Five middle-aged ex-soldiers ditched when the British garrison left
town, their identity and allegiances murky, set about re-entering the
workforce in a rapidly changing HK. Set against the lead-up to the big
1997 event, the group fall into a bank heist with the help of triad kid Ga
Suen (Sam Lee). This plot becomes a shell to follow elder brother Ga Yin
(Tony Ho); the film's principal character. The Longest Summer
examines how his direction is lost, how he comes to question himself and
why he actually resorts to joining HK's underside. But from the startling
first scenes, you know Chan's telling more than one story here.
An immense amount of ground is covered during the film's two hours. The
camera focuses straight on HK people's feelings as the colony changed
hands ?from schoolgirls' comments on mainlanders to the changing ideals of
the young and old. The atmosphere of the raindrenched handover is captured
with remarkable clarity and with the spirit of that period intact. As the
ultimate "handover movie", there's a huge amount of the SAR covered in
this film. Not just the backdrops (many skilfully staged and shot in
mid-'97) but also the rare (at this depth) celluloid insight into HK
people. Even the triad-kids scene works wonders. The actors in The
Longest Summer are nearly all newcomers again, and that means you can
visualise them as ordinary Hongkongers. Known actors with the baggage of
previous roles would have killed it for me. And two of the five leads are
ex-servicemen in reality. Fruit Chan's picked new actors to keep an eye
out for, particularly Jo Kuk as gangster's girl Jane, if they choose to
stick with acting at all.
From
www.kowloonside.com
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