Enjoy the classics as if they were brand new with the HKIFF48

The 48th Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF48) is presenting six restored contemporary classics by influential Chinese filmmakers, including Zhang Yimou, Tsui Hark, and Tsai Ming-Liang.

An Example

A vanguard of Hong Kong’s New Wave movement, Tsui Hark shocked the local establishment with his controversial Dangerous Encounter – 1st Kind, which featured violence, bloodshed, and political allusions. Initially banned for public exhibition in 1980, the film was only released after significant reshoots and re-edits.

Moreover, Wu Tianming, a former head of the studio and a prominent Fifth Generation filmmaker, presented a new form of visual and socio-political expression in Old Well, a meticulously observed and non-ideological portrayal of the lives of impoverished villagers in their quest for water across generations.

A Thrilling Story

Zhang Yimou, another talented Xi’an native who remarkably shot as well as starred in Old Well, demonstrated his directing skills by employing caustic irony to delve into the theme of bureaucratic negotiations through a peasant woman’s relentless pursuit of justice in The Story of Qiu Ju, which won Venice’s prestigious Golden Lion in 1992.

To complete the six-film selection, Edward Yang’s Mahjong and Tsai Ming-Liang’s The Wayward Cloud offer insightful and melancholic portrayals of Taiwan’s rapidly changing capital.

A Look Deep Inside

On top of that, Mahjong is a screwball farce that exposes the manipulation and lies inherent in modern prosperity through a diverse set of characters. The Wayward Cloud, which won a Silver Bear in Berlin in 2005, is a quasi-pornographic musical that confronts the psychosexual disconnection and existential malaise of its characters, expressing their unspoken desires and yearnings.

HKIFF48 will take place from 28 March to 8 April, spanning 12 days. The festival will announce its complete programme in March and the six Chinese-language Restored Classics are as follows:-

1. Dangerous Encounter – 1st Kind by Tsui Hark (1980)
   2. Dislocation by Huang Jianxin (1986)
   3. Old Well by Wu Tianming (1987)
   4. The Story of Qiu Ju by Zhang Yimou (1992)
   5. Mahjong by Edward Yang (1996)
   6. The Wayward Cloud by Tsai Ming-Liang (2005)