9. “My Life as McDull” (dir. Toe Yuen, 2001) by Heidi Lam

Production
•Director: Toe Yuen

Writer: Alice Mak & Brian Tse Lap-man
Art Direction: Alice Mak
Producers: Brian Tse Lap-man
Year:2001

Why do we love My life as Mcdull?( 3 main reasons)
1.Mcdull’s story is similar to Hong Kong people’s stories
2.The environment depicted in the film stimulates people’s collective memory. 3. The satirical manner of the film and the Cantonese jokes attracts us

How Mcdull and HK people are similar?
1.Mcdull possesses some characteristics of Hong Kong people and resembles Hong Kongers to a certain extent.
This strikes Hong Kongers to get resonance from him or sometimes feel sympathy for him.

For example:
-tough (Mcdull :)
-didn't give up practicing climbing even though he is so disappointed for not seeing San San)
-Tough (HK people:)
-overcome financial crisis in 1997
--fight against SARS in 2003
-unify to protest against Basic Law Article 23

-Pessimistic, but still accept the reality. (Mcdull: )
His fate: He is not smart, handsome, lucky or rich.
-Towards the end of the story, Mcdull has no choice but to accept the reality.
Pessimistic, but still accept the reality (grass root-HK people)
-hard-working, work overtime even though they know they might get sacked anytime

-high expectations on her son. (Mrs Mcbing:)
-“Let the world know that the talent of your children. That is the biggest comfort a woman can get”
-high expectation on their children (HK parents)
Perhaps because Hong Kong usually have one child per family, parents always have high expectations on their children
They devote all their efforts to care them or even perhaps spoil them

2. How is the film familar with HK people and how does it wake their collective memory ?

Ans:(The film suits the nostalgic feelings of Hong Kong people)

-Showing old districts (Shum Shui Po, Tai Kwok Tsui before demolition)
-HK old-style restaurant (Dai Pai Dong)
-An insertion of History of Bun-snatching tradition
•That Hong Kong people defend against the demolition of old buildings and Queen's Pier may indicate that they are missing the things and the memory brought by the colonial period as these are their memory.

3.How can the humor in the film attracts the audience?

- full of sarcastism (the thing that owned or at least understood by many Hong Kong people. eg. Steven Chow)
- linguisitic ambiguity/ Language-generated humor

( •kick the ball into goal (射) but (射 can be considered as urinating in HK slang)

In my opinion, why we like the film is because:
•Characters and the settings are based on HK (sense of belonging)
•Stimulate HK adults’ collective memory and their childhood memories towards some places or events in HK(eg. The first HK Olympic winner)
•Hong Kong people appreciate satirical jokes (and also why they like McDull) Besides, the language-generated humor gives them the sense of solidarity.
•The whole film seems to represent Hong Kong people and belong to them.

Question:
•Do you think that the representation of Hong Kong (cityscape) in “My life as Mcdull” is a good way to promote tourism? Or you think it is shown to satisfy or suit the locals’ desire of collective memory?