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Shot in 2017 and held back until recently, Remember What I Forgot (曾經擁有) is one of series of films that suggest Hong Kong cinema is becoming a thing of a bygone era. The conceit is that the hero literally cannot remember as he has early-onset dementia and is to some extent stuck in the past or at least using Hong Kong cinema as a means of anchoring himself in a society that’s constantly changing as demonstrated by his quest to find a copy of Perter Chan’s 1996 film Double the Trouble which has gone out of print.
Kim (Philip Keung Hiu-Man) lives with his cousin, Wan, who is also afraid to move on because he’s worried Kim won’t be able to find his way home if they leave his moribund repair shop. Kim otherwise spends his time hanging out on film sets and watching movies at the cinema and at home which is what has convinced Ginger Keung (Fish Liew), a journalist working for a trashy TV expose show, that Kim maybe the so-called “Prince of Darkness”, a film reviewer who posts scathing takes on movies on his blog and has become the enemy of all Hong Kong film producers.
It’s surprising they afford him so much power, but it does seem that love or loathe it his writing is eagerly awaited. Ginger tries to befriend Kim in order to exploit him by exposing him as the prince of darkness on her TV show though finds herself conflicted on realising his condition. Kim is also the only one who remembers Ginger as a screenwriter and apparently liked her film, The Movie Exorcist, which he described as “nonsensical” and having “no commercial value” but also the most fun he’s ever had at the movies. A dark satire of the death of the film business in which ghosts buy tickets in a haunted cinema, the film had been an expression of the frustration Ginger felt graduating film school but being unable to find any work. This is perhaps why she’s become cynical about Hong Kong cinema which she describes as lacking in passion.
Having regained some of the memory he’d lost, Kim laments that he just wants to remember everything about Hong Kong cinema and doesn’t understand why no one else seems to care. Given his condition, his mind sometimes “remembers” scenes from classic movies such as Infernal Affairs and Comrades Almost a Love Story as if they had actually happened to him, which in a way they have because they’re a part of the history of Hong Kong of which he has now become a sole guardian. Poignantly, it seems that the reason he always goes to the same cinema and books the same seat is that he’s waiting for someone, but has also forgotten all about it and no longer remembers why he goes there except for his intense love of Hong Kong film.
Ironically, Kim’s becoming a movie star too in that Ginger is intent on filming him for her show while simultaneously feeling guilty for taking advantage of him and wondering if she really has what it takes to be this kind of ruthless “journalist” ready to upend someone’s life and expose them to censure and ridicule for view numbers. Maybe it was easier when she thought he was a snarky bastard trashing Hong Kong films for clicks in much the same way her show trash talks people’s “dirty laundry,” than when she realised he may be being exploited by someone else and in any case just has high standards because he loves Hong Kong cinema so much that he wants it to be better. Having remembered something, Kim tries to revisit an old cinema to keep an appointment, but it’s already been closed down as there’s no way back to that moment. Kim cannot find his way home except in the movies because that Hong Kong no longer exists anywhere else. Nevertheless, he seems determined to reclaim and preserve as much of it as he can while righting old wrongs and keeping that appointment even if the person he’s waiting for likely won’t arrive. It’s his enthusiasm that guides Ginger back from her cynicism, causing Ginger to rediscover her own love for Hong Kong films and re-evaluate her current line of work while helping Kim to achieve his dreams of keeping it alive.
Trailer (Traditional Chinese & English subtitles)
Windows on Worlds 