Synopsis

Set in the 1970s, Song of the Exile portrays the life of a Japanese woman married to a Chinese Nationalist soldier post-WWII, a taboo in a time of tense Sino-Japanese relations. The film interweaves the present and the past, following Hueyin’s (Maggie Cheung) physical and emotional journey from one home to another as she attempts to come to terms with her mother’s, and eventually, her own heritage and identity.

A brainchild of Hong Kong New Wave director Ann Hui and Taiwanese New Wave screenwriter Wu Nien-jen, this semi-autobiographical work was inspired by Hui’s experiences growing up in the post-WWII era with a Japanese mother and Chinese father. Cross-cultural in nature, the film’s beautiful tale impinges upon our assumption of home and nationality as stable and endearing. The ingenious portrayal of the marginalised diaspora communities in the film brings forth the salient issue of identity faced by many Hong Kongers in the country’s postcolonial political transition. Made seven years before Hong Kong’s return to China, Hui’s work is, on hindsight, fascinatingly prescient.

Movie Trailer