1. The Narrow Road is a 2022 Hong Kong dream film, directed by Lam Sum, a new director who won the ‘mm2 New Director Program’ in 2017. This film stars Louis Cheung, Angela Yuen, Tung On-na, etc..
2. The story background is set during the early days of the Covid pandemic in Hong Kong, it tells the story of Chak, cast by Louis Cheung, who struggles to keep his cleaning company afloat. During the challenge, he develops a bond with a newly hired cleaner Candy, cast by Angela Yuen, who is his neighbor and also a single mother. Candy, who seems to be doing nothing, can solve Chak’s work difficulties. Just when the two thought that their life was getting better and the epidemic became a part of their lives, the cleaning company was complained about and raided by the customs. Chak’s family suffered great changes again. Even though people are like dust, they can still snuggle up on narrow roads…and Chak ended up working as a security guard in a shopping mall.
3. The Chinese name of The Narrow Road is called 窄路微塵, which means a narrow road with small dust. The impression of Hong Konger is walking on a narrow road that is difficult to move forward, and we are as small as dust to the world.
4. As the film mainly describes the daily life of the cleaning company workers, the main characters often go in and out of dirty environments. The film also exudes a gloomy and depressive atmosphere, but Chak’s persistence in kindness and compassion is impressive. The message brought out is that even if you are just a speck of dust in the universe, you can still have weight and brilliance. Therefore, do not feel desperate about your fault, your life is still moving on. Like Chak had said, ‘Although we are smaller than dust, God does not often see us, it doesn’t matter. It is good enough that we can see each other.’
5. Lam arranged a conflict in the film to show Chak’s impressive persistence in kindness and compassion. It is a scene where the cleaning company complained about using a cleaner with low quality and was raised by customs. The company collapsed due to reputation damage from this incident. While the low-quality cleaner was used by Candy as her daughter Chu, cast by Tung On-na, knocked over the cleaner accidentally when she was helping to dilute the cleaner so Candy replaced it with a low-quality one.
Although Chak’s company collapsed because of Candy and Chu, he never held any grudges against them and did his best to provide financial support for their life needs. He did that because keeping the goodness in his heart is the most important thing for him. He brought out one of the most popular dialogues in the film, ‘the world is shit does not mean that you have to be a shit person.’
6. The most noteworthy part of this film is that it is filmed under epidemic prevention restrictions so there are a lot of limitations when they are filming. Besides, Chak, Candy and Chu are shuttled through the old districts of Kwun Tong, To Kwa Wan and Shek Kip Mei with the ‘Peter Pan Cleaning Company’ minivan. These districts are implying the lower class people, bringing the message that the lives of those lower class were getting worse coupled with the impact of the pandemic. However, the three main characters in the story are still crawling forward in difficult situations. Although the ending of The Narrow Road is not a happy ending, it still can bring out its message, which is ‘at least we still have each other to walk forward together’. It should be the film that Hong Kong needs most in this era.
-link for video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bpgXgIZusk_xySZq6x3w6niCGnO9KgP9/view?usp=share_link
-Chan Tsun Hei 3036078376
-Lo Hoi Chun 3036078689
It is interesting that you have chosen a newly released film that closely relates to the living space of Hong Kong’s lower class during the pandemic context. However, we look forward to seeing more of your reflections and conversation based on space and architecture than the analysis of the filmic plot. Besides, it is worth demonstrating how lectures, tutorials, readings and field trip influence your viewing of this film. Furthermore, I would suggest a more dialogue-liked podcast with a faster conversation tempo, which would greatly enhance the appeal of your work.