Little Cheung (1999) [Film Review]

Little Cheung; or, The Age of Innocence

     I thought Little Cheung came to say goodbye. But he was chasing the ambulance. That was the end of your friendship and the end of our childhood. I will always remember my happy times with him in Hong Kong.
In the final movie of The Handover Trilogy, Little Cheung from 1999, Fruit Chan provides an autobiographical look at the life of a typical hardworking family. In the style similar to Edward Yang and Hirokazu Koreeda, he paints a portrait of children of Hong Kong.

Release Info

Directed by: Fruit Chan Starring: Yiu Yuet-Ming, Mak Wai-Fan, Yiu Yuet-Ming

Language: Cantonese Original Title: 細路祥 Runtime: 118 min

Synopsis
The story presents Little Cheung (Yiu Yuet-Ming) who leads an ordinary life with his working family in Hong Kong. Cheung’s grandmother (Chu Siu-Yau) enjoys watching the performances of a classic opera singer Brother Cheung, whereas the parents frequently clash with the neighbouring restaurant owners. Little Cheung soon befriends Fan (Mak Wai-Fan) who is an illegal immigrant. The girl starts helping Cheung in his food deliveries.

Hong Kong Citizens
Evidently, the protagonists are of the film are children. They may be poor, they may be working on the streets, but they remain unconcerned about grand historical events happening around them. One of the most interesting subplots of the film is Little Cheung and his grandmother’s obsessive fascination with a classic opera singer Brother Cheung. The Pilipino maid (Armi Andres) in the house accurately notices that the family would care more about the death of this singer rather than the death of Deng Xiaoping himself.

In this way, Fruit Chan communicates that being Chinese does not mean being an ideological communist by default. Communists do not understand ordinary life, which is reflected in yet another scene where Cheung together with his friends scream at Hong Kong downtown in the distance and say "Hong Kong is ours!"

Nevertheless, changes do take place in Little Cheung’s life. With the handover of power, Little Cheung’s childhood drastically comes to an end. He has to find his own voice in a new world. Ironically, in a twist similar to the conclusions of grand epics by Krzysztof Kieślowski, the protagonists of all three films encounter each other at the zebra crossing in the concluding scene of Little Cheung. After all, the citizens of Hong Kong constitute its future.

Recommendations
I highly recommend Little Cheung. It is a great conclusion of The Handover Trilogy. Unfortunately, as in the case of The Longest Summer, the movie to date has no Blu-ray release, so you need to fall back on DVD.
Overall score: 8/10

«Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us»