Fruit Chan's debut film was seen by many in Hong Kong as a metaphor for the foreboding that gripped the colony in the years before 1997, and Chan himself has said that it is the first part of a trilogy on the handover--the second part is "The Longest Night." Metaphorical resonances aside, though, under the energetic, sometimes violent surface of "Made in China" is a film of haunting sadness and compassion. The central character, the young, jobless Autumn Moon, is proud of his ability to live by his wits; but he ends up in a world that his wits can't handle. Chan's ingenuity in making this film on a tiny budget with amateur actors is obvious, but one leaves the film overwhelmed with sadness for the lives of the characters--most of all Autumn Moon's, and his despairing inability to help the people he cares about.

I was given the chance to sit down and watch this 1997 movie titled "Made In Hong Kong" (aka Heung Gong jai jo") in 2020, and oddly enough I hadn't actually heard about it prior to this. But being an avid fan of the Hong Kong cinema, of course I jumped at the chance to watch it when I was presented with that opportunity.

I was a little bit ambivalent about it as it had Sam Lee in the lead role. He has mostly been a low-ranked actor in my opinion, with only a single performance that was noteworthy. But I was blown aback by his performance in this movie, as it was really great and memorable. Sam Lee rose to the occasion in this movie and delivered something spectacular and this was definitely his movie from start to end.

The storyline in "Made In Hong Kong" was pretty straight forward, but at the same time writer and director Fruit Chan actually managed to keep the movie interesting and not venturing down and mediocre or predictable path. That was some accomplishment that really added to the movie.

"Made In Hong Kong" was quite an enjoyable movie, and I am rating it a six out of ten stars. I was genuinely and pleasantly surprised by what this movie turned out to be. If you haven't already seen "Made In Hong Kong", you definitely should take the time to do so if you have the chance.

Noted mainly for being the last film made before the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to mainland China and one made for minimum monies using end of reel sections of film stock, the film certainly doesn't lack energy or a foreboding air of pessimism. To a local audience of youngsters, I'm sure this is a cheering, full throttle and suitably anti establishment pleasure but for me this is a bit of an effort even to follow the limited storyline and hard to take much of the light relief derived from the 'retarded' fellow traveler. The delightfully named Fruit Chan has had success in China and made many more films since this one, its just that it all seems a long way from the charm and brutality of those Hong Kong movies I encountered and managed to survive in those way off video days.