Who Runs 300 Kilometres of Hong Kong Hiking Trails in Less Than 72 Hours? These People

Robin Lee needs a better suit.

Not on this humid evening in late March – but he’ll need better duds for the upcoming 43rd Hong Kong Film Awards, where he’s in the running for best new director and best editing for his first feature documentary Four Trails (香港四徑大步走) about the Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge (HK4TUC). He’s up against filmmakers whose films landed with a bigger splash, among them Jill Leung Lai-yin (Last Song for You), Ho Miu-ki (Love Lies), Albert and Herbert Leung (Stuntman), and Thomas Lee and Daniel Ho (An Abandoned Team). But few are bigger underdogs than Four Trails, which earned a slot at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, after Lee won the specially created Executive Committee Special Prize from the Hong Kong Film Director’s Guild in March.

Lee’s recollection of that evening starts with his mistaken belief the event was a low-key, almost casual affair, perfect for a little professional mingling. He was quickly disabused of the low-key part of the night when he turned up to find a red carpet, 40 media snapping photos and a guest wall to sign. Things got even more surreal when superstar Chow Yun-fat (an avid hiker) took the stage to talk about how personally moved he was by Four Trails and how much he loved the film. Lee was in attendance with a representative of the film’s distributor, Edko, who did some quick translation and then, “She just said, ‘You have to go up now.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ And then I hear Chow say, ‘Robin Lee.’ I was terrified,” Lee describes with a laugh. 

The evening went by in a blur of hand-shaking as Lee met his filmmaking peers: Jack Ng, Soi Cheang, a flurry of actors. He still feels a little bit awed by the experience. “Chow gave me the floor and I bumbled my way through something,” he chuckles with a shake of the head. “I didn’t know what to say. I was hot. There’s a video of it and I’m never watching it again. It’s terrible. It was a shock, but obviously, I was so grateful.” Lee was wearing a casual jacket with black trousers then. That won’t work at the HKFA on April 27.

Four Trails has turned into the little documentary that could since it premiered at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival in October 2023. Originally scheduled to hit theatres the following December, and then January, like so many film releases these days it faced a string of delays until it finally arrived in cinemas in December 2024, when Edko decided to experiment with a series of special screenings. It started with five, which sold out completely, prompting Edko to add five more shows, which also sold out. The distributor bumped the number to 10 and got the same response. 

The frenzy seemed to die down around Christmas, but then the lunar new year holiday drew crowds that finally had time to spare – and heard about a celebrity endorsement. “We got a bit of a boost from Chow Yun-fat watching it too. And we had the highest attendance of any film over CNY,” says Lee. After that the 2025 edition of the actual race in January stoked interest yet again. It’s still in cinemas even now and it’s become the year’s strongest word-of-mouth hit, earning HK$8.9 million so far. It’s also a surprise hit because few would have thought a self-funded film about trail running could be so gripping.

It goes without saying Four Trails has been popular among hikers and runners, but its broader success stems from its crossover appeal. “That’s something I’m really, really happy about,” says Lee. “I always wanted to edit the film in a way that could appeal to anyone. I didn’t want it just to be sport enthusiasts; I wanted it to be grander, especially seeing other documentaries like it doing so well.” He cites sports docs like Free Solo, chronicling Alex Hannold’s attempt to scale El Capitan rope-free, and 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible, which tracks Nepalese mountaineer Nirmal Purja’s attempt to summit the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 metres in a few months, as examples. 

Above all, however, is the emotional chord the film seems to be striking, with audiences once again embracing local culture; the same emotion that powered The Last Dance and Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In to record receipts last year. Lee describes viewers and critics at post-screening Q&As as marvelling at how they’ve never seen Hong Kong rendered on screen the way Lee did. “I really liked going to all these screenings and speaking to non-runners and having them tell me how the film has affected them,” he says. “That’s nothing I ever really thought the film could do.”

Four Trails chronicles the Covid-constrained 2021 edition of the world-renowned HK4TUC. The gruelling race demands participants complete the MacLehose, Wilson, Hong Kong and Lantau trails, spanning nearly 300 kilometres, within 72 hours – without stopping. Runners are deemed Survivors if they finish within that time and Finishers if they beat 60 hours. For 2021, founder Andre Blumberg gathered an all-star field including favourites Stone Tsang Siu-keung and Salomon Wettstein; late entry dark horse Jacky Leung Chun-keung; quipster Hyun-chang Chung; Law Kai-pong, who had suffered an knee injury just weeks before; Sarah Pemberton, the youngest runner; Nikki Han, the first woman to ever finish the race; and Tom Robertshaw, the record-holder at the time. Tsang challenged himself to finish within 50 hours — to “break 50” — previously unheard of.

Lee is a filmmaker by trade if not training. Despite the British accent, fair hair and light eyes, Lee is a local Hongkonger, born and bred in the city he’s called home all his life, with the exception of a few years at the University of Birmingham studying sport science and engineering. His first love, however, was skiing, which wound up being his back door into filmmaking. “I picked up a camera because I filmed myself skiing,” he says. As a regular consumer of ski films, Lee replied to Denver-based Level 1 Productions open call for new shooters in 2014 and his career kicked off when the company chose him. He spent the next few years learning the trade as well as travelling the world filming sport shorts, eventually also working in branded content for the likes of The North Face, Hoka One One, and directing rugby docs and music videos.

His path to the HK4TUC started after Lee got home from a ski assignment. “I missed the mountains and I wanted to do more filming. My older brother started trail running around the same time, so I thought why don’t we just go out and film [him] running in the mountains,” he says. He produced a few five-minute shorts and then got an introduction to Blumberg. The result was the first HK4TUC 40-minute doc, Breaking 60 in 2017, which Blumberg floated a sequel to, pivoting on breaking 50. He asked Lee if he’d like to head back to the trail and his answer was a flat no. “It would have been the same thing,” he recalls saying. But regular chats and frequent contact gave Lee the chance to hear about all the other goals and runners, and he found a film that did interest him in those conversations: repeat runners who just wanted to finish, runners who barely made the cut-off one year and were trying again, colourful characters pushing personal limits, and everyday people just trying to get through 72 hours. “That’s the story,” he concluded. “It’s not about records.” 

Lee reeled in other filmmakers and technicians he knew when he needed help — he photographed, produced, edited, wrote, interviewed and sound mixed as well as directed — and got to work. The finished product is an engaging mix of documentary, travelogue, thriller and character study that Lee edited together into a compelling narrative over the course of two years. He had help from friends and family; he sent out clips for feedback even though he already knew where he wanted to go, at least in his head. Leung’s surprise victory forms the backbone of the film and is really what keeps the viewing experience so vivid; he literally comes out of nowhere. Unsurprisingly, Four Trails is a bit thin with regard to Leung’s profile but Lee doesn’t think that’s a negative. Somewhere along the way everyone in the race recognised something special was happening and that Leung might be the one to break 50. 

He remembers filming a conversation between reporter Mark Agnew and two other runners. “They were talking about Jacky [Leung],” he recalls. “I knew I needed to film it, but I honestly I couldn’t remember why. Later when I was watching that footage, I thought ‘Man I’m so happy I recorded that.’ I didn’t know the significance of it at the time. I’ve often been asked: Do you regret not having [Jacky’s] story? And I think not really, because the surprise is his story.”

All of which goes a long way to explaining why Four Trails is still connecting with audiences. The thriller element creates the momentum but it’s also a chronicle of the process in a uniquely Hong Kong event, and lets the participants — which present a diverse cross-section of Hongkongers — be serious, spiritual or irreverent as they see fit. “Chang had us in stitches for his entire interview,” finishes Lee, as he readies to go out suit shopping with his fiancée. “But the point was to have a range of characters, enough so that it doesn’t matter who you are as a viewer. You are going to relate to one of them.”

Four Trails is playing in limited release. Refer to Broadway Circuit for details.