Local sports film Weeds on Fire scores home run [Review]

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Miuccia Chan
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Miuccia Chan |
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"If you look down on yourselves, you will only live a life of defeat." When two students from a no-name school are forced to join its baseball team, their lives are turned upside down.

Inspired by a true story, director Chan Chi-fat’s Weeds On Fire is an inspiring tale about how Hong Kong’s first youth baseball team, the Sha Tin Martins, brought glory to our city.

The film is set in 1984, the year of the Sino-British Joint Declaration which arranged for Hong Kong’s return to China, an event which brought about significant changes.

Best friends Lung and Wai join the team. Lung has always been Wai’s shadow, never believing he could beat his friend. But Principal Lu tells him, not Wai, to step onto the pitcher’s mound, adding: “It’s the courage to take that half a step to the mound that counts.”

Weeds has an important message: whether Declaration was for better or worse is still unknown – the movie foreshadows Occupy Central – but as long as Hong Kong people continue to look down on our own potential, we will face a future of nothing but defeat.

Weeds On Fire conveys themes of teenage rebellion, team spirit and youth, but most of all, tells us that every effort to move forward counts as a step towards a new challenge.

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