“All About Ah Long” was a film produced at 1988 which was a critical moment of Hong Kong. The economy of Hong Kong bloomed so rapidly. Many basic infrastructures were under construction. Many jobs were created so as the time conflict between job and family. Once, globalization almost began. Substantial western, especially American, values and ideas arrived Hong Kong which brought challenges inevitably. The film was produced in such a context. It discussed and critiqued the conflicts and challenges so deeply.
First of all, the main and the most important message put forward by the film was the fantasy toward western culture, especially the American culture of Hong Kong people. At the end of the 1990s, many western values, ideas, and products flushed to Hong Kong. People were eager to adopt the new ideas and value. They had a high regard for the western ideas. They admired things from the west in all aspects, western education system, life style, media, clothes, food etc. All of a sudden, people got the similar imagination to the West. Westernization meant the process of modernization and progression. Being westernized was a sign of fashionable and prestige.
In the film, there was a sharp contrast between the west (United States) and the local (Hong Kong). Let’s take the scene when Fat-chai and Sylvia appeared. Fat-chai and his son were born and grew up in Hong Kong. They lived in a small, crowded and unhygienic flat in an old urban area which was decaying. The flat and furniture was antiquated and chaotic. Their hair-styles and clothes were old fashioned and messy. It was a typical poor grass-root living environment.
Sylvia, in a big contrast, moved to live in United States for past ten years and just came back to Hong Kong for an advertisement. She appeared as a westernized successful business woman. She lived in a grand and new hotel. Her hair- style and clothing was so modern and fashionable. She had a shinny private car while Fat-chai only drove an old motor bike. The gap between the west and the local was so huge and distinctive. The west seemed to be a symbol of all the newest and the best.
The film not only used the daily lives but also used the characteristics of different characters to show their attitudes toward the western influence. Sylvia, who named Por Por (a Chinese name) in the past and had an English name when she came back. She worked for an American advertisement company. She used English vocabularies or phases during conversation, such as “any problem”, “OK” and “sign the contract” frequently. When she signed the contract with Fai-chai, the contract was totally written in English. She had two meals with her son, a breakfast and a dinner. Both two meals was taken at western styled restaurant. Furthermore, she planned to bring her son to the America in order to “receive better education and living environment”. At the beginning until the late end of the film, she was a typical westernized or should describe as an American woman.
The son represented imagery toward the west in the view of children. At the very beginning, he expressed he wanted to “visit the Disneyland in America”. A scene was used to describe the son had a breakfast with his mother at a hotel. Director Johnny
To employed a slow- shot to depict the moment when the boy entered the hotel. The hotel was grand, huge, trendy and modernized (with lifts) through the eyes of the little boy. It was a sharp contrast when compared to his small flat. The boy was amazing and excited to the “new”. Moreover, he was very font of the new clothes, shoes (package by a cover of American national flag), toys and especially the computer bought by his mother. The Disneyland, the shoes and the computer were the symbols of America. This reflected the truth of the reality. The so-called “western culture” was only the domination of American culture instead of the diverse western countries.
Fat-chai was just an underground person. He knew not much about America nor western culture. He was not as eager as his son to the west. Sometimes, he even resisted it. Nevertheless, the arrival of the western culture did affect him. He agreed it was privileged to the local one. For examples, he did not know English but pretended to understand it and sign the contract for his son when Sylvia’s lover came. He believed it was shy if he did not know English. In another occasion, he went to a French restaurant to have dinner with Sylvia and his son. He was embarrassed when he failed to read the menu. He just ordered “same as his son” instead of seeking help from the waiter. The two examples showed that he had low self-esteem when facing an unknown new culture. Moreover, he hit his son severely so as to “force” him to US with his mother. One of the assumption behind was US (a western country) could provide better environment for his son to growth up.
Although the film seemed to reflect many different views and attitudes toward the coming of the western culture objectively, it also tried to challenge and defy the “absolute” and “consolidate” privilege status of it. The main “weapon” of the western culture was the love and coherent of a family. The son preferred to stay with his father. Sylvia also chose to stay at the last minute. This was a kind of resistance when Sylvia decided not to go to US. It liked a great triumph of local culture. It was optimistic for Hong Kong culture to survive. However, to what extend it reflected the future of Hong Kong and the trend of world? The director expressed his view in the end of the film.
The film had a violent and sad ending. Sylvia selected to stay and went to the motor bikes’ match venue to support Fat- chai. The family almost brought back together after ten years. Then, an accident happened. Fat- chai was hit by motor bikes more than once. Although he insisted at the last minute and became the champion, he was killed by an explosion. This was a symbolic meaning. The director was pessimistic to the local culture of Hong Kong. The death of Fat- chai signified the resistance of local culture was doomed. Hong Kong was unable to ignore or escape the influence of the expansion of American culture.
Besides the discussion about westernization, the film also discussed about the value toward working. What is the value of working? For many people, the more the working hour, the more the income they get. In the view of employers, working is an important. Employees should work hard on it. In the film, Fat-chai (the father) and Sylvia (the mother) both belonged to working class. When they left their works and spent time with their son, their employers felt this was nonsense and they should complete their tasks first. The same situation reoccurred 3 times.
Fat-chai was a construction worker while Sylvia was an advertiser. They belonged to different working class but still faced the same difficulty when they tried to share time with their son. The film tried to tell us this was a prevalent phenomenon at that moment even nowadays. However, is it a truth value that we should insist on? Are we working for improve our quality of life or provide better livelihood for our families? If so, we run the way wrong because we will not have much spare time to enjoy ourselves or with families since the working hours is so long.
