Made in Hong Kong = Xianggang zhizao [Widescreen]

This low budget teen flick, the first independent film to emerge from the former British colony, certainly captured the critics’ praise and received several international awards for its young Chinese director, Fruit Chan. The central character, Autumn Moon (Sam Lee), who, abandoned by his father and living with his mother in the back streets of urban Hong Kong where crime, gangs and violence exist on a daily basis, operates as a small-time debt collector for Wing, his triad “big brother”. Moon is a survivor and although he acts cool and mean, can also show compassion and tenderness, particularly for the under-dog as in the case of Sylvester (Wenbers Li), a mentally handicapped friend whom he zealously protects from bullying gangs and Ping (Neiky Yim), the daughter of one of his debtors, who is suffering from a fatal kidney disease and who Moon soon finds himself falling for. A young schoolgirl’s suicide will inextricably link the lives of Moon, Sylvester and Ping taking them down a sad and tragic path of despair and violence but one begins to empathise with Moon along this journey as he tries to protect those he loves. Gritty, tender, violent, comic, “Made in Hong Kong” is film noir in style with Moon acting as narrator throughout the story but it is also expressionistic visually, using strobe, overexposure, freeze-frames, and jump-cutting, adding depth and enhancement to Chan’s debut film. Cast also includes Amy Tam, Carol Lam, Doris Chow, Wu Wai-chung. In Mandarin with English subtitles. (Awards: Locarno; Gijon; Hong Kong)