Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower

I live in China mainland, and I watched this movie in 2021. My roommate during my undergraduate study and I planned to go to Hong Kong to support the freedom movement and were proud of being members.

The COVID-19 is the biggest fig leaf for Communist bandits. Even if something big happened in Hong Kong, the domestic attention has been diverted. The population decline in the country and the deteriorating political environment have also been obscured by the national pride that the seemingly good isolation policy has brought about effective treatment of the epidemic. The banning of Apple Daily and the prohibition of demonstrations seem to sing hymns to the 100th anniversary of the founding of the party. However, the environment in mainland China and Hong Kong is getting worse. Although we are a little desperate for the current freedom movement, we still hope that the Hong Kong freedom movement will succeed so that some of the sleeping mainlanders will wake up and realize that they are being oppressed by the Communist bandits.

Thanks to Netflix for the great documentary, and I wish glory to HK.

I'd probably give this a 7.5 if I was able to break this down further, but as an American, this is a fascinating story that I knew very little about. It's the true story about a Hong Kong teenager leading the charge against China, and if this wasn't a true story, you would think that whoever made a story up like this was thinking up an implausible fantasy.

I saw this in August, 2019, and with all the news about what is going on in Hong Kong at this time, it was an extremely topical movie. Joshua Wong is mature far beyond his years, and I can see him winning the Nobel Peace Prize at some point in his life. Remember, I am writing this in August, 2019, so if he gets a Nobel Peace Prize sometime in the future, I obviously didn't know about it at this time of writing.

The document is not only about David vs Goliath, Democracy vs Totalitarian, Freedom vs Oppression, but also about human nature, about the real sacrifices of some individuals for their movement.

Everyone in Hong Kong knows about TianAnMen, June 4th, 1989. and what Chinese government would do for any disobedience. Yet, facing the real grave danger, Hong Kong citizen stood up against the center government at 2014 and 2015, led by a teenage boy. It's truly a remarkable story to tell. This film documented from the beginning to the current situation in roughly chronological order. It explained in personal details about how Joshua and his friends became activists, later leaders of movements. It shows us why in 2014,2015 so many Hong Kong people occupied the street and joined the demonstration, and what is the "umbrella movement". It shows the incredible spirits of not only the leaders, but also the citizens of Hong Kong as a whole. As I watched hundreds of thousands of people waving their lights together, I cannot hold back my tears. Those are truly touching moments for me. I was from China, but I've never imagined peaceful demonstrations could have taken place there again.

The film is only the beginning. The struggle is continuing every day. Chinese government demonized Joshua and his friends. This film is no doubt banned in China. However, I hope more Chinese people would find this film and watch it, then judge by themselves who's right and who's wrong. This film tells the story from Joshua's angle. It's biased, but since the official condemnation was everywhere, it's very rare to be able to see it from this angle. As the old Chinese saying, "Listening to both sides and you will be enlightened".

The movie was undoubtably poorly executed with a simplistic narrative and Joshua is merely a symbolic figure. The complexity of the movement and of protesters was largely ignored.

I gave a 10 simply to toast to the little hero of our times.

But for Joshua's efforts 5 years ago, the anti-ELAM movement would not exist in 2019. Brainwashing is sickening. His leadership is not perfect. But he learned from failures and improved. Looks what he has become of in 2019. Add oil, HK.