film-not-released-china-named-best-picture-hong-kong-film-critics). Screen's Berlin review placed it alongside the portmanteau (film weaving several separate stories into one) *Ten Years* as an expression of disquiet about Hong Kong's future and saw it as a sign of a potential resurgence in the city's independent film scene[3](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/trivisa-berlin-review/5100883.article). Jevons Au had also directed one of the shorts in *Ten Years*[9](https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2062570/film-not-released-china-named-best-picture-hong-kong-film-critics).
## Censorship in mainland China
The filmmaking team submitted its screenplay to the censorship system of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and [Television](https://www.edgepedia.org/television) (SAPPRFT), but the film was not approved for mainland screening, owing to its depiction of collusion with Chinese officials and corruption of the Chinese authorities. Jevons Au, already blacklisted by Beijing for directing the "Dialect" segment of *Ten Years*, was a further obstacle. When the 36th Hong Kong Film Awards were broadcast, the Chinese online video platform iQiyi cut the footage of Trivisa winning its awards[2](https://www.concentric-literature.url.tw/issues/Genre%20in%20Asian%20Cinema/2.pdf).
## References
1. [Trivisa | Film | Media Asia](https://www.mediaasia.com/En/Movies/Info/17/)
2. [Genre in Asian Cinema, Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies 46.1](https://www.concentric-literature.url.tw/issues/Genre%20in%20Asian%20Cinema/2.pdf)
3. ['Trivisa': Berlin Review, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/trivisa-berlin-review/5100883.article)
4. [Hong Kong Film Industry Information 2016, Hong Kong Film Development Council](https://www.fdc.gov.hk/tc/publication/HK_Film_Industry_Info2016_Preview.pdf)
5. [Interview: the directors of Trivisa on their award-winning film, Time Out Hong Kong](https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/film/interview-the-directors-of-trivisa-on-their-award-winning-film)
6. [Trivisa, Adrian Martin Film Critic](https://www.adrianmartinfilmcritic.com/reviews/t/trivisa.html)
7. [Triviṣa, Film Society of Lincoln Center](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/trivisa/)
8. [Trivisa (樹大招風) (2016), LoveHKFilm.com](https://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/trivisa.html)
9. [A film not released in China is named best picture by Hong Kong Film Critics Society for third year in a row, South China Morning Post](https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2062570/film-not-released-china-named-best-picture-hong-kong-film-critics)
10. [樹大招風 Trivisa, Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1408)
11. [Trivisa (2016) - Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4379800/awards/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 2015–2019 films › Crime drama and neo-noir films*
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