FIGHT BACK TO SCHOOL, DIR. GORDON CHAN (1991)
Sha Tin College, Sha Tin District, Hong Kong
Orange Sky Golden Harvest released 1991’s highest-grossing movie, Fight Back to School in Hong Kong, on July 18 that year. The film talks about Chow Sing-Sing’s (Stephen Chow) deployment as an undercover student along with Tso Tat-Wah (Ng Man-Tat) to find the lost revolver of his captain. In the movie, most of the investigation scenes took place at Edinburgh College – Sha Tin College in real life. The characters would get over their initial mistrust there, forge new relationships, and go on to complete their task, going above and beyond by catching the group of gangsters in their community.
There are different levels of changes regarding the places in the movie. First off, Edinburgh College is Sha Tin College in reality. From the video, we can see that there is not much difference concerning its outlook except the plaque representing the school’s name. In the movie, the playground where Chow Sing-Sing held the books and chairs standing in the middle due to his misbehaviour at school was very iconic. From the photo, we see that the playground has not changed much, and the fences that surround it are still the same. Except for the places inside the school, places outside the school like the residential areas remained the same, too. According to Abbas, ‘unfamiliar in the familiar, that is, the unfamiliar that is half-seen or seen subliminally behind the seen/scene of the familiar’1. Undoubtedly, there seem to have a lot of familiar scenes during the site visit. However, when you visit this place, there is a sense of emptiness and hollowness. This also echoes with the place and space concept raised by Michel De Certeau2, when we watch the movie, the school was much more vivid as Chow Sing-Sing and Uncle Tat made Sha Tin College (space) Edinburgh College (place). This is the contrast of feeling when you watch the movie and when you visit.
Most of Fight Back to School took place in the morning where Edinburgh College is full of people and energetic. It shows the contrast with the first few scenes of the movie. At first, it talks about Chow Sing-Sing’s participation in a Special Duties Unit drill, and that time the place was dimmer, and the atmosphere more serious. On the flip side, we can also draw parallels between the Hong Kong local students’ and policemen’s behaviour, with their queueing and marching borne being quite similar. Fences surround the school and there is no such thing outside the school, this represents the different situation Chow Sing-Sing faces as a student and as an adult.
When he was standing in the middle of the playground with lots of people standing around, the director used a wide shot to show the full environment of the scene and how shameful Chow Sing-Sing was. A long angle shot was used during the fire scene to show the fierce and shock factor of those scenes. Medium angle shots cannot be missed as well. Most of the talking scenes employed mid-shots so viewers’ attention and sightlines were drawn to both actors, the audience can watch the movie using the third-person perspective.
Leung Kwan Ho Gordon, 3035778022
1 Abbas, M. A. (1997). Hong Kong: Culture and the politics of disappearance (pp. 63-90). Hong Kong University Press.
2 De Certeau, M. (1984). Spatial Stories. In The Practice of Everyday Life (pp. 115-130), translated by Steven Randall. Berkeley: University of California Press.
A video to show the current view of the outside of Sha Tin College.
Appreciate that you have included the field documentation and movie still side by side to illustrate your comparison and a good attempt to cite Abbas and de Certeau to reflect upon your visit to Shatin College. It would be great if you can elaborate more on those two references, such as, how does emptiness and hollowness relate to de Certeau’s space and place concept? Abbas’ reference can also possibly extended to your familiarity of being in a school environment and the movie – for example, whether the comical mishaps chow sing sing did at school resonate with yours?