Blue Island (2022 film)

Pursuing Freedom

Representative figure: Chan Hak-chi^[4]

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.

Democracy and Disillusionment

Representative figure: Lam Yiu-keung^[5]

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.

Identity in China and Hong Kong

Representative figure: Shek Chung-ying (formerly Raymond Young)^[6][7]

16-year-old Raymond Young was arrested on September 1 during the 1967 riots for possessing seditious slogans.^[6] 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."^[8]

Hong Kong’s Present and Future

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.