Example Of Hong Kong Cinema Essay

We would like to analyze three films of Hong Kong production and determine the presence of certain dreams in each of them. In addition to determining the so called “dreams”, we will discuss how the characters have chased it, which different approaches they used and what that dream actually meant for them. We chose to analyze the three following films: “Comrades, Almost a Love Story”, “Chungking Express” and “Durian Durian”. We will try as best as possible to understand the movie details and answer our own questions.
      The next film is “Chungking Express”, filmed by the director Wong Kar-Wai in 1994. The film also shows the desire for a better life of the protagonists. There are two love stories, two policemen abandoned by their beloved women. There are two objects of passion: the first one is a drug dealer that gets into serious problems because of the disappearance of the Indians, entrusted to carry a large batch of cocaine; the second one is a weird worker of an eatery, not deliberately attacked for the keys to the apartment of his object of adoration, and who decided to get into this apartment, to slowly but surely change his life for the better. A woman, who is trying to change someone else's life for the better (incidentally changing hers as well) is constantly listening to the song of “California Dreaming” The Mamas and The Papas and, noting that the policeman still does not pay any attention to her, she begins to secretly go and see him in the apartment to change his life for the better again. This movie is entirely created on a wave of inspiration and full of exceptional fresh artistic approach. The paradoxical combination of despair, humor, crime (even a couple of murders there!), Romance, frivolous adventures, painful experiences, love letters – it would be like some cut-up, were it not so alive and natural. Movie has striking characteristic of grace, but in this kind of chaotic narrative style it is unclear what a miracle is seeking Kar-Wai. In the film “Chungking Express”, we can assume, an attempt is to to find some common ground in the chaos of everyday life, to find a thin binder yarns between people. These threads lead to one, all the characters in the movie want to change their lives for the better, they want to achieve something but got stuck in the mire of their own memories and the song “California Dreaming”, which sounds in the movie more than once, looks very symbolic in this sense. In this film, the example of the two characters of the policeman and the girl there is shown the same blank line between dreams and actions in the direction closer to them.
“Chungking Express” demonstrates the formation of Wong Kar-Wai as a supporter of auteur cinema. He still develops the theme of casual everyday stories of acquaintances, meetings and partings. But here it is much more free and original in the application of his ideas. In this picture, as perhaps in no other, we feel the pungent aroma of HK quarters, the sensitivities of the characters, who came here in search of their dreams of a better life. We are the most imbued with the plot.
      And the third film that we would consider in the context of Dreams is a film “Durian Durian”, directed by Fruit Chan. The protagonists Yang and Fan are neighbors in Mong Kok district in Hong Kong. Yan is 21 years old, and she is a prostitute, working on a pimp. She spends her spear time watching TV at home or meeting with other prostitutes at a local cafe. She came to Hong Kong from mainland China to work. In the best days, she manages to cater for about 40 people. Fan is just a child, she and her family also illegally arrived in Hong Kong from China, because here is easier to make a living for her disabled father. Fan was helping mother to wash up in a restaurant, where she sees working Yan. Yang and Fan immediately become friends. It is a friendship, which in the film demonstrates the desire of the two completely different characters to a cherished dream. Both female characters are trying to achieve their dream in absolutely different ways, but the essence remains the same.
      We would like to point out that there is a code name for a “Dream”, sought by the protagonists in each film. Each film highlights some dream, each character is special and not like the others, everyone has his own way to this very dream. For example, in the film “Comrades, Almost a Love Story” we observe a New York dream, while in the films “Durian Durian” and “Chungking Express” it is the Hong Kong dream and the California dream, respectively. However, having seen all three films, we came to a conclusion that in spite of the different approaches of directors, the difference in scenes, completely different characters and ways of their self-improvement on the path to their dreams, we realized that after all these dreams are approximately the same in their essential finals or eventual goals. Every dream, whether it is Hong Kong dream or the California dream, involves achieving a specific goal. The characters of the three films had one goal, to get out of the daily routine or to leave their province in search of a better life. Search of a better life meant a presence of a decent income, the opportunity to express themselves and become a "great" man in the city. Therefore, these three films in spite of their differences in point, are in fact very similar and the characters of these films chase, if not for the same, then at least very similar dreams.
      Each character in all three films, moves to a new place and becomes a step closer to his dream as if trying to get a new identity. The most extraordinary example of this search is a girl from the movie “Chungking Express”, which operates in the diner and takes possession of her lover’s keys. She begins her search from the very small, just changed her permanent habitat to an unfamiliar apartment. In turn, she tries to at least the minimum, as far as she could change the life of a police officer and make him forget the past and live in the present. She gradually changes the arrangement of things in his house, so trying to pull him out of the routine and become closer to him, thus to achieve her dream of a better life, the life sought also by the rest of the characters in the films of Fruit Chan Peter Ho-sun Chan.
      In the film “Comrades, Almost a Lover Story”, the characters met in Hong Kong. Both are from the the province and dreaming of a better life. From morning to night, they worked all the time and spun as they could. In Hong Kong’s furious pace, they found each other. Leon Lai played a good, hard-working, simple man who only relies on himself in this life. The characters met in the huge metropolis, which changed their life. In fact, they have changed the lives of each other, they were able to achieve that for which they came. By and large, they were able to achieve the dream thanks to mutual help and support.
      Given that all three films are of Hong Kong production (by the way Hong Kong is called the center of Asian cinema), they are all united by a common theme of the search itself. Search for a better life and a change of scenery are identified by the characters with the change of their own identity. Thus, analyzing the three films we can talk about the Hong Kong dream along with the American dream. Start a new life and forget the past, start from scratch, it is still who you were in a past life, home, and what are your roots, you can achieve everything, you can become a wealthy and influential person, – that is actually the Hong Kong dream.
In the film “Chungking Express”, the movie characters firstly encountered Hong Kong’s return to China, which took place July 1, 1997. Hong Kong became the first administrative region of China in the framework of the policy of “One country, two systems”. This has pushed Hong Kong residents with a number of issues, which they wanted to get rid of as soon as possible. People began to realize that their future is very vague and the main characters of the film decided to follow their dream of a better life and went to California. They wanted to find there at least better living conditions, more opportunities for development, more certain future, as well as more freedom in all their endeavors. With regard of the New York dream in the movie “Almost a Love Story”, here the story is more twisted. In the movie, two main characters show us about 10 years of their lives. Firstly, they move from the provinces to Hong Kong, a big city, where they get acquainted with each other. In fact, it was their dream to move to Hong Kong. But over time, they began to realize that it is still not what they were looking for and moved to New York. However, after some time they newly meet each other, and there, in different ways, they both achieved what they wanted, they found their dream, the New York dream.
      We would also like to say about the features of camera work and the manner of delivery of what is happening by each director. When I watch the films made by Christopher Doyle, I am really fascinated by what is happening on the screen. At this time, Christopher Doyle has worked with the director Wong Kar-Wai in “Chungking Express”. He knows how to put the picture that there is a feeling that you yourself are present in this film. Do you like to be somewhere hidden behind a cabinet to observe the characters? Out of this, there is a unique effect, there are feelings like the shots you want to watch again and again, they did not go out of fashion.
The film “Comrades, Almost a Love Story”, directed by Peter Ho-sun Chan in duet with the operator Jingle Ma” tried to translate the viewer in close proximity to the characters. Using extremely close-ups in the film-making process, the filmmakers managed to capture the atmosphere of the search itself. The viewer is permeated by this story, and the audience is now worried about looking for a better life together with the characters. As for the film “Durian Durian”, Fruit Chan and the Wah-Chuen Lam decided not to use a specific scheme of the filming. They diversified shots as they could, the story is transmitted through peeping like in “Chungking Express”, directed by Wong Kar-Wai, and large frames. Periodically, there are also present medium-sized plans, where the viewer can enjoy the general entourage and be imbued with this story. Shooting in the film “Chungking Express”, we liked more than the one in others. This shooting transferred us extremely close to the characters, and we think that each viewer immediately starts thinking about his dreams and that it would be time to do their execution.