‘Many Hong Kong Film Awards winners in the last few years were films by new directors. Ten years ago, I thought that young people were useless. But in the last few years, I started to realise that they may actually be good. Times do change, and [young people] will change, too. This is their time now,’ he says. ‘Some talented people have been springing up. If they’re supported properly, there will be a whole generation to carry the torch.’

To’s films are very much rooted in the city and his background as a Hong Konger. He was one of the last commercial directors in Hong Kong to take up digital filmmaking and still speaks fondly about shooting on film. ‘These days, if anything goes wrong, it can be fixed in post-production. We didn’t have that in the past: once the film is developed, then that’s it…with the limitations we faced, we were able to shape very personal styles. Everything looks the same now,’ he says.

In 2008, To directed Sparrow, a love letter to old Hong Kong. The breezy caper follows a professional pickpocket who bikes around the city with an old Rolleiflex camera in his spare time. That city, To laments, is gradually being lost to redevelopment.

‘Why do we get rid of places that hold collective memories and have great historical value?’ he says. ‘The old train station in Tsim Sha Tsui shouldn’t have been destroyed. The same goes for the old Star Ferry pier and even the old HSBC building. These buildings reflect so much of Hong Kong’s history.’

For years, To has been developing a project about the notorious Kowloon Walled City, the overcrowded, lawless slum that he lived in when he was a child. (It was demolished in 1993.) ‘I want to bring that feeling back, so I’ll do [the project] when the time is right. Hong Kong will always be my favourite place.’