35 Millimeters

35 Millimeters (Cantonese: 三五毫米 Jyutping: saam1 ng5 hou4 mai5) is a 2008 Hong Kong machinima monster thriller film directed by Herbie Hill and co-produced by Julien Abegglen. Produced through the machinima technique of recording actions in, the film features the voices of , and  and tells the story of a group of young adults who are filming their own 35mm film when a train derails, releasing a dangerous presence into their town.

35 Millimeters premiered in Hong Kong's Underground Animation Festival on May 18, 2008, and was released theatrically by on May 20. The American release followed by and  on May 25, in conventional and IMAX theaters in the United States. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its nostalgic elements, visual effects, musical score and for the performances of the cast, in particular, both Chan and Wong's actings were cited, featuring a darker interpretation of those iconic premises. 35 Millimeters was also a commercial success, grossing over $260 million against a $50 million budget. The film received several awards and nominations, primarily in sound and special effects categories, Mak and Lam's musical scores, as well as for Chan and Wong's performances.

Plot
One night in November 2004, the recruits haze Private Leung Ip-To with a blanket party, in which Private Poon Pui-Ham reluctantly participates. Following this, Leung seems to reinvent himself as a model recruit, showing particular expertise in marksmanship. This pleases the drill instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Wong Chun-Fung, but worries Poon, who believes Leung may be suffering a mental breakdown after catching Leung talking to his rifle while the recruits are cleaning them one night.

Two months and a year later after Poon was discharged from the army, his friend Lo Ho-Yin is making a zombie movie for a 35mm film competition. He enlists Poon's help along with friends Preston Hung, Martin Wong and Cary Chan, as well as Kwan Chui-Yin, the daughter of television presenter Kwan Wang-Kei. Though their fathers were opposed to their friendship, Poon and Kwan become close.

While filming at a train depot at midnight, a train approaches and a pickup truck rams the train head-on, derailing it and destroying the depot. The young adults are separated in the chaos. Poon sees the door of a train wagon violently thrown off. The young adults regroup and find crates of strange white cubes amid the wreckage before discovering the truck driver to be their biology teacher Dr. Reginald Freeman. Barely alive, he warns them at gunpoint to forget what they have seen. They flee as a convoy from the local Air Force base, led by Colonel Liao Zhelan, arrives. Liao finds an empty 35mm film box.

In the following days the town experiences strange events; the dogs run away, several townspeople go missing, the electrical power fluctuates, and electronic items are stolen. Deputy Jason Poon Chiu-Lung approaches Liao but Liao has him arrested and orders flamethrowers to start a wildfire as an excuse to evacuate the residents to the base. Poon and Lo watch their derailment footage and see that a large creature escaped the train. Liao confronts Freeman in a military hospital for information about the creature, but when Freeman rebukes him, Liao has him killed.

Kwan's father, Kwan Kwun-Wa, tells Poon the creature has abducted her. Poon, Lo, Martin, and Cary persuade Wilma, Lo's older sister, to flirt with Danny so he can get them into town to rescue Kwan. Breaking into Dr. Freeman's trailer they find documents and a film from his time as a government researcher.

The film reveals the Air Force captured an alien when it crash-landed in June 1981, and experimented on it while withholding its ship composed of the strange white cubes, allowing it to shape-shift. The alien had established a psychic connection with Freeman, convincing him to help it escape Earth, but Liao sabotaged, discredited, and discharged Freeman. Liao captures the kids but the alien kills Liao and the airmen, allowing the kids to escape. Poon escapes and agrees with Ng Ho-Yuen to put their differences aside to save their kids.

The military attacks the alien but their hardware goes haywire in its presence, resulting in significant collateral damage. Poon and Cary find a massive tunnel system under the town. The missing townfolk, including Kwan, are hanging unconscious from the ceiling of a cavern where the alien is creating a device from the stolen electronics attached to the base of the water tower. Using firecrackers as a distraction, Poon frees Kwan and the others. The alien grabs Poon, who quietly speaks to it, saying "bad things happen" but that it "can still live". The alien allows them to return to the surface.

Everyone watches as metal objects from all over town are pulled to the top of the tower by an unknown force. The white cubes reassemble as the spaceship and, as the alien enters it, the locket in Poon's pocket is drawn toward the tower. After a moment, he lets it go, completing the ship. As the ship rises into space, Poon takes Kwan's hand.

The detective-zombie short film the young adults were making in 35mm rolls runs at the end of the film beside the credit roll. In it, Lo asks for his short film The Substitute (替代品 tai3 doi6 ban2) to be picked for a local film festival before being attacked by Kwan as a zombie.

Voice cast

 * as Poon Pui-Ham (潘培咸)
 * as Kwan Chui-Yin (關翠賢)
 * as Lo Ho-Yin (盧浩然)
 * as Cary Chan Hiu-Wai (陳曉偉)
 * as Preston Hung Wing-Nam (洪永南)
 * as Martin Wong Yim-Lung (黃炎龍)
 * as Deputy Jason Poon Chiu-Lung (潘朝龍)
 * as Kwan Kwun-Wa (關觀華)
 * as Wilma Lo Fung-Yi (盧鳳儀)
 * as Jay Ng Ho-Yuen (吳浩源)
 * Herbie Hill as Danny
 * Alan Li Kam-Lun as Private Leung Ip-To (梁一圖) and Gunnery Sergeant Wong Chun-Fung (黃振峰)
 * as Colonel Liao Zhelan (廖哲瀾)
 * Joel Hussain as Dr. Reginald Freeman