Cinevue

You might think that I am talking about Wong Kar-wai, but no, before Wong, there was Patrick Tam Ka-ming.

Overlooked at home and abroad for many years, Tam is returning triumphantly with the celebrated film AFTER THIS OUR EXILE (2006), his first directorial effort in seventeen years. A film about a father who instructs his young son to steal, AFTER has garnered major film awards in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan and has been touring the international festival circuit. The film, along with a retrospective of his earlier work, is part of the 30th Asian American International Film Festival and should offer a perfect—and necessary—moment to reexamine Tam’s artistic significance.

Born in 1948, Tam was still a high school student when he started writing film reviews. In 1967, upon graduation, he joined Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), the television channel credited with training some of the world’s renowned film talent, including Wong Kar-wai, Chow Yun Fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung and many more. At TVB, Tam worked as screenwriter and director, among other roles. In 1975 TVB sent him to San Francisco to study filmmaking. He returned to make television films. He was recognized for creating original dramas, including Seven Women and the police drama C.I.D. He was also part of the first generation of music video directors in Hong Kong.

But Tam’s most notable achievements came in film. Along with Tsui Hark, Ann Hui, Allen Fong, and others, Tam was part of the Hong Kong New Wave, a film movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Unlike filmmakers of earlier generations who kept close ties with mainland China, New Wave filmmakers came of age in Hong Kong. Their work, influenced by European art cinema, was bold, innovative and reflected an emerging Hong Kong identity in what was then a British colony. Many of their films tackle the crime and social problems rampant during Hong Kong’s fast socio-economic development in the 1970s and 1980s. Tam’s NOMAD (1982) is a perfect example. A film about young people, it deals with economic disparity, the love/hate relationship with foreign cultures, youth alienation, and sexual liberation.

It is thanks to his stylistic innovations that Tam stands out. A formalist with a keen interest in popular genres, he experimented with lights, colors, and cinematography in a most meticulous manner and became a celebrated film editor. His unconventional and stylized editing for Wong Kar-wai’s DAYS OF BEING WILD (1991) and ASHES OF TIME (1994) helped shape Wong’s distinctive—and much imitated—style. In fact, the two filmmakers’ connection goes a long way. The young Wong, who some consider Tam’s protégé, was a screenwriter for Tam’s FINAL VICTORY (1987), a film about a man falling in love with his best friend’s lover in a world of gang violence. It is no coincidence that Wong’s long-time collaborators cinematographer Christopher Doyle and art director William Chang also participated in earlier Tam projects.

Tam’s bold use of film language was already apparent in his first film THE SWORD (1980), a martial arts period piece. Featuring fantastically choreographed and superbly edited swordfight sequences, the film also has a tightly-structured and well-developed narrative. In an argument sequence involving two female characters Hsiao Yue and Ying Chi, two 180-degree camera movements, coupled with a few calculated steps made by the characters, turn what could have been a trivial argument into a well-choreographed confrontation. First we see a close-up of the two women, Hsiao Yue on the right and Ying Chi on the left. As the camera rotates around Ying Chi, Hsiao Yue disappears from the screen, only to magically re-appear on the left side of Ying Chi moments later, while the camera continues to turn to bring on new surprises. This well-rehearsed and painstakingly calculated trick adds tension and motion to what could have been a static and predictable scene.

Color and light are important formal elements in Tam’s films. It is hard not to notice the blue tone of MY HEART IS THAT ETERNAL ROSE (1989), a film about a woman forced to become a gang leader’s mistress. Much of the story takes place at night or in dimly lit spaces. The blue tone accentuates a sense of loss and melancholy. Spots of golden orange light expose faces otherwise hidden in the shadows. Changes in color and intensity, more typical of stage design, create atmospheric effects. No other Tam film, though, features as bold a use of color as FINAL VICTORY. In its underground world, characters frequent mahjong parlors, nightclubs, bars, and streets drenched in neon lights. Elaborate lighting and set design, along with contrasting costumes and makeup, bring forth saturated blues, reds, greens, yellows, and pinks. The result is a deep and vivid visual impression.

Tam has made himself a truly admired film editor. His cuts are clean and precise. In action sequences, he focuses on the core of the action—close-ups of guns, close-ups of faces, shots of people hit by bullets—all placed together by rapid cuts, heightening tension and generating surprises. Tam has openly acknowledged his admiration for the editing style of Robert Bresson, whose minimal and direct approach to editing seeks to eliminate excesses. His visual strategy focuses on the essence of the human soul and what he calls the “truth.” Adopting this same editing technique but not exactly the ideology behind it, Tam has created a visual style to another effect. In his films, the cuts are showy, drawing attention to themselves. In the first fight sequence of Wong Kar-wai’s ASHES OF TIME, which Tam edited, we see only blades, flashes of the fighters, splashes of colors and lights, with an occasional quick focus on parts of a body. Actions dissolve into abstract patterns. What you see is a moving impressionist picture.

Tam made a total of seven films in the 1980s. He took a break from film directing after MY HEART IS THAT ETERNAL ROSE. He shot commercials in Taiwan in the early 1990s. In 1995 he moved to Malaysia to teach filmmaking. This is where he started developing the student script that would eventually turn into AFTER THIS OUR EXILE. In 2000 he joined the faculty of Hong Kong City University where he remains until today. He continued to work as a film editor for some smaller film projects until Johnnie To’s ELECTION (2005). AFTER THIS OUR EXILE marks a major comeback for Tam and a departure from his signature style. Shifting away from his emphasis on visual elements, Tam shows a deeper interest in character and plot development. Ironically, it took this latest work to bring overdue attention to his earlier career achievement.

La Frances Hui is the Senior Program Officer of Performing Arts at the Asia Society. She has over a decade of experience presenting dance, music, theater, and film in New York. La has served on review panels for the Asian American International Film Festival, National Endowment for the Arts, and Dance Theater Workshop. A native of Hong Kong, she has an M.A. in Cinema Studies from New York University.