Aberdeen is a movie on family, tolerance, acceptance, confidence, how to face our history and make the best out of the present.
On the surface it is a story on a family – grandpa (Man Tat Ng) with two adult children, a daughter (Miriam Yeung) and a son (Louis Koo). The daughter married a doctor (Eric Tsang) who has an affair with his nurse (Jacky Choi). The son married a pretty model (Gigi Leung) whose modeling career seemed to going downhill. Their daughter (Lee man Kwai) is not as pretty as her parents and is bullied at school.
But it is also a tribute to Hong Kong (HK) history and culture. To start with, the title Aberdeen expressed two aspects of history: that the west set foot in Aberdeen when they first landed in Hong Kong. Aberdeen still remains a major fisherman neighborhood with a typhoon shelter to keep fishing boats safe from storms. But the Cantonese title 香港仔 (Hong Kong sons), apart from the two explanations above, also refers to the kids who grow up in HK. For HK citizens, this movie is more like a family album filled with collective memories including the WWII bomb, cartoon-themed McDonald and the whale.
Going through these memories, the characters find that they are not perfect but they can make the best out of the situation. What we should not do is impose pressure or hatred on ourselves or others which is based on misconception.
In this family, everyone is valuable though each of them have their challenges: grandpa seeks atonement by being a Taoist priest and looks like a loser but he is the one who helps the lost granddaughter. Granddaughter knows she is not pretty but she does not let it bother her. She learns Kung Fu and how to change the bulb but she cares more about pleasing her father which includes eating durian (a fruit she does not like). Like many kids who is puzzled about life, she begins ponder on this question when her pet chameleon Greenie disappears.
Her father, a handsome and successful teacher at a tutorial school is obsessed with image. He is bothered that his daughter is not as pretty which could cause her being bullied as he did so when he was younger. He even began to doubt this blood relation. To prepare his daughter for this cruel world, he put her to learn changing bulbs and practice Wing Chun, a kind of Kung Fu which Bruce Lee also learnt.
His elder sister believes her dead mom never loves her and develops a kind of depression which begins to affect her sleep, without noticing that her husband is having an affair.
At a buffet following a family grave sweeping, the son begins to show his resentment towards his father's girlfriend (Carrie Ng) who works in a night club because it will affect his image. In this seemingly functional family, we see lots of secrets within family members and there rarely is very open and honest communication.
The plot progresses when a bomb explodes and the granddaughter's pet Greenie disappears, and elder sister wakes up from a nightmare, signifying some family secrets finally got exposed. Like the ignition of an old bomb, after minimal damage, the world keeps on moving. We just have to deal with it and support each other. Nothing is really that bad. We can change our perspective and life will go on.
Another theme is that many pressure is self-inflicted. It is like looking through the narrow slit in the fort, there seems to be no future. But if we can step outside, we will find the big, wide world outside. It is OK if we do not have a definite destination, as long as we can breathe in, hold and breathe out.
Then of course another theme is appearance and confidence: there is no need to feel insecure just because we do not look attractive. The bullied high school classmate has got over it and forgiven the classmate who bullied her. It is only the adult son who carries the guilt around and the notion that it will be a bitter life for an unattractive person. Despite everyone's worries, the director gradually leads us to realize that what we sweat are probably small stuff and there are more important things to celebrate. Greenie has come back/reincarnated as a whale (Chinese culture triumphs) and the teacher accepts plastic surgery while his wife learns new skills to please her husband. Sister resolves her conflict after being supported by her hubby and clarifying with her father.
Two vivid scenes are very interesting: one is a mini North Point made from paper models which Hong Kong people use as offerings for dead relatives. Another is a similar scene where elder sister takes a paper taxi to see her mom at her childhood home. Both scenes showed the interaction of the living and the dead and is visually stunning.
The film is quite mild in saying things are not as bad as they seem. As long as the family is together and we accept each other and feel secure, even eating at McDonald is better than having buffet at a five star hotel. Relationship is more valuable than material gain. In that sense, Aberdeen/family is our shelter.
Being able to forgive is a virtue that helps us deal with reality with maturity. Perhaps we should start with forgiving ourselves first. Don't be too harsh on ourselves, and others for that matter. Do not take ourselves so seriously, because nobody else does.
