Hong Kong: City on Fire

I was really disappointed with this documentary. Set amidst the protests in Hong Kong against the increasingly oppressive action of the Chinese central government, we follow the activities of the students who are trying to put up some meaningful and effective resistance. Some of the imagery is effective - the overwhelming force of the well-equipped police against an intentionally leaderless coalition of youngsters is well illustrated, but there is little informed analysis here. It is really just a collection of user-generated video without any attempt to create a narrative that contextualise who is doing what. The risks taken by the protesters when balanced against their family and relationship commitments is referenced, but not developed anywhere near sufficiently and, indeed, when one young couple have a disagreement, the almost petulant response of the boyfriend borders on the angry melodramatic. This lack of expansion of the subject and exploration of who they are and what drives them to this drastic, and perilous, action leaves us to assume or imagine too much, and the paucity of contributions from the older population doesn't help it's scope either. Of course, keeping their identities secret would have been crucial, but the lack of one-to-one conversations does deprive this of much potency. It will certainly maintain awareness of the brave activities of these people, and highlight the seemingly futile efforts they are making against a super-state that cares little about their liberties or freedoms, but sadly - for me, anyway - this is little better than a collection of video diaries that could have been so much more powerful.