Little Cheung (2000)

Little Cheung follows a nine-year-old boy as he bonds with a girl his age in the Kowloon streets. The girl is an illegal immigrant from the mainland - a "little snake" girl as she's referred to by others. The two become close friends as the 1997 handover looms ahead; a date when the two believe the girl can stop hiding and become a true Hong Kong citizen. Their story is set around, and integrated into, the death of an actor - Brother Cheung (Tang Wing-cheung) - a celebrity who died amid family squabbles for his fortune. As the script points out, and in reality too, this actor's passing sparked more attention from Hongkongers than the death of Deng Xiao-ping.

Fruit Chan's movie is a return to the handover theme, this time posing identity questions to the viewers. By far the clearest moment is a scene of school students learning the official Chinese salute and flag-raising procedure - instilling alien kinship and nationalism in a populace that had, until the handover, stood at considerable distance from the mainland. The public fixation with the death of a local actor over and above the death of a Chinese head of state demonstrates this separation. Other significant interest is held in the "little snake" girl (I assume this is the same "snake" as in "snakeheads"?) and her misguided expectation of instant integration into post-1997 society. As she and her fellow imigrants are rounded up, assimilation hopes are dismissed as fantasy.

The Cheung of the title, played by Yiu Yuet-ming, is an incredible find; an extremely cocky child actor thoroughly at ease in front of the camera. Sam Lee comparisons are inevitable. Lead actress Mak Wai-fan is similarly impressive, providing a more natural screen presence than actresses two- or three-times her age. Her real-life sister plays her sister in the film. The two leads hold their own well, but a weak script left me wondering just where they and the film in general were heading. Some plot moments were too ambiguous on a first-time viewing; was Little Cheung's search for a wayward brother part of the nationality issue or merely part of the story? Unnecessary cameos also mar the film; characters from previous Fruit Chan films reappear under their old screen names. Their brief appearances are needless, add little colour to the drama and break the flow. On the upside is the setting - almost entirely shot in the Portland Street environs between Yau Ma Tei and Mongkok. The area, littered with decrepit buildings, coffin shops, small restaurants, a church, grimy alleyways and slow-moving locals, looks wonderful on the big screen.

Credits:

Directed by Fruit Chan
Starring Yiu Yuet-ming, Mak Wai-fan, Mak Suet-man and Gary Lai