Have You Seen These 5 Iconic Hong Kong Movies?
Written by Alfred Sung · Compiled by the Fête Chinoise Team
Documentary director Alfred Sung has been recording his family’s daily life since he was young. He is the director of The Last Stitch, a three-generation story about migration from Shanghai to Hong Kong to Toronto and the culture of cheongsams. This week, Alfred has selected 5 must-see films for you and explains below why you need to watch them if you haven’t already.
1.ROUGE (胭脂扣)
FROM “ROUGE” FROM HONG KONG ARTS CENTRE / FACEBOOK
DIRECTOR: STANLEY KWAN
Set in 1930s Hong Kong, a wealthy playboy (played by Leslie Cheung, the late well-respected Hong Kong singer and actor) falls in love with a teahouse courtesan named Fleur (played by award-winning singer and actress Anita Mui). But knowing their love could never be approved of, they make a suicide pact. Decades later, Fleur returns as a ghost as she has not been able to locate her lover in the world of the dead. It is later revealed that the wealthy son did not actually die and instead went on living. He ended up losing all of his inheritance and is now an old and frail man. Fleur confronts him once more.
AS: Great story, great acting, great scores, great art direction. When I first watched this film as a kid in the mid-80s, I was totally stunned by the performance and chemistry of the two leading stars Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung. I have to admit that I did not like them much before this film. Who could have imagined these two pop singers could deliver such an amazing cinematic art piece? The adapted screenplay is exceptionally good and has successfully redefined a typical ghost story into a love letter to the past and the doubtful future of Hong Kong. Because of this film, you may become interested in studying the history of Hong Kong's pre-war red light districts and architecture like me. On several occasions, I travelled alone to the places in the story to try my luck at meeting the ghost!
2.DAYS OF BEING WILD (阿飛正傳)
FROM “DAYS OF BEING WILD” COURTESY OF JANUS FILMS.
DIRECTOR: WONG KAR-WAI
Set in both 1960s Hong Kong and the Philippines, the story centres around a disillusioned playboy Yuddy (played by Leslie Cheung). He dates many women including two of the female leads in the film, Maggie Cheung and Carina Lau. Two of the four “Heavenly Kings” of Hong Kong’s music industry Andy Lau and Jacky Chung also appear as important figures in this film. In the end, Yuddy is unable to commit to relationships and breaks hearts recklessly. He later discovers his true family of origin.
AS: This film was the director’s attempt to find another genre to explore art. He purposely told the story in a fragmented way that wasn’t like traditional films with a linear plot. Days of Being Wild completely redefined Hong Kong cinema and its relationship to the international scene in 1990. Most successful movies were also entered around gangster or crime films, but this marked a turning point. Hong Kong films were no longer simply about kung fu entertainment or gangsters, but a stylish and unique form of cinematic art. ‘
Sponsored by TIFF.
3.COMRADE: ALMOST A LOVE STORY (甜蜜蜜)
MAGGIE CHEUNG, THE FEMALE PROTAGONIST IN COMRADE: ALMOST A LOVE STORY (1996), PHOTO BY JANUS FILM
DIRECTOR: PETER CHAN
The film focuses on two Chinese mainland immigrants in Hong Kong who end up in love: Hong Kong superstar Leon Lai plays opposite veteran actress Maggie Cheung. They each have their own goals and eventually their own respective lovers. Yet they end up in the United States on separate journeys. After a decade, their partners no longer in the picture, and the two protagonists meet again in a touching scene with Taiwanese icon Teresa Teng’s titular song (Tian Mi Mi).
AS: Although many regard this movie as a love story partially because of the title, to me, this film is not "almost a love story,” but an "almost a perfect film" with a score of 99 out of 100. From the screenplay to the acting, there was perfect directing, perfect scores, and perfect cinematography. As this movie was set in the era of continued migration to the former British colonial city and before the handoff, this 1996 film is simply a perfect conclusion of Hong Kong's colonial era.
4.TEMPTING HEART (心動)
FROM “TEMPTING HEART” FROM UDINE FAR EAST FILM FESTIVAL.
DIRECTOR: SYLVIA CHANG
A tale about a film director reimagining her first love for a film, she shares her story and allows audiences to live vicariously through her. Hong Kong singer-songwriter Gigi Leung stars next to Taiwanese-Japanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro and award-winning Eurasian actress, Karen Mok. The story covers two timelines of the director’s youth and present time and is full of twists as an unexpected and complicated love triangle is created. In the end, viewers are in for a surprise.
AS: This is one of the most articulated and well-known Hong Kong films for its art direction. Watch closely and listen carefully as there are many details about the historical background of the financial hub. The movie recreated Hong Kong of the 1970s perfectly. For example, on a KMB (Kowloon Motor Bus Co.) double-decker bus, there is a license plate from the 1970s. In the scenes of the young director (played by Gigi Leung), there are distant aircrafts passing by to correspond with the neighbourhood in which her grows up (the Homantin-Kowloon Tong area). This 1999 movie transports viewers to a past otherwise lost.
5.INFERNAL AFFAIRS (無間道)
DIRECTOR: ANDREW LAU AND ALAN MAK
Infernal Affairs is a thriller which many may be familiar with as there was a Hollywood remake entitled “The Departed.” It is about two men: an undercover police officer (played by Tony Leung) trying to seek intel about a crime triad and a triad member who infiltrates into the Hong Kong Police Force. They each face struggles but the triad member (played by Andy Lau) is more successful in navigating the police ranks. They team up for justice but eventually the police officer realizes that the man who just helped him is a traitor. And thereafter, the story unravels.
AS: This was another defining moment of Hong Kong cinema on an international scene. Never before had we seen such a sophisticated combination of screenplay, plot, pacing, directing, cinematography and marketing in the industry before. The film won countless awards in Asia including seven awards at the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards, Best Picture and Best Actor and Best Director (among many other accolades) at both the 40th Golden Horse Awards (Taiwan’s equivalent of the Academy Awards) and Golden Bauhinia Awards (Hong Kong).
Sponsored by Palettera.
