Programmed April 2024

Hong Kong in New York

Two island metropolises enter into rich cross-cultural dialogue in these East-meets-West melodramas that double as explorations of diasporic identity. As Hong Kong’s film industry exploded in the 1980s and ’90s, mounting pre-Handover political pressures at home spurred a wave of overseas emigration—often to New York City—and gave rise to a new kind of movie that spoke to the experiences of Hong Kongers abroad. Featuring stars like Maggie Cheung, Chow Yun-fat, and Sylvia Chang, these perceptive and affecting films find such major Hong Kong auteurs as Mabel Cheung ( An Autumn’s Tale ), Peter Ho-sun Chan ( Comrades: Almost a Love Story ), and Stanley Kwan ( Full Moon in New York ) grappling with lives carried far from home.