In Hong Kong and Macau, four gamblers take us on a journey into the world of winners and losers created by a culture of speculation, addiction and debt.

Gambling has long been part of Chinese life, but, with a society increasingly divided by rich and poor, an obsession with winning easy money has intensified, with more and more people pinning their hopes on games of luck and fortune.

Through personal stories High/Low reveals an emotional search for belief and identity in money-centric modern China.

The world collides in Chungking Mansions. As perhaps the most diversely populated building on earth it is a paradise of multi-culturalism and low-end globalisation, uniquely belonging to no one and everyone. For years the building has been notorious both as a refuge for petty criminals and illegal immigrants, and for its unsanitary living conditions. Yet it exists as a perfect example of a city as an organic mega-structure, flexible enough to fulfill every need from religion to water supply, while providing an alternative to conventional space, culture and time. What is fascinating here, besides all the shortcomings, is that Chungking somehow succeeds, continuously evolving to accommodate the hopes of those that find themselves drawn there.

My film Chungking Dreams takes us into the heart of this Pandora's box, isolating characters and scenes from the myriad of options that exist layer on layer in the building, taking us into their most inner spaces and reflecting on a world in which we all have to fight for the space to live out our dreams.