Media Review: She Remembers, He Forgets (哪一天我們會飛)

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She Remembers, He forgets” is a Hong Kong movie screened in 2015. It is directed by Adam Wong Sauping. After the succeed of  “ The Way We Dance”, “ She Remembers, He forgets” is the latest movie from Wong. The stories is mainly about a pair of middle-aged couple who feels tired of their life and always think of their happy high school memories as well as their unattained dreams.

                                                  Source: http://www.nmplus.hk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/哪一天我們會飛01-1.jpg

The main themes of “ She Remembers, He forgets” are memories and dream. In this movie, the memory of high school period before 1997 is used to compare with the daily life of a married couple after 1997. We can also see the nostalgia in the movie. In the scene of high school period before 1997, everybody is very happy and passionate to chase the dreams. However, as the high school period happened in 1992 which means Hong Kong is going to be returned to China, the main characters Yu Fungchi, Pang Shingwah and So Bokman are also very struggled about their future because nobody knows what will happened after 1997. Therefore, So decides to go to England to chase his dream because he said “Hong Kong is not a place for chasing dream”. On the other hand, Yu and Pang stay in Hong Kong and face the reality. In the contrary, in the scene of daily life nowadays which means after 1997, Yu and Pang is a pair of married couple. They always only focus on their works and do not have time to communicate with each other. The scenes always focus on the dullness of their daily life. Pang even forgets all the things happened in the high school period and most importantly, his dream. I think director Wong used the auteur theory to film this movie. According to Hayward (2000), auteur theory means a film reflects the director’s personal vision and experience. As director Wong is born in 1975, he also experienced the changes before and after 1997. Moreover, this movie also shows the collective memories of Hongkongers especially who are 30 to 45 years old at the moment. This group of Hongkongers also experiences the struggle of staying in Hong Kong and immigrating. Besides, director Wong also shows his nostalgia of his high school period before 1997 because the high school period in the movie is always very delighted and beautiful.

At the mean time, the movie also focuses on “dream”. After realizing that So Bokman died for his dream, the death of So wakens up the passion of Pang and makes him remember his teenage dream. Therefore, Pang and his wife, Yu decide to go back to their secondary school and produce something symbolizing Hong Kong during the period before 1997 instead of producing something for China people and commercial products. At the end of the movie, Pang and Yu can revive their dreams. Therefore, I think this movie is very encouraging because it shows that even if we miss a chance to chase our dream when we are young, we can still revive and chase back our dreams. It also shows that as long as we have a dream, our life will be very fruitful and our dreams will come true one day. Moreover, I remember that Yu Fungchi says “dream is something you still want to do when you stop breathing.” This script is very meaningful and encouraging because it tells the audience that we should keep chasing our dreams and shouldn’t give up.

To conclude, “She Remembers, He forgets” is a worth-watching movie because it revives many memories of Hong Kong before 1997 and it is very encouraging. The genre of this movie is also related to social reality but it is more about nostalgia which is different from the movies during early Hong Kong. I hope that Adam Wong Sauping can produce more Hong Kong movies that are full of local culture.

(589 words)

FUNG Shuk Kwan, Tobey

(10620204/21620433)

(Communication Studies, Year 3)

 

Reference:

Hayward, S. (2000). Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. New York: Routledge.