Film Review: She Remembers, He Forgets by Yuen Ka Yam Celia

 Student Number: 21620881/10613364

     

Figure 1: She Remembers, He Forgets

 

Contents: Miriam, Yeung Chin-Wah (Yu Feng-Zhi), from the movie She Remembers, He Forgets, as we know, she works in a travel agency after graduated from secondary school. In recent years, she is gradually miserable about her marriage to her secondary schoolmate – Lam Hoi-Fung (Pang Shing-Wah). She suspects Shing-Wah has an affair with someone. In the meantime, after participating into the alumni dinner, she began to reminisce about her secondary days and her soul mate – Ng Siu-Hin (So Bok-Man), an aviation lover who stayed with their daily lives gone are the days. Additionally, the cast members of Cecilia, So Lai-Shan and Neo, Yau Hawk-Sau becomes the young Yu Feng-Zhi and Pang Shing-Wah in the film.

Intertextuality: She Remembers, He Forgets is a local romantic comedy by the Adam, Wong, collective memories that targets millions of women and men in Hong Kong. The movie has devoted to the idea of increasing the local identity and the spirit of Lion Rock. It released in 2015, casting famous actresses and actors.

Language: The heading adopts the formal tone and the opposite meaning to signifier the past and the presents and describe the dreams in different stages. hkuspace2016

Metaphor: From the movie, the class teacher ordered Shing-Wah to build up a rosary which is a metaphor for the ten major infrastructure in the future of Hong Kong.

Parody: From the movie, the actress’s father – Chip Tsao was sincerely sending out his daughter to the United Kingdom for studying, before returning the autonomy to the Chinese government. In particular, I though this is parody as Chip Tsao has already endorsed the Amber Education to popularize the courses and encourage people to study aboard which is similar to the above interesting scene.

Discourses: The movie addresses several discourses within society, like the cultural identities, Chinese or Hong Kongese, before returning the autonomy to the Chinese government. Secondly, facing with the inequalities of power, and wealth in people daily lives, how the Hong people use its Lion Rock spirit to achieve their dream. Thirdly, the term of collective memory, how the Hong Kong people reserve to identify who they are.

For the representation of gender: With a pair of big shiny eyes, short, slender hair and a slim and willowy physique, the young main actress - Yu Feng-Zhi immediately cast a magnificent aura on the classroom when she entered it. Heads turned abruptly to where she sat down, and even though the whole room was brightly lit with numerous fluorescent lamps, her hair still shone out as dazzling as the midday sun. The above young main actress becomes so favorable to the movie. In particular, the director illustrates the young main actress with the above feminist characteristics in order to comfort the expectation of an ideal women in 80s.

On the other hand, the young main actor - Shing-Wah seem to be training muscles. It is somehow linked with the idea of masculinity and attractiveness. From the movie, white and thin (Bok-Man) are seen to be weak while muscular is seen to be strong and ideal in 80s.

Individual and Collective Memory: Based on the book – “The Architecture of the City”, the writer has pointed out that “on the one hand, the city is the collections of memory of its citizens and the city is the origin place of the collective memory. The relationship between the origin place and the residents then comes to be the most important image of the city. From the movie, the location appears in Wah Yan College, Lion Hill and Kai Tak Airport are the most historical and collective memories places.

For the Wah Yan College, it provides the scene of learning environment in 80s-90s, so people are easily to reminisce the school days, like students go to the toilets for taking a break, disseminate paper with the classmates, sing the school song with sexual ideology.

For the Lion Hill, as we know, it represents the Hong Kong spirits which is hardworking and the self- reliance in the 80 and 90s. So in one scene, Bok-Man drove his plane from the Lion Hill to the sky which reminds our collective memory to chase our dream again with the above spirit.

Figure 2: Chasing our dream at the Lion Hill

 

For the Kai Tak Airport, in one scenario, Bok-Man brought Feng- Zhi to watch the airplane at the rooftop in the Kowloon City. It recalls the collective memory and the celebrity – Bruce Lee what he said “it was a fashionable merriment in the 80s-90s.”

 

On the other hand, for the cast, it is visible to see the movie director has seriously chosen the actress in order to increase the local identity and collective memory. For example, the celebrity – Helen, Tam Yuk Ying who has worked for the children programs nearly 30years, is a well-known collective memory among the 70s, 80s and 90s.

The above collective memories can be easily to remind us who are we, who are we want to be and what we think between the 80s to the 90s. Also, this would be another reason to explain why the media are willing to re-broadcast the movie again.

Reflection: To juxtapose the sorrowful middle-aged reality and the youthful memory of the main actress (Yu Feng-Zhi), who was ridiculously trying to go back in 1992, the above movie brings out the losing scenes of chasing the dream, pure love and friendships. For me, I would have no hesitation in leading myself to continue with my present pursuit. From now on, to quote from an American novelist- Jane Austen what she said before, “To think about the past as its memory gives you happiness and masters your courage to continue with your present pursuit”. The above quotation also expresses core meaning of the movie that local people should remember the original intention, no matter your cultural identity, culture and your dream.

Reference:
Miles, M., Borden, I., & Hall, T. (2000). The city cultures reader. London: Routledge.