The Concept of Nostalgia: Be Kind Rewind and the Reflection on the Case of ATV in Hong Kong 2015

Abstract

Be Kind Rewind, as spoken by the film's title, one may understand the trick that hides behind as Rewind is also associated with the same consonance Remind telling us a film that shares the collective memory of the public. The concept of the Society of Spectacle is brought forward by Guy Debord 1970s, which he sheds lights on the class alienation, commodification of cultural products, Debord (7) as well as the role of media's metamorphosis staging the so called reality on TV, is considered to be a mainstream channel 1970s-1980s for people to obtain the news and enjoy entertainment. With this concept, we draw the central theme of discussing this with the film Be Kind Rewind which it stages how the antique video rental store is forced to be demolished and the adventure that the new generation helps renew the product and share the collective memory, going back to the theme of commodity fetishism that Jappe (16) put forward. From the view point of Theodor Adorno, in psycho-analysis nothing is true except the exaggeration and for film as a product, it also echoes with the idea of fetishism that stated by Wall (22). Here, the conflict of urbanization and modern development makes it an echo to the concept of the spectacle of making the class alienated through the commodification process of video rental store and also alienates the old people from the rapid development of the modern city. With the revival of reshooting the film with no budget, it connects closely to the concept of the work of art the age of mechanical reproduction that Walter Benjamin put forward that the unique existence of the work of the art determined the history to which it was subject throughout the time of its existence, according to Benjamin (3). Most importantly, while we watch this film, the real life example that happens Hong Kong media industry would be Asia Television Limited (ATV) that they stage their Rescue Our ATV Show order to save their company by attracting the potential While this case connects with the aforementioned film, we can see actually what happen real life is the opposite. Nostalgia turns into a ridicule. From Jameson (15), postmodernism that the modernist engagement with art and culture is lost the recycling of things, past full of sentiments, but devoid of the critique, reflections. The television under such circumstance is not limited to provide information and showing the greatest entertainment programme but becomes a spectacle to ask for money yet not a glamourous and commoditized manner. In light of this, this research is going to explore how mechanical reproduction alienates our society from the real life and how commodification of cultural product especially Hong Kong TV industry make themselves become the spectacle this day and age by carrying out content and textual analysis of the above mentioned cases. It would offer a theoretical contribution which society of spectacle not only brings the success of TV industry but also actually polarizes the TV industry into the mass product and only through exposing its weakness to the audiences as to save the reputation and attract upcoming investors.