Coming Soon
SHANGHAI BLUES
1984
Director
Tsui Hark
Starring
Kenny Bee
Sylvia Chang
Sally Yeh
Runtime
100 minutes
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A brand-new restoration of Tsui Hark’s delirious screwball comedy!
In 1937, after The Second Sino-Japanese War breaks out, a soldier and a young woman have an awkward meet-cute in darkness under a bridge as they seek refuge during a bomb raid. Although they can’t see each other’s faces they promise to meet again after the dust settles. Ten years later the soldier, now a burgeoning songwriter and tuba-player in a marching band, is back in town desperately searching for his would-be soulmate. As fate would have it they end up living in the same building unbeknownst to each other. Through a series of mishaps he mistakes her new ingénue roommate for his love interest and wacky love triangle hijinks ensue.
Consummate auteur Tsui Hark almost singlehandedly reinvented Hong Kong cinema in the 80’s and 90’s with uber-kinetic genre opuses, amping up cinematic spectacle whether with special effects or sheer unbridled energy. This Hong Kong-styled homage to the screwball comedies of yesteryear features black-belt level slapstick and delightfully droll romcom shenanigans.
"It’s old school Hollywood filmmaking—comparisons to Lubitsch or Paul Fejos’s LONESOME are not unwarranted—a bittersweet look at the lunacy of a world turned upside down by decades of war and chaos." - Notebook
"It succeeds in conjuring up the exuberance and energy that the very best MGM musicals could offer." - Far East Films
“Tsui’s technique is a mix of night club performer and rickshaw driver: he avoids being boring at all costs and delivers the goods as quickly as possible. Slapstick routines, fistfights, and song-and-dance numbers don’t merely spice up the story, they form its very structure.” - Cosmo Bjorkenheim
In 1937, after The Second Sino-Japanese War breaks out, a soldier and a young woman have an awkward meet-cute in darkness under a bridge as they seek refuge during a bomb raid. Although they can’t see each other’s faces they promise to meet again after the dust settles. Ten years later the soldier, now a burgeoning songwriter and tuba-player in a marching band, is back in town desperately searching for his would-be soulmate. As fate would have it they end up living in the same building unbeknownst to each other. Through a series of mishaps he mistakes her new ingénue roommate for his love interest and wacky love triangle hijinks ensue.
Consummate auteur Tsui Hark almost singlehandedly reinvented Hong Kong cinema in the 80’s and 90’s with uber-kinetic genre opuses, amping up cinematic spectacle whether with special effects or sheer unbridled energy. This Hong Kong-styled homage to the screwball comedies of yesteryear features black-belt level slapstick and delightfully droll romcom shenanigans.
"It’s old school Hollywood filmmaking—comparisons to Lubitsch or Paul Fejos’s LONESOME are not unwarranted—a bittersweet look at the lunacy of a world turned upside down by decades of war and chaos." - Notebook
"It succeeds in conjuring up the exuberance and energy that the very best MGM musicals could offer." - Far East Films
“Tsui’s technique is a mix of night club performer and rickshaw driver: he avoids being boring at all costs and delivers the goods as quickly as possible. Slapstick routines, fistfights, and song-and-dance numbers don’t merely spice up the story, they form its very structure.” - Cosmo Bjorkenheim