Blue Island (2022 film)

The film blends narrative drama and documentary elements, depicting major political events and representative figures from three different periods in China and Hong Kong’s history. Each segment is a combination of past and present of Hong Kong: one story of historic protestor followed by a recent one.

Representative figure: Chan Hak-chi{{Cite web |last=Tone |first=Sixth |date=2017-06-26 |title=The Man Who Swam to Hong Kong |url=https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1000406 |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=#SixthTone}}

Set against the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s, the film follows a young couple who risk their lives swimming across the Shenzhen border to escape political turmoil and reach Hong Kong in 1973. Later, it captures an elderly man who, despite heavy rain during a No. 8 typhoon signal, insists on his daily morning swim in Victoria Harbour.

Representative figure: Lam Yiu-keung{{Cite web |date=2004-05-31 |title='It's ridiculous to say that no one died in the square' |url=https://www.scmp.com/article/457682/its-ridiculous-say-no-one-died-square |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=South China Morning Post |language=en}}

The film documents a group of Hong Kong university students who traveled to Beijing in May 1989 to support the pro-democracy movement, participating in protests and hunger strikes. Lam Yiu-keung, then the chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, went to Beijing and witnessed the Tiananmen Square Massacre firsthand.

Years later, he burned joss paper outside the Western Divisional Police Station in remembrance of the victims. However, when he chanted "Democratic China," he was met with boos from some attendees, revealing ideological divisions.

Representative figure: Shek Chung-ying (formerly Raymond Young){{Cite web |date=2023-02-12 |title=6 Interviewees |url=https://yp1967.com/6-interviewees/#raymond_young |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=YP1967 |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Wong |first=Phoebe |date=2017 |title=Recalcitrantly Yours: Histories, Truths, and Myths of the 1967 Disturbances |url=https://yishu-online.com/wp-content/uploads/mm-products/uploads/2017_v16_03_wong_p_p051.pdf |website=Yishu}}

16-year-old Raymond Young was arrested on September 1 during the 1967 riots for possessing seditious slogans. In court, when questioned by the judge, Yeung declared that their goal was to defend Maoist thought and promoted "anti-violence resistance" throughout the trial. He was sentenced to prison for 18 months. The young prisoner later wrote under the pen name Shek Chung-ying.

Kelvin Tam Kwan-Long is a social work student sentenced to three and a half years in prison for rioting during the 2019 Anti-Extradition Bill protests. Tam express his own thoughts, emphasizing his different sense of identity from Raymond Young. Unlike Young, who identified with China, Tam insists in court that he is "a Hongkonger, not Chinese."{{Cite web |last=Channel |first=The |date=2024-11-22 |title=Blue Island Review |url=https://www.thechannelsussex.co.uk/post/blue-island-review |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=The Channel |language=en}}

The final section of the film revisits key moments of the 2019 protests, including the occupation of the Legislative Council. It features Chung Yiu-wa reading aloud the petition from the "Occupy Central Nine" case in 2014. The film also highlights how protest slogans and mass demonstrations, once common in Hong Kong, have disappeared under the combined effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the National Security Law.

The film’s closing sequence is a silent montage of over 20 individuals staring into the camera, with captions listing their trial or sentencing statuses. It concludes with the credits, revealing that some of the film’s crew members are currently imprisoned or have passed away.

The film received positive reviews in Variety and The New York Times.{{cite web |url= https://variety.com/2022/film/reviews/blue-island-review-1235326756/|title= 'Blue Island' Review: A Cleverly Constructed Documentary Revisits the 2019-2020 Hong Kong Protest Movement|last= Kuipers|first= Richard|date= 27 July 2022|website= Variety|publisher= |access-date= 6 August 2022|quote=}}{{cite web |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/28/movies/blue-island-review.html|title= 'Blue Island' Review: In Hong Kong, the Past Is Present|last= Kenigsberg|first= Ben|date= 28 July 2022|website= The New York Times|publisher= |access-date= 6 August 2022|quote=}}

Simon Abrams of RogerEbert.com rated the film 2.5 stars out of 5, writing that it "features a lot of great footage, but a lot of it either doesn’t hang together or flow seamlessly from one episodic scene to the next."{{cite web |url= https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/blue-island-movie-review-2022|title= Blue Island|last= Abrams|first= Simon|date= 29 July 2022|website= RogerEbert.com|publisher= |access-date= 6 August 2022|quote=}}

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|15282802|Blue Island}}
• {{rotten-tomatoes|blue_island|Blue Island}}

Category:2022 films

Category:2020s Hong Kong films

Category:Films shot in Hong Kong

Category:Films set in Hong Kong

Category:2022 documentary films

Category:Hong Kong documentary films

Category:Documentary films about politics

Category:Documentary films about Hong Kong

Category:Documentary films about Hong Kong politics

Category:Works about the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests

Category:2020s Cantonese-language films

Category:Films about political movements

Category:Works about 1967 Hong Kong riots