Film Review: She Remembers, He Forgets

She Remembers, He Forgets (2015), directed by Adam Wong Sau Ping, was released on November 2015. It won Films of Merit of 22th Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award.

Because of miscommunicating between Pang Shing-wah and Yu Feng-zi, their marriage is in crisis. Meanwhile, Feng-zi and Shing-wah attend alumni reunion and speak of their old friend, So Bok-man, who disappears a week before open day suddenly. These things stir up Feng-zi’s memory of high school in 1992.

Feng-zi’s memory predominates over the film. Halbwachs (1992) mentions that there is a kind of memory that “involves a certain disinterest in present life… to redescend into their past and to relive it in imagination” (p.47). The failure of marriage brings Feng-zi to an ambiguous triangular relationship between Shing-wah and Bok-man in the past. She allows herself to be caught in that pure and innocent youth so as to liberate in the imagination. The film also frees the audience from the dissatisfaction with the present in the same sense. In recent years, the unstable atmosphere of society is obvious, especially after the Umbrella Revolution. The hardship for young adults never reduces in this market-oriented and monopolistic economy. Therefore, by re-experiencing the precious days of high school in imagination, we can be without social constraints.

The cinematography, props and even characters in the film construct collective memories significantly. Wah Yan College established in 1919 as a major shooting location for school environment, the establishing shots of old buildings (Tong Lau) in old districts and the scene of watching airplanes on rooftop in Kowloon City are illustrated the nostalgic elements. To addition, the intertexts like Gameboy, Yes! Magazine, The Greed of Man (a popular TV series in 1992) and Tam Yuk Ying (a host of children's programmes) also appeared in the scenes and dialogues.

However, the audience cannot escape the reality. Lee (2009) suggests that nostalgic intertexts work as a medium for historical reflection, self-discovery, and cultural critique (p.8). The nostalgic intextuality develops a journey for people to re-discover and find back their initial passion, which is erased by the society. 

The motif of the film is the airplanes, which symbolizes the dream. The dream of other classmates fails to fulfill the conditions listed in Dream Plan homework, such as market competition, opportunities and external factors. The anxiousness about their future career and even lives echoes the uncertainty of the 1997 handover. Many of them have decided to study abroad. Feng-zi’s father also asked her to go to Britain. Finally she decides to stay in Hong Kong and encourages her classmates to overcome social expectation and chase their drama hard. The actual meaning of the film title in Chinese is “When Will We Fly?” Although it sounds to be uncertain, we can create our own answer in this open-end question. The ten major infrastructures exhibited of Rosery made by Shing-wah in Open Day shows that people in 90s are still full of hope towards the 1997 handover.

The film ends with grown-up Feng-zi and Shing-wah fly the planes with the students under Lion Rock. With re-capturing memories by flying the planes together, they re-connect with each other and their relationship is also fixed. The implication of the film is significant by reviewing Feng-zi and Shing-wah’s relationship that the passion regained in memories is able to conquer the social change. Despite time goes by, we should not forget the first intention.

Reference:

Halbwachs, M. (1992). (Ed. & translated by Coser. L.A.) Chapter 1-4. On Collective Memory. (pp.41-53). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Lee, V. P. Y. (2009). Hong Kong cinema since 1997: The post-nostalgic imagination. Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Chan Kit Yiu (10555653)