Homecoming
Dir: Yim Ho
Scr: Kong Liang
Cast: Siqin Gaowa, Josephine Koo, Tse Wai-hung
1984 / Colour / D Beta / Cantonese / Chi & Eng subtitles / 94min
Wong Yee-shun once remarked that conveying the tranquility and lyricism of images were a task more indomitable than spinning out a fast-paced film. Yet he proved himself a natural of the former with
Homecoming
. The story is told in a highly lyrical film language punctuated by Wong's emphatic editing: a Hong Kong businesswoman returns to her ancestral home after twenty years. Her heart heavy with despondency, the homecomer discovers that her urban life has irrevocably estranged her from the ways of the village, her reunion with her two childhood friends ends in disruption to their domestic bliss brought by her jealous streak. With effortless virtuosity, director Yim Ho steered his narrative away from the spate of fears and doubts surrounding the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration towards the profound experience of homecoming, offering a mellifluous meditation on the ideological and material divide, and ultimately, the sentimental bonds of both sides of the border. Touched by his lucid, observant lens, the rustic rural landscape becomes a stirring metaphor for the human condition, a beacon of resolution and reconciliation.