Lawrence Ah-Mon who has been dormant for many years, 2008 can be described as his "harvest year". Three films were released within a year, including "Besieged City", "City without Baseball" (co-directed with Scud Danny Cheng Wan-Cheung) and "Ballistic". Among them, "Besieged City" most easily reminds the audience of Lawrence Ah-Mon's debut period, especially the social realistic films of the TV department of RTHK, as well as his famous film "Gangs" (1988), which happened to be a work from 20 years ago.
Lawrence Ah-Mon used the same method to deal with the youth problem in Tin Shui Wai, which was described by the media as a "city of sadness". The film was shot in housing estate in Tin Shui Wai, and it was full of substance. Under Lawrence Ah-Mon's careful guidance, several actors showed the problem of youth in trouble. The psychological state belongs to the realistic film of the director returning to his early years.
"Besieged City" pays attention to Tin Shui Wai and youth issues, as well as Lawrence Ah-Mon's realistic style, which reflects the reality with extreme restraint. To a certain extent, the film is still quite consistent with the sadness and helplessness of his "Gangs" twenty years ago. "Besieged City" is more pessimistic about the predicament of young people than "Gangs".
At the beginning, the dream of Ho Ling-Kit, the protagonist played by Tang Tak-Po, and at the end, the orphan wandered in Tian Shui Wai, looking for dead relatives, as if they were destined to escape. However, the siege-like Tin Shui Wai cannot escape the dead and caused by poverty and family environment. The problem of Tin Shui Wai is complex, which is inseparably related to the current structure of Hong Kong society. Lawrence Ah-Mon still interprets it from a humanistic and realistic standpoint, which appears to be insufficient and outdated. First, it's unable to describe the deep structure of the problem in depth. Second it's the film that cannot provide a glimmer of hope and a way out to these young people in Tin Shui Wai.
By Kam Po LAM (original in Chinese)
Lawrence Ah-Mon used the same method to deal with the youth problem in Tin Shui Wai, which was described by the media as a "city of sadness". The film was shot in housing estate in Tin Shui Wai, and it was full of substance. Under Lawrence Ah-Mon's careful guidance, several actors showed the problem of youth in trouble. The psychological state belongs to the realistic film of the director returning to his early years.
"Besieged City" pays attention to Tin Shui Wai and youth issues, as well as Lawrence Ah-Mon's realistic style, which reflects the reality with extreme restraint. To a certain extent, the film is still quite consistent with the sadness and helplessness of his "Gangs" twenty years ago. "Besieged City" is more pessimistic about the predicament of young people than "Gangs".
At the beginning, the dream of Ho Ling-Kit, the protagonist played by Tang Tak-Po, and at the end, the orphan wandered in Tian Shui Wai, looking for dead relatives, as if they were destined to escape. However, the siege-like Tin Shui Wai cannot escape the dead and caused by poverty and family environment. The problem of Tin Shui Wai is complex, which is inseparably related to the current structure of Hong Kong society. Lawrence Ah-Mon still interprets it from a humanistic and realistic standpoint, which appears to be insufficient and outdated. First, it's unable to describe the deep structure of the problem in depth. Second it's the film that cannot provide a glimmer of hope and a way out to these young people in Tin Shui Wai.
By Kam Po LAM (original in Chinese)
