Online review for Cold War

Cold War (2012) is a local film starring movie stars such as Leung Ka Fai and Aaron Kwok, and it is arguably one of the better films from Hong Kong in terms of its box office performance. The plot of the film centers on the events following a terrorist attack in Mongkok, and a squad of police officers that are held hostage by a group of terrorists. With the Commissioner of police being overseas, it is up to the two Deputy Commissioners (Leung Ka Fai and Aaron Kwok) to protect Hong Kong from further threats.

Near the beginning of the film in the scene showing the traffic accident involving the drunk driver speaking English, he refuses to cooperate with the police, and we can see him pushing and speaking indecently towards the police officers. Judging by his fluent English, one can assume him to be an “ABC”, American born Chinese. From this example, this can be seen as a preferred reading, and the director may have added his own perception and attitude towards this group of people in the creation of this character to reflect his own ideologies or perceptions towards American born Chinese, that they seem to think of themselves being more superior compared to other Chinese due to them speaking English, or perhaps to reflect the perception that people can get out of trouble because of family relations (in this case, his uncle being a judge) or who they know. Later we see him getting beaten up and handcuffed by Joe (Eddie Peng), but we are likely to show no sympathy and will think that he deserved it due to his arrogance.

There are also stereotypes that can be found in the film as well, for example in a later scene where the police begin their operation to assault the dockyard and rescue the captive police officers, a (presumably) Southeast Asian male happens to show up at the wrong time, in the middle of the police operation. The police order him to put down his phone in which he replies using his own mother language, and the police eventually kill him by shooting him in the head despite him being unarmed, which is likely only to happen in a movie. It may be a commonly held belief for some people that Southeast Asians are associated with crime and violence, and the film makes use of this ethnic stereotype to represent them as suspects and to justify the police’s actions.

We can also see gender stereotypes being represented in the film, and one memorable example of this is the scene where Aaron Kwok confronts Leung Ka Fai suspecting him of overreacting due to his son being one of the police hostages, representing the gender stereotypes and roles of males being self-confident and aggressive.

Overall, this film is not trying to challenge stereotypes or social norms, and so we can often see many stereotypical representations that we have come to associate with being the norm.

Kenneth Shau (10553772)