Homecoming, released ten years after China Behind (1974), may as well be titled "China in Front". Both films are not mainstream commercial products and both feature views that are steadfastly personal but yet expressive of thoughts that are powerfully collective. Hong Kong had plunged into an abyss of fear in the early 1980s after negotiations were taken to decide on the future of the then colony. Director Yim Ho's film tells the story of a woman who returns to her Guangdong village to escape the Hong Kong pressure cooker, rekindling friendships and reigniting long-extinguished romantic feelings in the peaceful, pastoral air. The China here is not the political China that Tong Shu-shuen's film had left behind, but a land of roots and affections, its simplicity standing as an alluring alternative to the dog-eat-dog capitalism and sister-against-sister modernity of Hong Kong.

1/10

(Mon)

7:30pm

Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive