Hi all, I would like to introduce “I Love Hong Kong” to all of you. This film produced in 2011 and become two weeks champion in Hong Kong Box office. From the below, I will examine the symbolic illustrations, the reason behind its success and the representation of historical memory.
Regarding on genre, this film is a combination of drama and comedy which telling a Hong Kong story in a relax way. The selection on staring is specific because of the genre, from Eric Tsang (曾志偉), Tony Leung (梁家輝), Sandra Ng (吳君如) to Wong Cho Lam (王祖藍), those are the stars who are successful and symbolic in the comedy genre, the selection of staring would certainly assist how the audience accept it as a comedy movie.
Despite of the genre, this film has also contained many icons and images that construct the historical and cultural Hong Kong. For example, the mini store (士多) and ChaChengTeng (茶餐廳) that they visited are in 60s’ style.
Furthermore, the wording they used is one of the elements building the construction memory of historical Hong Kong. For instance, they said “同煲同撈“ (cooperate together) which is understandable by the generation of 60s. Furthermore, the use of Cantonese is also a Hong Kong production symbol.
Meanwhile, people’s activities can reflect a specific period of time. In the film there are hawkers that selling pork and chickens that we now can’t see on the street. In the 60s, television is an important entertainment for Hong Kong residents, therefore, in the film when there was Miss Hong Kong election, families will gather to watch Miss Hong Kong election on a rare color television. These symbolic icons constructed a special setting that induce the audience to recall the metal state which they found themselves at the time (only if the people who has lived on that period). For others, the messages would not be so strong, however, it still understandable.
As for the reason behind its success, I think the fist important reason is the authority power. This film was sponsored by TVB and over 70% actors are from this company. The artists have already built a in-house image among audience as they have participated on daily drama TV programme. Therefore, audience would highly accept the familiar faces and fans would definitely support them. On the other hand, because of the power of sponsorship organization, “I Love Hong Kong” has great promotion opportunities, from TV advertisements, outdoor promotions to magazine interviews. The all-rounded promotion has caught the attention of the viewers. This film has chosen the period of Lunar New Year Holiday for broadcasting and its topic is related to family, love, comedy, past history and current society in Hong Kong. This film is quite heart-warming, for instance, the scene of Mid-Autumn festival which all the residents from public estate playing lanterns and sending gifts to each others. This was how traditional resident celebrating Mid-Autumn festival together and the close relationship between neighbors are hardly been seen in nowadays Hong Kong. Therefore, this movie has reminded us the love between friends, family, neighbors and more generally loving Hong Kong. This wide topic has attracted different generations and groups of people for viewing this film.
Jessica Lau Kar Yan (10381486)
Though this is the third review on “I Love HK”, you have adopted a holistic perspective in analyzing the textual representations of the film. The discussion on the reasons of its popularity is also sound and convincing.
ReplyDeleteI guess the film is particularly appealing to the “grassroots” growing up in the 60s/70s. The article has successfully pointed out some distinctive cultural practices which are familiar to this group of Hong Kong people, and plenty of valid examples are cited to elaborate the relevant concepts.
p.s. it’s interesting to see that Miss Hong Kong had been so popular in the old days! There is a very sharp difference between the younger and older generations ...…