The Hong Kong Second Wave
Experimental, bold, and highly stylized cinematography and editing, distinguish HK Second Wave Cinema from other popular mainstream Hong Kong cinema of the time.
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- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiMaggie CheungSiu Ping-LamTwo neighbors form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses. However, they agree to keep their bond platonic so as not to commit similar wrongs.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsBrigitte LinTakeshi KaneshiroTony Leung Chiu-waiTwo melancholic Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious female underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal waitress at a late-night restaurant he frequents.
- DirectorMabel CheungStarsChow Yun-FatCherie ChungDanny Bak-Keung ChanFilmed in New York, story of naive young woman from Hong Kong who goes to New York to study. Street-wise cabbie cousin takes care of her in the big city.
- DirectorClara LawStarsTony Ka Fai LeungMaggie CheungChit-Man ChanAward-winning drama deals with the many in Mailand China who dream of emigration to the U.S. Set primarily in New York City, the film follows Zhou who follows his wife's journey to America - and the tough surprises in store for him in the "Promised Land."
- DirectorStanley KwanStarsSau Lan ChowElaine JinTony Leung Chiu-waiFour young people spend their time living the wild life - until one of them is brutally murdered in a burglary.
- DirectorStanley KwanStarsLeslie CheungAnita MuiAlex ManFleur is the blue angel in one of Hong Kong's "flower houses" - bordellos and night clubs of the 1930s. A detached and beautiful performer, she falls in love with Twelfth Master Chan, heir to a chain of pharmacies. They agree to a suicide pact. 50 years later, in modern Hong Kong, Fleur's ghost appears in Yuen's newspaper office, wanting to place an ad to find Chan, who never arrived in the afterlife. Yuen, and his equally bewildered girlfriend, An Chor, are captivated by Fleur and her story.
- DirectorFruit ChanStarsSam LeeNeiky Hui-Chi YimWenders LiAutumn Moon (Sam Lee), a low-rent triad living in Hong Kong, struggles to find meaning in his hopelessly violent existence.
- DirectorFruit ChanStarsRobby CheungTak-Man FongTony HoIt is July 1st of 1997, and Hong Kong is bright in celebration. The United Kingdom handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China leaves Ga Yin, and his fellow soldiers without work. Which leads them to find employment and money any way they can get it. Without much success, Ga Yin decides to join his brother Ga Suen in the triad gang world.
- DirectorPeter Ho-Sun ChanStarsMaggie CheungLeon LaiEric TsangTwo Chinese-mainlanders living in Hong Kong form a close friendship. Over the years this grows into love, but there are obstacles.
- DirectorChi Leung 'Jacob' CheungStarsRoy ChiaoKai-Chi LiuTeddy Robin KwanThe story about a young, unemployed man, who after being kicked out is desperate enough to live anywhere. He is directed to Fatso, who owns the caged establishment, and is given a living space.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsAndy LauMaggie CheungJacky CheungMid-level gangster Wah falls in love with his beautiful cousin, but must also continue to protect his volatile partner-in-crime and friend, Fly.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsLeslie CheungMaggie CheungAndy LauA man tries to find out who his real mother is after the woman who raised him tells him the truth.
- DirectorStanley KwanStarsMaggie CheungHan ChinTony Ka Fai LeungBiopic of 1930s Chinese actress Lingyu Ruan.
- DirectorStanley KwanStarsCheh ChangKaige ChenLeslie CheungStanley Kwan examines queer themes in Chinese film for this insightful documentary, produced for the British Film Institute's "Century of Cinema" series. Using film clips, personal recollections, and interviews with film luminaries (including Ang Lee, Tsui Hark, Chen Kaige and Leslie Cheung), Kwan demonstrates how Chinese cinema has challenged gender norms for years, while asserting his own sexuality in a poignant conversation with his mother.
- DirectorFruit ChanStarsYuet-Ming YiuWai-Fan MakYuet-Man MakIn 1997, Little Cheung is a street-wise nine-year-old boy living in a bustling neighbourhood of Hong Kong, just before the reunification with China. His parents are always working at their restaurant, so Little Cheung becomes much closer to his grandmother and her Filipino maid Armi. Little Cheung befriends Fan, a girl his age who is an illegal immigrant from China. He splits his tips with her when she helps him deliver take-outs for his father. The pair have some amusing adventures, and delight in peeing in the drinks of a troublesome thug. Against his father's will, Little Cheung starts searching for his older brother, whom his father disowned because he became a gangster.
- DirectorFruit ChanStarsHailu QinWai-Fan MakXiao Ming BiaoHong Kong life from the perspective of a young northern mainland Chinese woman working as a prostitute in Hong Kong.
- DirectorFruit ChanStarsXun ZhouGlen ChinYou-Nam WongA prostitute named Tong Tong enters the life of a man who runs a barbecue pork restaurant and quickly begins to ruin his life, as well as the life of his two rotund sons, and a local gangster.
- DirectorFruit ChanStarsTsuyoshi AbeZhe MaJang HyukThe story of Dong Dong, the God of Public Toilets - so called because he was born and abandoned by his mother in a public toilet and later rescued out of the sewage by his grandmother.
- DirectorClara LawStarsJoey WangEric TsangWilson LamA woman (Joey Wang) is cursed with beauty in China and becomes prey for men. Raped by the prefect of her ballet school and sent to work camp, she escapes to decadent Hong Kong by marrying a wealthy banker. She finds herself drawn to sadomasochistic affairs and in flashbacks discovers she is the reincarnation of a famous courtesan of ancient China.
- DirectorClara LawStarsJoan ChenHsing-Kuo WuFengyi ZhangNear the beginning of the Tang dynasty, in 7th century China, General Shi Yan-sheng is tricked into leaving the crown prince unguarded. The crown prince is murdered by one of his brothers who then becomes emperor. Shi retreats to a monastery, perhaps to hide, perhaps to plan a coup. When his loyal troops as well as the princess he desires are slain, he seeks refuge in a remote, abandoned monastery where an aged abbot schools him with practical, earthy teachings. The emperor's forces pursue Shi: first a woman, then a general seek to overpower him with lust and might. Over the course of the film, the reds of battle give way to blues of meditation.
- DirectorPeter Ho-Sun ChanStarsLeslie CheungAnita MuiAnita YuenSam and Wing get together after falling in love, only to be followed by other love related complications.
- DirectorPeter Ho-Sun ChanStarsAlan TamMaggie CheungEric TsangAlan and Eric are childhood friends who are separated when Eric moves to America. They are reunited in Hong Kong when Eric finds Alan at the cafe where the latter is working as a waiter and singer. Together they forge a business which is destroyed in a storm. Meanwhile, both have met a lady named Olive, and both strive for her affection. In the end, Alan's rising singing career and Olive's tendency to favour Alan over Eric alienates all three of them. They are only reunited once again in San Francisco, where Alan discovers Eric is on his death-bed from illness, and they realise what real friendship is all about, and how Olive would only be happy if she and Alan got married.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsLeon LaiMichelle ReisTakeshi KaneshiroThis Hong Kong-set crime drama follows the lives of a hitman, hoping to get out of the business, and his elusive female partner.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsLeslie CheungTony Leung Chiu-waiChang ChenA couple take a trip to Argentina but both men find their lives drifting apart in opposite directions.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiZiyi ZhangFaye WongSeveral women enter a science fiction author's life over the course of a few years, after the author has lost the woman he considers his one true love.
- DirectorMabel CheungWanting ZhangStarsYung-Cho ChingFu-Sheng WuChung-yu LiaoCheung, an illegal immigrant in a completely Chinese area of New York, is caught by two US Immigration Officers. He arranges to pay Cindy Li, the Chinese-American sister of his young friend, to marry him to help his application for a green card. The Immigration Officers are suspicious that the marriage is a sham when they don't find them living together. Meanwhile Dai Fu is threatening Cheung and his roommate, another an illegal immigrant, if they don't make the payments for being smuggling into the US.
- DirectorMabel CheungStarsSammo Kam-Bo HungSylvia ChangLawrence Ah-MonChinese ex-pat returns to his home town in China after a long absence in New York.
- DirectorPeter Ho-Sun ChanChi LeeStarsLeslie CheungCarina LauAnita YuenA singer is so desperate to meet a famous record producer and his singer girlfriend that she disguises herself as a man, resulting in a wild love triangle.
- DirectorOi-Wah LamStarsCecilia CheungEason ChanCandy LoAir stewardess Jeannie meets engineer Alan on a bus and the two start their love. The two are deeply attached to each other at the very beginning and feel the passage of affection as time goes on. They break up ultimately and start to find their new other half.