<<打擂台>> (Gallants)

Gallants (打擂台) is a 2010 Hong Kong action comedy film directed by Derek Kwok and Clement Cheng and stars Leung Siu Lung,Chen Kuan Tai and Teddy Robin. The film is set in modern times but is in the style of Hong Kong action comedy films from the 1960s and 1970s (Film Business Asia, 2010). The story of Gallants is about a young office boy who failed so much in his workplace and was forced to visit a remote village in countryside by his employer. Then he encountered a group of martial artists and started to comprehend his meaning of life and pursued justice rather than money. The reason why I chose this film to analyze is I personally think that this film is very inspirational for urban dwellers like most of the Hong Kongers. Additionally, you might decode different meaning from that film from different perspectives. A few personal decoding of the film are explained in following paragraph.

In Gallants, the focus is about how two martial art sectschools fight for their honor and pride. One of the sectschools is “Law San Mun” (羅生門), this is also the sectschool that the office boy joined. There are three main Martial artists in Law San Mun. All of them are aged men with health problems. Also they only train with traditional Chinese martial art equipment. Despite the fact that they are old and rigid, they have their honor and dream to assert. On the other hand, the competitor of Law San Mun is “Pong Cing Sport Association” (龐青體育會). Pong Ceng Sport Association is a modern boxing center with western equipment and design. Moreover, they aim for profit rather than philosophical principles. This is also a technique of the directors to make an obvious contrast between traditional values and modernization. 

In the film, traditional parts and modern parts are clearly shown. For example, the venue of Law San Mun is old fashioned designed with Chinese decorations. Nonetheless, The customers in the shops are very close with the shop owners. They are not only seller-buyer relationship but friends and neighborhood. With a big contrast, Pong Cing Sport Association is a place that everyone could join as long as they afford to pay the high tuition fee. The relationship between the students and trainers are solely base on profit making. By showing the coldness of money-minded people in the film, the pureness and “Ren Qing Wei” (人情味) of the villagers are likely to be appreciated.

After watching this film, I admire the philosophical part of the film rather than the fighting or romantic parts of it. Personally, I started to introspect the meaning of life as an ordinary urban dweller. Socially, I become more critical about the hegemonic modern value standard and globalization. Local culture and tradition should be respected and learnt in certain extent. After all, the majority standard might not be the ideal standard.

Reference:

Film Business. 2010. Gallants. available from 17th, April, 2014.
http://www.filmbiz.asia/reviews/gallants

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Students Name: Lam Lui

Students ID: 10456619/21239745