Ten Years(十年)
Ten years, which got the 35th Hong Kong
Film Awards for Best Film recently. It combined as 5 independent units of
stories with 5 different directors that focused on different aspects of Hong
Kong, "Extras" was about a political conspiracy by government
officials and police. They hire two petty gangsters to assassin dignitaries and
foment public support for legislation of the National Security Law. “Season of the End” was about a couple attempt to preserve objects
from homes destroyed by bulldozers. Finally the boy feel exhausted and wants heroine
create his body be a specimen. “Dialect” was about a taxi driver find that he
had been marginalized because of he failed to pass the national Mandarin
proficiency test. “Cantonese’ be a useless and unpopular in both work and daily
live. “Self-immolator” was about an unknown person commits self-immolation
under the demonstration of against National Security Law. “Local Egg” was about
the problem between a father and son because he sold “local egg’ is
‘politically incorrect’. Though these stories, <<Ten Year>> pointed
out and discuss about the issues of Hong Kong identities and “Local”, the terms
that started be discussed.
Through the whole story of the film. We can
find that Hong Kong identities is the important symbol. It clearly describe how
to be a Hongkongers. Such as the dialogue of Karen which is a character acted
by a Southeast Asian from "self-immolation”:"I was born in Hong Kong,
I am talking about Cantonese, Hong Kong is my home". It shows that
Hongkongers is a culture identities but not only a race difference, the
obviously identity that speak Cantonese should be a Hong Kongers whether that
people are Chinese or not. “Ten years” successfully mixed the Hong Kongers
characteristic from many cultural production and public version. Then dramatize
them will be happened in the future.
On the other hand, “Ten years is a local
movie that tried to set up new discourse of Hong Kong identities and
localization. Similar as the cinema since 1997, before Hong Kong return to
China government, to recall nostalgia and memory of ‘local’ in ‘golden age’.
The difference are the stories try to perform a ‘fear future’ which based on
the social issues in Hong Kong recent years and something that HongKongers felt
were changing from China or Chinese cultures in many aspects. Thereby to extend
the new local nostalgia of Hong Kong. The units “Dialect” and “Local Egg” are
the obviously sample to imagine the impending crisis when ‘local’ be replaced
and disappeared in the future. In “Dialect, the main character, Han, a taxi
driver found that he lost lots of thing if he did not speak mandarin, not only
his work but also his family communication with his son. It assumed that the
situation about our mother language, Cantonese downed be dialect in the future.
Despite of this, the film did not only
build fear and powerlessness, such as the sentence form bible in the last of
film, “It is an evil time. Seek good, and not evil, that you may live”,
directors hope to perform the theme: Not too late, HongKongers still have time
to understand the status and defense identities and values of Hong Kong.
Words: 533
Offical Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4zebygSaZE
Reference:
Lee, V. P. (2009). Hong
Kong cinema since 1997: the post-nostalgic imagination. Palgrave Macmillan.
Lau Wing Kun
10551409/21619741
Dear Kun, The review demonstrates a sense of reviewing a film from a theoretical perspective. The weakness is that analysis is basically descriptive, reiterating the obvious signs identified in the film. As you mention "nostalgia," you can try to think about why such nostalgia works in today's Hong Kong. Or you may try to focus on one significant aspect of the film in such a short essay, for example, the fear of the loss of identity.This is implicated in your writing but not clearly expressed.
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