Echoes of the Rainbow

Adapted from Alex Law's childhood, this film tells stories of the Law family as seen through the eyes of eight-year-old ‘Big Ears' Chun-two (Buzz Chung): Father (Simon Yam) is a pragmatic cobbler, Mother (Sandra Ng) manages the shop and their household and elder brother Desmond (Aarif Lee) studies at an elite school and falls in love with rich girl Flora (Evelyn Choi). Desmond's grassroots family background prevents their relationship from progressing. Desmond later becomes terminally ill. The sudden changes experienced by the family are heartbreaking. Various aspects of life in Hong Kong in the 1960s, such as rampant corruption, the destruction wrought by Typhoon Wanda, the elitism during the colonial era are shown again on screen. Life may be hard, but the parents keep up the family's morale with simple aphorisms such as ‘one step of hardship, one step of joy' and ‘we must have faith'. The film was shot on location at Wing Lee Street in Sheung Wan, the layout of the neighborhood evoking the humanity and warmth of a bygone era. The innocent child's point of view deflects the heaviness of the turbulent 1960s with a plaintive and helpless attitude towards the inevitable aspects of life.

Courtesy of Mei Ah Entertainment Group Limited

Law's Statement

Sometimes I feel very lucky to have grown up in Hong Kong in the 1960s and 70s. It was a time of genuine naïveté, curiosity and mutual trust. Everyone was full of hope, and everything held a multitude of possibilities.

Unfortunately, that era of purity and naïveté seems to have gone forever. Meanwhile, my film Echoes of the Rainbow has taken on a new role. It was my souvenir of Hong Kong and everyone I have loved there. Now it has become my declaration of love to my city, my farewell letter to the old Hong Kong.

And I am terrified that the farewell letter may be someday returned to me with a light red stamp on the envelope: ‘Not at This Address'.

# Post-screening talk with Mabel Cheung, Alex Law and John Sham

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