The Longest Summer

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Audience Member The 1997 handover and the complex of problems related to it that Chan hinted at in Made In Hong Kong, is handled in a more explicit manner in the director's The Longest Summer from 1998, as the characters openly discuss and vent their anguish regarding this life-changing event. Much of the action also takes places during the night of the handover itself, with the director's own documentary footage inserted in between staged scenes. The transition is furthermore symbolically represented on several narrative levels throughout the film, most notably perhaps in the sibling rivalry between Tony Ho's and Sam Lee's characters. The Longest Summer paints a rather sad picture of Hong kong's past, present and future, with a sense of loss lingering in every frame, enforced by the excellent cinematography and a visual style less expressionistic than in Made In Hong Kong. But Chan also seems to take some malicious delight in mocking the years of British rule over the island, as his gleeful and ironic use of Auld lang syne give evidence of, which eventually allows the movie to end on a possibly more hopeful note than expected. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Audience Member Fruit Chan is such a great director to put every elements into a just 2-hour movie: romance, crime, hope, politics, life etc, and most important is the touching story line. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Lil bit too long, but still a great and very powerful film about the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997. Really in tense. Captures the atmosphere of the HK society at that time so well as well as the mentality of middle-aged HK men who cannot find their places in the rapidly-changing society. All HK-ese (especially young ones) should watch this one at least once. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member wasn't impressed when i first saw it years ago. Watching it again i realized how much of that tension, uncertainty in HK during the Handover was captured and how much effort was made by director Fruit Chan's in framing (the huge Chinese dollar bill poster in the background) and scheduling (the British flag lowering on the news) when he made this film. This movie will come down in history as one of the most important HK films. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Longest Summer

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