As a comedy, "Those Were the Days" (1997) has a fairly accurate commercial calculation, and at the same time, it's moved the craze of TV drama to film at the fastest speed. ("Those Were the Days" was adapted from the TV series "Old Time Buddy" produced by Hong Kong Television Broadcasts Limited) There are many very unbearable plots and awareness in the film. Among them, I believe that the most criticized by film critics should be Wong Jing's affection for Wong Kar-Wai, which caused his taunts and mockery of art films. In fact, as a producer of Hong Kong's genre films, Wong Jing's achievements in box office and comedy genres should be enough to make him famous in Hong Kong film history, and he doesn't need to compete with other filmmakers such as Wong Kar-Wai. There's no need to drag film critics into this entangled commercial and artistic war. Having said that, this time, "Those Were the Days" deals with the plot of Wong Chi-Wah (Wong Kar-Wai) and Wong Chi (Wong Jing), which is more restrained than "Whatever You Want" (1994), and it also shows a sympathy between them. Although, Wong Chi-Wah still wants to give an extra kick to the art film, which will damage the demeanor of mutual respect and put the art film to the death.
The film uses Hong Kong Cantonese Cinema in the 1950s and 1960s as packaging, and also makes jokes about Cantonese Cinema. The mockery of Cantonese Cinema is no less that of Wong Chi-Wah in the film. The so-called hard life and filming difficulties are also quite empty, and more descriptions are also lacking. Just focusing on the jokes of chasing girls, typical of Wong Jing and Chan Pak-Cheung's style, the two haven't had enough fun in the previous "L-O-V-E... Love" (1997). As for the allusions and characters of those Cantonese Cinema, there is no credibility at all, and even the general basic is lacking. This will cause misleading to many young and foreign audiences who are insulated from Cantonese Cinema. Even more outrageous than the film "The Golden Girls" (1995) directed by Joe Ma Wai-Ho. Of course, Cantonese Cinema are used as jokes, such as the classic "92 Legendary La Rose Noire" (1992) and the TV series "No Biz Like Showbiz" (1980) produced by Kam Kwok-Leung, both show understanding and respect for Cantonese Cinema and the history of Hong Kong Cinema, and they draw on elements that can be played from Cantonese Cinema, which is more well-founded.
I believe that when Ngau Tat-Wah (Cho Tat-Wah) played by Chan Pak-Cheung became famous with wire-flying, the most angry should be Lau Kar-Leung and Tong Gai, because wire-flying was started by them. Lau Kar-Leung didn't become popular until the 1980s, and he didn't break away from the ranks of stunt because of the invention of wire-flying as described in the film. Of couse, these so-called history mean nothing to the new generation of audiences. They are only watching the filmmakers recreate the "history" of Cantonese Cinema. Those characters and plots that seem familiar to them don't know where in the late night or in the morning, they saw it on TV. Some audiences haven't even seen these films, and watching "Those Were the Days" is just to believe that Cantonese Cinema are like this, and the absolute post-modernization simulation state also make the film "interesting".
By Kam Po LAM (original in Chinese)
This article was published in "1997 Hong Kong Film Review" by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society.
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