"That era is over, and everything that belongs to that era no longer exists."
There is no better picture of the reality of Hong Kong than Wong Kar-wai's trailer at the end of "In the Mood for Love" 22 years ago.
The famous Kowloon City Market (plus as many as three blocks) and Aberdeen Treasures Seafood Restaurant have simultaneously announced their retirement from the stage of history as Hong Kongers celebrate (or "Cheer") the 25th anniversary of their return to the motherland.
On May 27, the Urban Renewal Authority announced the launch of the Kowloon City redevelopment project.
(Photo by O Jiale)
The "collective symbolic capital" of Hong Kong people
Thinking of Hong Kong films before and after the handover, "nostalgia" was the collective theme of that era.
Faced with the psychological shadow of the "Nine-Seven Deadline", filmmakers all tried to capture the fragile glitz with light and shadow.
But the great change is not only due to the political system, it also comes from the replacement of urban space and industrial structure.
The story of "In the Mood for Love" takes place in Hong Kong in the 1960s. In the end, it was necessary to go to Penang to film the scene in order to reproduce the chic style of the old alleys.
There is no alternative, just because "that era has passed" in Hong Kong.
Movies with Kowloon City as the main scene, first of all the work "Mong Kok Carmen" by Wong Kar-wai, set off the taste of dragons and snakes mixed with the old shops and alleys of the tenement building, Kowloon City is really comparable to Mong Kok.
In addition, there is To Qifeng's "PTU", in which Lin Xue plays the role of an old gangster who runs rampant in Kowloon City. Losing his gun means that the traditional authority is no longer with me, and the river is declining.
As for the Jumbo Seafood Restaurant, the most familiar one is Stephen Chow's "The God of Cookery", which shows the common people's spirit that Hong Kong people can't fight to death and walk without a horse; Rich and pompous fashion.
It must be clearly pointed out that it is not a single isolated landmark scene that has created the glory days of Hong Kong-produced films, but the cultural atmosphere of a whole city and the mood of the daily life of Hong Kong people.
Stephen Chow later went north to film "Shaolin Soccer" and "Kung Fu", which were also equally successful film creations; but even though there are still a large number of Hong Kong actors, the local characteristics have long since disappeared.
Du Qifeng, as the last director left behind, has only been able to go north to make films in recent years, and the style of the film has also lost its original charm.
In his book Rebel Cities (2012), the famous geographer David Harvey pointed out that many cultural products are precious mainly because of their originality and uniqueness.
Without the authentic market culture of Hong Kong, the glorious history of Hong Kong-produced films would not have been born.
Although the heyday of Hong Kong-produced films is long gone, the related collective memories have been preserved for a long time.
Tourists, whether they are from the mainland or overseas, have a special feeling for Hong Kong (as projected by the movie), so there will be a steady stream of tourists visiting Hong Kong.
Whose credit does this belong to?
For Harvey, this is obviously a collective value created not only by generations of Hong Kong filmmakers, but also by ordinary Hong Kong people.
At the same time, because it is an intangible symbolic value, despite its huge commercial potential, it is difficult to clearly define ownership, so it should be called "collective symbolic capital".
Paradoxically, the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui, as one of the symbols of Hong Kong's tourism, has little to do with Hong Kong-produced films and even the city of Hong Kong.
(file picture)
Inspiration from the failure of the Walk of Fame
Paradoxically, the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui, as one of the symbols of Hong Kong's tourism, has little to do with Hong Kong-produced films and even the city of Hong Kong.
Tracing its origins, the Avenue of Stars is only a product after the Asian financial turmoil. It is a new landmark created by the Tourism Development Bureau to attract tourists again.
However, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and the surrounding facilities are managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, and were under the jurisdiction of the Urban Council before the "killing the bureau".
This was also discussed by popular electoral bodies that were once short-lived in those years. Members are well aware that this is just a typical "tourist trap". Copying the handprints of Hollywood will not bring local cultural characteristics. Therefore, they do not agree with the HKTB's proposal. .
As a result, the HKTB exerted its dexterous business skills and pulled in New World Development in a blink of an eye. In 2003, it announced that the latter would spend 40 million on its own to move the Avenue of Stars to the waterfront promenade.
At that time, many of the more remote businesses in the New World Center were unable to operate due to insufficient customer resources, which explains why the Group was willing to invest in building the Avenue of Stars.
The well-known result is that although countless freelancers "forced" the Walk of Fame to take pictures of "visiting", they were unable to bring the New World Center back to life.
Due to the financial turmoil in the early days of the handover, the Tung Chee-hwa government was eager to find a way out for the economy.
The Avenue of Stars still attracts a large number of freelancers as a cheap compensation for their childhood memories; but to the SAR government and big financial groups, this is just a "chicken rib" left over from the Dongzhi period.
Like the film industry in Hong Kong, it is regarded by the powerful as a collective memory long gone, and no longer has any real socio-economic value.
Hong Kong-produced films themselves are no longer profitable, but local culture, as a collective symbolic capital, can still be misappropriated by capitalists as lucrative commodities.
However, Harvey’s insight is that once the urban space and cultural industry are commodified, it will naturally attract more capitalists to come and collude with local governments and ruling elites to bring in a large number of hotel chains, shopping malls and famous brand stores. Or build stylish, characteristic mansions to maximize profits—until the city’s unique qualities have been rubbed off.
(Still from the movie "In the early hours of that night, I got on the red VAN from Mong Kok to Tai Po")
What is lost is more than the hardware building
In the turbulent and shocking year of 2014, there have been two films that I think are the most representative since the reunification - Chen Guo's "Mong Kok Red Van" and Huang Haoran's "Point to Point", which made Hong Kong films not in history. Absence at the border - both describe the crisis of identity loss faced by Hong Kong people: "Point to Point" has a relatively peaceful response, talking about the loss of human feelings and local culture in the old part of Hong Kong Island; It is more pessimistic, pointing out that Hong Kong people themselves are disappearing.
We can imagine it in a high degree: in real Hong Kong, the force that made our city disappear in "Point to Point" and was only indirectly touched in the movie is mainly the well-known real estate hegemony; The disappearance of the Hong Kong people, and the same only vague appearance, is full of symbolic red rain, plague and armored vehicles, and then add the selfishness and greed of the Hong Kong people!
From this, the path chosen by Hong Kong people will inevitably lead to extreme divergences: Chen Hao in "Point to Point" indulges in the personal guerrilla tactics of urban graffiti in order to remember the demise of traditional old districts, and finally even retreats to the use of invisible Fluorescent spray paint to avoid confrontation with the police; on the contrary, in the apocalypse of "The Red Van in Mong Kok", many people have already fallen into a state of madness, but the rest have begun to learn to gather and find resistance in despair of a possibility.
In the end, that movie is more "realistic" and more specific to the identity crisis of Hong Kong people?
In other words, the two films are equally "real": "Point to Point" mainly talks about the social and economic life of our city. Although it is quietly undergoing unprecedented changes, Xiaozhong does not have the sense of urgency for life and death, and even blindly promotes it. The "small and fresh" life sentiment is used as an escapism drug; on the contrary, "The Red Van in Mong Kok" mainly touches on sensitive political issues in China and Hong Kong, and involves the venting of "communist fear" emotions.
However, what is the most fundamental thing that Hong Kong is facing is the socio-economic crisis or the political crisis in China and Hong Kong?
From the perspective of the severe situation that must be faced immediately, it is naturally a political crisis that everyone can see, but at the same time, it inadvertently conceals the "deep contradictions" behind it.
After all, under the huge shadow of real estate hegemony, Hong Kong people live in Cheung Kong, go shopping in shopping malls, and buy ParknShop.
The reason why the real estate hegemony can become hegemony is that the key to its success is that there are more incentives than coersion.
To paraphrase Aesop's fables, if the chilling north wind comes from the north, then real estate hegemony is the sun that makes people feel comfortable, and can make people automatically consciously disarm their defensive mentality.
Hong Kong, and even its people, will inevitably disappear in this unfamiliar city.