Echoes of the Rainbow
Echoes of the Rainbow Chinese Jyutping Seoi3 Jyut6 San4 Tau1 romanisation Shui Yuet Sun Tau literally Time, the Thief is a 2010 Hong Kong drama film directed by Alex Law and starring Simon Yam and Sandra Ng. It won the Crystal Bear for the Best Film in the Childrens Jury Generation Kplus category at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival.
Eightyearold Law Chunyi who goes by the nickname Big Ears lives with his parents and his sixteenyearold brother Desmond in a shoe shop on Wing Lee Street in late 1960s Hong Kong. Chunyi looks up to his brother, who is a champion runner at the local high school, earns top grades, is a talented musician, and is very popular Chunyis parents and teachers often scold him for not being as good as his big brother. Desmond has a girlfriend, Flora, who comes from a wealthy family, and whose family moves away to the United States to escape the lawless situation in Hong Kong. Desmond gradually becomes aware of the inequalities in Hong Kong society of that time, both through interactions with a cocky British policeman who extorts money from his father in exchange for letting them keep their shop and who insists that Desmond will never make it big because his English isnt good enough and through his first time seeing the inside of Floras familys mansion. Most of this is told through Chunyi, the films narrator.Not long before Flora leaves, Desmonds grades start declining and he takes third place in a race he had hoped to win. One day he collapses suddenly after a typhoon nearly destroys the familys house, and his father takes him to the hospital, where he is diagnosed with leukemia. His parents search for a doctor who can cure him but find none, and his condition worsens until he has to remain in the hospital, where the nurses treat him poorly and extort money from his parents in exchange for basic care. Chunyi, who spends much of his free time stealing trinkets around town, tries to offer them all to his brother in attempt to cheer him up, but Desmond doesnt accept any of them. Flora returns from the United States and visits him in the hospital, where they share their first kiss, but Desmond dies shortly thereafter. Years later Chunyi, narrating retrospectively, remarks that time is the greatest thief. In the films final scene, Chunyi and his mother are shown visiting Desmonds
Source: Wikipedia
