Dei ha ching

Back in the days when most major cities had at least one theatre running the current Hong Kong product, the keen movie goers could familiarise themselves with the industry's output as easily as any English language material.

By 1986 the presence of Chow Yun-fat was a flag on any production, after a string of superior efforts - STORY OF WU VIET, HONG KONG 1941, THE POSTMAN STRIKES BACK. I wandered into this one without knowing anything about it and was blown away.

It is the classic misleading exposition movie, starting like a teen romance, moving into murder mystery and ending as something more thoughtful - a contemplation of isolation.

Director Stanley Kwan later told me that Chow gave a superior performance without understanding the film. The largely unknown cast all register and the shifts of setting from the high fashion city , the trip to Taiwan with the ashes of the victim and the hospital finale are film making of a high class.

Kwan next made the exceptional ROUGE and is still on top of his game, having just turned out EVERLASTING REGRET, after a few less well judged items.

I notice that there are no comments on LOVE UNTO WASTE (not the best chosen title) which is surprising for a film of its quality and importance.