Hui nin yin fa dak bit doh

Well, I certainly chose one hell of a starting point for the works of Fruit Chan. With July 1997 bearing down, the sky is full of fireworks as are the lives of these downtrodden Hong Kong citizens, each striving for their own identity in the rapidly changing world. Political and personal, symbolic and intimate, The Longest Summer is no slouch, actively addressing the 1997 handover with emotional resonance and a fascination for urban space told through its most dubious citizens. Shot to look like a docu-drama and integrating vivid documentary footage of the handover, the whole film has a certain amount of street authenticity that's rarely found in Hong Kong movies. The use of relatively unknown actors (outside of Sam Lee) eliciting robust performances only adds to the undeniable strength of the movie's authenticity, visually splendid and effectively scored, The Longest Summer is an affecting, sometimes strangely funny masterpiece. Yeah, guess I need to see Made in Hong Kong now.