Film review: Weeds on Fire點五步

Weeds on Fire(2016)Poster

Source:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5128712/

Weeds on Fire (WOF), directed by Chan Chi Fat, releasing in 2016, talks about the true story of the Sha Tin Martins, the first baseball team from Hong Kong to win a league match. WOF make use of the experience of Sha Tin Martins to introduce Hong Kong Spirit of Lion Rock of 70s-80s and reflect Hong Konger’s experience.

The story begins with Lu Kwong Fai, the principal of Kei Kok College, organize Sha Tin Martin, invite Tse Chi-lung and his classmates joining the baseball team. They practice a lot, argue a lot, but finally success in a league match because of their spirit: ‘never give up’ and ‘win together, lose together’. At the end of the film, Lung visits Admiralty Occupation Site during the Umbrella Movement and recalls the spirit of not giving up hopes despite of failures.

Weeds On Fire HKIFF Trailer
Source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VA_dtoAb5A&t=2s

Weeds on Fire is a sport movie. Sports movie always have ‘efforts that have tended towards inevitable generalization’ (Wood 2013).

The central and predominant element of sport movie would be a sports setting with some tough odds that the main characters need to face. The relationship of the athletes and how they tackle with the challenge would become the central matter of such genre. In WOF, the efforts of the characters help them to be strong and tackled their challenge. When the Sha Tin Martin faced the baseball champion of league match, they tried hard and gave efforts into practicing. They did not give up although they fell back in the competition. They also encouraged and helped each other. They were not aim at winning, just for ‘win together, lose together’. By using the story of Sha Tin Martin, it encourages the audience to step forward although it may not success.

WOF introduce the Hong Kong’s Lion-Rock spirit: ‘never give up’, ‘win together, lose together’ when the Lion-Rock spirit represents a lot of Hong Kongers’ memory. RTHK's 'Below the Lion Rock' drama series in 1970s made 'Lion Rock spirit' became one of the core values of Hong Kong and it also associated with Hong Konger's growth. According to Mark, 'In the same way a national anthem may bring a nationalist to tears and arouse certain feelings of pride and happiness, the theme song “Below the Lion Rock” does just that to some Hong Kongers.'( 2013) 

 At the beginning and the end scene of the movie, Chan Chi Fat also capture the 2015 Umbrella Movement in Admiralty. These credits are due to Chan Chi Fat’s experience, he tries to recall the past memory and cohere with the present audience. Memory is individual but collective, the collective memory can supplementary with each other and become an entire memory.

Source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdnWkfbHMOs

In WOF, Chan Chi Fat present many 70s-80s’ memory and living style. Chan Chi Fat had interviewed by RTHK (The Week 31 2016) and he said the scenes that shoot in public housing such as throwing water bomb, reading comics was his favorite hobbies when he was little. He hopes to resonate with the audiences who were also lived in public housing. Also, at the beginning and the end scene of WOF, Chan Chi Fat shoot the scene of 2015 Umbrella Movement. Umbrella Movement gave Hong Konger an unforgotten memory, this memory becomes part of Hong Kong as we all share similar feeling at that time. Chan Chi Fat bring this past memory to the audience by using WOF to recall and collect audiences’ memory to present his memory to the entire Hong Kong.

References

1.    Wood, D 2013, ‘Latin America at the (Sports) Movies: Winning, Losing and Playing in Rudo y Cursi and En tres y dos’, Bulletin of Spanish Studies, vol. 90, no. 8, pp. 1357-1375. Available from: Taylor & Francis Group: Routledge. [21 March 2017].

2.    《視點31》《點五步》導演陳志發【我視點】（RTHK31：23/8/2016）2016 (video file), Available from: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdnWkfbHMOs >. [24 March 2017].

3.  Mak, SYT 2013. 'Everyday Imaginings Under the Lion Rock: An Analysis of Identity Formation in Hong Kong.' UC Santa Cruz: Politics.Available from: < http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/6dd1s8sj>.