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/
Dear Wai-wang, The article provides a nice angle for reviewing the selected films. A couple of observations about how the 'old' Hong Kong is represented in the film could be found. Though more substantial evidence is required, some details are offered, making the arguments reasonable. A last remark is whether the film can be described as 'nostalgic'. You can make reference to the lecture on nostalgic films and see which 'sub-category' of nostalgic film 'Trivisa' belongs to. (Frankie)
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