In May 2015, “Full Strike” (全力扣殺) released in Hong Kong as an action comedy movie and
directed by Derek Kwok and Henri Wong. This
movie narrates three disabled criminals are discharged from prison and two former
athletes encountered each other in a shabby badminton club, where five protagonists
devoted tremendous endeavors to sharpen their skills to make a comeback by
winning a badminton match in front of numerous audience who look down on them.
During the match, protagonists were enduring various ridicules
from audiences, hosts and competitors, but their performance successfully blew
the eyes away from those mockers who changed their position from against to
support the protagonists. Unfortunately, the black marks of five protagonists caused
them lose the final game inexplicably. “In the movie, any protagonist is tragic
people, thus this story destined to be a tragedy naturally.” said by Director
Wong (Gwo, 2015) “In the end, a group of tenacious people lost in an unfair
environment.”
The hidden message behind “Full Strike” is the last sentence
pop up in the end of movie ― to all tenacious losers ― that possibly
reflecting the perception of some people toward umbrella revolution, which
implying the superficial failure of umbrella revolution was equal to a new
beginning. Therefore, this movie might be seen as a representation of self-comfort
for losers in some respects. In the early stage of matching, five protagonists
had encountered and defeated a team named “The friends of policy” who projecting
bad manner in sportsmanship that maybe an implication of the behaviors of
policy within the umbrella revolution period. These are the social linkage
between “Full Strike” and society, which could be considered as the reflection
of society.
“Gallants” is the first success of Derek Kwok in movie
industry, there are some similarities between “Full Strike” and “Gallants” that
bought up criticisms about plagiarizing the former successful formula into
“Full Strike”. In “Gallants” and “Full Strike”, the protagonists also are
losers who lack of self-confident and objective. On the contrary, the villain
are same as typical rich second generation and being disdainful.
The formula of “Gallants” and “Full Strike” are all about
inspiring people to endure and struggle in difficulties for greater good that
also similar to Japanese comic style. According to Auteur theory (Sarris,
1962), movie director often have an unique pattern through observing their
movies there will have some similarities that attributes to their personality,
personal experience and perspective.
This inspirational style or spirit of striving in Derek
Kwok’s movie becoming his signature. According to the interview of Derek Kwok
and Standnews, “The spirit of striving is the most needed spirit in Hong Kong
right now……” that confirmed he valued this spirit in real life in which could
be projected in his movie. Interestingly, the most challenging problem for
Derek Kwok is how to break the stereotyping.
(476 words)
Student Name: Chan Pui Hsien, Norris
Student Number:10561080/2162064
Reference:
Sarris, A. (1962). Auteur
theory and film evaluation. Wartenberg
and Curran, eds, 99-107.
Gwo, A. (2015, May 11). Hong Kong spirit of Loser.
Standnews. Retrieved April 14, 2016.
Dear Norris, It seems that there is a theme in the blog - director's style and meaning in Derek Kwok's works. There is a sense of finding the characteristics in all Derek's works despite the arguments can be put into better sequence. This is especially important if a reader does not have strong background in auteur theory. You can first point out that the essay makes use of auteur theory to examine Derek's works. Then you can define the theory briefly and inform the reader what aspects you are going to discuss. Lastly, you can go to the discussion and write about two to three observations just as what you are doing in the blog now.
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