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The Hong Kong Film Archive (HKFA) is presenting "Look Back at Memories", a package of three films that traces Hong Kong's cinematic memories in the 1980s and 90s. The films will be shown in the HKFA Cinema from July 10 to 18. Stars such as Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung Ka-fai and Tony Leung Chiu-wai are featured in the films.
"Look Back at Memories" is launched in support of the Hong Kong Public Libraries' forthcoming event, the 8th Hong Kong Literature Festival, themed "Footprints along the Way - A Tribute to Hong Kong Literature". The HKFA presented "Care for Our Community" two years ago as a response to the biennial festival. "Look Back at Memories" continues that effort.
The films to be screened are "Project A II" (1987), "A Fishy Story" (1989) and "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father" (1993).
Hong Kong cinema was fond of looking back. Early in the post-war years, filmmakers who moved south readily shared with audiences their yearnings for the good old days on the Mainland. By the 1980s, the collective memories had become more complicated, recalling the simpler days of the 1950s and 60s while also channelling the remembrances towards massaging fears for the future.
"Look Back at Memories" takes the audience down memory lane of the 1980s and 1990s, with glimpses at our changing relationships with our community.
The hugely popular "Project A II" represents Hong Kong cinema's warped approach to history. Released 10 years before the 1997 reunification, it is by turns a nostalgic trip through the early years of the colonial era and a fantastic distortion of those years. Jackie Chan's daredevil stunts are staged in a story context with no regard for historical accuracy. It is as if the filmmakers – and collectively, Hong Kong – are itching to rewrite the story of the territory's past.
A hilarious yet insightful discourse on Hong Kong in the 1960s, "A Fishy Story" features Maggie Cheung and Kenny Bee struggling for a better life but finding themselves caught in a tumultuous time, its volatility exemplified by the 1967 leftist riots. Their eventual choice of a modest existence over a life of material pursuits may salute traditional values, the ravage of their lives by mob-like protesters speaks volumes about Hong Kong's deep-seated anxiety about the 1997 reunification.
An unabashed tribute to Cantonese cinema, especially the "odd couple" films of the 1960s, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father" is a remake of the classic "My Intimate Partners" (1960). It's a whimsical and heartwarming celebration of the men of the post-war generation, the fathers who worked hard and shared hard, epitomised by the classic line "all for one and one for all" from the Cantonese film, "In the Face of Demolition" (1953).
All films have English subtitles. Tickets priced at $30 for the screenings are available at all URBTIX outlets. Half-price concessionary tickets are available for senior citizens aged 60 and above, people with disabilities, full-time students and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients.
Detailed programme information can be obtained in "ProFolio 52" distributed at all performing venues of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. Reservations can be made by phone on 2734 9009, or on the Internet at www.urbtix.hk. For enquiries, please call 2739 2139 / 2734 2900 or browse the websites: www.filmarchive.gov.hk or www.lcsd.gov.hk/fp.
Ends/Thursday, June 17, 2010
Issued at HKT 19:28
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