The Longest Summer

The Longest Summer is at least as unconventional as Fruit Chans début film Made in Hong-Kong. In shooting his film, Chan used documentary methods, that bring the drama to a painfully credible level. Chan’s images help the viewer to experience the restless feeling that reigned in Hong Kong in the last days before the transfer of power. When in 1998 the red flag of the People’s Republic was raised over Hong Kong, many Chinese soldiers lost their jobs with the British army. The men, most of them middle aged, were too old to start a new career in the high-speed Hong Kong that is run by money. They were thrown on the street without any prospects and without the privilege of moving to the UK, as many British in their position could. There was no future for them. ‘Yesterday’s ideals are not those of tomorrow,’ is how Ga Yin (a début role by dancer Tony Ho) expresses it in The Longest Summer. After a comfortable life with the army, Ga Yin feels like a lost child, looking for a new identity. His younger brother Ga Suen does personify the new Hong Kong generation filled with the spirit of enterprise, but to achieve his aim ! to earn lots of money ! as soon as possible he chooses the wrong way. With his friends he plans a bank robbery. Ga Yin joins his brother’s gang for want of anything else. The raid goes completely wrong, even though they do end up with a booty. There is then no way back.