Sunday 2 April 2017
Movie review
In 1990s, the series of Young and Dangerous is very famous in the whole asian movie industry, because in that period of time, their budget, unique style of filming and the story structure are in very high level. As a same time, the story might somehow discover or reflecting the secrete of Hong Kong underworld which increase more people attention. However, once the series ended, the genre of the major movie industry changed from the mob film to the police procedural.
Therefore, I am going to choose the recent Hong Kong mob film, Mobfathers, as my film review topic.
Mobfathers is directed by Herman Yau and released in Hong Kong on 31 March 2016. It can be listed as the independent film. When compare to the series of Young Dangerous, Mobfathers is very low cost production. The starring is Chapman To who is the actor that always expressing his personal opinion and political philosophy, in 2014 he supports Umbrella Revolution on Facebook which made the China Government upset and designed to block every single movie that he film to released on China. And I believed that, duo to the small budget and the whole production is not related to any China production studio, the director can able to express his own feeling freely, the topic and the meaning behind of the movie can be no restriction.
The story of the Mobfathers is very straight forward. The five leading gangs have to nominate three candidates to elect the Mobfather of the underworld, therefore the three candidates have to maximum their power by any means to gain the trust of the leading gangs, and hope at the end of the election, they can be the elected by the five leading gangs. When I watch the movie, I am focus on the details of the script more than the story line, because I believed that this movie is somehow reflecting the nowadays Hong Kong situation. In Hong Kong, as the candidates of the chief executive have to gain trust by the 150 nominations from the 1200-member Election Committee, in the movie, when the five leading gangs discuss who should be the mobfather, they said, they have the absolute power to control who can be elected, and who are the people to "accompany the run", which is very similar to the Hong Kong situation, normal Hong Kong citizen do not have the right to nominate the them, not to say to vote for the chief executive. and most of the Hong Kong people would believed that the Hong Kong chief executive is controlled by the China government, and they have the absolute power to eject the those they do not like, just like the mobfather in the movie. At the end of the movie, Chapman To gave out a speech to request every single member of the gang have the right to vote for the mobfather. To me, it is a symbolic scene that create a hope for Hong Kong people to have a equal opportunity to vote for the Chief executive
10557416
Choi Yat Sing
Friday 31 March 2017
《樹大招風》2016
The film “Trivisa” is a movie that was
released in 2016, is a film which is filmed by three different directors
separately; who are Frank Hui, Jevons Au and Vicky Wong. They
have filmed three different stories, and are
later edited and combined into one movie, adding a bit more uniqueness to the
movie. “Trivisa” is distinguished as a gangster film, which many people will think the
content will be full of gunfire and fighting scenes, including me. But it turns
out to be more literate, action scenes only account for a minority, the film
focus more on the description on the characters, and the plight they are
facing. The movie carries a deeper meaning presents to the audience.
The film is about the story of three real-life
mobsters in Hong Kong who are Kwai Ping-hung, Yip Kai Foon and Cheung
Tze-keung. They were being called the kings during their heyday. The
film does not take a long time to mention about their remarkable crimes,
instead, it just slightly use a few scenes to let the audience have a clear
concept of what serious crimes had the three mobsters done, and their
personality. What it focuses on is the follow up stories after they have
committed serious crimes. In the movie, Yip Kwok-foon has become a businessman
right away as he realize robbery cannot be a long-term source of money, he
figures out that smuggling electronics are able to earn a huge profit,
therefore he starts his company and join the industry. However, in order to let
things go well, Yip has to bribe the high Chinese officials, and has to flatter
them. This reflects the critical corruption between the merchant and the officials
in China.
Moreover, the film place the setting in 1997,
right before the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong, therefore the costumes,
the props and the inner decorations of the houses are set to match the 1990s, which
may arouse people’s collective memories. Collective memory is what people who
live in the same area have in mind together, “It is in society that people
normally acquire their memories. It is also in society that they recall,
recognize, and localize their memories” (Halbwachs 1992, p. 38). The film may remind
the audience some of the memories that they might already forgotten, such as
the mobile phones, the cassette tape, the computers; all are turned into the
old form, reflecting how the era has changed so rapidly.
In the movie, realizing the transfer of
sovereignty of Hong Kong is coming closer, Cheuk
Tze-keung the kidnapper wants to cooperate with the other two mobsters to
plan a final hit, before Hong Kong is returning to her motherland. The other
two agree to participate, but unfortunately (or fortunately), they end up
failing to achieve the goal because all of them are being caught by the police
and public security at the end. They all have suffered a dismal ending. The film
uses this as a metaphor, reflecting the development of Hong Kong after the
reunification is over the hill, no matter how well it has done before; Hong
Kong can rarely returns to her best condition under the control of China. And also
the Hong Kong citizens feel discouraged when it comes across with the nomocracy and democracy being challenged.
Miss those good old days.
Reference:
Sills, D. L. (1968). International encyclopedia of the social sciences. Available
from https://sociology.virginia.edu/sites/sociology.virginia.edu/files/galecm.pdf
[31 March, 2017]
Soul Mate (2016)
(source: https://goo.gl/5zYuZq)
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| (source: https://goo.gl/JhlcAg) |
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| (source: https://goo.gl/Z66Lvt) |
The genre of Soul mate undoubtedly lies on romantic and teen film. This kind of film especially appealing to the taste of Hong Kong audience, as we can see the big hit of You Are The Apple of My Eyes and A Little Happiness in Hong Kong. However, rarely did these big hits are produced by Hong Kong producers or directors. As for Soul Mate, local producer Peter Chan together with Hong Kong director Derek Tsang, it is one of a few teen films that draw the attention of audience across Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. Although the film is not set locally in Hong Kong, memories of audience surely flush back on their mind; an unforgettable friendship with their best friends, the first love in high school, all these attributes bring audience back in time to their teen age. It explains why the film is popular among the young adults. Soul Mate is the second films that directed by Derek Tsang. His first work Lover’s Discourse did not give audience a strong impression on his directing style, but Soul Mate definitely give surprises movie lovers.
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| (source: https://goo.gl/ZDGgdK) |
Music is another element that can highlight the plots of the film. According to Sfetcu (2014), ‘the most common type of music heard on a film soundtrack, is music composed and placed to enhance the desire emotions of a scene, be it positive or negative. The original song of this film Soul Mate is played alongside at the beginning the movie, it act as an indicator to bring the audience into the emotions, to feel the ironic but emotional of the friendship between Ansheng and Qiyue.
All in all, Soul Mate is a film to guide you back in time, to bring up all your emotion.
Man Siu Ting
Film Review: Trivisa (樹大招風)
Film Review: Trivisa (樹大招風)
Trivisa is a crime film that based on three notorious criminals, Kwai Ping-hung, Yip Kai-foon and Cheung Tze-keung in Hong Kong history, their lives' before the handover of Hong Kong to China in early 1997.
The three main characters are not just representing the three real
notorious criminals, but also about the age they lived in, the good old days of
Hong Kong. The great economic achievement and social statues of Hong Kong under
the British government ruled.
Before the handover of Hong Kong, the image of mainlanders in
Hong Kong people mind had shown in the film. People from different provinces of
mainland trying to earn a lot of money through illegal or despicable ways. Also, we can see the Chinese officers are
corrupted. People can bribe government officers to solve problems
Before the handover of Hong Kong, the image of mainlanders in
Hong Kong people mind had shown in the film. People from different provinces of
mainland trying to earn a lot of money through illegal or despicable ways. Also, we can see the Chinese officers are
corrupted. People can bribe government officers to solve problems
This film also reflected some social situation of Hong Kong. Kwai,
one of the main character, shown the fear about the Chinese government of Hong
Kong people. In one of the scenes, Kwai went to the gun shop to buy guns, the
gun seller told him that 'You better to do something splendid before the handover,
after its happened, you can't even feed yourself, fool!' This is the fear of
Hong Kong people view about the handover of Hong Kong to China, the different
systems and styles rules of Chinese government would totally change the society
that people were used to live in.
Yip,
the other main character, representing the Hong Kong businessmen went back to
mainland and started their business in mainland in 80s and 90s. In the movie,
Yip needed to face a complete different government system in China, businessmen
needed to bribe the government officers by gifts and money to make their business
go earlier, every problems could be solved if you were able to bribe the
relevant government officers. Yip felt hard to adopt and exhausted when he deal
with those Chinese officers.
In the past, the mainland people came to
Hong Kong look for opportunities to earn money, HongKongers through that they
were more superior than mainlanders. But the position had changed, now the Hong
Kong people went back to mainland to look for opportunities. Now the
mainlanders looked themselves more superior than HongKongers and tried to
suppress the Hong Kong people like they done before. For Yip, he could not
accept that he was now at a inferior position, so when the policeman called him
'Da Lu Li', he went mad and picked up his gun.
Are you also feel difficult to adopt those changes of Hong Kong like the characters in the film?
Reference
Chandler, D 1997, An introduction to genre theory, ResearchGate. Available from: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/chandler_genre_theory.pdf. [30 March 2017].
Ndiuao Gvhs 2017, 樹大招風 2017 - 动作片 - 電影 線上 看, online video, Feb 3, viewed 31 March 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ2aZaYdB2I
蒼山風 2016, 樹大招風：三大賊王「眾志」不成 今天的墓誌銘?, blog, Apr 12, viewed 31 March 2017, https://www.thestandnews.com/art/%E6%A8%B9%E5%A4%A7%E6%8B%9B%E9%A2%A8-%E5%BD%B1%E8%A9%95-%E4%B8%89%E5%A4%A7%E8%B3%8A%E7%8E%8B-%E7%9C%BE%E5%BF%97-%E4%B8%8D%E6%88%90-%E4%BB%8A%E5%A4%A9%E7%9A%84%E5%A2%93%E8%AA%8C%E9%8A%98/
Film review: The Mobfathers (選老頂)
The Mobfathers was directed by Herman Yau.
Honestly, more than half of Herman’s product would have a decent beginning but
not ending and “The Mobfathers” can’t be the exception, the ending provided a
sharp cut feeling to and ‘there should have something more to say’ to the
audience.
However, this review is not going to
challenge the plot or else. I would like to focus deeper, something behind the scene:
The confusion about the identity of Hong Kong citizens.
If you watch the film once or go to search
the review about Mobfather, you can easily notice that the film was making a satire
to reflect the political situation of Hong Kong which Hong Kong do not have the
general election. But who can represent Hong Kong people during the film? Some
may say Anthony Wong represent the Communist Party, Chapman To and Gregory Wong
represent to the Candidate of Chief Executive, other gangs represent to the
Hong Kong citizens. But in my opinion, both of them are representing Hong Kong
citizens.
During the film, Ar Chuck (Chapman To) and Wulf
(Gregory Wong) represent a type of Hong Kong citizens that they can hold the
power, they would like put efforts on it and chase it. But they never know that
what they chase just an illusion.
The Godfather (Anthony Wong) would
represent another type that HongKongers but using the mindset of Chinese
government, they would like to making chaos between the opponents to stabilize the
regime. And the end of the film we can see the Godfather suffer the bad result
when he done his “mission”. So, in my point of view,
The Godfather represent the “prefix with
love” (愛字頭). A group that believe themselves very powerful, but fall quickly
when their mission is done.
The three uncles (天叔、地叔、人叔) just represent the typical Hong Kong people, they don’t care who
rule but what they “jetso” they can gain during the fight. They know what position
they stand would have the greatest benefit and safe. They
always under ruling. (just like 天叔 said 「一人之下既無奈係好Ｌ冇癮的」) but they won’t do
anything to against it. If you help me to against? Welcome, but I won’t provide
any help.
The film provides a feeling with all lose
at the end, Chuck and Wulf dead with their war, The Godfather dead after he
finish his mission, the gangs followed Chuck and Wulf fall down a lot, the
uncles gained benefit but nothing change because the structure hold still. The
only good end maybe is Luke, he decided leave Hong Kong with his daughter. Perhaps
Herman wanted to tell us that stay in Hong Kong is a dead end, until you leave? The confusion between compromise and conflict, Left to the audience.
Ng Chung Yip (10551048 / 21860711)
Reference
Bond, M.H. (1987). Intergroup
relations in Hong Kong: The Tao of stability. In
J. Boucher, D. Landis, & K. Arnold (Eds), Ethnic conflict:
International
perspectives, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
陳家樂、朱立. (2008). 《無主之城 – 香港電影中的九七回歸與港人認同》. 香港.: 天地圖書有限公司
陳家樂 (2011). 《香港電影、電視及新媒體研究》.
香港.: 天地圖書有限公司
Film Review: Trivisa (樹大招風)
Source: 第19屆校園記者：許學文拍樹大招風 呼應社會
The film, Trivisa, created
from the story of HK’s ‘Three thieves’ kings’, Cheung Tze Keung, Yip Kai Foon
and Kwai Ping Hung, it was filmed by three different director and put together
under one producer. The movie’s title, ‘Trivisa’, means the three kinds of
troubles in Buddhism: greed, anger and delusion, each of the major character in
the film represented one trouble, which are also the most common problems
happened to Hongkonger when facing
changes.
Although the film seems
to be a biography of the three thieves, it is actually about the impact on Hongkonger when changes happened in HK in the 90s and
how they use different methods to grab everything they can before the changes happen.
The ideas of ‘change’ is obvious by the TV news clip showed at the beginning
and the end of the movie, it also mentioned the promise on HK to remain unchanged
for 50 years, when link to the changes and uncertainty appeared in HK recently,
making this film has a deeper meaning in political and society under its
biography cover.
In the film, Yip faced several difficulties after a
successful heist, forcing him to quit being a robber and become a smuggler, but
when he felt being insulted by Chinese governors and betrayed by some Chinese,
he can’t hold the anger and returned being a robber. This part showed the
reality that even the talented in HK have to bow before the Chinese in order to
adapt to changes and to earn for themselves. The end of Yip’s story is also
demonstrating another social issue happening in HK, which is the tightening of
China-Hong Kong relationships and local xenophobia.
The other
thief, Cheung, his story is not closely related to social issues in HK, but the
song he sing in the movie indicated some thoughts of Hongkonger. The first song
is Jacky Cheung’s ‘’, which means ‘how could I not regret of letting
you go’. This song is indicating the
thoughts that many Hongkonger are regretting about why they would let HK return
to China in 90s, as they are now suffer much when adapting and living under
China’s rule. The ending credit song is a new version of Kenny Bee’s’’, which
means ‘let everything pass away with wind’, this also telling the audience it’s
time to stop looking back (before 1997) and make another step forward.
Source: action
still from Trivisa
Kwai, the
last thief, his story shows the fear deep inside every Hongkonger when facing
changes. In his story, the gun seller said, ”You better do it before the reunification,
once it happens, you can’t even feed yourself!” (就係未落來先要做，落左來嚟呀，飯都唔畀你吃呀!) This is a typical fear in Hongkongers mind when
talk about the reunification before it. They fear of losing everything they
once own, they fear they won’t be adapt the new environment, and they fear that
their time has gone.
Source: action still from Trivisa
Another
important point in the film is the only place that the three thieves show in the
same scene, which is the restaurant ‘Fong Moon Lau’ (風滿樓). The
name was taken from a poem written in Tang Dynasty, the whole sentence should
be “The dark clouds have just floated on the edge of the stream, and the sunset
has sunk past the pavilion. The rain is coming, and the wind is whispering in
the whole house.” (溪雲初起日沈閣，山雨欲來風滿樓。) It means that the situation is already changing
before you can notice. This point out the topic once again, which is changes
and its impact to Hongkonger and raise a question that could suit the recent
situation of hongkongers:
Would you accept and adapt the changes or refuse it and do
something?
References:
Chen Xiaoyun and Zhang Qingmin 2016, 第19屆校園記者：許學文拍樹大招風 呼應社會 , picture, Ming Pao Canada, Richmond B.C, viewed 31 March 2017,http://www.mingpaocanada.com/van/htm/News/20160715/HK-gfg1_r.htm
DAI MO Mok 2014, 怎麼捨得你mv, online video, 2 July, viewed 31 March 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TET2lZeyS2o
Hong Kong Economic Journal Company Limited 2016, 文憑試衝刺10︰中港矛盾, Hong Kong Economic Journal Company Limited, viewed 31 March 2017, http://iknow.hkej.com/php/article.detail.php?aid=21009
MM@DBC.HK 2014, 【許諾。三十年】《中英聯合聲明》簽署三十周年, online video, 19 December, viewed 31 March 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR_Jg36X7ww
2007, 鍾鎮濤 - 讓一切隨風, online video, 2 July, viewed 31 March 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mmm-XvqEUA
Film Review: Kidnap Ding Ding Don (綁架丁丁當)
(Broadway Circuit 2016)
Release date: June 23, 2016
Director: Chin,
Kwok Wai, Wilson
Starring: Alex Fong
Ivana Wong
Kabby Hui
Bill Chan
Mimi Kung
Hui Shiu Hung
Mimi Chu
Elena Kong
Bob Lam
Emily Kwan
Alycia Chan
Ivana Wong
Kabby Hui
Bill Chan
Mimi Kung
Hui Shiu Hung
Mimi Chu
Elena Kong
Bob Lam
Emily Kwan
Alycia Chan
Run
time: 97 minutes
Class: IIB
“Kidnap Ding Ding Don” (綁架丁丁當) is a Hong Kong localised film, directed by Chin, Kwok Wai, Wilson.
The story is about an amnesia police, Don (played by Alex Fong) wake up in a
village house and found a girl who is tied by someone. The girl calls Ding Ding
(played by Ivana Wong) and she is very capricious. She cheats Don that he is
the kidnapper; and then threatens him to continue the kidnapping, to get
attention from her dad. The film genre is belonging comedy, but it is
meaningful that involves many affections, between the father and daughter,
husband and wife, man and woman.
The film is very localised and full of Hong
Kong people’s collective memory. It is about some memories that have been
recalled, recognised and localised (Halbwachs 1992, p. 38). For example, the
name of film “Ding Don”. On the surface, it includes the main actor and
actress’s name, Ding and Don. However, it is meaningful to Hong Kong people
that “Ding Don” also stands for a famous cartoon character. In Hong Kong, “Doraemon”
was translated to “Ding Don” in the early period. Each Hong Kong people ever
watched and knew about this cartoon. In the film, the actor’s head has a “Ding
Don” potion tape, which is affixed by the actress. This prop is appeared in the
plot again and again, till the film end. Here, the prop becomes iconography, “a
familiar stock of images or motifs” and it involves the fixed connotations (Chandler
1997). It can represent the relationship between actor and actress still
together, just like the relationship between Nobita and Doraemon.
Another connotation of the name is about
the character setting of the actress. Ding Ding can represent Nobita, it is a
never grow up character, always rely on Doraemon. It just like Ding Ding, she
still not grows up, very capricious; and hopes to gain her father’s love. She
plays a kidnapping game to attract her father’s attention.
Furthermore, the neighbours’ relationship
is very close in this film. It is about Hong Kong people’s nostalgic
imagination and collective memory. The director tries to create a “social
framework”, and then, place some individual thought and the collective memory of
it (Halbwachs 1992, p. 38). In the film, the background is a village in Sai
Kung. The community is very small; the neighbours are easy to get in touch with each other. The co-stars are very outstanding, the gossipy housewives, played
by Mimi Chu and Elena Kong; the Indonesian Maid, Juliana; and the owner of a food
stall. All the characters are living very close, especially the housewives
always gossiping the things happened in the village. For example, Mimi Chu and
Elena Kong have ever gone to the Ding Ding’s house, to search the gossip news.
Also, they ever invited Ding and Don to have dinner together.
This detailed
information is sculpted a very familiar plot in the past Hong Kong society. It
was trying to shape a close relationship between neighbours, just like “The
House of 72 Tenants”. It provides an image to audiences that the neighbours’
relationship is very close in the past, and some old Hong Kong village will
keep this habit, like neighbours will invite each other to have dinner. It
actually happens in the old generation, which is their collective memory.
References
Broadway Circuit 2016, Kidnap Ding Ding Don, image. Available from:
www.cinema.com.hk/en/movie/details/8965. [26 March 2017].
Chandler, D 1997, An introduction to genre theory, ResearchGate. Available from:
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/chandler_genre_theory.pdf. [30
March 2017].
Kidnap Ding Ding Don 2016, Kidnap Ding Ding Don Official Hong Kong
Trailer HD 1080, YouTube video, 24 August. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEkFjJQN59o.
[26 March 2017].
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