[Field Report] Still Human (2018)

Yu Ko Chieh Joshua (3035934157) and Lu Yi Bin John (3035951973)

Video link to podcast:

Script:

JY: Good morning good afternoon good evening, everyone! I am Joshua.

JL: And I am John

JY: Today we are going to introduce a really good film directed by Oliver Chan in 2018, “STILL HUMAN”. Although the genre is being categorised as a comedic drama, I personal think it is more of a romantic and touching story. The film acted as a critic towards the current social context, raising people’s awareness towards Southeast Asian Helpers and Disabled people in our society. The urban spaces and architecture also play an important role in the film. Not only does it act as a set, but also acted as a narrative of daily life and a reflection of Hong Kong’s society. John would you like to briefly talk about the plot of the film?

JL: Sure, the story is basically about a paralysed middle aged men, Cheong Wing, who had been divorced and separated from his beloved son, was being taken care by a Filipino helper Evelyn, who’s dream was to be a professional photographer but failed to pursue it due to financial and family issues. The two main character together learnt their lesson and at last find salvation in each other. Evelyn succeeded in pursuing her dream and Cheong Wing had finally be able to join his son on his graduation trip. A really touching story… so how are the architecture and urban spaces presented in this form?

JY: Okay so Let me talk about that. The film starts with a close-up shot of different furniture in Cheong Wing’s flat while the drilling sound is present. This gives us the first impression of the main characters living space, noisy and unpleasant. Without any narrative and speech, the movie begins by featuring the living space of cheong wing.

JL: Cheong Wing lives in a public housing estate block, Sun Man Building, which is in Oi Man Estate in Ho Man Tin. By using a wide angle shot, we are able to understand how a typical unit of public housing estate looks like in Hong Kong. The unit consists of a small balcony for hanging clothes, a tiny bathroom, a living room and two bedrooms. The space is packed with daily necessities goods, which makes the space stuffed and compact. This documents the daily living space of many middle to low income residents in Hong Kong.

Then, Through applying the montage sequence, and using wide angle shots, the plot follows cheong wing from his flat all the way to the community bus stop where he picked up Evelyn for the first time, revealing the living environment of cheong wing.

JY: Leaving his house, it seems that the saturation have been reduced on purpose, adding a cold filter towards the building complex, Giving the audience an uncanny feeling. The sun man building that cheong wing dwells at is a Twin Tower Estate designed by Architect Donald Liao Poon-huai. The building has a hollow and internally galleried structure. Due to its compactness and height, during rest of the day, the void area of the building is usually dim. The film further dramatised the setting and through focusing on the handrails on the corridor, gives the audience a feeling that the place is claustrophobic like a bird cage.

JL: Yes exactly, actually throughout the film, the void centre of the building has been featured multiple times, and every time when it is featured, the plot is demonstrating a sad situation. For instance, the scene when Evelyn gave up her photography dream due to family issues; and when Cheong wing recalls the deadly accident at a construction site that caused his paralysis. Although in these scenes the camera focuses on the emotion expressed on the main characters through taking a close shot, the architecture, being the set, still plays an effective role in making the audience think that the character are birds trapped in a bird cage and couldn’t fly out to the sky, isolated from the dream that he wanted to pursue.

JY: Yes, The director made good use of chiaroscuro effects to create a great contrast between the blue sky opening and the building structure itself by taking a low angle shot at the patio of the public housing estate. The strong lighting contrast between the sky and the building structure that enclosed it had depicted the space as a depressing and breathless space, indirectly reflecting how depressing the society is in the eyes of disabled people and the oppressed ones.

JL: Indeed indeed…. Okay back to the story. So Cheung wing left the house, left the building and travelled across the streets in the community. Throughout the montages, the camera mostly used wide angle shots to show the urban realm. One interesting shot would be the one showing a contrast between the dull and depressing public housing and the modern fancy and extravagant skyscrapers of the Victoria Harbour at the background. The contradiction in the architecture in this wide shot shows contrast between the less privileged and the elites, the modern and the old.

JY: Ahh yess, Throughout the film, the shots had captured different urban landscapes and shows contrast. For example, the extravagant restaurants at Harbor city versus the local restaurants that targets local people and offers cheap prices; the exhibition venue and pubs where the middle class social versus the places where domestic helpers meet during weekends. These reflects the diversity but also segregation of spaces in Hong Kong, showing how Hong Kong is a diversified yet not enough inclusive society as a whole.

JL: Let me share more about the open space where domestic workers gather during weekends. In Hong Kong, several Filipino domestic workers would gather at different open spaces with cardboards acting as seats. They could gather at underground tunnels, plazas, flyovers, anywhere you name it. We visited the HSBC headquarters in Central and had observed a great contrast in that area. Where domestic helpers with cardboards just sits on the ground floor lobby of the modern looking skyscrapers.

JY: However, in the film they did not show this contrast as the scene is taken with close shots featuring their facial expressions. The film focused on their conversations which they share their experience on how to live much easier and the interesting things happened in the daily life with each other. It also shows the harmonious and relaxed atmosphere and highlights that these Filipino domestic workers do not pay much attention on their reputation but just wanted their life to be much easier. As what one of the helpers said in the film: “The Hong Kong People thinks we are stupid, but I’m okay with that, I just want to do less things”. Nevertheless, moving towards the end of the film, we could see how these domestic helpers are also emotionally connected to this place.

When comparing how the mise en scene at oi man estate between the start and the end of the film, in terms of the colors, there is actually a certain difference. At the beginning of the film which is the first time that Evelyn come to the home of Cheong Wing, as Cheong wing did not treat her well at the start, the home is an unpleasant place for Evelyn. As what has been shown in the plot, Evelyn shared a Facebook post saying that “this is not a home, but shelter”.

JL: However, as time passes and many things happened, they find support with each other, and their relationship turned out to be just like family as they helped each other in pursuing their dreams, the housing unit interior had slowly changed to a warm and loving place.

At last, when Cheong Wing send Evelyn away to let her pursue her photographic dream in London, the shots featuring the whole estate is also highly romanticised at last as the flying seeds added an emotional ambience towards the space, symbolizing departure.

JY: Ahh Yes as u mentioned cotton tree seeds, it is also interesting to note that how plants played a role in transition of time in the film. The film featured the trees in the estates when there is a transition of season. The dynamic change of the trees had created a great visual effect towards the urban space during different seasons.

In the last scene a shallow focus on the seeds of the cotton trees being blown away from the branches towards the sky symbolises departure, leaving your loved ones and starting a new life somewhere else. Which also echoed the main theme of the whole film, pursuing dreams and start a new life.

JL: We could observe that the impression of people towards public space in this film changes when the character view towards the reality changed from pessimistic to optimistic.

JY: Yes indeed, I think the main message the film wanted to evoke is the importance of optimism and hope. Despite how bad you have suffered, and how harsh the society is, there is hope, and a dream you can pursue.

JL: When life gives you lemons, go make lemonade.

JY: Exactly hahah. Guess it’s a good time to wrap up our podcast today.

JL: Thank you for listening!