水泥地里种花: Hong Kong Cinema & the Youth

September 27, 2023 Lee Peng Ming

(transl. Planting Flowers in Concrete. it evokes the idea of blooming through the impossible.)

Head Programmer Lee Peng Ming provides an honest and raw outlook on the portrayals of youth within Hong Kong in more recent films. He puts forward his recommendations, ratings, and reviews.

The films mentioned below are the films that I first proposed for the discussion on Hong Kong films about youths. However, after taking accessibility into consideration, the programmers and I decided to look at other films that are more digestible, such as Wong Kar Wai’s Happy Together (1997), my all-time favourite, Fruit Chan’s Made in Hong Kong (1997), Johnnie To’s Election (2005), Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs (2002), and lastly, Stanley Kwan’s Rouge (1987). One could say that these films are Hong Kong cinema at its finest — they are all from Hong Kong cinema’s Golden Era. They show the different facets of Hong Kong youth across different eras, from 1930s British Colonial Hong Kong to 1997 Hong Kong before the handover, and the youth in the early 2000s.

However, in this recommended watching list, I would like to extend our attention to the portrayal of youths in the late 2010s and early 2020s, when Hong Kong’s Generation Z went down to the streets in protest after their democratic freedom was threatened. The statement I made above might invalidate or decontextualize the previous social movements of Hong Kong since the 60s, but I think the films chosen below can be another lens or mirror to reflect on our current relationship with society. Why do they want to protest on the streets? What are their demands in these social movements? What would I do if I were in their shoes? Is protest needed? Why do they occupy the public space?...

There are a lot of questions to ask, both to them and to ourselves. I don’t mean to spectacularize their struggles or their agony, and I cannot override the boundary of the subject; as I am not a Hong Konger, I cannot share their pain. However, when watching these films, we are connecting and conversing with these HKers on a certain, intimate level. It forces us to reflect on our own position and relationship with the place in this current era.

Blue Island 憂鬱之島 (2022) dir. Chan Tze-woon

trailer PM’s Rating: 3.67/5

A still from Blue Island (2022)

Blue Island (2022) is a HK documentary film that talks about the protests in HK. The director looks at different generations, who have similar experiences in HK social movements (1967 HK riots, China cultural revolution, 1989 Tiananmen massacre, 1997 handover of HK, 2019 anti-extradition law) and their responses to these social movements. Through both the re-enactments of past events and the usage of footage, there is a reflection on youths across different generations when they are/were a part of the movements. It is a strong, cleverly made hybrid documentary on HK social movements, especially the 2019-20 one.

I feel that the film made a good attempt, but it was a bit weak in its execution. It was not as sentimental as Revolution of Our Times (2021) (which is good in my opinion, otherwise it will turn too propagandistic LOL). It is banned from screening in HK.

What other critics have said:

“Blue Island balances its unavoidably sobering picture of the current political landscape with uplifting testimony of individuals determined to preserve the spirit of Hong Kong, no matter what the future holds.”

(https://variety.com/2022/film/reviews/blue-island-review-1235326756/)

The Narrow Road 窄路微尘 (2022) dir. Lam Sum

trailer PM’s rating: 3.46/5

“嗰世界系嗨，唔等于要做嗨人”

“The world is messed up, but you don’t have to be.”

Still from The Narrow Road (2022)

I think this is the most powerful line from the film. The Narrow Road examines the state of the youth in the midst of the pandemic. The film portrays the challenges faced by the grassroots of HK during the pandemic. The most heart-warming part is the solidarity between humans portrayed in the film. When the pandemic hit and the social movement came to a sudden halt, it was almost as if the light of hope was fading, with nothing one could do about it. This movie is like a symbol of hope to those HKers, comforting them there will always be light, no matter how dim the future seems.

Still from May You Stay Forever Young 少年 (2021)

But, the film is somehow detached from reality. Some parts of the plot seem a bit too predictable, and the flaws of the story seem obvious. It is heartwarming and accessible, yet lacks depth. The interesting thing is that the director, Lam Sum, is in exile — his previous film (May You Stay Forever Young 少年 (2021)) is banned in HK.

Further readings (if you can read Chinese):

https://p-articles.com/critics/3522.html
https://p-articles.com/critics/3499.html

The Way We Keep Dancing 狂舞派 3 (2020) dir. Adam Wong

trailer PM’s rating: 3.72/5

從前呢，有隻老虎，佢為咗證明自己係一隻老虎而走咗入動物園。你話喇，佢仲係咪一隻老虎？

There was once a tiger, who wanted to prove himself as a tiger. So, it walked into a zoo. Would you say… it is still a tiger?

Some audiences will find this film to be a boring commercial film and a poor imitation of the Step Up series, but I think the conversation sparked by the film is much more valuable than a critique on its commerciality. On its surface, it is a film about the youths who want to fight the ‘real-estate hegemony’ after which the group encounters some conflicts.

I think the most important issue/discussion raised by the film is the discourse around public space. The film shows how the youths respond to oppression through subculture (eg. street dance and rap). It is a way for them to re-possess public space from the capitalists. The divergence in a social movement is also somehow reflected in the film: it doesn’t directly mention this, but it can be seen as a response to the 2019-20 Anti-Extradition Law protest.

Some interesting facts: While the Chinese title of the movie indicated it is the third in the sequel, the 2nd episode was never really made. Also, the actors go by their real names in the movie, so it is almost a kind of meta-film actually, lol. The Chinese subs of the film are not really Chinese, but actually Cantonese.

If you can read Chinese, there is a very good review written by a HK poet 嚴瀚欽
https://p-articles.com/critics/2068.html

Wood and Water (2021) dir. Jonas Bak

trailer PM’s rating: 3.2/5

The film appears as a travelogue of a German woman in HK looking for her forever-lost son. The position of the German woman in the discourse of liberty/social movements in HK seems a bit awkward to me. While there are some commonalities between HK and Germany, I couldn’t see the connection between them in the film. The director attempts to mend this discrepancy by using some empty shots (Deleuze’s discourse on time and space LOL), but it doesn’t work well. The most interesting part is the ending (I won’t spoil, haha), and some of the shots (e.g., the cityscape, the German woman lingering at the frontline of the protest, etc.) are pretty well done. Other than that, it seems a bit hollow to me: the director never really solves the question of “how the HKers’ struggle is part of the universal struggles of humanity?”, so I don't like it that much (and it’s quite pretentious also).

The film is now streaming on Mubi.

Inside the Red Brick Wall (2020) dir. Hong Kong Documentary Filmmakers

trailer PM’s rating: 3.8/5

Still from Inside the Red Brick Wall (2020)

If Revolution of Our Times is the content of a book, then Inside the Red Brick Wall is a very crucial chapter of this book. Inside the Red Brick Wall is a detailed documentary on the siege of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, made by a group of people called Hong Kong Documentary Filmmakers (to keep their identities anonymous).

“The Anti-ELAB Movement came to a horrifying peak in mid-November at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. When protesters blocking the Cross-Harbour Tunnel retreated to the University, the police surrounded the area and put the school in a lockdown. Anxious citizens made various rescue attempts, but could barely go near the campus. Meanwhile, within those red brick walls, the camera captured the trapped protesters’ desperation and determination.” (source)

The siege of the HK Poly U remains a crucial event in the HK 2019 protest. This siege shows us how the voice of a social movement starts to split. I think the state of mind in the siege represents that of the youth in HK back then or even now: entrapped and stagnant. The film captures the very critical moments in Poly U when they are all trapped in the uni. It shows us the power of a documentary; it is not just a documentation, but also a statement — telling their story even though it is denied by the narrative of the oppressors. Besides being informative, Inside the Red Brick Wall dissects the anxiety and the internal division of a social movement and, at the same time shows us the solidarity between people in the midst of a revolution.

Revolution of Our Times (2021) dir. Kiwi Chow

trailer PM’s rating: 3.75/5

光復香港，時代革命

Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times

If my memory serves me right, the day I was watching the film was a rainy one. A lot of the audience were Hong Kongers — not surprising since it is a documentary about Hong Kongers and their revolution. Not long after the screening started, I could hear people weeping in the theatre; I was one of them too. The brutality and the utmost sincerity shocked me. I couldn’t help but put myself in their position: would I pay such a price to fight for my freedom? It is an unanswerable question to me, even today.

Still from Revolution of Our Times (2021)

I would say the film is like a book’s content page: it roughly illustrates the timeline of the HK 2019-20 protest. With interviews with people from different lines of the protest, the audience can grasp the chronology and the different perspectives of the protest. The audiences get a glimpse of the complexities of the protest, and hence are able to see the impact and aftermath of their fights for freedom. This film is not wholly about the youths of Hong Kong, but the protests were mostly initiated by them. I see this film as their version of ‘Hong Kong Story’; a narrative about freedom, protest, violence, police brutality, tear gas, ‘be water’, despair, trauma, and most importantly, their future.

While the excessive use of a movie-trailer-like soundtrack is really annoying, it does not stop this movie from being a quintessential documentary on the social movements in Hong Kong in the past decade.