[Fieldwork Podcast] The Way We Are (2008)

Transcript

Cedric: I am Cedric

 

Sunny: I am Sunny

 

Cedric: Today we are going to talk about a classic, The Way We are by Ann Hui. To start things off, Sunny how would you summarize the film?

 

Sunny: The film gives off quite a “documentary vibe”, or in technical terms influenced by “social realism”. It is set in the suburbs of TSW, a district notorious for all the wrong reasons.

 

Cedric: Before we dive deep, just take a look at the poster, it says a lot about how architecture merges into the film. When you look at the background, it is made up of stacked buildings, kind of like the Great Wall. This actually echoes the Cantonese of TSW, as Wei in TSW means a form of encirclement. In the middle we see the two protagonists, one smiling, one frowning. I think the dense arrangement of buildings signifies a sort of pressure of livelihood, repressing the people in TSW. However, in the film, we will see how different walks of life still strive to live to their fullest under such circumstances.

Sunny: The protagonist is Guai is an industrious single mother. She is not only the breadwinner, but also the housekeeper of her family hoping to make ends meet every day. The other main character Leung is an elderly who lives alone, like the protagonist, she also strives to sustain a living.

 

Cedric: That’s quite the summary we need. Now let’s focus on the tone of the film. From an objective point of view, the backgrounds of both main characters, or actually most of the characters, undeniably leave the film with quite a grim narrative. However, Ann Hui had no intents of making this film a depressing tragedy.

 

Sunny: This is how architecture comes into play. As mentioned, the film is filmed in kind of a documentary style, and by capturing the housing of both women from different perspectives, Ann Hui attempts to strike a contrast between the more optimistic Guai and the more pessimistic Leung

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Cedric: I mean you can see that from the first few scenes of the film. When they introduced Guai, the cinematography linked the landscape of Wetland Park to the footbridge connecting the rural area and city area of TSW then directly zoomed into the apartment of Guai.

 

Sunny: Maybe I am being exaggerative, but it kind of creates this illusion that the wetland park is somehow Guai’s private garden. And you have to note that there is actually quite a distance between the Wetland Park and the public estate, so Ann possibly did this on purpose.

 

Cedric: Totally. But when we move on to Leung. The camera starts from the city center of TSW.

 

Sunny: Although Ann Hui tried to leave a silver lining with a fair blue sky. The compilation of public estates, (They) still seem quite suffocating especially the extensive use of bottom view angles.

 

Cedric: Yeah, it created a similar feeling, like that short Eunice showed in the lecture, Skycraper Symphony.

 

Sunny: Not to mention how Ann depicted the dining area of both households. Take a look at this scene when Guai is having dinner, we seem to be a part of her family, enjoying the warm atmosphere together. But when we turn to Leung, we seem like a third party, in plainer words, basically like a stalker, barging into her life without consent.

 

Cedric: Just compare the angles used in the two scenes. When we are at Guai’s apartment, the scene is filmed with a full shot, and we are often at eye-level with Guai and her son. Moreover, the apartment is filled with furnitures like sofas and cabinets, filling up the entire living room.

 

Sunny: When we turn to Leung’s flat, we are forced into different peculiar angles like high angles and a one-third or even half of the screen is blocked by walls or ceilings.  The living room and bedroom is even merged into one room. This implies that the whole flat is private to Leung, she seldom or never receives guests, therefore, she does not need to segregate the two spaces. This amplifies her loneliness in daily life.

 

Cedric: Other than contrasting how Guai and Leung lives, another gist of the film is connecting.

 

Sunny: This connection is not limited to the bond between Guai and Leung, but between them and the rest of TSW.

 

Cedric: While watching the film we found out that Ann did not always focus on one public estate but she seemed to have traversed between numerous estates.

 

Sunny: Therefore, during our thorough field trip to TSW, we inspected every public estate shown in the film to locate its geographical location.

 

Cedric: If you look at the map on which we plotted the estates, you can see that they are scattered throughout the whole district. As you can see, the two red spots are where the two leads actually live, both of them are inside Tin Yiu Estate. However, the purple lines are locations where filming took place. You can see it extends to Tin Shui, Tin Wah and Tin Yau Estate.

 

Sunny: Like basically it covers the whole district. At this point, I think we can conclude Ann Hui purposefully intended to capture different public estates. By doing this, she is attempting to extend the scope of the story.

 

Cedric: In a nutshell, the stories of Guai and Leung are not private memories, they are the collective memories of the whole district. The Way We Are is constructed not on two particular persons or a particular family, but on the typical life of an ordinary household in TSW, therefore Ann puts in much effort to depict the buildings in the film as generic as possible.

 

Sunny: We saw many new private estates and luxury apartments intruding the public estates in TSW during our fieldtrip. The function of the district is changing, not just to fulfill the housing demand of grassroots. When we locate all the luxury departments, they are built in all the landmarks of TSW. Some may say it is really like an unwanted intruder bringing inflation and occupying the most precious leisure space, just like Sham Shui Po in Drifting.

 

Cedric: Yeah films nowadays often depict how modernization affects these spaces, and I think another element that connects the story of Guai and in particular TSW is the light rail system.

 

Sunny: This is not a history podcast, but long story short, the light rail system serves the northwestern new territories so basically it only covers TSW, Yuen Long, and Tuen Mun.

 

Cedric: Throughout the film, the light rail guides us through the district, from location to location. Like trams on HK Island, it has become a sort of “local element” for the (TSW) district. I am sure that Ann hopes to remind the audience that the story has never really left the TSW and its surroundings by showing footage of the light rail from time to time.

 

Sunny: Frankly speaking, it is a low-budget film. But as mentioned, Ann hopes to depict a vibrant and lively TSW, and capturing the light rail would be a cost-effective way to achieve this goal.

 

Cedric: I can’t agree more. Ann Hui filmed at at least three different light rail stations. The tracks are like blood veins, and the stations signify different corners of TSW. Amidst the statutory estates and interchangeable structures, the dynamic trains are the pulse of the town, pumping energy to every corner of the district.

 

Sunny: To wrap things up, unlike its sequel Night and Fog, The Way We Are does not attempt to analyze social issues in TSW. It depicts the realistic daily life of TSW.

Cedric: Where they work, where they live, where they spend time in their leisure, how they travel. The Way We Are is nothing fancy, it only hopes to and inserting this surge of hope and optimism that everyone could have when they are struggling in their lives.

Name: Leung Chun Hin Cedric

UID: 3035939808

Name: Wong Tin Lok

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