Made in Hong Kong
Asian Cinema
•
1h 49m
Directed by Fruit Chan | 109 mins | 1997
The first independent film released in post-Handover Hong Kong, Chan’s atmospheric shoestring-budget character study is a rough-and-ready piece of work shot on grainy leftover 35mm short ends in the city’s overcrowded subsidized housing projects. The result is a tough, pessimistic film, a portrait of a city on the brink that follows the drifting of high-school dropout and wannabe Triad tough Autumn Moon (Sam Lee, in a star-making role, opposite a largely nonprofessional cast), who sees little hope for his future or that of his home as a newly created Special Administrative Region within China. A raw, groundbreaking drama and portrait of nihilistic youth in the same vein as Rebel Without a Cause, My Own Private Idaho, and The Doom Generation, the film poses questions that remain burningly relevant as tumult engulfs Hong Kong.
A Metrograph Pictures release.
4K restoration was carried out in the Hong Kong and Bologna headquarters of L’Immagine Ritrovata, made from the original camera negative with the supervision of director Fruit Chan and cinematographer O Sing-Pui.
The first independent film released in post-Handover Hong Kong, Chan’s atmospheric shoestring-budget character study is a rough-and-ready piece of work shot on grainy leftover 35mm short ends in the city’s overcrowded subsidized housing projects. The result is a tough, pessimistic film, a portrait of a city on the brink that follows the drifting of high-school dropout and wannabe Triad tough Autumn Moon (Sam Lee, in a star-making role, opposite a largely nonprofessional cast), who sees little hope for his future or that of his home as a newly created Special Administrative Region within China. A raw, groundbreaking drama and portrait of nihilistic youth in the same vein as Rebel Without a Cause, My Own Private Idaho, and The Doom Generation, the film poses questions that remain burningly relevant as tumult engulfs Hong Kong.
A Metrograph Pictures release.
4K restoration was carried out in the Hong Kong and Bologna headquarters of L’Immagine Ritrovata, made from the original camera negative with the supervision of director Fruit Chan and cinematographer O Sing-Pui.
Up Next in Asian Cinema
-
Millennium Mambo
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien | 107 mins | 2001
A seductive submersion into the techno-scored neon nightlife of Taipei, Hou’s much-misunderstood marvel follows an aimless bar hostess drifting away from her blowhard boyfriend and towards a suave, sensitive gangster. A transfixing trance-out of a mov... -
Mountains May Depart
Directed by Jia Zhangke | 126 mins | 2015
A simple love triangle between three young people living in Fenyang—Jia’s much-revisited and filmed hometown—lays the foundations for an epoch-spanning triptych, describing the past, present, and future of three characters (including leading lady Zhao Tao... -
P. P. Rider
Directed by Shinji Sômai | 118 mins | 1983
Adapted from a story by Leonard Schrader—yes, Paul’s brother—"P.P. Rider" is a cheeky, playful, and consistently surprising adventure yarn about three young friends who, having witnessed the kidnapping of their school bully, set out on a journey across J...