Director Chor Yuen claims that this is one of the very few personal favourites of his own oeuvre of melodramas. It shows. Every frame is carefully composed to convey a poetic quality which, however, verges on sentimentalism. Maple leaves and withered trees are seen in almost every scene to evoke a saddened atmosphere. Chan Kingsam, who has collaborated with him on more than 50 films, certainly knows his taste. The unusually outsized mansions are by and large designed and adorned with a “European flavour.” The story concerns a chance meeting between a bar girl and a seasoned sailor around Christmas time. The man is such a lookalike of the woman’s husband, who abandoned her and her newborn baby six years ago, that she can’t help but asks him to pretend to be the husband, so as to fulfill the son’s wishes of meeting the father he’s never seen. A merry Christmas to follow?

©Licensed by Celestial Pictures Limited. All rights reserved.

19/8

(Sun)

7:00pm

Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

30/9

(Sun)

2:00pm

Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive