 |
|
|
|
Citizen Hong Kong
Much of this feature-length video was shot during the summer of 1997, when San Francisco film editor Ruby Yang journeyed to her native Hong Kong to document the end of British rule. Her reflections on the island's stormy colonial past and her own childhood--voiced over vintage photos--are juxtaposed with present-day scenes shot by five young working-class locals with camcorders. Unlike Wayne Wang's contrived Chinese Box, which views the handover as a fatal breakdown of order, Yang's film shows the continuity in the lives of most citizens. Speaking freely of their fears and aspirations, they cling to the idea of Hong Kong as a harbor of hope; Qi Ke Jia, a teenager who moved from the mainland with her mother for a better education, echoes Yang's ambitions from two decades before. Unflinching in its honesty, vivid in its kaleidoscopic imagery, the film affirms the stubborn individualism that is every Hong Kong citizen's birthright. |
|
