Hong Kong Film Festival 2026-27 - Classics Revisited

My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (2K Restoration) + Q&A
Hong Kong | 1989 | Colour | 90’ | In Cantonese with English subtitles
Director: Patrick Tam
Cast: Kenny Bee, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Joey Wong
Patrick Tam’s under-seen gem from the golden age of 1980s Hong Kong cinema, My Heart is That Eternal Rose, is a star-studded romantic action film, bursting at the seams with all the stylish and melodramatic excesses of the decade. Sitting somewhere between the fraught romance of Wong Kar-wai (whom Tam mentored) and the balletic gun-play of John Woo, the film explores a fractured love triangle between Rick (Kenny Bee), Lap (Joey Wong), and Cheung (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) which emerges after a botched job for a local gangster forces Rick into exile.
A leading figure of the Hong Kong New Wave, Tam typified the movement’s ability to blend artistic expression and social commentary with commercially viable genre cinema. Here, as the 1997 handover to China loomed heavy on the minds of Hongkongers, Tam found a way to translate the local population’s anxiety into explosive cinematic catharsis. With sumptuous cinematography from Wong-collaborator Christopher Doyle, this is a rare opportunity to see a Hong Kong classic on the big screen.
Followed by an in-person conversation with Kongkee, illustrator of the limited edition BluRay slipcover of My Heart Is That Eternal Rose, on the crossover between cinema and visual art. Postcards featuring Kongkee's design will be given out to audience members.

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