SHANGHAI BLUES
Special Features: New 4K Restoration
After the Second Sino-Japanese War breaks out in 1937, a soldier and a young woman have an awkward meet-cute in darkness under a bridge as they seek refuge during a bomb raid. Although they cannot see each other’s faces, they promise to meet again after the dust settles. 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, the two end up living in the same building unbeknownst to each other. Through a series of mishaps, he mistakes her new ingénue roommate for his love interest, and wacky love triangle hijinks ensue. Consummate auteur Tsui Hark almost singlehandedly reinvented Hong Kong cinema in the ‘80s and ‘90s with uber-kinetic genre opuses, amping up cinematic spectacle whether with special effects or sheer unbridled energy. This Hong Kong-styled homage to the screwball comedies of yesteryear features black belt-level slapstick and delightfully droll rom-com shenanigans. With striking mise en scene and inspired production design, SHANGAHI BLUES is “luscious, loving and a lot of fun…one of Tsui Hark’s most enjoyable works” (Richard James Havis, South China Morning Post). (Note courtesy of Film Movement.) DIR/PROD Tsui Hark; SCR John Chan, To Kwok-Wai. Hong Kong, 1984, color, 103 min. In Mandarin and Cantonese with English subtitles. NOT RATED
The 4K restoration of Shanghai Blues was supervised from the original negative by Tsui Hark with L’Immagine Ritrovata. The soundtrack was remixed by One Cool Sound.
Run Time: 102 Minutes
Opening Date: Friday, July 25, 2025
Genre: Comedy, romance