Clement Cheng, which got "The best Movie Award" of the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2011. Although the movie received high appraisal in film festivals, the box office was quite unsatisfactory. I would try to briefly analyze why this film receive such high appraisal.
The film shows strong nostalgia of old fashion Hong Kong Kung Fu film. The film is set in modern Hong Kong, but the genre of it is quite similar to the 1970s Kung Fu film. Note the setting. The film sets in a village in New Territories, two middle age Kung Fu masters, Dragon (Chan Kuan-Tai) and Tiger (Leung Siu-Lung) run a old teahouse, no skyscraper and all elements of a modern city, as if getting back to the pre-modern age. The master Law San (Teddy Robin) of Dragon and Tiger has been in coma for 30 years, but one day he waks up.
The wake up of Law San seems to show a connection between modern and 1970s Hong Kong, since Law determines to restart his martial art school, which is a important symbol of old fashion Kung Fu film. The iconography in the martial art school is notable. The big tablet hung on above the gate, traditional chinese calligraphy are hung everywhere inside the school, also the "Lion Heads" of lion dace and Chinese traditional weapons are seen there. Law always wear traditional clothes and his language is also very "old fashion", show strong nostalgia to the "old day".
As the Chinese name shows, the theme of the movie is about martial art contest. Almost all the characters in teh film know Kung Fu, lots of fighting scenes have been seen. But it is similar to old fashion Kung Fu film, the focusing point is not only on the exciting fighting scene, it wants to show "the spirit of Kung Fu" and some traditional morality through the film. For example, the narrative of this film focuses on the two disciples of master Law San who keep running the martial art school for 30 years when Law was in coma, although finally it
becomes a teahouse, but they still keep taking care of the old master difficultly. This shows strong feeling of tradinotal morality of "respect to mster", which is common in the old Kung Fu films. When law decides to attend the martial art contest hold by Chung Sang-mang (Mc Jin) and his master Pong Ching (Chan Wai-man), and finally being disqualified, Law says "arena is just a name, for contest, everywhere is arena.", "You won't lose when you don't fight; You must win whenevery you decide to fight." This is trying to show the spirit of "never give up" of martial art, the term "win" here not just refers to "win the battle", but means fighting until the last second, although finally you lost, you "win". This spirit is show in the final battle between the disciple of Pong Ching and Tiger, thought finally Tiger is lost, but he has done his best to fight, he actually "Wins".
Gallants shows strong nostalgia of old fashion Hong Kong Kung Fu movie of 1970s, as we know the two protagonists Chan Kuan-tai and Leung Siu-lung were famous action stars in 1970s. Also it tries to search for the "Lost Spirit" of Hong Kong Kung FU film and the tradional morality of it, this's a very "Hong Kong" Kung Fu film in modren Hong Kong.
Chan Chung Ming (Danny) (10380052)
You have identified the major symbolic icons of the film, such as the nostalgic setting, conservative moral values, traditional practice, etc. The film embodies lots of connotative elements, for example, the marginalization of chivalrous culture in view of rapid development of the city.
ReplyDeleteIt’s good to cite some specific scenes to illustrate your points, and the selected quotes of dialogues are very representative. The metaphor of “arena fighting” and the definition of “wining” are also well discussed. Indeed, there is no scene of “arena fight” in the film; this is only a symbolic sign that refers to personal struggles.
Perhaps you can talk about the young character, Leung King Shing, in comparison to Law San. They actually represent two different types of values: the former aspires to modern development and progress (staff of a real estate company), and the later one sticks to the fading traditions (in coma for 30 years, rooted in an old village in new territories).