AllMovie

A new face in the world of independent cinema in Hong Kong, director Vincent Chui uses his first digital video feature to explore the complex array of emotions that citizens of Hong Kong hold for their city in the face of the 1997 turnover. Utilizing Dogme 95 aesthetics, Chui follows three interconnected stories involving a westernized U.S. citizen who returns to Hong Kong to experience a cultural re-awakening, a passive priest who struggles with his real-estate agent wife over money matters in a hot, pre-1997 property market, and a H.K. gossip columnist whose obsession with his editor leads her to confront the harsh memories that she's tried for years to forget. As the current and former citizens of the city ponder everything from the economics to politics of their beloved homeland, pressing issues of the past and future are brought to the forefront of their consciences, and decisions on whether to carry on with life elsewhere or simply press on in their current surroundings weigh heavily in their daily lives.