Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Crossing Hennessy - Jacky Cheung (2010) - Lee Tung Street, Wanchai

The next post features what was once a very popular street in Wanchai with the nickname "Wedding Card street" because it was chock full of shops offering a variety of small and bulk printing of wedding cards and other associated printed items such as red envelopes (利事 lai see) and decorative banners with idioms on them (揮春 fai chun). Wiki has a good page about the street with some photos showing the post-war era tenements that lined both sides of the street.

The Government, via the its Urban Destruction  Renewal Authority, decided the place looked old and needed renovation, so they evicted all the businesses, demolished all the buildings and basically erased the street and turned it instead into a themed thoroughfare with modern residences each side and a small fibreglass sculpture showing some cartoonish newlyweds for photo purposes.Who knows where all the printing businesses went, I suspect most of them just disappeeared, but hey at least we have something plastic to get our photos taken with. The former street, is now an "avenue". Welcome to redevelopment Hong Kong Style.

Anyway, when this film was shot, the street had just been demolished and things had not yet been built, so Loy, in perhaps a small allegory to the area's recent history, is beaten up by Oi Lin's boyfriend next to the sheet metal fencing protecting the building site.
 

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