Gangs

Below the Lion Rock: Drug Kids

Screening Courtesy of RTHK

In Lawrence Ah Mon's directorial debut, with a solid screenplay by Chan Man-keung, the colourful characters in this film come alive. Under Lawrence Ah-mon's lenses, the bustling Yaumatei / Tsim Sha Tsui / Mongkok districts are captured, showing life in Hong Kong in the 80s. Neon signs are everywhere, like glowing tombstones of the youth. A group of unseasoned kids gang up with an underworld ringleader, street fighting during the day and roasting mice for fun at night. Someone gets killed during a turf war and Siu Keung is badly wounded. The girls are forced into prostitution and Siu Keung's dad dies in an ambush seeking revenge on those who harmed his son. Chan Man-keung paints a lucid picture of the bottom rung in the underworld, depicting the struggles between relationships and interests, from family, to love, friendship and brotherhood. In particular, the strains between father and son are highlighted, with a father who has tried to wash his hands of the criminal world. The film tells of the pains of sin and comeuppance, and paves the way for the conflicting mother-daughter bond in Queen of Temple Street . An earlier TV drama by same director / writer pair up is Drug Kids, a short film made in 1985 for the Below the Lion Rock series. A social realist short film about kid gangs in housing estates that traffic and take drugs, the story centres on two brothers who are in a gang, to reflect on the tragedy surrounding drug trafficking and troubled youth. The film's solid realism reated shockwaves through society at the time.

# Post-screening talk with Chan Man-keung and Thomas Shin

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