Angela Yuen, Anson Lo, Cheung Max Tat-Lun, Chow đưa ra Fai, drama, Edan Liu, Eric Tsang, Fung So Bar, Hedwig Tam, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Family, Leung mang lại Yiu, Luk Sze Wong, movies, reviews, Teresa Mo, Tse Kwan-Ho, Wong Po Cheung, Wong Tsz Lo
January 21, 2023
by Carla Hay
“Hong Kong Family”
Directed by Eric Tsang
Cantonese with subtitles
Culture Representation:Taking place in Hong Kong, the dramatic film “Hong Kong Family” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class & wealthy.
Bạn đang xem: New hong kong movies kick kung fu to the curb in favor of introspective dramas
Culture Clash:During a winter solstice family dinner, a violent fight tears the family apart, & eight years later, a visiting relative hopes to lớn bring the estranged family members back together for another winter solstice dinner.
Culture Audience:“Hong Kong Family” will appeal primarily to lớn people who are interested in capably acted dramas about family relationship problems, even if some of these issues have been presented in similar ways in much better movies.
Sometimes realistic, sometimes overly melodramatic, “Hong Kong Family” is saved from an uneven story by good acting from most of the cast members. It’s yet another movie about family members who gather for a holiday meal, start arguing, & then let resentments fester for a long time. The big question these types of movies usually have is: “Will the feuding family members reconcile?” “Hong Kong Family” has an authentic-looking portrayal for the way the movie answers this question. Viewers will have to lớn wait until the kết thúc of the movie khổng lồ find out if there is any reconciliation.
Directed by Eric Tsang (who co-wrote the “Hong Kong Family” screenplay with Shiu-Wa Lou & Leung Chuen Yeung), “Hong Kong Family” begins with a Hong Kong family of four driving in a oto to a grandmother’s house for a family gathering to celebrate winter solstice. During this drive, tension is brewing between the two spouses. Outspoken wife Ling (played by Teresa Mo), who works as a housecleaner, is complaining because her mild-mannered husband Chun (played by Tse Kwan-Ho), who’s a xe taxi driver by trade, is currently unemployed.
Ling gripes about being the family’s sole source of income: “Don’t just depend on me.” Chun suggests that they sell their apartment for which they still have a mortgage, but this idea gets Ling even more agitated. Finally, khổng lồ get Ling khổng lồ calm down, Chun says that he has an upcoming job interview. Also in the car are this couple’s children: 20-year-old daughter Ki (played by Hedwig Tam) & son Yeung (played by Edan Liu), who’s about 17 or 18.
The family is driving to the house of Ling’s mother (played by Fung So Bar), who does not have a name in the movie. Also at this family gathering are Ling’s brother Ming (played by Leung mang lại Yiu) & Ming’s wife Samantha (played by Luk Sze Wong). Ming’s mother dislikes Samantha so much, she won’t call Samantha by her first name & will only call her “that woman.” Ming & Samantha have an underage daughter, who is not at this family gathering, because Ming & Samantha won’t let Ming’s mother see this grandchild.
Not long after the family has gathered, the arguments start. Ming sees his mother furtively counting a hidden stash money in another room. Ming accuses her of counting the money because he thinks she’s suspicious that he stole cash from her. Ming’s mother denies it, but then she verbally lashes out at him because she gave money to Ming và Samantha for a start-up business that failed. Ming’s mother also has a lot of anger over not being able lớn see the daughter of Ming và Samantha.
After having a somewhat tense meal with the family, Ming eventually storms out of the house because his mother keeps calling Samantha “that woman,” after Ming tells his mother khổng lồ stop doing that. Và soon, two other members of the family will be leaving the house with bad feelings. One of them will stay away for eight years.
Ling and Chun are in a room together when Ling tells Chun that she wants a divorce. A stunned Chun has what can best be described as a meltdown that contradicts his usually easygoing personality. At first Chun, who doesn’t want khổng lồ get divorced, tries khổng lồ reason with Ling. When she says she won’t change her mind, he becomes infuriated, takes a knife and waves it in her face in a threatening manner as he yells at her.
Yeung hears the commotion và bursts into the room. He tries khổng lồ defend & protect his mother. Chun và Yeung get into a scuffle that ends when Chun slaps Yeung hard in the face. A terrified Ling & Yeung then run way from the house.
The movie then fast-forwards eight years later. Chun and Ling are still married but are very emotionally distant from each other. It’s then revealed that after the violent fight with his father, Yeung immediately moved out of his parents’ apartment và has not been back to lớn visit any family member’s trang chủ for the past eight years. Yeung will occasionally talk to lớn Ling và Ki, but Yeung refuses to speak to Chun.
Meanwhile, Ki is now divorced & has moved back in with her parents. Chun has gone back to being a taxi driver, while Ling is still a housecleaner. In a conversation that Ki has with a potential new boyfriend, Ki says that she got married in her early 20s khổng lồ move out of her parents’ home, but the marriage lasted only two years. Ki is currently drifting with no real goals or plans for her life.
As for Yeung, he graduated from college, và he is now a developer for a technology start-up business that he founded with his talkative và hyper best friend Birdy (played by Anson Lo), who is the company’s only other employee. The two pals want their company’s specialty lớn be clip games. However, Yeung has invented a virtual-reality experience where people wearing a headset can have two-way conversations with a hologram of anyone they want.
This invention is a clunky part of the story that isn’t explained very well và is sort of dropped into the movie like a science-fiction subplot. Yeung is still working out some bugs in the invention’s artificial intelligence, và he really doesn’t want this trò chơi to be made available khổng lồ the public. Birdy disagrees and thinks this invention should be marketed as a fun game.
In private, Yeung tests out the invention khổng lồ “talk” to someone & confess his true feelings. (You don’t need to be a genius to figure out who that someone is.) Meanwhile, Birdy và Yeung meet with a wealthy potential client: a famous video clip gamer, who uses the alias Brother Love (played by Chow đưa ra Fai). Brother Love has got some family heartache of his own.
Meanwhile, Ling has a niece in her 20s named Joy (played by Angela Yuen) who is visiting Ling & Chun from the United Kingdom. Joy’s widower father, who was Ling’s brother, has recently died. & so, Joy has come lớn Hong Kong to be with her closest living relatives. When Joy finds out why Yeung has stayed away from family gatherings for the past eight years, she becomes motivated lớn try to lớn reunite Yeung with the family for the upcoming winter solstice dinner.
Ki has stayed out of the conflicts between her brother Leung & their parents, because she’s got issues of her own with their parents. Ki thinks Ling is overbearing, while Ki thinks Chun doesn’t express his feelings very well. At a train station, Ki meets a stranger from Malaysia named Norman (played by Wong Po Cheung), và they strike up a mildly flirtatious conversation. Norman is a drifter who sells decorative rocks on the streets. He says he collects these rocks from places where he has been.
Norman và Ki go their separate ways at the train station without exchanging contact information. However, Norman tells Ki that she can look him up on Instagram, which is how she finds out where Norman is selling his rock collection in Hong Kong. Ki surprises Norman with a visit while he’s selling on the street, & they begin a low-key romance.
Some of the scenes in “Hong Kong Family” work very well, such as anything involving the dynamics between Chun and Ling, or the estrangement of Chun và Yeung. Other scenes are lackluster, awkward or sometimes seem out of place. Some characters outside of the main family are also underdeveloped. & for an unexplained reason, Ming và Samantha are never seen or talked about again after that winter solstice family dinner near the beginning of the movie.
Some of the scenes that could have used better character development are when Ling cleans the trang chủ of her affluent brother-in-law LK (played by Cheung Max Tat-Lun), who has an adorable nephew named Jayden (played Wong Tsz Lo), who’s about 6 or 7 years old. Ling likes spending time with Jayden, but LK makes Ling uncomfortable. It’s probably because LK treats Ling more like a housekeeper than a family member. She also can’t help but be envious that LK is better-off financially than Ling và Chun. These financial issues continue lớn put a strain on the couple’s marriage.
“Hong Kong Family” has ebbs và flows in the storyline. Some of it has meaningful and well-performed emotional scenes. Other parts of the movie look lượt thích “filler” scenes. Seasoned actors Mo and Tse give the best performances as Ling và Chun, who feel trapped in a marriage where the passion và trust have died. “Hong Kong Family” also credibly shows how family feuds can drag on when there’s a lack of communication or miscommunication.
Will family thành viên Joy be the catalyst for a possible reconciliation between Chun & Yeung? & what about all of Ling và Chun’s marital problems? What will happen khổng lồ Ki’s budding romance with Norman? Don’t expect the movie to lớn answer all of these questions, because some things are left to lớn a viewer’s speculation. However, by the over of “Hong Kong Family,” viewers will get a better sense of how these family members deal with the past, who they want in their present lives, & what they hope the future will hold for them.
Edko Films Ltd. Released “Hong Kong Family” in select U.S. Cinemas on January 6, 2023. The movie was released in Hong Kong on November 24, 2022.
We won’t be able lớn verify your ticket today, but it’s great to lớn know for the future.
Regal Coming Soon
We won’t be able lớn verify your ticket today, but it’s great khổng lồ know for the future.
Theater box office or somewhere else
Submit
By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes trương mục against an e-mail address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie.
Rate this movie
Oof, that was Rotten.
Meh, it passed the time.
It’s good – I’d recommend it.
Awesome!
So Fresh: Absolute Must See!
How did you buy your ticket?
Fandango
Cinemark Coming Soon
We won’t be able to lớn verify your ticket today, but it’s great khổng lồ know for the future.
Regal Coming Soon
We won’t be able khổng lồ verify your ticket today, but it’s great khổng lồ know for the future.
Theater box office or somewhere else
Submit
By opting khổng lồ have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the thư điện tử address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes trương mục against an e-mail address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie.
Done Already? A few more words can help others decide if it"s worth watching
They won"t be able khổng lồ see your reviews if you only submit your rating.
Xem thêm: Hướng Dẫn 3 Cách Viết Chữ Dọc Trong Word 2007, Cách Xoay Chữ Ngang, Chữ Dọc Trong Word
Done Already? A few more words can help others decide if it"s worth watching
They won"t be able to see your review if you only submit your rating.
The image is an example of a ticket confirmation e-mail that AMC sent you when you purchased your ticket. Your Ticket Confirmation # is located under the header in your thư điện tử that reads "Your Ticket Reservation Details". Just below that it reads "Ticket Confirmation#:" followed by a 10-digit number. This 10-digit number is your confirmation number.
Your AMC Ticket Confirmation# can be found in your order confirmation email.
Yeung"s family has been torn apart ever since a turbulent winter solstice dinner. Eight years later, his cousin returns lớn Hong Kong in the hope of reconciling the long-lasting feud over another traditional festive gathering. Can the years of pain and remorse bring the family together again?