Father and Son

This inconspicuous jewel of the Hong Kong New Wave may not shine as dazzlingly as the genre experiments or social dramas of other key filmmakers, but it is an even more essential work for Hong Kong society. Allen Fong masterfully deceives the viewers by seemingly offering them a nostalgic melodrama about growing up in Hong Kong in the 1950s and ’60s. But behind the façade of shenanigans and vignettes of the everyday life of the lower social classes, who pounded studiousness and diligence into their children’s heads, which gave rise to the middle class, there is a bittersweet indictment of the patriarchy, which survives as a system across generations, sustained by the broken dreams and lost opportunities of individuals. The trickiest yet most eloquent aspect of the film remains the character of the father, who is not depicted as a despot, but rather as kind and caring. This is an ingenious and chilling variation on the subgenre of melodramas about the relationship between fathers and sons, which was popular in the 1950s. In those films, the idealised fathers sacrifice themselves for their sons and families, who then show them gratitude. Father and Son, on the other hand, shows that sons and especially daughters – who are intentionally yet meaningfully side-lined in the film, as they were in their lives – sacrificed their dreams, talents and futures for fathers who stubbornly sought to fulfil the role of patriarchs who provide for their offspring (not in the material sense, but in terms of career). The classic values of Hong Kong society, with familial solidarity and diligence at the fore, thus take on a touch of bitterness. (25/04/2020)