FIGHT BACK TO SCHOOL DIR. GORDON CHAN KAR SEUNG 1991
ESF Sha Tin College — Fo Tan, Hong Kong
Fight Back To School is a comedy starring Stephen Chow and Ng Man Tat. The film is about a disqualified police, Chow Sing Sing, being chosen to be an undercover student in a school named Edinburgh College to look into a case that a revolver was stolen. He is partnered with an ageing police detective, together being undercover in the school, and has to deal with schoolwork like usual students, resulting different hilarious scenes. Edinburgh College, the main setting in the film, was shot in Sha Tin College. It is located in Fo Tan and played an essential role in the structure of the film.
Speaking of how the school was presented in the film, there are a lot of shots in the movie that the camera is focused on the fences. This probably relates to how the plots depict the school is like a jail to Chow Sing Sing and and show audiences that he is being trapped in schoolwork, not being able to escape. One of the scene even shows that he tries to climb from the fences, but failed at last, showing his desire to get away. However, in the reality, such designs and building of fences are not seen specifically emphasised at all, unlike how they are presented in the film.
In the film:
In reality:
Besides of the fences, there are also different shots in the movie that present corridors and stairs in a wide-shot, showing the spacious area. In the film, Chow Sing Sing has an affection towards a teacher and he often looks at her secretly. Chow Sing Sing and the female teacher’s interactions can be shown in the film in the corridors. Besides, there was also a scene that he and his partner are chased by some gangsters that they ran on the corridors while the gangsters try to shoot them on the stairs. Such scenes are taken on the stairs and corridors of Sha Tin College, showing how interesting it is that the hilarious undercover mission takes place in an ordinary school.
In the film:
In reality:
The overall building seems to have not much differences with the one in the movie, except for the name and the colour being blue instead of green. The film is one of the classics of Hong Kong comedy movies, making this site easily recognisable since it did not change much, especially the corridors and stairs, even until now almost 30 years passed. In all, the ESF Sha Tin College is basically a lot similar to any other schools in Hong Kong. What is special is how the shots are taken when the film is taken.
— Li Cheuk Yu Anna, 3035829118
Your point on how the school’s gate and fences in the film resembled a prison is interesting! Would be even more intriguing to find some research to support this argument and see if there are any study on how confined students could feel in schools just from the presence of fences. On another note, corridors and stairs are among the richest space to tell stories. Another way to read through the corridor, where Chow Sing Sing’s interacted with the female teacher, might be through De Certeau’s “space as practised place”. Their interaction had brought the corridor as more than just a passage, but also a rendezvous point. Relating your argument to one of the key ideas we discussed in the class would be a good way to position your analysis. As for the images, recreating a scene shot would be one of the ways to situate your fieldwork photos. This way you can compare how space is portrayed and appropriated in film and in real life. Also, remember to cite any others’ works you referred properly. This would include, but not limited to, texts, images and/or videos.