4K RESTORATION
SOUTHEAST ASIAN PREMIERE
Director: Wayne Wang
Runtime: 83 minutes
Country: USA, Hong Kong
Language: English, Cantonese with English subtitles
Rating: R21
Full Synopsis
In a rejection of his bland studio comedies like Dim Sum and the landmark family drama The Joy Luck Club, Wayne Wang returned to modern-day Hong Kong for Life is Cheap…But Toilet Paper is Expensive, showing in a new 4K restoration. A mob courier (Spencer Nakasako, the film’s assistant director and documentary filmmaker who later directed Kelly Loves Tony) travels to Hong Kong to deliver a briefcase (handcuffed to his arm) but can’t find the Big Boss—so he decides to party instead. What follows takes the noir-esque premise and abstracts it into hybrid cinema, combining the filmmakers’ more documentary experiences with gonzo scripted vignettes, seeking inspiration from and escaping into the Wild Wild East of a pre-handover Hong Kong.
This film is part of the strand Dreaming of Home. For the full Constellating Histories: Encountering Asian American Diasporas Onscreen programme, please click here.
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