Made in Hong Kong (film)

1997 Hong Kong film by Fruit Chan

Made in Hong Kong

Theatrical poster

Traditional Chinese| 香港製造
Simplified Chinese| 香港制造
Literal meaning| Hong Kong manufacture
Hanyu Pinyin| Xiānggǎng zhìzào
Jyutping| Hoeng1 Gong2 zai3 zou6
Directed by| Fruit Chan
Written by| Fruit Chan
Produced by| Andy Lau
Doris Yang Ziming
Starring| Sam Lee
Yim Hui-Chi
Wenders Li
Tam Ka-Chuen
Cinematography| Lam Wah-Chuen
O Sing-Pui
Music by| Lam Wah-Chuen

Release date

* 9 October 1997 (1997-10-09) (Hong Kong)

Running time

| 108 minutes
Country| Hong Kong
Language| Cantonese
Box office| $17,255[1]

Made in Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港製造) is a 1997 Hong Kong drama film written and directed by Fruit Chan, produced by Andy Lau, and starring Sam Lee, Yim Hui-Chi, Wenders Li, and Tam Ka-Chuen. It won the Best Picture Award at the 1998 Hong Kong Film Awards along with 13 other wins and 6 nominations. The film was selected as the Hong Kong entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.[2][3] It was selected as one of the Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures in 2005 by Hong Kong Film Awards.

## Plot

[edit]

Autumn Moon is a secondary school drop-out whose father has abandoned his family for his mistress. Moon works with his friend Sylvester, who is mentally disabled, as a debt collector for a triad member, Cheung Siu-Wing. Sylvester is frequently bullied but Moon attempts to protect him when possible.

By chance, Sylvester passes by the body of a classmate, Susan, who had just thrown herself off a building, picks up her two suicide notes, and gives them to Moon. Moon passes one to its intended owner, but keeps the other instead of returning it to her family. He has frequent wet dreams about Susan and constantly pictures her last moments.

Moon attempts to collect money from Mrs. Lam, who also owes money to a man called Fat Chan. Moon falls in love with Ping, her daughter who has a fatal kidney disease, and wards off Fat Chan's attempts to collect money from Mrs. Lam who does not approve of their relationship.

Eventually, Moon attempts to collect enough money to pay off Fat Chan and at one point raids an office attempting to find him, to no avail. Needing additional money to pay for Ping's kidney transplant, Moon takes an assassination contact from Siu-Wing, but is too nervous to go through with it.

Sometime later, Moon is stabbed repeatedly outside his apartment by a young thug sent by Fat Chan. Moon falls into a coma though eventually makes a full recovery. Upon awakening, he finds that Sylvester has been killed by Siu-Wing and that Ping has since succumbed to her illness.

Out of hope, Moon returns Susan's letter to her family and takes revenge by killing Siu-Wing and Fat Chan before committing suicide by Ping's gravestone.

## Cast and roles

[edit]

* Sam Lee \- To Chung-Chau, "Moon"
* Neiky Yim Hui-Chi - Lam Yuk-Ping, "Ping"
* Wenders Li - Ah-Lung, "Sylvester" (credited as Wenbers Li Tung-Chuen)
* Amy Tam Ka-Chuen - Hui Bo San, "Susan"
* Carol Lam Kit-Fong - Mrs. Lam, Ping's mother
* Doris Chow Yan-Wah - Mrs. To, Moon's mother
* Siu Chung - Ms. Lee, social worker
* Chan Tat-Yee - Fat Chan
* Wu Wai-Chung - Keung
* Sang Chan - "Big Brother", Cheung Siu-Wing
* Kelvin Chung - Doctor
* Ah Ting - Moon's father
* Jessica - Moon's father's current wife
* Ah Wai - Assassin on skateboard
* Ho B-Chai - Male student

## Production

[edit]

Fruit Chan has made 2 films in mainstream studios but was dissatisfied. As Chan explained in an interview, he decided to make an independent film, and through his former connections, secured financial backing of Andy Lau's production company. It used minimal crew of seven with no more than five in any working day at work. The total production budget was 1/2 million Hong Kong dollars.[4]

Much of the film is set in public housing estates, which Chan considered to be "a very Hong Kong thing" due to the high population density of the territory.[5] Though the film is sometimes regarded as a response to the 1997 Hong Kong handover, Chan feels that Made in Hong Kong can also be viewed as a character-driven drama that reflects the lifestyle of many young Hong Kong people at the time.[5]

The film was made using leftover film reels and therefore had very low production costs, even for an independent movie.[citation needed]

## Reception

[edit]

BBC Four said the film is "impressively shot" and "boasts convincing performances".[6] Slant Magazine's Pat Brown gives the film 2.5 stars out of 4, stating "Fruit Chan's quirky, gangster-adjacent flick, so infused with washed-out and blue-filtered imagery, presents a portrait of Hong Kong that bears more than a passing resemblance to Wong Kar-wai and Christopher Doyle's early collaborations."

## Home media

[edit]

The film was released in blu-ray by Kino Lorber.[4]

## See also

[edit]

* List of submissions to the 71st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
* List of Hong Kong submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Made in Hong Kong (2020 re-release)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
2. ^ Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
3. ^ "45 Countries Submit Films for Oscar Consideration". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 19 November 1998. Archived from the original on 19 February 1999. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
4. ^ a b Made in Hong Kong | Kino Lorber - Experience Cinema. Retrieved 4 January 2025 – via kinolorber.com.
5. ^ a b "Interview: Fruit Chan, 20 Years On from Made in Hong Kong". FilmDoo. 29 May 2017. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
6. ^ Dawson, Tom (25 April 1998). "Cinema - Feature - MADE IN HONG KONG". BBC Four. BBC. Archived from the original on 22 June 2002. Retrieved 25 May 2024.

## External links

[edit]

* Made in Hong Kong at IMDb
* Made in Hong Kong at HKMDB
* Made in Hong Kong at Hong Kong Cinemagic

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Fruit Chan

* Finale in Blood (1993)
* Made in Hong Kong (1997)
* The Longest Summer (1998)
* Little Cheung (1999)
* Durian Durian (2000)
* Hollywood Hong Kong (2001)
* Public Toilet (2002)
* Three... Extremes (2004)
* Dumplings (2004)
* Chengdu, I Love You (2009)
* Don't Look Up (2009)
* Tales from the Dark 1 (2013)
* The Midnight After (2014)
* Kill Time (2016)
* Three Husbands (2018)
* The Abortionist (2019)
* The Invincible Dragon (2019)

* v
* t
* e

Andy Lau

* Filmography
* Discography

Films directed|

* Love Under the Sun (2003)

Films produced|

* Days of Tomorrow (1993)
* Tian Di (1994)
* Made in Hong Kong (1997)
* A Fighter's Blues (2000)
* Fulltime Killer (2001)
* Dance of a Dream (2001)
* Jiang Hu (2004)
* My Mother Is a Belly Dancer (2006)
* Firestorm (2013)
* The Bodyguard (2016)
* Mission Milano (2016)
* Shock Wave (2017)
* The Adventurers (2017)
* Chasing the Dragon (2017)
* The White Storm 2: Drug Lords (2019)
* Find Your Voice (2020)
* Shock Wave 2 (2020)
* Endgame (2021)
* The Movie Emperor (2023)
* I Did It My Way (2023)
* Crisis Negotiators (2024)
* High Forces (2024)
* Cesium Fallout (2024)
* Raging Havoc (TBD)

Television produced|

* The Trading Floor (2018)

Concert tours|

* Today... is the Day Tour

Books written|

* My 30 Work Days (2012)

Related|

* Carol Chu (wife)
* Focus Group Holdings Limited
* Teamwork Motion Pictures
* Five Tiger Generals of TVB

* v
* t
* e

Hong Kong Film Award for Best Film

* Father and Son (1982)
* Boat People (1983)
* Ah Ying (1984)
* Homecoming (1985)
* Police Story (1986)
* A Better Tomorrow (1987)
* An Autumn's Tale (1988)
* Rouge (1989)
* Beyond the Sunset (1990)
* Days of Being Wild (1991)
* To Be Number One (1992)
* Cageman (1993)
* C'est la vie, mon chéri (1994)
* Chungking Express (1995)
* Summer Snow (1996)
* Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1997)
* Made in Hong Kong (1998)
* Beast Cops (1999)
* Ordinary Heroes (2000)
* Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2001)
* Shaolin Soccer (2002)
* Infernal Affairs (2003)
* Running on Karma (2004)
* Kung Fu Hustle (2005)
* Election (2006)
* After This Our Exile (2007)
* The Warlords (2008)
* Ip Man (2009)
* Bodyguards and Assassins (2010)
* Gallants (2011)
* A Simple Life (2012)
* Cold War (2013)
* The Grandmaster (2014)
* The Golden Era (2015)
* Ten Years (2016)
* Trivisa (2017)
* Our Time Will Come (2018)
* Project Gutenberg (2019)
* Better Days (2020)
* Raging Fire (2021/2022)
* To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self (2023)
* A Guilty Conscience (2024)
* Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2025)

* v
* t
* e

Hong Kong submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

1959–2000|

* For Better, for Worse (1959)
* The Enchanting Shadow (1960)
* The Love Eterne (1963)
* Between Tears and Laughter (1964)
* Come Drink with Me (1966)
* The Arch (1969)
* The Last Tempest 1976)
* Raining in the Mountain (1979)
* Homecoming (1984)
* Painted Faces (1989)
* Eight Taels of Gold (1990)
* Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
* Farewell My Concubine (1993)
* The Day the Sun Turned Cold (1994)
* Summer Snow (1995)
* Hu-Du-Men (1996)
* Made in Hong Kong (1998)
* Ordinary Heroes (1999)
* In the Mood for Love (2000)

2001–present|

* Fulltime Killer (2001)
* The Touch (2002)
* Infernal Affairs (2003)
* Running on Karma (2004)
* Perhaps Love (2005)
* The Banquet (2006)
* Exiled (2007)
* Painted Skin (2008)
* Prince of Tears (2009)
* Echoes of the Rainbow (2010)
* A Simple Life (2011)
* Life Without Principle (2012)
* The Grandmaster (2013)
* The Golden Era (2014)
* To the Fore (2015)
* Port of Call (2016)
* Mad World (2017)
* Operation Red Sea (2018)
* The White Storm 2: Drug Lords (2019)
* Better Days (2020)
* Zero to Hero (2021)
* Where the Wind Blows (2022)
* A Light Never Goes Out (2023)
* Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024)

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