Film Review :“She Remembers, He Forgets”

<http://www.cineplex.com/Movie/she-remembers-he-forgets-cantonese-w-chinese-english-st>

  “She Remembers, He Forgets” is directed by Adam Wong and released on November, 2015. It categorized as the “Young Romance Film of Hong Kong” which  the story plot mainly focused on flashback of the leading roles: Pang Shing Wah and Yu Fung Chi about their teenage school life and their relationship. Through the footages intercrossing between memories and reality, to examine their dream, relationship and lives after 1997; meanwhile trying to re-connected with classmate So Pok Man.

  

   The setting of school life based on 1992, before Hong Kong hangover to China; students are facing their future: chasing their dream or settling down. Yu here as the reflection of Hong Kong, confusing with her future with fear; So and Pang here as the interior meaning of Immigrate to Britain or waiting for Hong Kong to hangover to China. Yu finally choose Pang, staying in Hong Kong. Ironically, Pang’s mistress Lina, as a mainlander, is the illusion of teenage Yu that Pang missed after a decade of marriage, the Hong Kong before 1997.

  

Later in scene 00:17:58, a female mainlander speaking Cantonese with accent is a client of Pang, discontent about Pang’s work. It shows women without a sense interior  design but Pang insist to fulfill her desire even it violated his design because “customer is always right” ; as a comparison that Pang was building a “Future Hong Kong” before 1997 with his own ideas. It can be decoded as the power relationship even the conflicts of China and Hong Kong of China is in a upper position.

  

Those interpretations are not all defined by director as; rather a “producerly text” that decoders can read it in different way related to their personal experience. A Dominant-hegemonic position can be seen here as the movie is examining the value of “chasing your dream” which a rising topic Hong Kong youngster are undergone and audiences are “operating inside the dominant code”.    

  

It contains elements of collective memories of HongKongese in the 90s, nostalgic intertext yet also reflecting Hong Kong nowadays. Reconfiguration of past images e.g. Walkman, Pager, making reference of celebrities of the 90’s like Kwok Fu Shing Tam Yuk Ying . Vita Soy, Kai Tak Airport in Kowloon city, The Greed of Ma(大時代) are all creating a nostalgic sentiment with the wave of Hong Kong movie in the past decade: emphasize on element of “local” with hidden political approach. Here it draw a line to separate insider and outsider as audience would not understand if they do not share the same cultural context even the mainlander with accent; clearly targeted at a particular audience group: Hong Kongese, even share the same cultural context, audience can rearticulated in different ways through their difference and similarities .

The movie illustrate a set of “Old Hong Kong under British colony” and “missing good old days”. It present in a nostalgic atmosphere to bring up a question about HongKongese identity, through the changes, we are reinforcing or redefining the identity of HongKongese after the 1997 ?

In the ending Pang and Yu flying airplane models under the Lion Rock with Pang’s design, smiling with each other, mourning their friends So. It still bring up a positive leading to the audience.(538 words)

Reference:    

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.

Chandler, D. (1997). Introduction to genre theory. 

Ahmad, A. (2006). Jameson’s Rhetoric of Otherness and the “National Allegory”. In B. Aschcroft, G. Griffiths & H. Tiffin (eds.). The Post-Colonial Studies Reader (2^nded.). (pp.84-88). Oxford: Routledge.

Communication Studies (Year 3)

Kwong Tsz Ying 

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