Dir. Patrick Tam
1989, Hong Kong, 90 min
Cantonese with English subtitles
The idyllic, beach-side life of a retired Triad boss, his daughter Lap (Joey Wong) and her boyfriend Rick, shatters when a mob favour turns into a bloody shootout. Trading her freedom for her father’s, Lap becomes mistress to Godfather Shen while Rick goes into exile. Years later, Shen unknowingly hires Rick as a hitman, and Lap sees her chance at escape, while doe-eyed Triad gofer (Tony Leung) completes the doomed quadrangle.
Directed by the foremost stylist of the Hong Kong New Wave (and a mentor to Wong Kar-Wai), My Heart Is That Eternal Rose is the apotheosis of Patrick Tam’s time within the strictures of the Hong Kong mainstream. Fulfilling commercial requirements with a lush sense of style, the film sings with the painterly cinematography of Christopher Doyle while Tam’s dream-like direction bridges the distance between the bullet ballets of a John Woo and the festering darkness of a David Lynch.
“Patrick Tam directed My Heart is That Eternal Rose in 1989, as Hong Kong entered a decade of political uncertainty. The film falls somewhere between John Woo’s bullet-riddled ballets and Douglas Sirk’s romantic melodramas. With its synth-heavy score and multi-colored nightclub sets, this gem is not only a moving portrait of doomed romance, but it also laid the groundwork for many of the territory’s most iconic films.” – Mick Gaw, Screen Slate
For Asian Heritage Month, the Dave Barber Cinematheque presents three newly restored films of the Hong Kong New Wave that explore the rapidly changing urban landscape and socioeconomic anxieties of Hong Kong – Fruit Chan’s Made in Hong Kong (1997), Patrick Tam’s My Heart is That Eternal Rose (1989) and Lawrence Lau’s Spacked Out (2000). These films trace the expiration of the British lease on Hong Kong and the looming handover to China, spanning a time of significant social and political transformation, and revealing an atmosphere of alienation and uncertainty. This sense of impending change provided the backdrop against which the Hong Kong New Wave would emerge.
