ReviewFilm review: Made in Hong Kong, re-released on its 20th anniversary, still a powerful snapshot of city’s hopes and fears
Fruit Chan Gor’s allegorical 1997 comedy offered a bleak assessment of the city’s prospects under Chinese rule. You couldn’t find a more ironic way of commemorating the handover than seeing this newly restored version
5/5 stars
You couldn’t find a more ironic commemoration of 20 years of Chinese rule of Hong Kong than the re-release of this classic 1997 film, screening in a “4K resolution” restored version. A dark comedy about disenchanted youth, the plight of those at the grass roots and low-level triad members, Made in Hong Kong was one of the bleakest examinations of the city’s prospects in the lead-up to the change of sovereignty.
Shot on leftover film stock collected from producer Andy Lau Tak-wah’s studio, the independent production was made on a shoestring budget using non-professional actors. It introduces audiences to Sam Lee Chan-sam, who, with his hipster looks and wayward manners, makes his indelible acting debut here.
Lee plays Moon, a high-school dropout and small-time hoodlum who resents his absentee father and his succession of mistresses from China. Moon is friends with the half-witted Sylvester (Wenders Li Tung-chuen) and harbours puppy love for the severely ill Ping (Neiky Yim Hui-chi), but none of them is enlivened by these feelings.
Made in Hong Kong forms the first part of Fruit Chan Gor’s “1997 Trilogy” – whose other components are The Longest Summer and Little Cheung – and is shot with a rawness and urgency that would in time become the writer-director’s signature.