Online Review: Gangster Pay Day - the coolest tea restaurant in Hong Kong

Gangster Pay Day – the coolest tea restaurant in Hong Kong

Gangster Pay Day (2014) was not a typical Hong Kong gangster film. It includes the significant triad elements, but the story also has focused on the aspects of Hong Kong identity and nostalgia of local cultures.
       

This time, undercovers are not involved. It talked about a gang leader Kwai and his henchman Leung met Mei, the owner of an old Hong Kong styled tea restaurant, and both fell in Love with her. As the business of Kwai’s karaoke nightclubs was declining over the years, they tried to invest her diner. Meanwhile, the real-estate companies hired their rivalry thugs, Bill and his men to force them to give up their clubs and restaurant through dirty methods. At last, they defeated them and successfully restored the business of tea-diner.

In the beginning of the story, a member of the rivalry was teasing Mei who was delivering take-away at a nightclub. Leung saved her and that man attacked him with a wine bottle. Kwai arrived and hit the thug back with three bottles. Later in the film, the rivalry gang killed Leung ruthlessly as a warning to Kwai's gang. Kwai grieved over his dead loyal but smart brother. He took revenge for him as he helped the police to set up a trap to reveal all Bill’s crimes, with him being stabbed by Bill too.

The main theme of gansger genre usually centered on the spirit of brotherhood and the gang members always tried to survive in the harsh underworld. They had their own set of “rules” and ways of dealing conflicts and matters. The brotherhood of Kwai and Leung in the film was distinguished. Leung respected Kwai a lot and Kwai saw Leung as his brothers in arms. Knives and glass bottles shown in the movie are all some iconic fighting tools. Violence is a traditional means to solve problems and show power and masculinity in Hong Kong gangster films. The main settings were located at the old style tea-diner, sport ground and a few luxurious nightclubs. These are also some major noticeable elements that usually appeared in the gangster movie.

Nevertheless, as I have mentioned, Gangster Pay Day is not a traditional film in gangster genre. The mood of this film is nostalgia. We could find that the film director and script writer, Po-Cheung Lee, tried to remind the audience that we should not forget our own origins and the Hong Kong spirits. In an interview, he reviewed that the rapid restructuring of economy and developer hegemony had impacted the local community and traditional industries a lot, motivating him to make a film about this situation (1).

Tea-diners have important meanings to Hong Kong people. It is a place which contains many shared memories of middle and lower classes. It represents the Hong Kong identity and witnesses the transition of Hong Kong. Traditional Hong Kong cuisine such as “Silk-stocking” milk tea and pineapple buns had been re-enforced their significance in a tea-diner during the course. Mei inherited the tea-diner from her deceased father is also a metaphor of director encouraging Hong Kong people. That is even though some changes are inevitable and those good old days might have passed, we should not give up and try the very best to fight for it as there is always light at the end of the tunnel. 

(1)《大茶飯》Gangster Pay Day 非一般黑幫電影:為香港發聲 [online blog] Retrieved from http://doublepp2013.mysinablog.com/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=5519224

Student name: Poon Chun Wing

Student ID: 21236479 / 10491830

Course: BAs of Arts (Communication Studies)