Shanghai Blues
1h 42m
Directed by Tsui Hark • 1984 • Hong Kong
Starring Kenny Bee, Sylvia Chang, Sally Yeh
Ever-innovative director Tsui Hark blends virtuosic slapstick, delightfully droll rom-com shenanigans, and sumptuous mise-en-scène into a rapturous, 1930s-set homage to the classic screwball comedy. In the midst of the Second Sino-Japanese War, a soldier (Kenny Bee) and a young woman (Sylvia Chang) meet in darkness under a bridge during a bomb raid. Although they can’t see each other’s faces, they promise to meet again one day. 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 without realizing.