The Cinematheque

“Reaffirms Ms. Hui’s status as one of China’s cinematic treasures.”

Andy Webster, The New York Times

The latest offering from veteran Hong Kong cinéaste Ann Hui applies her refreshingly measured, low-key approach to the under-told tale of resistance fighters in Hong Kong during the Imperial Japanese occupation of the 1940s. Its true story—told with nuanced attention to the minutia of everyday life under enemy rule—concerns the relationship between an elderly mother (Deanie Ip, Venice-crowned star of Hui’s A Simple Life) and her daughter (transfixing Zhou Xun), a principled primary-school teacher who, after aiding in the smuggling out of a Leftist writer, joins the resistance. HK superstar Tony Leung (not to be confused with that other Tony Leung, of Wong Kar-Wai fame) cameos as a present-day war veteran whose memories frame the film. Frequent Jia Zhangke collaborator Nelson Lik-Wai Yu elicits poetry from candlelit cinematography; longtime Eric Rohmer editor Mary Stephen cuts moments of abrupt violence into the proceedings to startling effect.

Greg Girard, whose recent book of photographs, HK:PM, Hong Kong Night Life 1974–1989, includes a preface by Ann Hui, will introduce the screening of Our Time Will Come on Thursday, February 1.