In the minds of Hong Kong protesters
Daniel Nelson
A film looking at two generations of Hong Kong demonstrators is a good idea, but Blue Island doesn’t quite pull it off.
Like most documentary-makers these days, Hong Kong director Chan Tze Woon seems to have been determined not to deter audiences who fear docs are dull and didactic. So he has used dramatic reconstructions (by the younger protesters recreating the experiences of their older counterparts) as well as interviews and contemporary TV news coverage. In the words of the ilm’s website: “This cinematic tapestry … weaves together the memories of older generations’ historical experiences with the struggles of the younger generation striving to preserve their freedom today.”
Unfortunately, the result is rather confusing. It might have been better, though not as filmic, to have been less ambitious and gone for more analysis of the contrasts and similarities between actions taken at various times in the territory’s history and between people demonstrating in different political contexts.
What does come across clearly is the courage of the main protagonists, whether swimming from China to British-ruled Hong Kong, taking part in the 1967 anti-British demos, or taking on the police as China tightened its grip on the former ”special administrative region”. Recalling these and other eruptions makes you realise how many uprisings have occurred there. No wonder the Chinese title of the film, according to one review, translates as “Island of Depression”, a reminder of the anxieties beneath the surface of what for many years was hailed as an international success story. (My own Google translation search produced ‘Island of Melancholy’, which has a truer ring - It bears no relationship to my own happy, exciting years in Hong Kong, but of course I was free to come and go as I pleased.)
The film touches on a number of interesting issues, such as changes on what it means to be a Hong Konger, and people’s shifting attitudes to the motherland, whether or not they dislike its government.
And it’s touching to see how the passing years have treated the demonstrators from earlier actions. Not kindly, in some cases.
I should also point out the film has won several awards, showing that my reservations are not universally shared.
Chan Tze Woon has said, “I want to explore the question: how does the yearning for freedom and justice continue to shape generations after generations of people.” That’s a question many of us around the world would like answered.
The 2011 census recorded 98,724 Hong Kong-born people resident in England, 3,517 in Wales, 7,586 in Scotland and 1,906 in Northern Ireland.