I Still Remember is a Hong Kong movie with pertinent messsages for its target audience (film review)

  

A movie poster where the film's Chinese title (

which translates as into English as "Second Life") 

is far more prominent than its different English one ;D

 

I Still Remember (Hong Kong, 2020)

- Ho Lik-hang, director and scriptwriter

- Starring: Tony Wu Tsz-tung, Patrick Tam Yiu-man, Isabel Chan, Johnny Hui, Toby Choi

 

This is one of those Hong Kong films that probably won't get much playing time outside of its home territory.  A small scale film with a protagonist whose beloved mother's hope for her son was, very modestly, for him to be an ordinary person, it is very local in scope and could be perceived to be limited in ambition.  But with emotional messages that really hit home as far as this (re)viewer is concerned, I reckon that I Still Remember has much to offer those willing to overlook its structural problems (that I suspect came by way of its first-time helmer doing double duty as scriptwriter) and consider the big picture.    

 

Ostensibly a sports drama, I Still Remember has a number of running sequences and its most visually dramatic scenes involve its protagonist doggedly seeking to complete a 10 kilometer race that he was signed up for by his mentor and never was shown training for.  The movie's most affecting moments, though, aren't those that chronicle the loneliness of a long distance runner but, rather, valued relations in life that stand the test of time and also transcend death.

 

Chi (played by Tony Wu Tsz Tung) is a young man who loved his mother very much and seems to have lost his spark after she passed away.  Living alone in the flat she bequeathed him, he works as a property agent for his best friend (Johnny Hui), whose tolerance for Chi being the company's perennial under-performer is running thin.  

At dinner one evening, Chi is reunited with Mr. Wong (portrayed by the Patrick Tam Yiu-man), the charismatic elementary school teacher who took him under his wing all those years ago and even would drive him home after school -- or, rather, his loving wife Wai-ying (Isabel Chan) would after she picked both her husband and Chi up outside the school gate.  Now the owner of a sports shop, Mr. Wong still nonetheless remains a mentor younger folks (including an overweight schoolgirl valiantly essayed by Toby Choi) and, in the process, impart life lessons that inspire to be better people.  And it's Mr. Wong who ended up registering Chi, himself and two other people for a 10 kilometer race that proves to be quite the commitment  for them all.

   

Cinematographer O Sing-pui (who also is the film's producer) gives the movie's optics a beautiful polish.  And I love that I Still Remember makes great use of Hong Kong’s distinctive visuals, including colorfully-painted school exteriors, atmospheric older building interiors and not just its trams – the only ones in the world that are double-decker -- but also their tracks. 

What I like best though about what's really a motivational drama at heart is its messages – which strike me as so fittingly Hong Kong and can be uplifting for contemporary Hong Kongers to take in.  Among those I took to heart are the following: remember (don’t forget); care for others; keep your promises, even to ones that have gone/died; and don’t forget to remember to (also) cheer for yourself (rather than just others). 

My rating for this film: 7.0