Past Screenings

Screening No.1

FIRST LOVE: A LITTER ON THE BREEZE (1997)

Dir: Eric Kot	Language: Cantonese
County of origin: Hong Kong	Runtime: 1hr 39mins

When I read reviews about this film, the same things tend to be repeated:

the director is annoying
the film is a mess
Takeshi Kaneshiro is beautiful
it feels like a Wong Kar-wai parody
nothing makes sense
the only reason to watch is Christopher Doyle’s cinematography

I think all of these things are true, and that’s exactly why I chose it. To me, its strangeness is its strength. It feels different from what Hong Kong cinema is usually known for, and that difference makes it worth watching.

What I love most is the film’s playfulness with form. The breaking of the fourth wall and the director’s constant interruptions might frustrate some, but I found them interesting and refreshing. A film doesn’t always have to be a cleanly executed plot and narrative, sometimes it can be about the messy process of making itself. The score holds everything together, creating moments with a western-like tension, and Doyle’s cinematography adds beauty and cohesion. Even though Wong Kar-wai produced it, I find it holds more feeling and honesty than some of his more renowned works.

Beneath the mess, the film uncovers something more complicated and tender: the vulnerability of love. Both stories circle around this theme in different ways. In the first, the sleepwalker is literally vulnerable, guided through the city by Kaneshiro while she drifts between dreams. In the second, vulnerability is found in the weight of past experiences carried by both characters. The ideas feel half-formed, as if never fully explored within the film, yet they’re tied together by a fragile, persistent thread.

But finally I felt proud watching this film. Proud that something so odd, funny, and unstructured could come out of Hong Kong, away from the classic comedies and polished Wong Kar-wai classics the city is known for. Proud of its idiosyncrasies and its refusal to take itself too seriously. For me, it’s a strange little gem that celebrates chaos, vulnerability, and experimentation — all the reasons I love cinema.