Song of the Exile (M+ Screenings: The Film Life of Ann Hui)

In this semi-autobiographical film, Hiuyan (Maggie Cheung), a film student in London in 1973, returns to Hong Kong for her younger sister’s wedding. Being back means she has to confront her strained relationship with her mother, Aiko (Lu Hsiao-fen), a Japanese woman who was married in China at the end of the Second World War. During a visit to Aiko’s home town in Japan, mother and daughter approach an understanding. The protagonist’s itinerant lifestyle and search for her roots are an expression of Ann Hui’s personal history, and embedded in this history is the marginality of Hong Kong itself.