Made in Hong Kong (1997)

Made in Hong Kong (1997)

Not Rated

A nihilistic teen gangster melodrama about abandonment set in 1997 Hong Kong

7.5

Movie

Hong Kong
Cantonese
Comedy, Crime, Drama, Romance
1997
FRUIT CHAN
Doris Chow, Sam Lee, Wenders Li Tung-Chuen
104 min

What it's about

Hong Kong 1997, where young people dream of love and death, suicide and murder. Moon is a cynical young debt collector, smitten by Ping, a young woman dying of kidney disease. A suicide note from a student they don't know ends up intertwining their fates.

The take

Aggressive, grungy, and rebellious, writer-director Fruit Chan’s debut film captures teen nihilism amidst abandonment in uncertain times. Immediately, the first look of this film is reminiscent of Wong Kar Wai with its use of character narration, hazy green scenes, and over-exposed film. However, Chan pairs these aesthetic techniques with the storyline of a revenge film mixed with an us-against-the-world mentality. While the protagonists Autumn Moon (Sam Lee), Ping (Neiky Yim Hui-Chi), and Sylvester (Wenders Li) start the film with teenage concerns like dealing with wet dreams, dating, and bullying, it’s clear that they go through them aimlessly, without the guidance of their fathers, almost as if with no hope at all due to their specific circumstances. In Chan’s hands, how every kid reacts to each change feels like an outburst against the adults in their life, and of the life outside of the film. It’s as if the words “fuck you” were made into a movie.

Comments

Add a comment

Your name

Your comment

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

Drowning by Numbers (1988)

Peter Greenaway plays with structure and numbers in this surreal, quirky crime comedy

7.9

An Autumn’s Tale (1987)

Two Hong Kong immigrants find a new life, and a new love, in this New York-shot romantic drama

7.6

The Guilty (2018)

A minimalist, razor-sharp thriller that will have you gasping for air.

9.0

System Crasher (2019)

A tale of trauma and one of the most talked about movies on Netflix in 2020.

9.0

Breaking the Waves (1996)

Lars von Trier breaks his rules in the tearjerking first film of the Golden Heart trilogy

8.1

Leave the World Behind (2023)

Shyamalan meets Black Mirror in this hugely entertaining, visually inventive apocalyptic thriller with a killer ending

8.2

Problemista (2024)

Dark, weird, poignant, and funny, this debut feature by Los Espookys star Julio Torres is a modern parable of the American Dream

8.6

Wind River (2017)

Sicario's screenwriter directs this story of murder in an Indigenous reserve

9.4

Cold War (2018)

A quiet Polish masterpiece with ravishing music and dazzling visuals

9.2

Hilary and Jackie (1998)

Two sisters, bound by music, is torn by genius and fame in this tragic, heartwrenching biopic

7.6

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2024 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.