Made in Hong Kong

Sluggish gangster genre revitalised by infusion of teen melodrama. One of the films of the year. The violence is, for once, sickening, immediate and real, rather than crude comedy, but interlaced with expressionistic sensibility of dead protagonist. Deeply moving on a personal level, and highly comic in spite of ultimate despair. The director's visual vocabulary is immense, with imagery of such dreamlike, poetic, evocative beauty, your heart stops.

At least two famous film critics retired at a time when they felt they were no longer in step with new cinema. One was a much revered Sunday newspaper journalist in the UK who saw the writing on the wall when she could only register her loathing for "Psycho". Although I am not a professional critic and simply like to impart enthusiasm rather than condemnations through this website, I sometimes wonder if I am out of step with what a much younger generation of audiences admire. I have all but ceased going to the commercial cinema where nine out of ten offerings seem to be mindless kids' fodder delivered at a painfully high decibel level. Far too often those that my peergroup recommend, "0negin" or "The House of Mirth" for example, I find to be dreary and portentous. And so I sit through endless art house movies, many of them enervating in the extreme, just for that wonderful sense of discovery when something like "La Promesse" from Belgium or "After Life" from Japan occurs. However, I had a sobering experience the other day which has warned me not to be too dismissive of "youth appeal" films when I saw "Made in Hong Kong". First impressions were dreadful, slapdash hand-held camera stuff, washed out colours, tempo continuously at feverpitch and a plot I could barely follow - the last factor is something I recognise as a personal shortcoming if my interest is not initially aroused. I could not quite pinpoint at the time why I did not abandon there and then a film I was barely comprehending or why something afterwards tempted me to give it a second go. I was extremely glad I did as I think I achieved an insight into why such a film can work for young people. The three main characters are all so likeable. There is Moon the school dropout turned toughie, his sidekick a retard whom he protects called Sylvester and Ping the girl with a serious kidney disease whom they are both soft on. For all its violent rough cut trappings, "Made in Hong Kong" is an incredibly sentimental film about camaraderie of the "Kings Row" sort that my generation wallowed in and "Dead Poets Society" revered by the generation in between. It is that old "youth - death" thing all over again. My recognition and appreciation of this in a film initially as alien as "Made in Hong Kong" gives me hope that I can still keep in step.

"Made In Hong Kong" is one of the best movies i have watched that have come from Hong Kong. This was directorial debut of Fruit Chan and it is impressive for the first movie. This movie was made on low budget with amateur actors but it is the best thing, that made this movie to be more realistic and unique. Sam Lee is just fantastic in the role of the main character Moon, you can really feel the emotions and his expressions, and this role is just natural for him, i can really imagine him to be like that in real life, and i really like his character, he is just small thug but in heart he is good person, he was made like that because of environment in which he grew up, it is my opinion that all people are generally born good, but society and regimes made people to came on the wrong side. I also liked the relationship between Moon and Ping, it was beautifully portrayed and it reminds me of the works of Kai War Wong, it was beautiful and melancholic. I also like the end of the movie and the last sequences, i totally understands that for some people in his position, death is only solution. I will definitely watch more movies from Fruit Chan in the future.

Being half Japanese, but never having visited any other Asian places like Hong Kong, I nevertheless saw a lot of similarities between the two cultures. Take for example the energy of millions of people living next to each other. This is something I saw in Tokyo and which I recognized in this movie as well. This energy, together with the typical asian summerheat, is felt throughout the whole movie and made me both unease as well as more alert. It gives you the sense anything can happen and you have to watch out. This has everything to do with this movie, since it depicts Hongkong as a jungle where only the fittest survive. Fittest in this context means ruthless and not caring for others. The main character, a teenager and gangmember, does just this and this will prove to be fatal to him. He protects a mentally handicapped boy and falls in love with an terminally ill girl and he even offers her his kidney (which she refuses). Another similarity between the Hongkong and Japanese culture that I noticed, is the innocence and spontaneity with which the young Asians act. Europeans tend to be more serious and worry about life, whereas these guys just have fun and enjoy the moment, 'carpe diem'. This motive contrasts with the more tragic moments in the movie. Life is just like that though; it's bitter

Fruit Chan's debut film was seen by many in Hong Kong as a metaphor for the foreboding that gripped the colony in the years before 1997, and Chan himself has said that it is the first part of a trilogy on the handover--the second part is "The Longest Night." Metaphorical resonances aside, though, under the energetic, sometimes violent surface of "Made in China" is a film of haunting sadness and compassion. The central character, the young, jobless Autumn Moon, is proud of his ability to live by his wits; but he ends up in a world that his wits can't handle. Chan's ingenuity in making this film on a tiny budget with amateur actors is obvious, but one leaves the film overwhelmed with sadness for the lives of the characters--most of all Autumn Moon's, and his despairing inability to help the people he cares about.