From August 15 – 24, the Museum of the Moving Image will host Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: The Cinema of Patrick Lung Kong, a retrospective of Hong Kong auteur Patrick Lung Kong (龍剛 / 龙刚). Though without an English-language Wikipedia article (!), he was prolific as an actor (60 films) and writer and director (14 films) and influenced other Hong Kong auteurs like John Woo (吳宇森 / 吴宇森) and Tsui Hark (徐克). The series’ program description says: “Portraying oft-neglected social realities with unflinching fervor, and with formal inventiveness, he drew on the rich traditions of Cantonese cinema while bringing new social dimensions to genre filmmaking.”
The series is co-presented with the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office New York and New York Asian Film Festival/Subway Cinema.
Seven films that he directed and two for which he served as writer or producer are presented: (descriptions are quoted or paraphrased from the Museum of the Moving Image’s synopses):
The Story of a Discharged Prisoner (英雄本色) (Dir. Patrick Lung Kong, 1967, 119 mins)
Friday, August 15, 7 PM
After fifteen years of imprisonment, Lee Cheuk finds it difficult to stay straight as a triad boss tries to recruit his services and the police pressuring him to become an informant. The genre-defining film inspired John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow and in 2005 was #39 in the Hong Kong Film Awards‘ list of Top 100 Hong Kong films.
Patrick Lung Kong will be present to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from director Tsui Hark. The directors will participate in a conversation with Grady Hendrix of the New York Asian Film Festival/Subway Cinema, and Sam Ho, film historian and former programmer of Hong Kong Film Archive.
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Teddy Girls (飞女正传 / 飛女正傳) (Dir. Patrick Lung Kong, 1969, 107 mins)
Saturday, August 16, 3 PM
Gritty and violent, this film about a rebellious young woman sent to an all-girls reform school who later escapes to exact revenge male betrayers is more social commentary than exploitation film.
Director Patrick Lung Kong will attend for a Q&A.
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A Better Tomorrow (英雄本色) (Dir. John Woo, 1986. 97 mins)
Saturday, August 16, 7 PM
Inspired by Patrick Lung Kong’s The Story of a Discharged Prisoner, this classic of Hong Kong cinema made Chow Yun-fat a star and was #2 in the Hong Kong Film Awards‘ list of Top 100 Hong Kong films. “With intricately choreographed gunplay and flourishes of anti-hero swagger, A Better Tomorrow defined “heroic bloodshed” for Hong Kong cinema and took action filmmaking to an operatic level.” (Museum of the Moving Image)
Director Patrick Lung Kong will attend for a Q&A.
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Hiroshima 28 (Dir. Patrick Lung Kong, 1976, 98 mins)
Sunday, August 17, 3 PM
Filmed on location in Hiroshima with an all-Hong Kong crew on the 28th anniversary of the atomic bombing, this melodrama and anti-nuclear weapons commentary tells the story of a Hong Kong reporter who learns about the tragedy and personal ruins of the bombing. At the time of its release, Kong was criticized for being too sympathetic to the Japanese.
Director Patrick Lung Kong will attend for a Q&A.
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Love Massacre (爱杀 / 愛殺) (Dir. Patrick Tam, 1981, 91 mins)
Sunday, August 17, 6 PM
A Taiwanese student in San Francisco becomes involved with a man who becomes a murderous stalker when his affections are rebuffed. Visually stylized with help of Wong Kar-wai collaborator William Chang, this New Wave thriller evokes Rothko’s color palettes and Michelangelo Antonioni’s distant minimalist landscape geometries.
Director Patrick Lung Kong will attend for a Q&A.
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow (昨天今天明天) (Dir. Patrick Lung Kong, 1970, 72 mins)
Saturday, August 23, 2 PM
Albert Camus’s The Plague is the inspiration for this film about class and political conflict during a viral outbreak in Hong Kong. The film later received acclaim and gained contemporary relevance during the SARS outbreak at the turn of the millennium.
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The Window (窗 /窗) (Dir. Patrick Lung Kong, 1968, 106 mins)
Saturday, August 23, 4 PM
“Lung Kong’s first color feature expands on thematic concerns supplanted in The Story of a Discharged Prisoner made one year before, situating issues of social reform within an impassioned romantic melodrama….The relationship between a career criminal and a blind girl…form a portrait of marginalized life in a rapidly-modernizing Hong Kong.” (Museum of the Moving Image)
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Pei Shih (珮诗 / 珮詩) (Dir. Patrick Lung Kong, 1972, 115 mins)
Sunday, August 24, 3 PM
“Lung Kong collaborated with accomplished novelist Meng Junto pen the script for this tale of heartbreak and doomed romance. The mounting despair of two solipsistic characters headed towards an emotionally shattering break-up is depicted through an elliptical series of flashbacks.” (Museum of the Moving Image)
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Mitra ( Dir. Patrick Lung Kong, 1977, 81 mins)
Sunday, August 24, 6 PM
The first Hong Kong film made in Iran is a love story set in the Middle East.
August 15 – 24, 2014
Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue, Astoria
$15 public / $9 Museum members / free for Silver Screen members and above.
Image: Story of a Discharged Prisoner taken from the Museum of the Moving Image site