Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong’s famous night club and bar concentrated. Men and women are both like to go there to get some fresh air and to make fun of. Lan Kwai Fong 2 is a Hong Kong local movie, modeled on Hong Kong people are proud of clubbing life. It tells the story that the new concept of a public urban young people for love and relations between the sexes.
Stereotype – Referring to the world
In Lan Kwan Fong 2, the plot follows four different characters whose lives and love lives revolve around the nightlife of Lan Kwai fong. Poor photography assistant Rain (Kelvin Kwan) meets rich girl Summer (Shiga Lin) at a nightclub and they fall in love quickly. However, they find their ensuring relationship troubled by class differences. According to Lippmann’s ideas regarding stereotype, it is referring to the world (reality). Rain’s friend Don (Sammy Sum) is a frequent player who starts a phone flirtation with a mysterious woman Siri (Liu Yuqi) and become enamored. When he wants to make sure on the couple’s relationship with each other, he has rejected and faces the harsh truth and he hurt. Avis (Avis Chan) hangs out at the club attending to his crappy boss, but along the way he falls for pitiable and pneumatically-pleasing club girl QQ (Mia). A young police officer (Dominic Ho) is shyly pursuing aggressive Japanese disc jockey Maxim (Linah Matsuoka).
In above four relations, the first relationship is to establish and maintain, or even a family, to raise the next generation of education, to talk about the future. The last two relations is heart to heart and consonance communication with each other. The movie gets rid of the sigh of “9am-5pm” (朝9晚5) boring working life, find their own way out and very positive. Moreover, the relation between Rain and Summer, they don’t go club and work hard in mind.
Collective Memory
In the end of the movie, the well-designed “back in time” (時光倒流) is unique and full of human touch. And Rain make promises with Summer, “我今日做嘅呢件事,身邊咁多朋友幫手,我都係希望可以倒轉返翻去到果一日,可以收翻我講錯嘅說話,收返我做錯嘅野,希望你可以原諒我”. This part is really touching and memorable. Actually, “back in time” has two double meaning. The first meaning is to make up for the fault again from scratch, same with the apperception of characters in the movie. The second meaning is the image of facing forwards and people backwards. The identity of the people of Hong Kong lost and core values gradually collapse after the reunification, the projection of feelings. The movie full of 80,90’s feelings and collective memory. According to Maurice Halbwachs’ (1980) work on Collective Memory, “remembering is always situated in the present”. Therefore, “Clubbing” is a way of life, but also includes an urban growth experiences and feelings.
Chan Ki Yan Yuko (21047682/10420191)
A brief textual analysis of the film is conducted, with emphasis on the social and cultural values embodied by the main characters. Some major scenes and dialogues have been cited to illustrate the source of identification for audience.
ReplyDeleteThe point on “collective memory” is quite inspiring and substantial. Perhaps you could discuss a bit on the city’s thriving clubbing scenes and contextualize the text in a local background. It actually helps explain why the film is particularly appealing to young middle-class audiences growing up in the 70s/80s.