Valley boy's sexual awakening
YESTERYOU, YesterMe, Yesterday is a nostalgic look at one boy's growing up in Happy Valley in the early '80s. As interpreted by producer Pete Chan Ho-sun, scriptwriter Lee Chi-ngai and director Samson Chiu, it unfolds as one of the more personal Cantonese films of the year.
The Chinese title translates as ''Remember . . . When the Bananas Were Ripe'', a humorous allusion to the central theme of the movie: the teenage boy's sexual awakening.
Bo (Tang Yat-kwun) is a 14-year-old whose ''hormones undergo a great transformation'' upon entering Form One. He has a crush on a pretty classmate, is attracted to the family's boarder (Lui Sau-ling), ashamed when his mother (Fung Po-po) scolds him in front of his friends, and curious as to why Dad (Eric Tsang) has a box of condoms in his briefcase.
In other words, he is a typical middle class Hongkong youth and YesterYou, YesterMe, Yesterday is a wistful look at the pain and pleasure of puberty.
As in the American television series The Wonder Years, on which this film is clearly modelled, the boy's narration is a device to reflect on the on-screen proceedings. But the YesterYou voice-over lacks the maturity of the narrator in The Wonder Years, which gives an added dimension to the reminiscences of times long gone by.
Another factor is that from the vantage point of the early '90s, the early '80s is still too recent a time to induce a strong sense of nostalgia.
Still, the warm humour and sincerity of YesterYou, YesterMe, Yesterday will keep viewers entertained.
