Five bank robbers are hunted down and killed by the police. This is ostensibly a remake of the celebrated hit, We Want to Live (1960), produced by Union Film and directed by Lee Tit. Chor Yuen, himself a disciple/descendant of the Cantonese Cinema, updates the story by hinting at a sense of cynicism: instead of an affirmation of tradition moral values such as honesty and loyalty, the story is dominated by offputting elements such as betrayal, rebellion and disillusionment. Like the original film, The Big Holdup also uses a large amount of locations for its complicated and convoluted plot, but for the sake of continuity, it still has to rely heavily on Chan Kingsam’s intermittent set pieces, which switch from the highly realistic to the hopelessly romantic. Despite its ambitious efforts, the film was a commercial flop, thus driving Chor Yuen into making a series of swordplay flicks penned by the Taiwanese writer, Gu Long.

©Licensed by Celestial Pictures Limited. All rights reserved.

*26/8

(Sun)

4:15pm

Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

11/11

(Sun)

4:30pm

Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

*Post-screening talk with Eric Tsang