Anniversary (紀念日) is a memento of Patrick
Kong’s tenth year love film directing life, which released
in December 2015. This is starring by Stephy Tang and Alex Fong. The film is a typical
Patrick Kong’s romance and anti-climax genre that give a surprising secret at
the end as always. The story timeline is set in the 10th anniversary
of Ah Bo and Ah Keung’s marriage. Ah Bo (acted by Stephy) and Ah Keung (acted
by Alex) have been given more attention on their business instead of on their relationship.
Revealing in their conversations and personalities, the image of Ah Bo is
aggressive and strong in contrast to Ah Keung thus it divulges their contradiction.
The failure of a trip planning by the reason from Ah Bo makes their relationship
even worse. The lack of communication also escalates their misunderstanding of
both sides. They then gradually stay away from each other. Although they couple
up again at the end, a shocking scene covers this seeming happy ending by
telling the audience Ah Keung got an illegitimate child.
The Genre
Anniversary hauled
more than ten million dollars at the box office. The success of this film can
be traced by the genre theory. This financial advantage is actually based on
three parameters: pre-sold expectations, the re-use of resources in labour and materials,
and regulated difference. Chandler in his article quotes a statement of Abercrombie,
that genres permit the creation and maintenance of a loyal audience. (Chandler
1997) Partrick’s love genre is a signature of his masterpieces. Audience would
have gained enough expectation and conjecture of Patrick’s films. There are no
surprising matters found in Patrick’s love stories. Relationships always
contain suspicion, which can be found in Ah Bo and Ah Keung’s relationship.
Since Patrick actively produces similar genre, hence it is easily for him to maintain
the audience’s loyalty. This is how pre-sold expectation can be exercised. Secondly,
Patrick keeps using Stephy and Alex to be his films’ main actors. He knows how
to re-use the reputed resources of his past works. The corporation of Stephy
and Alex is the guarantee of box office. Lastly, we can find the regulated differences
of Anniversary from other Patrick’s love films. The main characters are always
called Ah Bo and Ah Keung. Their names are intertextual. Although the plots are
different, similar elements, the characters’ names for instance, can be found
in every Patrick’s love film. There is a common iconography of his films: mobile
phone. There is a scene that Ah Bo checks Ah Keung’s phone secretly as she
wonder if Ah Keung has something concealed. Hereby, mobile phone is a symbol of
the suspicion in a relationship. This is an important semiotic notion involved
in Patrick’s love genre.
The Auteur
Sarris indicates that the auteur theory emphasizes
the body of a director’s work rather than isolated masterpieces, so directors
can often make great films. (Sarris 1962)
Directors are not necessary to go through the three circles of auteur
theory, which are technique competence, personality and interior meaning, but
we can see how they make great work by reviewing those three circles. Patrick
Kong is not reputed for any special shooting techniques. He is well known as
his down to earth script and realistic story flow. As Sarris mentions in his
notes, the way a film looks should be more or less related to the way of a
director thinks and feels. (Sarris 1962) Participating
as director as well as the screenwriter, Patrick is showing his value and concept
of what is love to audience. He has created lots of interesting dialogues about
love. In Anniversary, there is one meaningful sentence; “I tolerate you because
I love you (我忍你因為我愛你).” The love value of Patrick is shown through the dialogues. His love films are usually the portrayals of
the cruel love. He aims to give reflection on the realism of love. Connecting
the techniques competence and personality of a director, we can interpret the
interior meaning of the film. Patrick’s folksy script mixed his values give a
new idea of love. Love is not pure. Everyone has secret behind. They are the
messages I received from Anniversary.
(704 words)
References:
Chandler, D. (1997). Introduction to genre theory.
Retrieved from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/chandler_genre_theory.pdf
Sarris, A. (1992). Notes on the Auteur theory in
1962. In L. Braudy, & M. Cohen, (2004). Film theory and criticism:
Introductory readings. (pp. 561-564).
New York: Oxford University Press.
Li Chiu Man
21620738
10557182
Dear Chiu Man, The analysis of "Anniversary" is not complicated but intriguing and precise. The essay makes use of both genre study and the idea of auteur for your discussion properly. Organisation of arguments is fine. The transition from the part on genre to auteur is subtle but nice. A not very clear point is about the use of mobile phone in Kong's films. You need to elaborate a bit how it is used to symbolise unreliable relationship.
回覆刪除