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A group of soldiers are told by the English government that their services are no longer required and are basically left to fend for themselves in HK with no real skills. They drift for awhile and eventually turn to crime and fail at that as well. It's a hopeful tale about human life caught in a society that seems overwhelming and uncaring from the most powerful governments to the lowest knife-wielding street gangs.

The film is centred around the transition of Hong Kong from a British possession back to China. It follows the life of an ex-marine whose unit is disbanded three months before the change over. Unable to find a job, he joins his brother working for a crime boss as a driver. Unsatisfied with their lot in life, the brothers and some ex-marine friends plot to rob a bank where one of the ex-marines is working as a guard. The robbery goes tragically wrong when they come across another group of (somewhat more violent) robbers. The rest of the film, which includes the change over, follows the events that unfold after the robbery. Although the film has a very dark and sad edge to it, there are sporadic and on-going light moments provided by various tertiary characters. All up, an excellent film well worth hunting down.

Well, I certainly chose one hell of a starting point for the works of Fruit Chan. With July 1997 bearing down, the sky is full of fireworks as are the lives of these downtrodden Hong Kong citizens, each striving for their own identity in the rapidly changing world. Political and personal, symbolic and intimate, The Longest Summer is no slouch, actively addressing the 1997 handover with emotional resonance and a fascination for urban space told through its most dubious citizens. Shot to look like a docu-drama and integrating vivid documentary footage of the handover, the whole film has a certain amount of street authenticity that's rarely found in Hong Kong movies. The use of relatively unknown actors (outside of Sam Lee) eliciting robust performances only adds to the undeniable strength of the movie's authenticity, visually splendid and effectively scored, The Longest Summer is an affecting, sometimes strangely funny masterpiece. Yeah, guess I need to see Made in Hong Kong now.