She remembers, He forgets
This
article aims to review a Hong Kong film “She remembers, He forgets”. In this
film, Yu Feng Zhi and Peng Sheng Hua have been married for ten years and their marriage
life is very dull. One day, Fung Chi found her old classmate’s, Su Bowen, blog online;
it evokes memories of her. In high school, Yu Feng Zhi, Peng Sheng Hua and Su
Bo Wen are best friends; Fung Chi dreams to take flight of Bo Wen’s plane and live
in Sheng Hua’s design house. Because Fung Chi finds her husband is cheating
with a girl called Lina, she cannot help but asks herself why she chose Sheng Hua
over Bo Wen. The answer lies in the open day of the school back then and Fung
Chi decides to take the "Find Su Bo Wen" action. Eventually, she
receives Su Bo Wen’s reply, but sadly to know that he already passes away. This film uses the memories of
the main characters before 1997 and their life after 1997 as a contrast. In 1997, the
context of Hong
Kong is she ceased to be a British colony and became the first Special
Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.
The construction of identities of the characters in this film is the
students facing the change from a student to a graduate while dealing with the
upcoming handover of Hong Kong. It depicts the people of that generation as the
most lost generation and everyone needed to choose between living in Hong Kong
and immigrating to other countries; just like Fung Chi who also needs to choose
between Sheng Hua who is staying in Hong Kong and Bo Wen who is immigrating to
England. However, there are many different groups of people who may not
choosing only between the two choices like the film describes, but this
identity confirmation become the ideology of this film and is amplified by the
movie. Fung Chi is shaped as Hong Kong nowadays, facing the threat from
mainland China like the woman who cheats with her husband; also, doubting and
regretting her choice.
Hoskins &
Mirus (1998) state that “programme’s appeal is reduced due to dubbing or
subtitling, and difficulties to identity with the style, values, beliefs,
myths, institutions, physical environment, and behavioral patterns of the
material in question” The cultural proximity of this film makes it easy for
people in that generation to resonate as the language, style, values, history,
behavioral patterns and physical environment are highly close to the society
they live in. For example, in their high school, the film shows the singing
competition, civic education and carnival celebration of school can give a
great sense of audiences’ school life. Also, a universal truth about human
nature: regretting; which everyone can relate to.
Construction of identities and cultural
proximity can be found in “She remembers, He forgets”. Identity construction
can categorize people and evoke people to resonate, but it can also amplify its
own ideological identity. Cultural proximity is also a good way to attract
people to watch a movie but there can be limits to foreigners.
Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CREm4BB_c9g
#SheremembersHeforgets
#movie
#filmreview
Word
Count: 524
References:
Hoskins, C., &
Mirus, R. (1988). Reasons for the US dominance of the international trade in
television programmes.
還能飛嗎？《哪一天我們會飛》 | 三十過後一個人住 | 香港獨立媒體網.
(2015). 香港獨立媒體網. Retrieved 12 April 2016, from http://www.inmediahk.net/node/1038911
Yiu
Man Gee
Dear Gee, You spent a lot of time on telling the story of the film at the expense of more comprehensive reading of it. In fact, you mentioned the pre-1997 and post-1997 context very briefly in the first paragraph. But the discussion then shifts to cultural proximity. Does the film implicate a loss of local identity and reproduction of it? This is simply explained by the fact that people would like to see something close to their everyday life. This makes the discussion superficial. The potential allegory of Hong Kong in the film is therefore not fully covered.
回覆刪除Dear Gee, You spent a lot of time on telling the story of the film at the expense of more comprehensive reading of it. In fact, you mentioned the pre-1997 and post-1997 context very briefly in the first paragraph. But the discussion then shifts to cultural proximity. Does the film implicate a loss of local identity and reproduction of it? This is simply explained by the fact that people would like to see something close to their everyday life. This makes the discussion superficial. The potential allegory of Hong Kong in the film is therefore not fully covered.
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