[FIELDWORK] I’M LIVIN’ IT, MCDONALD’S

I’m Livin’ It, DIR. Huang (2019)           

McDonald’s Hong Kong

The place where led the story which is a very commonly seen McDonald on street.

I’m livin’ it(2019) mainly tells the story of Bowen, a former financial talent, who meets all kinds of sleepers in a McDonald’s restaurant and supports each other to help get out of the trough of life.

The film is led by Shen Zi who ran away from home. After the conflict in Jane’s song hall, it officially leads to the location of McDonald’s. There are all kinds of sleepers here at night. They know each other and help each other. There are mothers who have been heavily working in debt for grandma to pay off her debts, uncle Deng who dare not go home, young Shenzi who has just run away from home, and singer Jane. At the peak of the story, uncle Deng is facing the reality while Bowen has been diagnosed with cancer. On the whole, the film is a sad tone, with a trace of warmth and family affection. At the same time, it also makes a good interpretation of the word home by depicting the scene of McDonald’s.

For most people, McDonald’s is just a restaurant, a fast-food restaurant, and at most a busy office. Because of its fast-food attributes, few people will stay there for a long time. In the film, where rarely appears is the normal business scene during the day, but a large number of descriptions of the scene after these sleepers return to McDonald’s, that is, after midnight. The description in the film is rarely met by us at ordinary times, which provides conditions for the new property of this place. In the film, McDonald’s is more like a home for all the lodgers, providing a place to feel family affection for those who have no family or family cracks. At the end of the film, Bowen didn’t return to McDonald’s. Jane inquired around just to find him and let him go home, which means that McDonald’s has gone beyond its original meaning in line with the public: eat, eat fast and convenient meals. In these people’s view, McDonald’s is a place where they can feel family affection better than home.

The reason why the film uses McDonald’s to establish such an image is precisely because it is a reasonable place, but it is difficult for ordinary people to think of. People may remember the tramps staying at McDonald’s, but it is difficult to connect them with their home. This is the wisdom of the director to set McDonald’s as their residence, which is reasonable but obeying the convention from common sense. In this case, the concept of home that the director wants to express is very easy to convey. People who come here are those who lack family care. In this place, they get to know new families and get a good memory. Whenever the plot of the film tends to be dull and underestimated, the next McDonald’s scene will certainly bring warmth and beauty to people, and vice versa. The description of the sudden death of mother’s overdraft work is very abrupt, which also forms a sharp contrast with the front and brings novelty.

This work reminds us to live well every day and cherish the beauty of the present, even if we are facing a dark future. McDonald’s provides these confused people with a lighthouse in the deep sea to guide their direction. The inconsistency with common sense and the depiction of the life of the poor are the core of the whole film. McDonald’s acting as a main line crossing through movie.

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Notes:

1. A scene screenshot in the movie showed the demonology in this movie, the granny in the photo is never appeared in the whole spot, which is an hint for uncle Deng’s dead wife, as well as in the end of movie, which seems like Bowen have returned to his home.