The Cinematheque

“Floating Life is [Law’s] most comprehensive treatment of Chinese immigration to date.”

Dian Li, Senses of Cinema

“Floating Life describes most aptly for me the world of an immigrant,” Clara Law said of her first Australian production. She had reason to know. In 1995, Law and husband-collaborator Eddie Fong, fearful of the approaching Hong Kong handover and the evaporating opportunities for non-conforming artists, immigrated to Melbourne. Floating Life, made in the immediate afteryears, reflects the discombobulating experience of being culturally adrift in a place you now call home. A hopscotching tale of multigenerational Chinese diaspora, the culture-shock comedy concerns an aging Hong Kong couple who move to the Australian suburbs to live with their youngest daughter, a wound-up, White-assimilated career woman. Her older sister in Germany, meanwhile, senses her own heritage slipping away, and a brother in Hong Kong finds reasons not to leave. Law’s celebrated picture, her second to be laurelled at Locarno (it won the Silver Leopard), was Australia’s first-ever Foreign Language submission to the Oscars.

In Cantonese, English, and German with English subtitles

Virtual Q&A with Clara Law and Eddie Fong on January 24.

“Floating Life represents some kind of turning point in Australian cinema … the creation of an Asian Australian cinema … A generic cousin to the American films of Wayne Wang.”

Stephen Teo, Senses of Cinema