ASIA 325: Hong Kong Cinema
ASIA 325 (24W): Letters of Doomed Fate – A Reflective Reimagining of Made in Hong Kong
By Reiana Co, Margaux Leguay, Qiao Li, Haowei Lian, and Marvin Wong
Project Rationale:
“Our project is a mixed-media creation entitled Letters of Doomed Fate, based on the 1997 independent film Made in Hong Kong, directed by Fruit Chan. It is a series of personal letters written in the voice of the four leads and one secondary character – Autumn Moon, Ping, Susan, Sylvester and a revival gang-leader (Brother Chan) – as first-person commentaries of their deaths. Each letter is accompanied by a graphic poster situating each of these pivotal moments in their narratives, rendered in a visual aesthetic that echoes the raw, gritty look of the film. These will be physically bound together by a red thread, a visual metaphor of the inescapable bond of their fates. The underlying theme of our work is fated paths: Fate in Made in Hong Kong is not some intangible abstraction but a material effect of coming of age in a society that has betrayed its youth – economically, affectively, and structurally. The characters do not merely die; they are aggravated systematically by the world around them. The suicide notes in the film are narrative and emotional benchmarks; they mark not only death but expression, confession, and memorial. By expanding this theme, we seek to magnify the voices that are most frequently silenced or ignored. Our project gives the characters a voice as self-narrating authors of their own demise, we give them back agency.”