House of the Lute

House of the Lute is a prime example of the New Wave's effort to push the limits in both form and content terms. Critic Lau Shing-hon's debut feature is an adventurous formal exercise incorporating Chinese poetics into filmmaking. In its story pitting an aging paraplegic landowner against an energetic male servant in an adulterous triangle, it's also an examination of class differences and the conflicts between tradition and modernity. The affair is also a contest between culture and nature, animated by the contrast between the old man's refined practices and the youngster's primal sexuality, which easily overwhelms the former's young wife. Lau depicts the sexuality with frontal and unapologetic earnestness, tackling a topic with which Hong Kong cinema had always had a warped disposition.