Echoes Of The Rainbow (Blu-ray) (US Version) Blu-ray Region All

Law's screen stand-in is Big Ears (Buzz Chung), a naughty youngster who dreams of being an astronaut and of eating a whole order of double-yolk mooncakes. When not running around with a glass bubble on his head, Big Ears engages innocently in petty theft and fraud in hopes of funding his mooncake binge. He also narrates the continuing saga of his parents Mr. and Mrs. Law (Simon Yam and Sandra Ng), who run a shoe store on a small neighborhood street in Shamsuipo, with much of their earnings going towards their sons' school fees. Mr. Law's brother (Paul Chun) is a barber on that same street, while Grandma (Ha Ping) also lives nearby, dispensing pearls of wisdom while waiting for her inevitable passing. Big Ears' brother Desmond (Aarif Lee) strives to excel at school, while also pursuing his first love, a pretty girl named Flora (Evelyn Choi). Big Ears looks on attentively, but full comprehension may not exist for the bad little boy. At first, anyway.

When does Big Ears get it? True to life, it's not one single incident that gets Big Ears turned around. Instead it’s the whole shebang - his parents' struggles with money, his brother's difficulties with first love, the cruel forces of nature, the indifference of fate - that effect change on Big Ears and his family. The late sixties are a tough time for the Laws, with their business floundering due to unstable sales and corrupt policemen shaking down their shoe store for protection money. Furthermore, their small store has a hard time with things like typhoons, and Mr. Law eventually gets frustrated with his sons' growing pains. Meanwhile, Desmond's budding romance with Flora takes a tough turn. Desmond decides one day to visit the sick Flora and - if you know your Hong Kong geography - his walk to her house tells you long in advance what to expect. Basically, she's not crammed into a shoestore with all her family members - that's just the beginning of Desmond and the Laws' difficulties.

Being familiar with Hong Kong - its history, geography and culture - helps to get all of Echoes of the Rainbow. Some incidents and events, e.g. the leftist unrest of the late sixties, are only dealt with in passing - an acceptable handling since such facts would likely be glossed over by a young narrator like Big Ears. However, knowing the time period adds color and depth to Alex Law's rose-colored portrait of his youth, with even the smallest details of life on his old Shamsuipo street (doubled using a location in Central) likely to please initiated locals. The actors help tremendously. Both Simon Yam and Sandra Ng are exceedingly good - if either won Hong Kong Film Awards for their work, there should be no objection - and young Aarif Lee has a very handsome, sympathetic presence. The actors and the film's context help bridge the drama from cliched to effective. Echoes of the Rainbow may not do anything new, but it gets an earned pass for treading familiar ground.

It's been awhile since Hong Kong has released a film that speaks so strongly to local audiences, and the result has been very strong box office. Still, despite being popular with locals, the film has come under fire from cultural critics for essentially sidestepping the potent political issues of the time. There's some credence to those criticisms, but it seems in creating Echoes of the Rainbow, Law deliberately chose to subjugate those ideas in favor of simple themes of family, hope and perseverance. That's a legitimate way to tell this story, and Law does it well enough that giving him applause feels perfectly fine. Also, those universal ideas should help the film play to audiences internationally. Young love, unexpected tragedy, family struggles, growing up - this is stuff people of all cultures can identify with, and seeing them played out in Hong Kong does little to lessen their impact. Echoes of the Rainbow is a melodrama for general audiences - simple, sentimental and sincere. To reduce it for not meeting all expectations would only be cynical.

by Kozo - LoveHKFilm.com