Source: http://wmoov.com/movie/photos/28503/2
“Anniversary”
is a Hong Kong romance film released in 2015. It is known as the
fourth movie of the romance film series of “Marriage
with a Fool”,
“Love
is not all around”
and “L
for love, L for lies”,
which are all directed by Patrick Kong(generally known as Yip Lim
Sum) and starred by Alex Fong and Stephy Tang.
As
a part of Yip's local romance film series, “Anniversary”
constantly followed the style of Yip and reflected the realistic love
relationship in Hong Kong. The story mainly focused on the marriage
between
Bo (Stephy Tang) and Keung (Alex Fong) after ten years. The couples
have faced different kind of things among ten years. Bo has worked in
a local wedding consultancy firm and Keung ran his little estate
agent firm. There is a saying that “it is easy to see but hard to
live together”. In “Anniversary”, both Bo and Keung were tired
of the marriage. The arguments like confidence, having new birth and
how to treat each other were brought out after years.
Collective
memories can be found in “Anniversary”. The director is smart to
produce the anniversary. “Anniversary” represents not only the
ten years of Bo and Keung, but also the ten years of Yip making
romance films and the real love relationship of Fong and Tang outside
the films. More, it recalls the memory of people who have watched the
Yip's series for years. Memory connects who audiences now are and
once they were. Growing as Bo and Keung, the audiences shared the
similar love values and stories. After ten years, the audiences might
have experienced more as the movies presented. What makes
“Anniversary” become the special one among the three other part
of series is that it shows the relationship can be handled in a
mature way. Marriage includes love and conflicts. It is said that
patience is the key to solve the arguments. Not only Bo and Keung
have learned in the films, but also the audiences who have grown in
the ten years.
Moreover, “Anniversary”
shows the gender role in Hong Kong nowadays. In “Anniversary”,
both Bo and Keung needed to work. Bo was powerful to be dominant in
the relationship while Keung was leaded by her and followed the order
of Bo. In Hong Kong, it is readily to observe these situations. Women
in Hong Kong are no longer the one being took care but can go to work
and become the bread winners. Sometimes, the power relation between
sexes in Hong Kong are like Bo and Keung.
In addition,
it is found that audience of Yip's romance series usually standing on
dominant-hegemonic position and oppositional position according to
Hall(2000). Some people agreed that the love relationship in Hong
Kong are exactly what Yip's series present that love is full of lies
and treats. But some disagreed and thought that Yip is trying to fool
the audiences and only making money.
Lastly,
“Anniversary” is not a bad choice, comparing to other movies of
Yip's series. It reflects the realistic society and shows some love
values which are more positive than before. To sum up, “Anniversary” is a
movie worth seeing.
Li Wan Ki
10549508/ 21619797
References:
Halbwachs,
M. (1992). (Ed. & translated by Coser. L.A.) Chapter 1-4. On
Collective Memory. (pp.41-53). Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press.
Hall,
S. (2000.) Encoding/Decoding. In P. Marris & S. Thornham (eds.).
Media Studies: A Reader. (pp.51-61). Washington Square, N.Y.: New
York University Press.
Dear Wan Ki, The discussion of the film is fine. The part on gender can be in more detail. Now it is just very briefly mentioned with reference to the general norms for communication in a relationship. Encoding/Decoding is utilised. For such a research, interviews are important but this is not clearly shown in the blog. However, your understanding of the decoding method is fine.
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