One of a number of Hong Kong films which are incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to find anywhere - even on that well-known auction site. I'd been searching for it for years, but finally managed to find it in Mong Kok for $HKD 25.00 (about £2.00 GBP)!
Not an easy film to watch, but if you are open-minded, and want more than just the usual genre experience, the lengthy running time is well worth the effort. Combining social realism with excellent acting, the film deals with the cage home issue, which hasn't gone away in HK. Over 20 years since the film's release, the problem of cage homes and subdivided flats is in fact getting worse, so this film remains highly relevant even today.
My only criticism is that I suspect that life in the cage homes is MUCH worse than is shown in the film - having occasionally lived in some dreadful housing myself (yet clearly nowhere near as cramped or as uncomfortable as a HK cage home), I think that this is a fair observation. But that doesn't take away from the superb acting, and this is clearly one of the less-obvious classics of HK cinema.
But if you can't handle this level of realism, then you probably need to go back to your copy of "My Mahjong Girlfriend 2" or something ;)
Not an easy film to watch, but if you are open-minded, and want more than just the usual genre experience, the lengthy running time is well worth the effort. Combining social realism with excellent acting, the film deals with the cage home issue, which hasn't gone away in HK. Over 20 years since the film's release, the problem of cage homes and subdivided flats is in fact getting worse, so this film remains highly relevant even today.
My only criticism is that I suspect that life in the cage homes is MUCH worse than is shown in the film - having occasionally lived in some dreadful housing myself (yet clearly nowhere near as cramped or as uncomfortable as a HK cage home), I think that this is a fair observation. But that doesn't take away from the superb acting, and this is clearly one of the less-obvious classics of HK cinema.
But if you can't handle this level of realism, then you probably need to go back to your copy of "My Mahjong Girlfriend 2" or something ;)