This is an extraordinary film, the work of a visionary director and a Cantonese cinema trying desperately to come to terms with the awkward transitions that are the 1960s. Director Chor Yuen was at the forefront of introducing a sense of psychology to Hong Kong cinema during those years and The Violet Girl pushes the front further to the realm of mind games and, ultimately, mental illness. It's also an early example of the genre blending that would come to define later Hong Kong films, at once a suspense drama, a detective story, a psychological drama, a romance and a comedy. The comic element is made all the more lively by the performance of Cheung Ching in a supporting role, who offers a bubbly Pink Panther imitation as a character whose name translates as 'Holmes Sherlock'!

# Post-screening talk with director Shu Kei; Moderator: Sam Ho

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