Critics' Choice staggered at first has gradually made progress over the past two years, however, we should stay humble and creative.

This year, Hong Kong Film Critics Society has its focus on the works that go abreast of the age. With no literary text, film still stands strong on its own. Film runs parallel with the age and has laid down an underlying track in the past century. Don't bother turning the world into a black and white setting to identify the artist, nor to find the key to unlock the adventure with Hugo. Film and time always complete each other.

Through the lens of camera, we see a chronicle of refined illustrations showing the different times in history, with focus frame by frame showing the chaotic arena of power or the deserted and lonely borderland, in other cases reconstructing time and space to recreate a political movement, or simply the flow of thought, to cast a memory in film for us to think and recall.

The six films of Critics' Choice this year cover the 20th century, hopping from France in the World War I, to the student movement-stricken Japan; to find the ongoing revolution in Cuba and the White Terror in America; while a traveler is moving along the desolate border of West Germany, the Americans are going through an uprising in the mass media.

Sidney Lumet's Network has never been shown again in Hong Kong after the first screening. With great efforts, we finally get this precious chance to review it. You don't want to miss the Cuban director Humberto Solás' Lucía, which is a classic which video products cannot compare. To immerse in the artistic ambience of the silent film, I Accuse by Abel Gance from France is your choice. With live music accompaniment provided by Mr. Wong Yan-kwai and his friends, it is an exceptionally rare chance for film buffs as only two shows are available. The other well-chosen films like Oshima Nagisa's Night and Fog in Japan, Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront and Wim Wenders' Kings of the Road are undoubtedly the masterpieces of all time to many.

Last year, the workshop was so well-received that all four sessions were full. This year, the workshop consists of two parts and each part has three sessions. The first part will give an introduction to the interactive relationship between age and film in the evolution of history, followed by the second part on film appreciation in terms of film language and critic strategy. The workshop provides an opportunity to study besides viewing.

Film is the art of seeing. What a great experience we have to first connect novel to film, and now to age, enjoying the stroll on this road leading to the century-old form of art.

Let's embrace the cinematic pleasure and trace the foot steps of time.

Hong Kong Film Critics Society