Online review - The way we dance (2013)

I am going to do a local film review called The way we dance (2013). Analyzing a film text is like analyzing language. Movie is not just a movie entertain people, it brings us messages. If you look deeply into the message from a film, you will get the real meaning behind a film. This review will focuses on Stuart Hall‘s Encoding/decoding model of communication and my viewpoint critical analysis of cultural text of the film The way we dance. The genre of The way we dance is dance. This genre is not as popular as others genres such as action films: cops and robbers, gangsters or romance films. The iconography of dancing film are sports style clothing, sports shoes, cool style of people. The setting of dancing film are community, underground, abandoned places, dancing floor, clubbing. The characters of dancing film most are boys, but there must be one or two girls to supporting the whole film. The themes of dancing film are the spirit of dance, the dream comes true, insist on dancing and so on. Narrative of dancing film are fail, give up, success, famous. Popular culture is ruled by market pressures, to cater to various sectors of consumers, also to repeat commercially successful patterns, ingredients and formulas. You can see while the dance film showing on theater, there will be a dancing trend during that moment. For example, the western film Step up was so successful and then others film companies will attempt to film the similar theme. Dance film mostly emphasis music and movement. The target audience are teenagers, youth, people who love dancing and people who pursue dreams. Subverts distinction between high and low culture, importance of the ordinary, everyday culture. The message in its natural form must be encoded by the source and decoded by the receiver so that a symbolic exchange is produced. According to the Encoding/decoding model of communication adopted by Stuart Hall (1980), he also claims that the decoding subject can assume three different hypothetical positions of decoding: Dominant-hegemonic position, negotiated position, and oppositional position. This is the most inspired local film that I have watched in 2013. Although this is so called a dance film, it is not just focuses on dancing. All the actors and actresses are not famous star, but they performed very well. There is a saying from this film“為左跳舞,你可以去到幾盡”, it means how far you could go for dancing. It literally means what you could sacrifice for chasing your dream. This is a dance movie talks about a fresh year one university girl Ah Fa who is talented in dancing, she has joined a dance club Bomba in university. She was quite smoothly at the beginning, but after something happened between her and her team members, she left Bomba and joined Tai Chi club. During the days in Tai Chi club, she met the leader Ah Leung of Tai Chi club, she is inspired the skill of new dancing movement and also understood the mental philosophy. She went back to the Bomba and finally performed a great show with her team. This film should be supported by local Hong Kong people and it is really worth to watch. The way we dance has won the best New Director, the best Original Film Song and the character of Ah Leung has won the best New Performer in the 33rd Hong Kong Film Awards.

 (579 words) 
From Pun Wing Tung (21240956, 10427298)

Embedding the Stereotyping Notion: "Public Housing, Home Ownership Scheme Flat, Private Housing"

Perhaps the most current yet very well liked video on YouTube, named “Public Housing, Home Ownership Scheme Flat and Private Housing” （公屋·居屋·私樓）is the video that has been vastly circulated and discussed among the netizens and peers around (Chau 2014). Uploaded for only over a week, the viewership hits over 600,000 viewers on the video site.

Originally adapted from a self-published, the short “trendy” story writing, with its name literally translated as “Girlfriend brings you home for a dinner” （女朋友帶你返屋企食飯）, was written by an anonymous member from a renowned and local discussion forum – HKGolden.  The rationale behind the selection of this short film is that the overwhelming reaction from the mass audience, of which the majority of viewers generally concur with the social stereotype which their responses are reflected at the comment section. Social stereotype is deliberately and implicitly, if not explicitly, translated into such short film. Succinctly speaking, this film attempts to project the social phenomenon in which it is intriguing to briefly investigate.

The film divides the story into three scenarios – that is, public housing, the “Home Ownership Scheme” and private housing of the housing type that the young bloke resides. With all scenarios shooting him as a fresh university graduate, each one depicts him heading to his girlfriend’s home for a dinner, and for the most eye-catching scene – by meeting the parents. Public housing, out of all scenarios, receives the most unwelcome sign from his girlfriend’s mom; the young bloke receives a friendlier welcoming as the scenario progresses with another housing types. Initially, the spotlight sheds on girlfriend’s mom. She is delineated as a woman acting in a very familial-utilitarian manner, with the very discernible objective – hoping her daughter to seek for a partner with an affluent background.

At this point, the original author of the story attempts to recount the stereotype and stigmatisation, that by living in a government-owned flat is something can be socially diminishing, and can be poured scorn on which it is generally embedded as part of our mainstream social values – succinctly speaking, it is a boundary drawing. Little do we know about the girlfriend’s family background, though, the mom’s reaction shows that she projects her own sense of the world and her position upon the bloke. Stereotype is commonplace among human being after all. It is the attitude of expression of our values and beliefs, and it can be an important piece of information regarding another social group and stratum (Dyer 2000). The stereotyping manifestation, as expressed by the mom, invoke a sense of agreement, accompanied with concomitant and negative evaluations, posits that the failure to the group of people residing in government-owned flats.

The production of this short film resorts to the social disadvantages of people in the society. It attempts to bring out the construction of social relations in a dominant & subordinate configuration and an ideological process that suppresses other identities.

Chau, R 2014, ‘Public Housing. Home Ownership Scheme, Private Housing’ (video file). Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSy5VsWjFkA>. [7 April 2014].

Dyer, R 2000, ‘The Role of Stereotypes’ in Media Studies: A Reader, eds P Marris & S Thornham, New York University Press, Washington Square, pp. 245-251.

(Word count: 501)

Lam, Tsz Chun (10553776 / 21238613)

Stereotyped Representation in Come Home Love (愛 · 回家)

Come Home Love is a modern sitcom series broadcasted in TVB since 2012. Its story background is mainly about the daily life of an ordinary family. In episode 489, a female stereotype image is strongly represented in the drama. Ma Yau (acted by Florence Kwok Siu-wan) is a working woman who is in a romantic relationship with Kau A-wik (acted by Kenny Wong Tak-ban). Since Kau went to Australia and has been stayed there for a long while, Ma loses her faith to him. She thought Kau breaks his promise that he will not come back and get married with her.

With this narrative, a clear underlying message is bought to the audience – no matter what kind of woman you are, your destiny should be ended in marriage. The portrayal of Ma’s feminine feature is obvious. Even as an independent woman, Ma still has her submissive side. When Kau comes back to Hong Kong, she actually shows a big sweet smile to him which signifies her expectation to her marriage. Her facial expression is completely like the image of “fortune woman” which is a popular term describing a woman happily falls in love. She is shaped as a kind of woman who has her own thought in pursuing love.

Moreover, the dominant ideology on binary opposition of gender is further put forward in some particular scenes. At the beginning of the drama, there is a scene presenting Ma’s friend who is an office lady has a lady’s talk with Ma. She expresses her perception of love. She explains to Ma that she just want to find a man who is caring and willing to get married with her. However, she finds it difficult to meet her perfect man. She ever doubts herself if she is not gentle and feminine enough. Women represented by the office lady in the drama expect themselves to play as soft and weak roles in the society in order to attract men.

Another scene is about Ma suddenly planned to find Kau in Australia. On one hand, she denies that she will stay there with Kau permanently. On the other hand, she is ready to give up her everything in Hong Kong, such as her current job, her family and friends so as to maintain her relationship. Again, the message of ‘a good job is no better than a good husband’ is delivered. It promotes love should occupy a significant part of women’s life. It can be seen that the social discourse of gender role greatly regulate women’s attitude and behaviour.

Besides, gender hierarchy is placed at home and in the workplace in Come Home Love. It can be observed that Ma is under social pressure from several male dominant roles like her brother Ma Fu, her nephew John Ma, and her fiancé Kau. When she decided to go to Australia to find Kau, her brother and nephew showed a strong reaction, objecting her idea to leave home which ultimately made her stay at the end. While Ma always stand by Kau, as Kau is also her boss in the café where she is working at. She helps Kau almost everything including handling daily correspondence of his business and even receiving delivery package of red wines at his home. Apparently, Ma is subordinate to both of her male authority i.e. her male relatives and Kau. The drama reflects that our society is dominated by males. They are more privileged than females in most of the circumstance and in different places.

(584 words)

Lo Ka Po (Student ID: 10487830/ 21239164) 

Online review – Social issues presented in Swipe Tap Love (愛我請留言)

“Swipe Tap Love” is the current modern romance TV drama broadcasting on TVB Jade Channel at weekdays 8:30 pm – 9:30pm time slot, starring Priscilla Wong (黃翠如) and Raymond Wong (黃浩然). There are in total 20 episodes from the plot where the story has proceeded to episode 12 at the moment. The drama is about the relationship issues faced by two pair of couples (Raymond Wong & Elaine Yiu and Tony Hung & Priscilla Wong) in the modern time of Hong Kong.

The main reason for me choosing this TV drama is that the story of “Swipe Tap Love” focused on some social issues that commonly faced by Hong Kong residents now days, for example the stereotypes on gender roles, the long working hour problem, the redefined ways of communication by smartphones and the problems that come along etc.

One of the focus of this drama on struggles and feelings towards the sending and receiving of instant messages have drawn big attention from younger generations of the post 80s, who have been influenced the most by the popularization of smartphones and instant message applications. Posts can be found easily on social websites like Facebook and Internet forums, discussing numinous of the Priscilla Wong’s character spoken lines and remarked them as so called proverb ‘金句’.

Gender role issues

Gender roles constitute an integral part of identity and define the social behavior of Woman and men in the society. (Cheung, 1997, P. 201) Male are required to be the breadwinner of the family where female should be supporting, such stereotypes are still prevalent in Hong Kong society. (Cheung, 1997, P. 206) However, due to economic consideration many of the Hong Kong female chose to go out and work rather to stay and be a housewife.

In the Drama, Raymond Wong and Elaine Yiu acted as a married couple with opposite gender roles. Elaine Yiu is a doctor who work for long hours and have no time taking care her daughter. Oppositely, Raymond Wong is a designer who helps taking care of the daughter in a detailed manner. Elaine Yiu was struggled with her role within the family, considered she not being a caring mother and a supportive wife. Elaine Yiu and Raymond Wong went divorce eventually. 

Smartphones redefining inter-personal communication and relationships

According to the technological determinism approach, Thorstein Veblen suggested that technologies determine our way of living. Same as the popularization of mobile phone in 1990s reshaped the way of communication in Hong Kong, smartphones is one recent example of new technology impacting Hong Kong resident’s living and culture. Many of the scholars have been concerning the texting culture among young generations, and have raised discussions of weather instant message damaging communication and inter-personal relationships.    

In the Drama, Tony Hung and Priscilla Wong acted as a couple that has been in a relationship for 4 years. Priscilla Wong was experiencing loneliness due to the absent and late reply of Tony Hung’s instant message, and was suspecting him of having an affair with another female after peeked on his instant message record.

“Swipe Tap Love” tried to relate current social issues into TV drama, leading to discussion and review on the living in Hong Kong. However, the story is suggesting that the miss-matching gender role in family wouldn’t last. I personally feel disappointed but I am still looking forward for the ending.  

Cheung, F. M. (1997). Engendering Hong Kong society: A gender perspective of women's status. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press. 

(570 words)

Wong Sheung Him Curtis (10488495/21238515)

Online review -- Stereotypes of “Bounty Lady” (My盛 Lady)

 “Bounty Lady” (My盛 Lady) is a 2013 modern drama produced by TVB and starring Dayo Wong, Kate Tsui, Sharon Chan and other actors. The drama is about Heung Kwong-nam (Dayo Wong), a public relation expert, being famous as a savior, helping single ladies to find a boyfriend and have a happy marriage. The female protagonist, Sing Fa-lui (Kate Tsui) is a new account officer, who misconceives Kwong-nam and his team as lazy and irresponsible. In the drama, both Kwong-nam and Fa-lui tried to help their clients, unmarried ladies, to have happy marriage.

  The reason why I chose this drama is because it raised many people’s attention, attracted them to watch TV drama again and discussed about the drama on the internet when it has been screened on TV. People noticed not only about the acting skills of Dayo Wong, but also the situation of ladies unable to get married in the drama and also in the reality. Another reason which I noticed about this drama is the stereotyping of male and female presented in the drama.

  In “Bounty Lady”, there are few cases of females seeking help from Kwong-nam and they are presented as having many weaknesses. For example, the first client Judy (May Chan), although she is well-educated, kind and wealthy as her father is the chief of a village, she cannot get a boyfriend because she is overweight. Later she was jealous about Fa-lui, who is thin and beautiful, and taught by Kwong-nam that she must lose some weight in order to have a good boyfriend. Audiences are willing to accept certain values which females have to be slim in order to find true love without questioning. Apart from Judy, other ladies such as Yam Mo Lin (a boyish policewoman), Windy (an author who persuades other females to remain single) are presented as rude, having a lot of bad habits and not deserve to have a boyfriend until the end of the drama. But the drama implies the final message: every woman needs to have a partner and get married otherwise she cannot have true happiness.

  Apart from women, men are also stereotyped in the drama. It is so obvious that not only the women in the drama, but also the audiences, see Kwong-nam as the ‘savior’ of unmarried women. Although he shown as lazy and having fun all night at the beginning of the drama, he can always help females to find true love and shows that he is serious in helping them solving love problems. However, other male characters are seen as not masculine enough as they are weak, jobless, obeying lover’s unreasonable commands and other weaknesses.

  This drama is able to be famous because most of audiences, Hong Kong people, shared same memories as the number of unmarried Hong Kong ladies is growing these years and sometimes their behavior are considered as unacceptable. When we mention about Hong Kong ladies, we often think about females who are greedy or treating their boyfriends badly. When we watch the drama, we can easily find the relations between the drama and the reality, such as Paula (Toby Leung), she is a greedy woman who ask people to pay more wedding gift money, which is an irony of the “$500 Hong Kong lady”, who posted about asking for not less than $500 of wedding gift money on her facebook page.

  All in all, the drama further strengthened the stereotype of women, asking them to be gentle, slim and beautiful while the image of men is degraded and presented as weak and not masculine. Also audiences can decode the drama as getting married is the only way for women to gain happiness.

(615 words)

Chan Ying Tung (Irene) 10487584 (21233765)

Nostalgia in “My Lonely Planet” 《思路》

“My Lonely Planet” is the ninth music album composed by Chet Lam Yuet Fung, in which discussed about how he, as a traveler, thinks of the issue of going back home, Hong Kong. This album is divided into two parts, “Outward bound” and “Homeward bound”. There are 11 songs in each part. In the first part, he raised a question that where his home is and should he keep travelling to find a perfect place to stay. In the second part, he answered his own questions by discovering that Hong Kong is his home. No matter where he had been, he would be back Hong Kong finally.

The reason why I choose this music album is that there are a lot of voice in the society about migrating to other countries in order to escape from Hong Kong as they think that Hong Kong is not a good place to stay. However, this album told us that wherever you have been to, you will still miss Hong Kong. In the following, I will pick some songs and analyze the lyrics.

In Outward bound, the first song “Victoria” describes Hong Kong as a shelter for her citizens. She will never ask for anything from her people, but she will always wait for her people at a place call “home”. Chet used Victoria to represent Hong Kong and praised Hong Kong as a giver which brought out the theme of this album that Hong Kong will always be with you and wait for your back.

However, traveler would not be satisfied if he never travels to other countries, so, start from second songs, traveler begins his long journey as he wants to find what he is really longing for. He hopes to find a place like home. Unfortunately, he found that the world would not be his home. When he arrived a city, he tried to taste it, stay for a long time and adapt in it. No matter how hard he tried, he still could not find a place as cozy and familiar as Hong Kong. In the last song, “Visa. time different. air mileage”, he said visa keep reminding him that the world is not his home. He felt anxious about his next stop so he found his way home.

Chet used “Homesick” as the first song in Homeward Bound to express he missed his Hong Kong even though he knew that Hong Kong had changed a lot during his journey. Although he had been to many places, what he could remember was very little. The deepest memory in his heart is in Hong Kong. He said that nostalgia did not belong to him when he left a foreign country and headed to another one. The only nostalgia happened when he missed Hong Kong. In “Next Stop: Hong Kong”, he expressed that he could never travel all of the places in the world but the best thing of a journey is to know he was going to home soon.

In this album, Chet talked a lot about home. He thought that Hong Kong people should remember where their home is because their home is a place with memory and love that is why nostalgia is created. He used words from an American scholar, John ed Pearce, as the ending of his album, “home is a place you grow up wanting to leave and grow old wanting to get back to.”

(572 words)

Wong Chi Wan, Katie (10488387)

Hong Kong values presented in 潮文映画系列《深宵小巴》

 This video clip is being uploaded to Youtube in late 2013. The content is based on a true story which is being taken by a minibus passenger. The core idea of the video is simple – if a man has money, he then can get respect from his girlfriend’s mother.

The reason of choosing this video to make an analysis is its unexpected comments and agreement within the whole local society. With more than 220 thousands clicks through rate, there are a lot of Youtube comments saying the video is sad but true. A lot of Hong Kongers have re-posted this video to their blogs or others forums. This phenomenon of re-posting Youtube video has created an emerging power for this kind of cultural text.

As mentioned before, the content of the video is based on a true story in real life. When the original video first existed on the Internet, most people’s attentions went to the last sentence said by the main female character – “I said you enjoyed eating my cunts.” This sentence is kind of rude and shocked the online network at that time. However, when the story was being made into a new video, the focusing point has changed. People started to say it is reflecting society values.

The first value being put forth is the idea of “money”. The whole video has emphasized on how important money is. If a man has money, he can buy a house. When he has housing, his girlfriend’s mother would like him and show welcome, which is in a form of giving him a chicken leg. It seems that Hong Kong people depend so much on money that having no financial ability is a failure. The division of social classes is serious. Public housing is being said as not suitable, ideal or even would make people feel pity for it. Living in public housing is presented in a way as a shame, though the male character has once asked “What’s so bad about public housing?”

The second value in the video is related to the idea of “money”, which is noble and lowly of occupations. Working as sales is something to be laughed at. It seems that this proper job does not deserve any respect and can never compare to the jobs like doctor or lawyer. This idea is reflecting common Hong Konger’s idea that if someone is working as sales, he or she must have failed in their studying.

The last value is the idea of “Hong Kong ladies (港女)”. Actually, this video does not have a clear idea of saying anything bad about Hong Kong ladies. However a lot of viewers would decode the video by saying the female character’s attitude towards her boyfriend is what typical Hong Kong ladies would do. For example, she cannot show understanding to her boyfriend and blames him as useless.

This is more than just a remaking video based on real story; it also reflects the social norms in Hong Kong. The decoding process by the audience has added more meanings to the video indeed.

Number of words: 515

Link of the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GPy533VKzM#t=310

Chan Lok Yan, Chika (10316896/ 21233747)