One of those Hong Kong movies I believe deserves
more publicity and a larger audience than it looks to have had
Stand Up Story (Hong Kong, 2023)
- Au Cheuk-man, director and co-scriptwriter
- Starring: Ng Siu-hin, Ben Yuen
Stand Up Story stars a Golden Horse award winner (for Tracey (2018)) in Ben Yuen and, in Ng Siu-hin, an actor I thought was headed for superstardom after viewing his debut performance in She Remembers, He Forgets (2015) and thinking he -- and fellow debutant actor Neo Yau Hok-sau -- out-acted the older likes of Miriam Yeung and Jan Lam in it. Despite that, it appears to have gone under audience radars and, despite it having opened in Hong Kong cinemas back on September 14th, doesn't appear to have an International Movie Database (IMDB) entry. I consider this to be a shame because I think this bittersweet dramedy is pretty watchable and ought to be better known.
An admittedly small-scale offering, Stand Up Story revolves around a working-class father and son pair played by Yuen and Ng. Ah Man is played as a secondary school student, then university student and then university graduate by Ng Siu-hin. His father, Wah, is played all through the film by Ben Yuen. For most of the movie, theirs is a household of just two individuals as Wah's wife (and Ah Man's mother) walked out on them when Ah Man was young -- with the reason given being that she was finding it too hard to deal with not just being a mother but, also (and principally), the wife of an intellectually disabled man.
In lesser hands (and by this, I mean not only the actor but also the co-scriptwriters -- who include director Au Cheuk-man along with Lou Shiu-wa and Ng Hoi-man), Wah could come across as a joke or pathetic. Instead, Wah comes across as a three-dimensional human being who is a loving father, hardworking employee, helpful and amiable colleague, and a pretty admirable person who is able to see the funny side of life and feel a range of emotions.
The character of Ah Man is similarly well-drawn, and portrayed. The impression one gets is of a youth who has a goofy, comedic side but also a sense of responsibility towards his father that has made him more mature than some of his peers, the university graduate who aspires to be a professional stand-up comedian -- against his father's wish for him to become a teacher -- comes across above all as real.
Something that might be perceived as a weakness of Stand Up Story is that neither of its principal characters and, also, none of its main supporting characters (that is, those appear in more than two scenes) are awful humans . However, I actually see this as a positive; this not least because it's far easier and common to have a story and film that has tension -- and hold the audience's interest -- by way of conflicts between "good" and "bad" than one peopled by good guys and gals; and this particularly so when the characters in it include, in this instance, the Mainland Chinese immigrant (played by Joman Chiang) who walked out of her marriage and effectively abandoned her young son, and another female character who is a sex worker.
Also, while it's true that there are some "messages" that the movie seeks to impart, Stand Up Story does not come across as annoyingly preachy. Instead, its makers come across as admirably well-meaning and seeking to tell a good story about good people who those with less kind hearts are apt to look down upon but turn out to be able to have fulfilling lives that also positively impact others.
And for those wondering: Stand Up Story is not overtly political story-wise. But I think its choice of actors can be quite telling -- especially when one looks at their body of work; which includes a gay drama in the case of Ben Yuen and Ten Years in the case of Ng Siu-hin. Also, I really appreciated the presence in this movie of Vivek Mahbubani: who became my favorite stand-up comedian after seeing him perform at the Take Out Comedy Club and that he is one more individual who really f**king loves Hong Kong.
My rating for this film: 7.0
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