The Overlooked Genius of Patrick Tam Ka-ming
By La Frances Hui
This Hong Kong filmmaker is a master of film language whose stylish and innovative use of light, color, frame composition, and camera movement create a world of visual exuberance. His editing approach features back-and-forth shifts from real time to slow motion and freeze frames to create arresting effects. His emphasis on mise-en-scène has redefined the meaning of art direction in Hong Kong cinema.
Roger Garcia pays tribute to Tam’s new classic, AFTER THIS OUR EXILE
Aaron Kwok in Patrick Tam's masterpiece AFTER THIS OUR EXILE.
By Roger Garcia
The Hong Kong New Wave began in the late 1970s and one of its first masterworks was the debut feature by Allen Fong, FATHER AND SON. The film deals with the troubled relationship between an authoritarian father, who is a lowly janitorand his son, whom he hopes will prosper in business instead of following a childhood ambition to become a filmmaker. It remains one of the few Hong Kong films in the late 20th century to capture the mood, spirit, and feel of growing up in Hong Kong as Hong Kong itself grew up—and into an integral part of the global economy.
By Olaf Moeller
In his assessment of the merits and mistakes, legend and legacy of the Hong Kong New Wave, critic Li Cheuk To suggests that Patrick Tam Kar Ming's relatively low profile—despite his obvious excellence—resulted from his lack of adaptability. At first this sounds slightly peculiar, for Tam tackled a new genre with just about every film he made: his debut feature, THE SWORD (1980), was a noir-ish wuxiapian (a genre of epic often involving Chinese mythical heroes and flying swordsmen); LOVE MASSACRE (1981) was a thriller/slasher film; NOMAD (1982), a youth film; CHERIE (1984), a screwy, outré comedy; FINAL VICTORY (1987), a melodramatic gangster farce (go figure); the Taiwan-detour BURNING SNOW (1988), a comparatively straightforward melodrama; and MY HEART IS THAT ETERNAL ROSE (1989), a stylish spray of heroic bloodshed. Tam's comeback-monument, AFTER THIS OUR EXILE (2006), adds a Cantonese father-and-son-melodrama to the list.