Father and Son

A boy from a poor family struggles to survive in a shanty town suburb of Hong Kong, clashing with his father and with a society that denies him almost every opportunity to realise his dream of making movies. The boy is an autobiographical portrait by Fong, who finally broke into film, making martial arts adventures for Hong Kong Television. Even then, when he went independent, he had to hassle with producers to get the freedom to make this personal film, which satirises the traditional Chinese notion of self-improvement through education. Warmly understated in its central performances, it's replete with humour and sympathy for the father as much as for the son.