MADE IN HONG KONG
Heunggong Chaicho
The winner of more than a dozen awards at festivals worldwide, Made in Hong Kong is a striking, black yet humanistic view of disaffected youth. Fruit Chan's astounding 1997 feature debut exhibits a personal approach to gripping social commentary and underworld machinations. Abandoned by his father, teenage Autumn Moon has become a small-time thug who collects extortion debts for Wing, his triad 'big brother', in order to survive. An unexplained suicide, marauding loan sharks, the Triad code, random violence and unscrupulous drug traffickers are just a few of the obstacles cluttering Moon's trying path through life. While threatening a housewife for cash payments he falls for her daughter, Ping, who is suffering from a terminal illness. In order to overcome Ping's scepticism about his love, Moon accepts a well-paid murder contract from his boss. "Like many people of my generation, the Hong Kong handover signaled a kind of deadline... hence the fatal disease and the sense of hopelessness that afflicts Moon, and his inevitable self-destruction." - Fruit Chan