Mad World

There have been few note-worthy films coming out of Hong Kong for some time. It does seem that every other output from the studios is a commercial film that tries hard to appeal to the gargantuan China market. In this sense, debut director Wong Chun's Mad World is an audacious and brave film.

The subject matter is mental illness and it is remarkable that the film never stoops down low to gain your sympathy through cheap histrionics. The film earns it through superlative performances and keen observations. It not only gets inside the mind space of a mental illness patient, it also studies the plight of the care-giver and the bystanders standing in the path of the malady. Neither does the film shout slogans, point fingers or offer pet solutions. Mad World is an indictment on the social stigma and medical agencies, but how it remains deeply humanist is a deft balancing act.

Shawn Yue puts in a career-defining performance as Tung, a bipolar disorder sufferer. His range is commendable and his portrayal totally surprised me. He can start taking on more challenging roles, other than rebellious hunks and rigid police officers. There is a scene of him crying late into the night, every last bit of moisture inside him is pushing out of his eyes and yet he just can't stop. When finally he did stop crying, it is because a precocious little boy who lives next door is whispering a story from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince through the thin wall to encourage him. That scene moved me, I doubt Tung can hear the story clearly, but I think at that point he needed to hear a voice from an understanding person.

Eric Tsang as a guilt-ridden father trying to make amends is such a natural. My tears rolled down at a heart rending scene where he explains why he left his family. The reason doesn't make it right, but it is perfectly understandable why he did it. As Tung's illness takes a turn for the worst, his soul becomes a constant battlefield – do I do the right thing or do I do the loving thing?

Jin as Tung's embattled mother and Fong as the ex-fiancée struggling to forgive Tung are also pitch-perfect. All four, including screenwriter Florence Chan and the director have been showered with nominations at last year's Golden Horse Film Festival and Hong Kong Film Awards, and some of them have deservedly racked up the accolades.

Where Mad World perhaps over-played its hand will be the scenes of the church portrayed as over-enthusiastic zealots and Tung's friend Louis having a turn for the worst at one point. The film felt like it was over-reaching. But I am not taking anything away from the film. This is a compassionate look at mental illness and it looks at the issue from all the angles. I would hardly call it an entertaining film, more of an affective and effective thought provoking piece of filmmaking. Give me thought provoking anytime.

Whilst perusing Netflix to find an Asian drama, Mad World popped up in my recommendations. Considering mental illness is still rather hush-hush in the east, I didn't have high hopes that Mad World would cover the topic with subtly and honesty. Color me surprised; after spending the last hour and 41 minutes with my eyes glued to the screen, I realized that not only is this one of the best portrayals of mental illness (Bipolar Disorder, specifically) I've ever seen put to film, but Mad World now competes for the best movie I've watched yet this year. How this film isn't more well-known and awarded flabbergasts me.

Mad World follows the broken perspective of Tung, a man suffering from Bipolar Disorder in Hong Kong who is released from a mental institution and forced to integrate once more into society and the shattered life he's left behind. We aren't clued in to all the details of Tung's life and unhappiness right away; we know he's depressed, missing his fiancee, and that he has a strained relationship with the father he comes to live with. Further details are lovingly sprinkled throughout the film in heart-wrenching flashbacks with perfect timing; never was I confused about the order of events or the impact they had on Tung's psyche. I come from a family plagued with mental illness; Bipolar Disorder affected both my mother and brother, and contributed to the far too early demise of my brother just last month. The manic/depressive phases of this horrific illness are both laid out here in all their painful, raw glory; the highs are sky-high, and the lows are in the pits of depressive purgatory. It isn't just Tung who suffers; his mother clearly has mental difficulties as well, and the other brother and father have their own realistic ways of dealing with it.

The performances here are all stellar. Tung's blank stares of utter hopelessness perfectly mimic those I have seen (and given) time and again when dealing with similar illnesses in my own life. Tung's father's helplessness comes through in many scenes, and his well-meaning but misguided attempts to soothe his adult son are all too realistic to what many of us suffering from depression hear: "Why can't you just be normal?" and "Why are you like this?" and "Can't you try to be cheerful?" The judgements of others play a large role here as well: Tung's fiancee accidentally makes a tense situation worse in a pivotal scene, while leering bystanders see mental illness as a spectacle to jeer.

Mad World is not a "fun" movie to watch, nor is it heartfelt in the way that most would hope, with everything being fixed at the end and tied up nicely with a neat little bow. Parts of it angered me. Depressed me. Saddened me. But most of all, as someone who has dealt with this personally, it made me feel like I am not alone. Mad World does not sugarcoat the ugly parts of mental illness, whether they are born out of the ill or those who try to support them. It is for this reason that I found it an absolute and ironic breath of fresh air, for it is depressingly beautiful in its candor.

Some last minute thoughts: the camerawork was particularly interesting here, aiding the film's dreary atmosphere. For one example, it utilized long shots of the small apartment to make you confront its claustrophobic and cramped nature. The music was perfect: it fit the mood and was used sparingly. The movie felt a bit longer than its runtime, but since every minute was engrossing, I can't fault it for that. Lastly, the characters don't grow much--if at all--during the movie. While this normally would be a flaw, it makes sense for a film about mental illness. Sometimes those affected cannot strive for higher goals--sometimes they just need to learn how to *deal* to make it through the day and get to tomorrow alive. Mad World isn't a film about a man's journey to overcome his mental illness; it's more of a day-in-the-life, where we experience what he goes through for a short time and can only hope for the best for him by the time the credits roll.

Mad World is a beautiful film that I recommend to anyone with mental illness, who knows someone with mental illness, or is open-minded enough to try to understand what living with it is like. Make sure you're in the mood to watch it, however, as it's so effective at what it does it might make you feel worse.

'Mad World' is not an easy film to watch, but it is well worth the discomfiting experience. Not quite enough attention has been paid to the plight of mental health patients who try to re-integrate into the community, and certainly too little attention has been placed on the frustration and even exasperation of their caregivers. While the former often find their best attempts thwarted by the fears, biases and outright discrimination of general society, the latter has to contend not only with the same but also the outbursts of their loved ones struggling to overcome their condition, so much so that many often end up in burnout.

Both perspectives are vividly portrayed in director Paul Chun's feature debut, which follows Tung's (Shawn Yue) acclimatisation to the outside world after spending a year in a mental hospital for bipolar disorder. Seeing little more that institutionalisation can do for Tung, the hospital contacts his estranged father Wong (Eric Tsang) to look after him, but the latter is frankly completely ill- prepared. A cross- border truck driver who was often absent from home, Wong had pretty much abandoned his mentally disturbed wife (Elaine Jin) and Tung years ago, which Tung inevitably still begrudges him for; after all, that had led to Tung needing to quit his job to take care of her when she became bedridden, and that stress of being the only caregiver, aggravated by her verbally abusive ways, had ultimately led to her accidental death one day and his subsequent admission into psychiatric care.

There is plenty in the past that Tung needs to come to terms with on his own, and equally just as much in the present. His friends had deserted him ever since the much-publicised incident a year earlier, and his surprise appearance at a former colleague's wedding soon after his discharge shows how ignorant and bigoted they can be. He wants to make things right with his former fiancée Jenny (Charmaine Fong), who had to repay not just the flat they had bought together but also the moneylenders Tung owed because of a huge loan he took out to finance some risky investments that eventually went south. It doesn't help that social media has fuelled a gallery of judgmental jury, who seize on his unfortunately public meltdown after hearing Jenny's emotive confession of her ordeal to question his mental state and weigh if he should be sent back to hospital after all.

Oh yes, the title could refer to Tung's own mind as much as it could of the external environment he has to navigate – and Wong takes swipes at everything from our prejudice against the mentally ill, to the terrible living conditions of Hong Kong's lower-class, and even to the spate of 'banker' suicides in the financial district back in 2014/15. It is to his credit as well as that of screenwriter Florence Chan that their movie never feels the need to scream at or, for the lack of a better word, get mad at these social ills; rather, both display remarkable restraint at simply keeping it authentic, letting their audience make their own discernments rather than lay out the critique for us.

In fact, 'Mad World' is much better off by simply remaining at its heart a frank and intimate portrait of Tung's struggle to get back on his feet, anchored by the initially tense but ultimately tender father-son relationship between Tung and Wong. Like we said at the beginning, the struggle is as much Tung's as it is Wong's. Through the course of the movie, Wong has to seriously evaluate if he has the means and wherewithal to care for Tung, especially given how little support he has from his family (his eldest son, or Tung's older brother, has resettled in the United States, staying conspicuously absent and callously disengaged throughout), friends and fellow tenants – and let's just say it says a lot when another caregiver at a carer support programme Wong enrols himself in advises him to consider re-admitting Tung back into hospital under the false pretence that the latter is suicidal.

Though more commonly known for his comedic roles, Eric Tsang is in top form here as Wong. In perfectly low-key fashion, Tsang lays bare his character's uncertainties and anxieties at the beginning when asked to look after Tung, subsequent guilt and pain when forced to confront the sins of his past, and eventually resolve to not 'outsource' his responsibilities as a father. Tsang doesn't overplay or overstate Wong's dilemmas, allowing his audience to make sense of his character on their own terms. For that matter, so does Yue, who eschews histrionics in his portrayal of Tung's manic/ depressive state. Proving his mettle as one of the most underrated actors of his generation, Yue gives a layered, nuanced performance that earns empathy without ever playing the 'pity' card.

Aside from the fact that Tung's journey to reintegrate back into the community is not an easy one, 'Mad World' is also not an easy fact simply because there are no easy solutions to the issues faced by people like Tung. At the individual level, it isn't easy for the caregiver, as Wong's own experience here shows. At the community level, it isn't easy for neighbours, friends and even relatives to put aside their fears or biases. And at the societal level, it isn't easy to change mindsets borne out of ignorance or worse convenience. But like the quote which bookends the movie, it starts with having a heart for these individuals we often shun, so that however idealistic it may sound, the world may be a little less crazy for them and for us.

If movie is the modern art form of literature, then this movie is a very caring literature. Why modern life at times would just drive many normal persons crazy?

Many thanks indeed to the writer, director, casts, production crew to try answering this question, with the bit of wisdom during a few dialogue with a little child. For example, the child said "My mother told me, today world, using our hands to work would not make money anymore (?)..."

Wonderful Honcongo, who would represent the country at the Oscar if selected, introspective, intense, melancholy, sad, it hurts to see the father trying to save his son (although I'm sure he was the one most responsible for the youngest having abandoned them, and having overloaded the firstborn, parental abandonment, this causes deep degradations in the personality in the long run) Tung's pain, trying to get out of the emotional abyss, prejudice, hope in children, beautiful, sad and passionate...