From Cruel Reality to Space Oddity: Fruit Chan’s Uncanny Narrative and (Post-)97 Complex

• In Event: Rethinking Migration and Otherness in Sinophone Cinema and Literature

Abstract

Eccentric Hong Kong director Fruit Chan makes David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” the theme song of his sci-fi thriller The Midnight After (2014) in order to echo a heightened sense of loss and alienation represented by a horde of battered survivors in an apocalyptic Hong Kong. Through the film, Chan provides a self-evident political agenda tightly affiliated with (post-)97 Complex, which is a cultural symptom regarding Hong Kongers’ collective anxiety towards communist China. The transference of sovereignty over Hong Kong has been a heated topic in social media and cultural production long before the handover and even after. This sociopolitical shift has sparked concerns about the limited resources and opportunities of Hong Kong overtaken by mainland shoppers, workers, and corporations. This paper first introduces the development of Hong Kong consciousness in the past few decades by looking into heavily chronicled political events and historical moments. Then this paper deals with the (post-)97 Complex issues shown in the uncanny Hong Kong Cantonese-speaking cinema through the lens of Sinophone studies. Finally, this paper provides a case study of Fruit Chan’s uncanny cinematic narrative as a critical expression of sociopolitical resistance against the China-centric dominance. By re-creating a localist vision of “space oddity,” Fruit Chan projects the life of the battered underdogs and further lays bare the ideological divide between the center and the margin in his Hong Kong tales.

Author

• Chia-rong Wu, Rhodes College