To Be Continued (2023) Spoiler-Free Summary – What It's About

At the heart of To Be Continued is filmmaker and campaigner Haider Kikabhoy, whose involvement in the 2016 grassroots effort to save Hong Kong’s State Theatre from demolition becomes the starting point for a much broader cultural investigation. What begins as a local preservation campaign opens into a search through the city’s collective memory, connecting the theatre’s uncertain future with the history that first gave it a place in Hong Kong’s imagination.

That history centers on Harry Odell, a stockbroker turned showman who founded the Empire Theatre in 1952, the original incarnation of the State Theatre. Odell’s life spans continents and generations: a Russian Jew born in Cairo, he served in France during the First World War and later fought for Hong Kong during the Second. His theatrical ambitions also helped introduce internationally celebrated performers to the city, including classical musicians, pop stars, and prominent Indian and Western acts. His legacy offers a vivid portrait of a city reshaping itself after the war.

Structured as two parallel journeys, the documentary follows Odell’s pursuit of a cultural enterprise and Kikabhoy’s effort to reconstruct a fragmented life through research and testimony. Family members, former colleagues, and recollections from the celebrated performer Rebecca Pan add intimate voices to the story, while experts in Hong Kong popular culture, music history, and military history provide wider context. Writer Fionnuala McHugh captures the film’s central idea when she describes it as “the story of one passion project that gave birth to another.” The tone is affectionate, reflective, and richly textured, inviting curiosity about how public spaces preserve private dreams—and how a city’s identity can endure through architecture, performance, and shared memory.