nathansnook

Little Cheung

“𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵…𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝘈𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦.” I think it was Godard who said that film is fiction because labor is never represented on screen. But what happens when you make a film about a city born from commerce, a history that borns a city into commerce? Delightful! Yeut-Ming channels the bright and turbulent motions of Hong Kong. A kid sweeping the streets for petty change delivering food from his bike. He forms friendships. Rebels. Loves. Does homework. Atmosphere propels plot in this way. And though an optimism reigns through, susceptible misery, chaos and a graininess drifts throughout. Brouillant debris leaves each frame busied and dirty and full and rich in this way. It’s hard not to be mesmerized by how much stuff, material objects, fill up every ounce of space. There’s one particular scene where Little Cheung undergoes public shaming, and while doing so, pisses right in the street to call upon rain. It’s an incredible moment, one that speaks to the immediate power feelings carry in such a scene to ask immediate forgiveness from nature, or the humanness found in nature, to, quite literally, relieve oneself.