[FIELDWORK] THE WAY WE ARE, ON WAH HUI (2008)
TIN SHUI SHOPPING CENTRE, YUEN LONG, NEW TERRITORIES
Mrs Cheung and Mrs Leung ready to take the bus in the bus station in front of the Tin Shui Shopping Centre. Scenes from The Way We Are 2008, directed by On Wah Hui.
Movie The Way We Are tells the story about the daily life of Mrs Cheung and her son Ka-on. They live in the housing estate in Tin Shui Wai and meet Mrs Leung, who is a solitary elderly. Mrs Cheung offers help to Mrs Leung and they experience a lot of things together. The film set Tin Shui Wai as the main location to be filmed and shows the ordinary daily life of Tin Shui Wai residents. Tin Shui Wai is reclaimed by the government and becomes a new town. Most residents there are new immigrants and grassroots. Since there was a lot of bad news about Tin Shui Wai, Tin Shui Wai is also recalled as “The city of sadness”. The movie helps to rip off the label of the place. Tin Shui Shopping Centre is one of the shopping centres in Tin Shui Wai. The shopping centre was first owned by the government, then was managed by Link Asset Management Limited.
In the film, the shopping centre only shows the left side, with the bus station. There is still not much change when we see the left side of the shopping centre. The appearance of the building and the bus station still remains and the function of the shopping centre still not changed. However, when we look at the front side of the building, there are a lot of changes. First of all, the appearance of the main entrance of the shopping centre is changed. In 1992, the main entrance of the shopping center looked like a house, using brick red and blue as the main colour to build an old feel. This appearance was kept until 2007, the year before the film was produced. Now, the appearance was changed to a big rectangle formed by a lot of small rectangles with colours of orange. This shows minimalist style. The second change is the extra facilities of the Tin Shui Shopping Centre. In the past, there was a big fountain in front of the main entrance for people to enjoy and relax. However, it was removed and lost its function.
Left: Appearance of Tin Shui Shopping Centre from 1992-2007 Right: Appearance of Tin Shui Shopping Centre from 2015-20211
The scene appears when Mrs Leung wants to go to ShaTin in order to find her son-in-law and see her grandson. As Tin Shui Wai does not have much bus going to ShaTin directly, they need to go to another housing estate (Tin Shui) bus stop to take the bus. However, Mrs Leung still cannot see her grandson. This shows that Mrs Leung may not have the chance to see her son forever.
——Christina, TSOI Ying Ying (3035792676)
Notes:
- Tin Shui Wai Old Days. 2016. “Tin Shui Wai Old Days’s Facebook Page.” Facebook, October 3, 2016. https://www.facebook.com/TSWODS/photos/a.118203771711105/525860220945456/?type=3&theater
A narrative could do a lot of things to a place/space from the way it is represented in the story. You pointed out how Tin Shui Wai’s image as “the city of sadness” is affected by the way it is represented in the film. How had the film done so? Were space/place given a different interpretation? Or how they may be utilised differently in the film compared to real-life? Another way to build up your story (and argument) is by focusing on how both ladies are portrayed throughout the film. Were there any specific place/space that stood out in the delivery of their stories? How were these places built the narrative? I suggest you take a closer look at your documentaries from the fieldwork to rethink these questions. Also, remember to cite any others’ works you referred properly. This would include, but not limited to, texts, images and/or videos.