Xinwei Cen
COM110
Sheldon Lu
12/16/2014

One Character’s development Hong Kong cinema is the third largest motion picture after Hollywood and India Cinema. Many of the movies are revolve around martial arts and action. However there are also movies revolve with drama of love, fantasy, journey, and self-discovery. In the period of Hong Kong return to China, a variety of movie address the issue of pursuing dreams, cherish old relationships, and search for new identities. These films included Comrades; Almost a lover story, directed by Peter Chan; Chungking Express, directed by Wong Kar-Wai, and Durain Durian, directed by Fruit Chan. Even though, these films were directed by different directors and produced in different years. These three films share some similar theme such as pursue of dream, cherish old relationships, and character change. The idea pursues of dream is one of the themes that these three film shares. In the 1990s, many mainlander unsure about what would happen after Hong Kong return to China, as result many mainlanders travel to Hong Kong and search for better job opportunities, and pursue their dream, one of the good example would be Comrades, Almost a lover story, In this films, two mainlanders, one named Li Xiao Jun (starring Leon Lai) role-play northern mainlanders. Another one was Li Qiao (starring Maggie Cheung) role-play southern mainlanders. Both of them have the passion to pursue their dream in Hong Kong. Xiao Jun’s dream is to bring his fiancé to Hong Kong, buy a small apartment and live happily together. Li Qiao’s dream was to get rich and buy a house for her mother in China. What makes Li Qiao and Xian Jun different was Li Qiao have a bigger ambitious than Xiao Jun, Li Qiao try to pursue her dream by dealing with a small business first. An example scene was when Li Qiao invests all her money on the Thersa Teng CD booth, she expected that Theresa Teng’s CD can sell a lot and make good money. But unexpectedly, she didn’t sell that much of the CD. As result, she has to change her job and borrow debt. However, despite she changed her job; she never gives up on her dream of getting rich. In this example, we can see that she tries her best to pursue dreams. Another good film that talks about pursuing of dream was Chungking Express. In the film, director Wong Kar-Wai break down two different stories together, the first part of the film focus on a police named He Qiwu (starring Takeshi Kaneshiro) break up with his girlfriend, but the second half of the movie focus on two characters, one is the restaurant worker (starring Faye Wong), the other one is a police officer titled 663 (starring Tony Leung). In the film, Tony Leung stuck in an old relationship with his ex-girlfriend, after he meets the restaurant worker, everything started to change, Tony Leung cheer up to a point when he invites Faye Wong to a date, but somehow Faye did not show up because she fly to California and pursue her California dream. At the end of the movie both of them meeting again, and both of them seem to find their own dream. Lastly, the movie Durian Durian, show two different female characters try to pursue their dream. One of the characters named Yan( starring Qin Hailu) she works as a sex worker, so she can save enough money and go back to China, another female character named Fan (starring Mak Wai-Fan) work as an illegal dishwasher in Hong Kong, her dream was to live happily in Hong Kong with her family. Both of these two characters were illegal Hong Kong citizens, and they share the same worried. They worry about getting caught by the Hong Kong police, perhaps because of that they have changed dream at the end of the movie. These three films have shared the similar theme and that is how ones pursue dreams. Cherish old relationship is another big theme in these three films. Each character have developed their own personality of cherish old relationship. For example, in the films Comrades, Almost a lover story, Xiao Jun, a northern mainlander who comes to Hong Kong and search for better opportunities. He never forgot about his own hometown and his fiancé. While Xiao Jun is in Hong Kong, he often wrote letters to his fiancé, and mentions his current status in Hong Kong. In this we can seem that he is single minded to his fiancé. He’s action also reflected the connection between his fiancé and longing feel toward his hometown. Another good example that shows one cherishing old relationship was the films Chungking Express, a police named Qiwu (starring Takeshi Kaneshiro). He is obsessed with his ex-girlfriend. They broke up at the beginning of the month, and it is April 1, also one month from Qiwu’s birthday. He strongly believes that his girlfriend will turn back to him on his birthday. So starting that day he bought one can of pineapple that expire on May 1. And he persists and doing the same thing every day until his birthday, by the time of his birthday, he either rejected or expired with his old relationship. In this we can see that Qiwu cares and cherish his old relationship. He never gives up on what he believes in until he sees the final result. However his girlfriend did not turn back on him and he eats all the pineapple at his birthday, and ended the relationship with her girlfriends. Finally, the film Durian Durian, Yan, shows her cherishing old relationship by the way she deals with her fiancé after return from Hong Kong. She divorce with her fiancé. She cannot change her past that she was a sex worker, so she makes this decision to leave her finance, which mean she cherish about the past and the old relationship. Characters in different films cherish different old relationships. These three films share the similar themes, character change. For example, in the movie Comrades, Almost a lover story, despite Xiao Jun is a person who cherished old relationship, and nostalgic hometown. Loneliness brings him into a different character. Living in Hong Kong is a big challenge for a northern mainlander. First, he has to learn how to speak Cantonese, second, he has no friend in Hong Kong, which means there’s no one he can talk to and express his loneliness feeling. The same happens to Li Qiao, the only friend she has is Xian Jun. Therefore, same loneliness brings them together, and because of that he abandons his past character, and chasing a new character in Hong Kong. Same as Chungking Express, The first part of the movie, Qiwu have finally moved on with his life after the female he meets in the bar. The second part of the movie, Faye is the one, who tries to reach out for Tony Leung, but at the end of the movie, Faye comes back from California, their role has reversed. Tony Leung is the one who try to reach out to Faye, he no longer stuck in his old relationship, he even converts the snack bar where Faye used to work at into a restaurant, he also like the stuff that Feya like in the past, such as listening to loud music. This role reversed scene suggests that both characters have change. Both of the characters finally have something they can look forward to. Lastly, the movie Durian Durian, the style of the film use normal shot to show the audience the realistic of Hong Kong life. After Yan has returned to China, She began to have her own life; she’s no longer a sex worker who hides her true identity. She also changes her phone number so anybody in Hong Kong can reach her. She could see her true identity after changing her phone number and also her true self. The act of pursuing dream make she lost her identity, but the act of cherishing old relationship helps her to find her true identity, all these suggest her transformation from being fake to real. In addition, Fan, the illegal dishwasher has changed her dream after deported back to China. She finds out that stay in Hong Kong can never be happy. She dream is to stay in a place when she can stay with her family and live happily together. In these three films, characters are changing after pursuing their dream and cherish an old relationship. In conclusion, three of these films address the same issues that people in Hong Kong and China faced; pursue of dream allow one to see their goal in the future, and also show the trend of Hong Kong cinema in term of style. Cherish old relationship give the audience a better understanding of how one character’s personality and how they deal with relationship, but most importantly, it gives the audience to understand that these themes could change themselves. During the period of Hong Kong return to China, many Hong Kong films are related to the subject of love, fantasy, journey, and self-discovery. These genres would worth to watch and give a better understanding of Hong Kong Cinema.

Reflection on this course Looking back at the entire course, we have watched and discussed a variety of films. Movies from the 70s-2000s. Each of the films has its own unique attractions in terms of plots, storyline, character development, and style. Different style of movie can fit different audience’s preference. For example, the first half of the course mainly focuses on action movies, which most of the time does not require an audience to pay any attention the meaning or theme behind. Some action films in which we have watched in class and discussion were Fist of Fury, Rumble in the Bronx, A better Tomorrow and Infernal Affairs. These films have a lot of action which makes the audience more entertaining. However, on the second half of the course, most of the films were focused with drama of love, fantasy, journey, and self-discovery. These films require the audience to know the culture and historical background, and you have to pay close attention in order to get the meaning. Some of the movies that we have discussed during class about the drama of love, fantasy, journey, and self-discovery were Her Fatal Ways, Comrades, Almost a Lover Story, Chunking Express, and Durian Durian. Since these movies focus on love, fantasy, journey, and self-discovery for the people in China and Hong Kong, they really represent that local region of Asia. Thus, people who are not from that region might find these movies difficult to understand, especially the language and some of the jokes that were used in these movies. Basic on my own interpretation, there are two major parts of the entire course, the first part of the course focuses on action films, and the second part focuses on dreams. I personally like the
I personally like the first part which is about action movies, but this does not mean I don’t like the second part of the course, it just you have to be more passion and literature to watch this kind of movie. Example movie In the mood for Love, in this director Wong Kar-Wai use slow motion to show the audience how two characters meeting and how they not talk to each other. And the ending is like out of nowhere. I don’t like seeing thing unclean, but he uses a lot of this kind of scene which have annoyed me. I also think that the negative space in the movie is not that necessary. But overall, his movies are great.
I like action films more than any other type of films because action films use less dialogue. More action which can entertain everybody, some action films have more dialogue, but comparing to other type of films, action films is like an international films that everyone can watch, I especially like the action movie that have multiple races in the same story. For example, Rumble in the Bronx is an action movie that its theme not only focuses on martial arts, but also, social issues, power, and authority.