Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageOrdinary Heroes (1999)
Director: Ann Hui
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Hui's sprawling, difficult film expresses very complex feelings about Hong Kong as a place and its people. Its core is a kind of 'rough guide' to recent social and political activism. Hui frames the film with sequences from a street play about the late Ng Chung-Yin, an agit-prop pioneer in the 1970s, and focuses on the few individuals who in the 1980s lobbied the government on China-related issues and campaigned for social reforms - activities cut short by events in Tiananmen Square in June 1989. Some of the characters are close to their real life prototypes (the Maoist-Catholic priest Ah Kam, superbly played by Wong) while others are more or less fictional (the boy who joins Ah Kam to get near a girl he fancies), but all of them are 'heroic' losers. In their lonely, principled struggles, cold shouldered by society, Hui pinpoints something which could be a key to Hong Kong identity.Author: TR
Cast & crew
Director: Ann Hui
Producer: Ann Hui
Cast: Rachel Lee, Lee Kang-sheng, Anthony Wong, Tse Kwan-Ho, Augustine Mok full cast
Duration: 128 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Has David Cronenberg turned tame?
Has director David Cronenberg veered too far from his radical and bloody roots with new film 'A Dangerous Method'?
The 10 worst date movies
Just in time for Valentine's Day, we present ten of the least romantic films ever made
Where to watch this year's Oscar-nominated films
Find out where to watch 2012's Oscar-nominated films in London cinemas
10 unlikely badboy biopics
Featuring Phil Collins, Jeremy Clarkson, Nick Clegg, David Starkey and a host of other unlikely subjects
Interview: Sean Durkin on 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'
The first-time director of the brilliant new thriller discusses religious cults and robot boxing
Pop-up cinema for Valentine's Day
Side-step romantic clichés with some alternative Valentine’s viewing
What do you think?
Post your review now