The title of Fruit Chan’s Made in Hong Kong cheekily references a phrase you might have seen printed on the packaging for an action figure way back in 1997, the year of the film’s original release. But it also refers to the young, wannabe triad member with the unlikely name of Autumn Moon (Sam Lee), as well as to the production circumstances of the film itself. Its declarative label is somewhat excessive, though, as there’s no mistaking where and when Moon’s misadventures take place: Chan’s quirky, gangster-adjacent flick, so infused with washed-out and blue-filtered imagery, presents a portrait of Hong Kong that bears more than a passing resemblance to Wong Kar-wai and Christopher Doyle’s early collaborations.
From its handheld shots racing through open-air markets, to its use of expressionistic step-printed slow motion, to the way its perspectives on the city take inspiration from the cramped...
From its handheld shots racing through open-air markets, to its use of expressionistic step-printed slow motion, to the way its perspectives on the city take inspiration from the cramped...
- 12/13/2023
- by Pat Brown
- Slant Magazine
Hong Kong is always on the edge of destruction. Almost as long as it has been a city, it has been in crisis. World War II and the subsequent Chinese Civil War saw a massive contraction and then expansion of its population, flooding the then-colony with an nigh unsustainable number of refugees. They were packed into hellishly inadequate housing and given jobs (when they could find them) at the lowest rungs of laissez-faire industry. As one generation transitioned to another and the colony’s economy boomed, massive scandals came to light of corruption and interconnection between the police force and the criminal gangs that dominated the still-nightmarish warrens where the city’s poor still lived. Then, in 1984, the British and Chinese governments agreed that Hong Kong would be returned to Mainland control before the end of the century. This set the clock ticking on the potential end of all that Hong Kongers had built,...
- 3/5/2020
- MUBI
Released in 1997 in its native country, Fruit Chan’s Made in Hong Kong was a landmark independent film, considered to be the first of its kind in a post-Handover Hong Kong. Over twenty years later, it’s finally arriving in the U.S. with a new 4K restoration courtesy of Udine Far East Film Festival and Metrograph Pictures.
Drawing comparisons to the likes of Jia Zhangke’s Unknown Pleasures, Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause, and Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho, the story follows a high school dropout named Autumn Moon (Sam Lee) who is unsure of his future in a changing city. Made on a miniscule budget, it went on to win the Best Picture Award at the 1998 Hong Kong Film Awards and was the country’s Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars.
In a Mubi profile of the director, Sean Gilman writes, “In...
Drawing comparisons to the likes of Jia Zhangke’s Unknown Pleasures, Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause, and Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho, the story follows a high school dropout named Autumn Moon (Sam Lee) who is unsure of his future in a changing city. Made on a miniscule budget, it went on to win the Best Picture Award at the 1998 Hong Kong Film Awards and was the country’s Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars.
In a Mubi profile of the director, Sean Gilman writes, “In...
- 2/20/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
More than two decades after beginning work on what would become his 1997 Trilogy, Fruit Chan’s ambitious series-starting “Made in Hong Kong” is finally gearing up for its very first U.S. release. Metrograph Pictures is rolling out a brand new 4K restoration of the film, one of Hong Kong’s most beloved indies, bringing it to the big screen as it was first imagined by Chan.
In 2017, on the 20th anniversary of its release, “Made in Hong Kong” was restored by Italy’s Udine Far East Film Festival and, per an official release, was made “starting from the original camera negatives and working under the direct supervision of Fruit Chan and cinematographer O Sing-pui. The restoration is as authentic and true to the original film as possible.”
Per an official press release, the film is the “first independent film released in post-Handover Hong Kong, [and] director Fruit Chan’s atmospheric...
In 2017, on the 20th anniversary of its release, “Made in Hong Kong” was restored by Italy’s Udine Far East Film Festival and, per an official release, was made “starting from the original camera negatives and working under the direct supervision of Fruit Chan and cinematographer O Sing-pui. The restoration is as authentic and true to the original film as possible.”
Per an official press release, the film is the “first independent film released in post-Handover Hong Kong, [and] director Fruit Chan’s atmospheric...
- 2/19/2020
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.