We are Alive! Yau Ching

I think none of the girls or boys look like bad kids - very surprising - their wishes and dreams are like any kids!


Video is such a gd medium, kids are free to use it as a "diary" - the girl who sang without filming herself was v moving. Her singing voice is very moving.

We are Alive! Director: Yau Ching 2010***

Documentary auto-filmed by youths in detention centers; their wishes and dreams in Macau, HK, Japan

The film is very courageous - it must have not been easy to get permission to film in detention centers.
Its also interesting to see the interactions between kids and the audience (self murmurs to be seen by people sent as message in a bottle) organised by workshop leader Yau Ching.

It would be such a gd general education for parents, showing inner voices of youths - their dreams and wishes are no different from youths outside. Why are they put in detention centers? We dont know from the film, but the images we see are ordinary kind looking youths.

I think Chinese families are not used to talking - unlike say, a lot of French people.

It would be a very nice additon to be in the film archive collection as part of history of hk - especially it draws parallels w other Asian groups like Japanese. We catch glimpses of the inner lives of young people - at the end Yau Ching herself is dressed in a school uniform sitting in a corner - it insinuates that she was also once herself similar to these rebellious vibrant youths?

A precious part of the film are the references to old iconic HK films, made by television on youths of correctional institutes, these compare with the main context of the story. Many footage of pop film makers Stephan Chow, Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee was merged with one of the character Bruise Lee. She was v gd too, interesting character. Since this was a documentary film using auto filming footages, the characters are by context limited otherwise, these young guys and gals are far more livelier than a lot of the "good kids" we see everyday. The boredom and emptiness of their pre-institution existence and post institution existence points to a lack of social outlets for expression. But then what about all the others who arent "inside" - why are they "inside" and the others equally bored by society are able to stay in line?

The question is; how much beyond "the line" could we be to not be forced "outside" of the ring? And if we did try, what to do after the punishment? One of the kids talked about his future, that he might be in prison or another correctional institute - that will be part of his vision of possibilities of the future.

We were all rebellious at one time or another, Yau Ching said on RTHK radio, but we have forgotten that we have been trained to wean out the "bad" and only retain the conformed versions of good.

I remember in one of Jodie Foster's interview that she said, she had no moment in her youth to be rebellious because her family depended on her. So she was always the adult ever since she could remember.

Having the freedom to live moments of "rebellion" is actually something precious.
The fact is, not everyone has the opportunity to have a go at it.
Could we have the cake and eat it too?
In the end, who are the lucky ones?