Hong Kong 1941

With a powerful ensemble cast including Chow Yun-fat (Anna and the King, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and acclaimed actress Cecilia Yip-tong, director Leong Po-chi delivers a hard hitting drama portraying the lives of three young friends as they struggle to fulfil their dreams when faced with the physical terrors or war. Set against a backdrop of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong from 1941 to 1945, this highly acclaimed film reveals the the harrowing effects of a conflict that shattered the dreams of a nation during almost four years if bitter repression. A story told with breathtaking cinemaography and compelling characters, the riveting action and stiking moral understones of Hong Kong 1941 celebrate the resilience of the human spirit.

The effortlessly charismatic Chow Yun-Fat stars in this excellent historical drama about the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. Yip Fai (Chow), a young man living with his aunt and hostile uncle, befriends a local tough named Kong (Alex Man). Fai wants to flee the city for Australia or America, but Kong is too attached to his home, as well as to the daughter of a local rice importer, Anna (Cecelia Yip). Passions shift among the three as the Japanese invade, creating a tortured world of collaborators, rebels, and black market thugs. Half Jules & Jim, half The Deer Hunter, Hong Kong 1941 successful juxtaposes the conflicted emotions of the three friends with the larger social chaos of the occupation; the personal and the political intertwine powerfully. Chow Yun-Fat, young and handsome, radiates a compelling mix of intelligence, integrity, and doubt. --Bret Fetzer