(Leaflet of the musical)
To start off, I would say this musical is really good, in my standards. The problem with this review, is that I have only watched 2 musicals, ever, in my life, as far as I can remember. Actually, this is a problem the author of the musical, Mr Chan Yan Shek, wanted to address.
In Hong Kong, we have a phrase called 「文化沙漠」. If translated literally to English, it means "cultural desert". Our "culture" is basically mixing absolutely everything together, as Hong Kong was once the colony of Britain. We inherited culture from both China and Britain, and in between, we kind of lost our own. One of the things we are missing is musical.
Chan had the chance to study in England, and that's where he learnt about musical being one of the long-running entertainment options for citizens. Then he further realized, the musical scene in Hong Kong is basically non-existent. That's why he stepped out to try to bring musical to Hong Kong, attempting to make it a long-running entertainment option as well.
(The cast of the musical)
At first, right after finishing the musical, the story felt really good, but upon further thinking, I realized it is a bit generic. As I said, I have only watched 2 musicals in my life. The other one was about "being perfect", which you can tell, is pretty similar to this one.
Anyway, this story is about a group of talented form 6 students (equivalent to grade 12 in other countries) wanting to chase their dreams. Some want to be football players, some want to be songwriters, but if you have ever watched one of Steven He's videos, you will know Asian parents are very practical. They just want money, and a stable life. Dreams are risky stuff.
Plus, coincidentally, this year is the last year of teaching for the principal, so she decides to become the class teacher of those students, and wants to end her career life with 100% getting-into-university rate. Therefore, the parents and the principal together are trying to stop their kids from reaching their dreams.
(I just realized this part may need some more context for foreigners. Basically, all form 6 students will take the Diploma of Secondary Education exam (or DSE for short). This exam determines whether you can get into university or not. And without a degree, life will be extremely hard unless you have money. That's why parents really want students to study well.)
This part really resonates with me. The students have to undergo intensive academic training, which, you know what? That was actually me, 3 years ago.
We lose all of our freedom, and put absolutely all the time we have into studying. There was a part where the principal assigns past papers to them, and demands them to finish those and hand them in the next day.
I feel it.
There's a reason why I'm so good at mathematics. I did a billion past papers. Even past papers before DSE exists. That was the time I had no freedom.
It may look sad to some of the readers, because it is. But when you are within the motivation of "I need to get a good grade in DSE", it doesn't feel as bad.
It's just looking back scares me.
Of course, it's not all about academics. You can't have a musical about teenagers without teenager loves.
Those little pieces of love story between the academic grinds are honestly, really refreshing. This is like the one thing pushing them through the grind. But, once again, parents and teachers are against it, because falling in love might cause bad performance in exam as it distracts you. Personally, I have never received love (romantically), so I can't really comment on that. However, I did yearn for love, as sometimes I felt lonely.
But there is something more touching than romantic love (for me, at least).
Family love is another thing, as I talked about parents stopping their children. Of course it's not going to end well. Honestly, this is the part where I almost cried. I don't like seeing family arguments, fake or not. I treasure family relationship a lot, so seeing the potential football player arguing with his dad about something as dumb as grades almost got me. It is definitely one of the more touching parts for me.
And that's all I'm going to talk about the story, as I don't want to spoil it too much.
Honestly, I have no idea how musicals in other countries look like, so again, take my words with a grain of salt.
A lot of cool effects are created with the screen behind them. For example, the boy riding a bike, or messages popping up from 2 person's phones. It also serves as a background for some scene, like their home, or the office of the principal.
(This might just be me being amazed by basic technology, I don't know.)
One problem I had though, was that the lights kept shining on my eyes, making it slightly hard to actually see. But then my sister made a great point: It's better to not see them clearly, as one actor playing a few roles might break the immersion even worse when you can see.
I skipped my stream that night for that musical. Tickets also costed a good amount of money. Was it worth it? I would say so.