Made In Hong Kong (1997, Fruit Chan)

[Chedney Honks]

This is a film I heard about at least fifteen years ago and saw in the grey market DVD shops in China, along with all the other Fruit Chan stuff. I just never picked it up. About nine months ago, I picked up the Eureka Masters Of Cinema Blu-ray and still, I never quite felt in the mood for it until now. What a fool.

What a wonderful film this is, and one now so tinged with sadness at the decline of HK cinema.

Released in the same year as the British handover, it's an endearing, unpolished tale of a desperate struggle for salvation, connection and meaning in a chaotic, uncaring world. It's as much about its hard-faced, cocky young loners and drop-outs as it is about Hong Kong itself.

This is very much up my street. Non-professional actors and dead-end, transitional locations shot without sentimentality or judgement, the heavy atmosphere of the oppressive mundane. It reminds me of Tier 3 cities and walks off the beaten track. I recognise the characters not just from China, but in many of the people I spent my childhood with.

I won't go into the plot because a) there's not a lot to it which isn't a spoiler and b) it's not really about the narrative. It's about the characters, the allegory and the atmosphere.

I will have to explore some more Fruit Chan before his films are erased from history.

[Chedney Honks]

No memory of making this thread but it's a great film.

[steveh]

Have seen a few of Fruit Chan's films and they were pretty variable. Those that are more towards social realism like Made in Hong Kong I think are the better ones but the satires are rather in the local broad comedy style as well as coming across as somewhat sexist.

Do wonder how much of HK's film history is now destined to be never seen in the city again.

[Chedney Honks]

I thought they were all in this vein so I'm actually curious to check out the satires. I probably have more of a stomach for that broad Chinese/HK humour than most.

It is heartbreaking to think that this extraordinary era of cultural and cinematic fertility is over forever.