Film review: The Mobfathers (選老頂)

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Directed by Herman Yau, the Mobfathers is based on the Hong Kong underworld and it is about the strife and veiled struggle between the underworld factions. 

Source from: http://image-7.verycd.com/e934ad9575e12c81efb4aaed1ae8fa7047257/%5B%E7%AD%89%E5%80%99%E8%91%A3%E5%BB%BA%E5%8D%8E%E5%8F%91%E8%90%BD%5DFrom+the+Queen+to+the+Chief+Executive.2001.DVDRip.X264.Cantonese%5B(118554)12-53-47%5D.JPG

In director signature. He good at shooting the film to reflect the social status of Hong Kong, such as “From the Queen to the Chief Executive” produced in 2001, the content of the story adapted from the Braemar Hill murders. During the colonial period, criminals under the age of 18 have been in need of waiting a system called At Her Majesty's pleasure, but in the face of the return of Hong Kong in 1997, there is no waiting deadline for those criminals, like being sentenced to life imprisonment. Herman Yau criticized the reality injustice of the system by film and depriving of the right of teenage criminals.

Peters (1981) mentioned a term called singular semiotic system, means every audiovisual text and concrete film produce its own unique code and it has the meaningful propositions and utterances. The Mobfathers, Herman Yau is using the dialogue and the visual text, to satire on the political system of Hong Kong. The film begins with the scenes of the underworld fighting each other, which is a typical stereotype of the underworld, but the director also subtly hinted at the theme of the film in this scene. ‘Unraveling a New Era’, the new era directed to the citizens want one person, one vote to elect the chief executive, rather than the small circle election, by the Chinese government decides of the chief executive candidates. The story from the beginning of the fight, at the same time, by the end of the fight. The new era of the film is driven by Chuck (Chapman To), but the ending implies the end of the new era.

The director wants to show the powerlessness of Hong Kong people in the film, just as the teenage criminals in From the Queen to the Chief Executive, waiting for one person one vote in the foreseeable future. The Mobfather (Anthony Wong) in the film represent the character of Chinese government. The main reason for the end of the new era is the false democracy of the Chinese government, reflects the darkness of Hong Kong politics. In the film, the Mobfather superficially promise to have one person, one vote, in fact, he actually controls everything and make the people fight each other. Apply to Hong Kong situation, since the umbrella movement, Hong Kong was divided into two batches of dissidents: yellow and blue ribbon, which against or support the government. In this film, Herman Yau talk about the small circle election, the most important thing is to imply the truth of “when the snipe and oyster fight, the fisherman who reaps the reward” (鷸蚌相爭，漁人得利), reflect the reality of injustice. He once said in an interview, ‘What is justice? There are some things you are watching because those things may be injustice.’ Different from other directors because he does not evade away from polities, so it has become a feature of his films. 

References:

1.    Peters, JM 1981, Pictorial Signs and the Language of Film, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 

2.    Tang, SW 2016, ‘Lousy movie also have humanistic care: Herman Yau shooting the film’, Standnews, 9 May, Available from: https://thestandnews.com/art/%E7%88%9B%E7%89%87%E4%B9%9F%E6%9C%89%E4%BA%BA%E6%96%87%E9%97%9C%E6%87%B7-%E9%82%B1%E7%A6%AE%E6%BF%A4%E6%8B%8D%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1/. [19 March 2017].