"Tomorrow Is Another Day" (2017) Review
8 Aug 2018 | Ashley
There are only a few movies that can keep my mother awake, and this is one of them. She exclaimed right after the session telling me how amazing it was that her eyelids did not put her to sleep. I have to agree, that the film did a pretty good job attracting consistent attention from a local Hong Kong mother by its very realistic portrayal of a heartwarming mother-son relationship and the familiar setting of Hong Kong's most authentic residential areas.
"Tomorrow Is Another Day" (2017) (original Chinese title:《黃金花》) is a Hong Kong film released last year. Tracing the protagonist, Mrs. Wong, we get a dramatic glimpse into the almost broken family of an autistic grown-up child. The film opens with the award-winning lead actress, Teresa Mo Shun-kwan who plays Mrs. Wong, looking into the camera, as if she is doing an interview with the person behind the camera. She talks about her life being occupied by her one son and how her favourite moment with him is knowing that he is healthy. As she speaks, we see on her a face a faint smile veiled with a pain so subtle that you wonder what more this woman has experienced than what she is telling. It was then cut to a scene at their home's dining table with her autistic son and the father. It was at this moment that I realised what this was all about.
The actor Ling Man-lung, who is highly praised for his performance in this film alongside Teresa Mo, completely stole my attention during the dining scene. It was a shock when the camera first showed him. His movements in contrast with those of his parents take up a much wider space in the screen as he seems to drift between his own world and reality. Then what happens next completely blew my mind. It was when his mother rejects taking him to 7-11 (our very popular convenient store) that he starts hitting himself. It was tightly followed by the father trying to fight his hands off from himself, so he eventually starts hitting his father. They end up on the floor, their legs tightly intertwined. It is almost a symbol for their relationship wired with desperation, pain, love, hate, and basically, a web of inexplicable complications which lead to his father running away from home. This echoes a later dining scene with just Mrs. Wong and the son where the son vigorously hits his head on the table after being screamed at by his mother telling him that his father is not coming back. These are the kind of scenes that will break your heart, make you love and hate the characters as they do for one another.
It is indeed a wonderful portrayal of a family with an autistic child. The realism of the way they shoot this, plus the actors' meticulous acting help a lot with the story appearing trust-worthy and relatable. However, the little bits of surrealistic imagined murder scenes are not shocking enough. I feel they could be a little more dramatic as they are already set to be that way. Yet, it might also be the director's idea to be a little reserved about it, so that they could confuse the audience about what is real and what is not, which allows us to spare effort in actually following the film. Nonetheless, I am generally happy with the film. I believe it is an important reminder to everyone who does not know what autism is, that it is indeed a problem for some and how it could affect people around them. Ultimately, we should always keep an open heart and be understanding of people with mental issues. Just throwing about the little phrase "oh they are just mad", when you see someone who does not act like you, can only do so much to satisfy your inflated ego.
There are only a few movies that can keep my mother awake, and this is one of them. She exclaimed right after the session telling me how amazing it was that her eyelids did not put her to sleep. I have to agree, that the film did a pretty good job attracting consistent attention from a local Hong Kong mother by its very realistic portrayal of a heartwarming mother-son relationship and the familiar setting of Hong Kong's most authentic residential areas.
"Tomorrow Is Another Day" (2017) (original Chinese title:《黃金花》) is a Hong Kong film released last year. Tracing the protagonist, Mrs. Wong, we get a dramatic glimpse into the almost broken family of an autistic grown-up child. The film opens with the award-winning lead actress, Teresa Mo Shun-kwan who plays Mrs. Wong, looking into the camera, as if she is doing an interview with the person behind the camera. She talks about her life being occupied by her one son and how her favourite moment with him is knowing that he is healthy. As she speaks, we see on her a face a faint smile veiled with a pain so subtle that you wonder what more this woman has experienced than what she is telling. It was then cut to a scene at their home's dining table with her autistic son and the father. It was at this moment that I realised what this was all about.
The actor Ling Man-lung, who is highly praised for his performance in this film alongside Teresa Mo, completely stole my attention during the dining scene. It was a shock when the camera first showed him. His movements in contrast with those of his parents take up a much wider space in the screen as he seems to drift between his own world and reality. Then what happens next completely blew my mind. It was when his mother rejects taking him to 7-11 (our very popular convenient store) that he starts hitting himself. It was tightly followed by the father trying to fight his hands off from himself, so he eventually starts hitting his father. They end up on the floor, their legs tightly intertwined. It is almost a symbol for their relationship wired with desperation, pain, love, hate, and basically, a web of inexplicable complications which lead to his father running away from home. This echoes a later dining scene with just Mrs. Wong and the son where the son vigorously hits his head on the table after being screamed at by his mother telling him that his father is not coming back. These are the kind of scenes that will break your heart, make you love and hate the characters as they do for one another.
It is indeed a wonderful portrayal of a family with an autistic child. The realism of the way they shoot this, plus the actors' meticulous acting help a lot with the story appearing trust-worthy and relatable. However, the little bits of surrealistic imagined murder scenes are not shocking enough. I feel they could be a little more dramatic as they are already set to be that way. Yet, it might also be the director's idea to be a little reserved about it, so that they could confuse the audience about what is real and what is not, which allows us to spare effort in actually following the film. Nonetheless, I am generally happy with the film. I believe it is an important reminder to everyone who does not know what autism is, that it is indeed a problem for some and how it could affect people around them. Ultimately, we should always keep an open heart and be understanding of people with mental issues. Just throwing about the little phrase "oh they are just mad", when you see someone who does not act like you, can only do so much to satisfy your inflated ego.
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