Drawn from the collaboration of three highly-acclaimed artists – Cao Yu’s stage play, Cheng Kang’s adapted screenplay, and Ng Wui’s directorship – this film keeps Cao Yu’s classical dramatic structure, as well as the characters’ fatal intersections and tangled relationships in a wealthy household. The tragedy, caused by the characters’ obedience and inability to challenge authority until it’s too late, unfolds layer by layer in the shadow of incest. The delicate plot advancement and dark psychological delineation, assisted by the alternating “water” motifs (river, pond, and thunderstorm), enrich the state and transformation of the characters. The portrayal of the tragedy, in which the innocence, spontaneity, and honesty of Si Feng and Zhou Chong (played convincingly by Mui Yee and Bruce Lee) are entirely destroyed by the worldly older generation, is what makes Cheng Kang’s adaptation so profound yet heartrending.

18/5*

(Sun)

3:30pm

Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

14/6

(Sat)

2:30pm

Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

*Post-screening talk with Chang Thomp-kwan Terence (Revised)