Floating Life(MT)

For oversea Hongkongers, the search for a comfortable home is a lifetime obsession. Part of the Hong Kong New Wave's second wave of filmmakers, Clara Law saw the anxieties of Hongkongers and made this story about an immigrant family just before the 1997 handover. Years ago, Bing Chan moved to Australia on her own and lived a puritan lifestyle for years to save up for the family. When her retired parents and teenage brothers finally make the move to Australia, what is supposed to be the bright start of a new life ends up triggering Bing's pet peeves. "You're not here to enjoy life; it's the Chinese diaspora!" says Bing, who is nervous about being seen as a "fob" who cannot assimilate. Meanwhile, Bing's older sister, who lives in Germany, is about to buy a new home, while her younger brother feels guilty about staying in Hong Kong so he could be with a girl. In Law's world, the only thing more fleeting than happiness is spiritual satisfaction. Jumping across the world to the different members of the Chan family, Law shows the impermanence and rootlessness of contemporary Hongkongers. Shot by Academy Award winner Dion Beebe (who later went on to work with Jane Campion, Michael Mann and Ang Lee), the film's elegant images add to the film's sense of homesickness for our city.

Courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia