MIRROR CITIES: FASCINATION AND NOSTALGIA

 

 

The cosmopolitan culture of pre-revolutionary Shanghai holds an enduring fascination for Hong Kong and mainland filmmakers who regularly recreate the city’s allure and its historical trauma. A sense of loss and of the ravages of time engenders a desire to digest repressed history through film. Hong Kong cinema strongly celebrates its own urban identity while also mediating the territory’s relationship with mainland China, particularly its historical links with Shanghai. The 1990s saw the re-emergence of Shanghai in cultural and economic terms during Deng Xiaoping’s leadership (and as a result of his policy of economic opening) after its 40-year purgatory. There has been a resurgence of filmmaking in the city. Lou Ye’s critically acclaimed Suzhou River 2000, for example, explores new city spaces and identities. In 1997, Britain handed Hong Kong back to China and it became a Special Administrative Region. This had been preceded by marked fears that Hong Kong would lose its individual and international character by being reabsorbed into the nation. The nostalgic recording of Hong Kong became the focus of many filmmakers, including Stanley Kwan, Ann Hui and Wong Kar-wai. There was also a resurgence of fascination with Shanghai as Hong Kong’s mainland counterpart with its history of cosmopolitanism, reabsorption and re-emergence.

Production still from Shanghai Blues (Shanghai Zhi Ye)

Shanghai Blues (Shanghai Zhi Ye) 1984 Ages 12+
6.00pm Friday 23 March / Cinema A / Live electronic subtitling

35MM, 103 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, HONG KONG, CANTONESE (CHINESE & ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR: TSUI HARK / SCRIPT: KOON-CHUNG CHAN, CHUEK-HON SZETO, RAYMOND TO / CINEMATOGRAPHY: PETER NGOR CHI-KWAN / CAST: KENNY BEE, SYLVIA ZHANG, SALLY YEH / PRODUCTION COMPANIES: FILM WORKSHOP, GOLDEN PRINCESS / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: FILM WORKSHOP / SCREENING FORMAT: DIGITAL BETACAM

Tsui Hark’s Shanghai Blues pays tribute to classic films of the Shanghai cinema of the 1930s, such as Crossroads 1937 and Street Angel 1937. It was the first film that Tsui produced through his own Film Workshop and set an important direction for Hong Kong cinema in the 1980s and 1990s, looking to past links with the mainland to address anxieties about the territory’s return to China. The film charts the friendship and nascent romance between three inhabitants of a Shanghai tenement: a musician, a singer and a young girl recently arrived from the country. A truly unique slapstick sequence shows the musician dressed for a cabaret act in blackface, performing impromptu Chinese opera poses with his neighbour. Tsui also places images of Marlene Dietrich in the dressing room of a nightclub, pointing to the pervasive cosmopolitan references of pre-Communist Shanghai.

Production still from Centre Stage

 Centre Stage (Yuen Ling-Yuk) 1992 PG
6.00pm Friday 16 March / Cinema A

35MM, 126 MINS, COLOUR, MONO, HONG KONG/TAIWAN, CANTONESE (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR: STANLEY KWAN / PRODUCER: LEONARD HO, JACKIE CHAN, KOON-CHEUNG / SCRIPT: CHIAO HSIUNG-PING, TAIAN-PING CHIU / ORIGINAL STORY (SHORT): PEGGY CHIU / CINEMATOGRAPHY: PAN HENGSHENG / EDITOR: PETER CHEUNG / ART DIRECTION: SAI-WAN LAU / MUSIC: SIU CHUNG, HUANG JIN CHEN / CAST: MAGGIE CHEUNG, TONY LEUNG, WAISE LEE, CARINA LAU / PRODUCTION COMPANY: GOLDEN HARVEST / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: FORTUNE STAR ENTERTAINMENT

Stanley Kwan’s extraordinary celebration of Ruan Lingyu is also a meditation on Chinese cinema and stardom. The film weaves together images of Ruan, re-enactments of her films and sequences where director and actors discuss the construction of film and history. It is a layered remake of 1930s Shanghai cinema in Hong Kong in the 1990s. Hong Kong superstar Maggie Cheung gives a powerful and revealing performance. She comments on the life, persona and legend of Ruan Lingyu and on what they might share.

Production still from Blush (Hong Fen) 1994 / Image courtesy: Fortissimo Films, Amsterdam

Blush (Hong Fen) 1965 All ages
2.00pm Saturday 26 May / Cinema A / Live electronic subtitling

35MM, 119 MINS, COLOUR, DOLBY, HONG KONG, CANTONESE (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR/SCRIPT: LI SHAOHONG / PRODUCERS: CHEN KUNMING, CHENG ZHIGU, JIMMY TAN / SCRIPT: NI ZHEN, LI SHAOHONG / ORIGINAL STORY (NOVEL): SU TONG / CINEMATOGRAPHY: ZENG NIANPING / EDITOR: ZHOU XINXIA / ART DIRECTION: CHEN YIYUN, LIN CHAOXIANG / CAST: WANG JI, HE SAIFEI, WANG ZHIWEN / PRODUCTION COMPANY: OCEAN FILM / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: FORTISSIMO FILMS

Blush examines the effects of the Communist Revolution on women prostitutes who were re-educated in the 1950s, after brothels were emptied and their inhabitants moved into productive labour. The film opens with Liberation Army soldiers taking women away by barge from the Red Happiness Inn. Qiuyi (Wang Ji) runs away across the rooftops to her favourite customer, Lao Pu (Wang Zhiwen), and asks to live with him. Meanwhile, her friend Xiaoe (He Saifei) from the Red Happiness Inn is being taught to work in a textile factory. A nuanced and beautifully shot melodrama, Blush won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Li Shaohong is one of the acclaimed ‘Fifth Generation’ filmmakers and is the only woman among them.

 

Production still from Suzhou River (Suzhou He) 2000 / Image courtesy: The Co-production Office, Berlin

Suzhou River (Suzhou He) 2000 Ages 15+
6.00pm Friday 25 May / Cinema A

35MM, 83 MINS, COLOUR, DOLBY, HONG KONG, MANDARIN (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR/SCRIPT: LOU YE / PRODUCERS: PHILIPPE BOBER, NAI AN / CINEMATOGRAPHY: WANG YU / EDITOR: REIDEL KARI / ART DIRECTION: LI ZHOUYI / SOUND: XU PEIJUN / MUSIC: LEMBERG JORG / CAST: ZHOU XUN, JIA HONGSHENG, HUA ZHONGKAI / PRODUCTION COMPANIES: ESSENTIAL FILMPRODUKTION GMBH, THE COPRODUCTION OFFICE / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: THE COPRODUCTION OFFICE

Suzhou River tells two love stories against the backdrop of Shanghai and the Suzhou River that flows through it. Director Lou Ye has described the river as the only constant in the city. Meimei (Zhou Xun) works as a mermaid in a nightclub. Her story is told in voice-over by a man who has fallen in love with her and videotapes her at every opportunity. Another man, Mardar (Jia Hongsheng), believes that Meimei is his girlfriend Mudan, who jumped into the Suzhou River. Mardar’s longing for Mudan is so strong that Meimei believes she too must disappear to incite such strong passion.

Production still from In The Mood for Love (Hua Yang Nian Hua) 2000 / Image courtesy: Dendy Films, Australia

In the Mood for Love (Hua Yang Nian Hua) 2000 G
6.00pm Friday 30 March / Cinema A

35MM, 98 MINS, COLOUR AND B. & W., DOLBY DIGITAL, HONG KONG/FRANCE, CANTONESE, FRENCH (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR/SCRIPT/PRODUCER: WONG KAR-WAI / CINEMATOGRAPHY: CHRISTOPHER DOYLE, PIN BING LEE / EDITOR: WILLIAM CHANG / MUSIC: MICHAEL GALASSO, SHIGERU UMEBAYASHI / CAST: TONY LEUNG CHIU WAI, MAGGIE CHEUNG MAN-YUK, PING LAM SIU, TUNG CHO CHEUNG, REBECCA PAN / PRODUCTION COMPANIES: BLOCK 2 PICTURES, JET TONE PRODUCTION COMPANY / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: DENDY FILMS

Hong Kong, 1962 — housing is scarce and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) sublets a room for her and her husband in a fellow Shanghainese family’s apartment in a Hong Kong tenement. Mr Chow (Tony Leung) lodges with his wife in the apartment next door. Su Li-zhen and Mr Chow swap greetings in the corridor but soon a smouldering tension builds between them, which ignites when they realise that their spouses are involved with each other. Wong Kar-wai was born in Shanghai in 1958, but moved with this family to Hong Kong when he was five years old. His memories of the time include living in a close community with neighbours, and the impossibility of privacy. The radio soundtrack to his youth featured Chinese opera and popular songs from Mandarin films, alongside the rhythms of Nat King Cole (popularised across the region by Philippine musicians). Shanghainese dishes, mahjong, Mandarin movies — all of these made up a displaced cosmopolitan Shanghai lifestyle, even while much of the communities' wealth had been left behind on the mainland. Shot after the return of Hong Kong to China, In the Mood for Love draws a parallel between the nostalgia and loss felt by émigré Shanghainese for their city in the 1930s and 1940s and the uncertainty experienced by Hong Kong residents around 1997. The Chinese title of Wong's film, Hua Yang Nian Hua (the most beautiful time of your life), is drawn from the Mandarin pop song ‘In full bloom’, and is sung by 1930s and 1940s pop star and actress Zhou Xuan. The art direction and costumes by William Chang are sumptuous.

Production still from Everlasting Regret (Changhen Ge) 2005 / Image courtesy: Golden Scene, Hong Kong

Everlasting Regret (Changhen Ge) 2005 Ages 12+
6.00pm Friday 27 April / Cinema A

35MM, 115 MINS, B. & W., DOLBY DIGITAL, HONG KONG, MANDARIN & CANTONESE (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR: STANLEY KWAN / PRODUCER: XU PENGLE, WILLIE CHAN, CHEN BAOPING, FANG JUN / SCRIPT: ELMOND YEUNG / ORIGINAL STORY (NOVEL): WANG ANYI / CINEMATOGRAPHY: HUANG LIN / EDITOR: WILLIAM CHANG / ART DIRECTION: YAU WAI-MING / SOUND: ZHAN XIN / MUSIC: ANTHONY WONG / CAST: SAMMI CHENG, TONY LEUNG KA FAI, JUN HU, DANIEL WU, JUE HUANG / PRODUCTION COMPANIES: SHANGHAI FILM STUDIO, JCE MOVIES LIMITED / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: GOLDEN SCENE

Stanley Kwan’s Everlasting Regret is based on the acclaimed novel Song of Everlasting Sorrow (Changhen Ge) 1996 by Wang Anyi. It tells an epic story of a woman’s survival through war, political turmoil and the Cultural Revolution, combining elements of nostalgic melodrama with a complex allegory of modern Hong Kong. The history of Shanghai is filtered through the experiences Wang Qiyao (Taiwanese pop diva Sammi Cheng), a great beauty who was runner up in a Miss Shanghai competition in the 1940s. She survives political turmoil in Shanghai and refuses to flee, living instead in the past. Kwan makes good use of the popular songs of the 1940s onwards in the soundtrack. Wong Kar-wai’s regular collaborator, art director William Chang, has worked his magic on the film, with complex layering of colour and patterning in interior spaces and costumes.