Lulu Wang Discovered Hong Kong’s Hidden Neighborhoods, Noodle Shops and Speakeasies While Shooting ‘Expats’

variety.com:

Carole Horst The atmosphere of Hong Kong permeates Lulu Wang’s “Expats”: the crowded streets, the muted colors, the stained-concrete high rises, the neon.

Anna Franquesa-Solano’s cinematography seems to even pick up the humidity. Then there’s the cool, clean, sterile apartments and neighborhood of the expats living on “The Peak.” Victoria Peak is a lush, plush mountaintop peppered with sleek modern buildings, leafy jogging trails and very expensive cars ferrying its privileged residents to and from engagements. “I think both in terms of the geography — the physical traits of the city and the social traits of the city, we wanted to show the range of both, because Hong Kong is so small, and yet you have jungle and city and ocean all right next to each other,” says Wang. “I would turn out my window one way and just see lush, green jungle; turn the other way and it’s the harbor; you look over there and it’s the city skyline.

So that was so miraculous, like just the relationship between all three of those things.” She wanted to show huge disparity of wealth in Hong Kong, as well as the city embracing the East and West, its British colonial past and its present dealing with the politics of mainland China. “Ultimately, we wanted Hong Kong to be its own character.” The series is set in 2014, so Wang and her crew looked at photos from a decade ago to re-create certain elements that are changing and even vanishing, like Hong Kong’s trademark neon signs.