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Product Detail |
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Audio Format: DD 5.1, DTS 5.1
Video Format: Widescreen 1.85:1 (Anamorphic)
Languages: Cantonese
Subtitles: English, Chinese (T/S)
Region Code: ALL
Year Made: 2008
Running Time: 97
Release Date: 06/23/2008
Compelling but blatantly sensationalized film about kids on a road to nowhere in Hong Kong's "City of Sadness", Tin Shui Wai. The oppressive negativity is a bit much, and the film fails as a social drama. Still, the subject matter is portrayed in a harrowing and powerful fashion, and Lawrence Lau's style and storytelling keep this one afloat for a good long while. Worth a look.
Director Lawrence Lau returns to his Gangs and Spacked Out screwed-up youth stomping grounds for this look at young people in the notorious New Territories town, and how their lives basically suck. Ling (Tang Tak-Po) is a secondary school student whose daily life is an increasingly out-of-control nightmare. He wakes up to find a domestic squabble involving underage prostitution going on across the hall, and pushes his way through nearby cops and reporters simply so he can get to the elevator and go to school. Somebody soon turns up dead, but Ling can't be bothered - he's off to get an education.
But things aren't much better at school. Ling's education involves classrooms in constant disorder, and trips to a washroom where evil schoolgirls attempt to give young boys hair rinses in the urinals. At home, Ling's mother is in a morose state, and won't even object when her husband beats youngest son Jun (Wong Yat-Ho) for interrupting the horse race on television. The physical abuse drives Jun away, and nobody in the family seems to mind much when he stops coming home at all.
Ling experiences moments of regret, but most of the time he's too busy trying to study so he can get out of Tin Shui Wai. However, even when he's taking a test, he's bothered by kids making noise and throwing things in the classroom - and then the cops interrupt his test to drag him into the hall for a little chat. Somebody stop the rain on poor Ling! News flash, kid: your life absolutely blows.
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