Credits
Official selection
Hong Kong Film Awards 1989
Honors
Best Supporting Actor Award - Hong Kong Film Awards 1989
Director
Patrick Tam
Writer
Tsang Kan-Cheung, Chan Koon-Chung
Cast
Kenny Bee, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Joey Wong
contact
Kani Releasing
Hong Kong
1989 91 mins
OV Cantonese
Subtitles : English
“Beautifully shot with exemplary performances... quite simply a movie to fall in love with”– Ben Stykuc, ASIAN MOVIE PULSE
Life’s good in the quiet hood. Lap (Joey Wong, also in A CHINESE GHOST STORY at Fantasia this year) and her beau Rick are two lovebirds enjoying life, working at her father’s seaside bar. Then her father, a former Triad member coerced out of retirement, botches the job and is held captive by a mobster, and Joey must seek the help of a rival boss, Godfather Shen, to save him. The two lovers separate, promising to meet again soon. Flash forward six years, and Lap is the godfather’s mistress while Rick is professional assassin hired by him for a job. Things get complicated — the pair are still in love, but the Shen wants the status quo maintained. Adding extra spice, Joey’s younger best friend is also in love with her, yet loyal to the godfather. Bullets, loyalty, and love will shape everyone’s destiny.
Directed by one of the key players of the new wave which rejunvenated Hong Kong cinema in the ’80s, and also the mentor and recurring editor of Wong Kar-Wai, Patrick Tam (AFTER THIS OUR EXILE, Fantasia 2009), this award-winning classic is now fully restored to its original glory. It’s beautifully lensed by Wong Kar-Wai’s regular DP Christopher Doyle, who elevates the “heroic bloodshed” genre with visually stunning film noir look, and features some of the biggest rising stars and veterans of the era, including Gordon Liu as very sleazy henchman and a very young Tony Leung (SHANG-CHI, IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE), who won a much-deserved Best Supporting Actor prize at the HK Film Awards. Tam crafts an emotionally engaging characters and keeps things moving at rapid-fire speed, concluding the matter with an exhilarating bloodbath finale. – King-Wei Chu
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