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Three Husbands

Sam foo
dir. Fruit Chan
Hong Kong 2018, 101’
Polish premiere
Awards and festivals
Hong Kong Film Awards 2019 - Best Actress, Best Director (nomination), Best Picture (nomination) Tokyo IFF 2018 - Best Film (nomination)
Credits
Hong Kong 2018
Duration: 101’
director: Fruit Chan
screenplay: Fruit Chan, Lam Kee-to
cinematography: Chan Ka-shun
editing: Tin Sub-fat
cast: Chloe Maayan, Chan Charm-man, Chan Man-lei, Mak Keung
producer: Doris Yang
executive producer: Chan Wai-keung
production: Nicetop Independent Limited
language: Cantonese
colouration: colour

Film description

In the last part of his „prostitution trilogy” Fruit Chan drifts further towards fairy-tale narration full of visual metaphors which stimulate imagination and bitter satire of Hong Kong reality. Mui lives with an older man, Second Brother, on a boat moored off the coast of Hong Kong. The main source of their income is main character's prostitution, yet for Mui sex is more a matter of unfulfilled lust and irresistible biological need than simply one of the means to make money. One day she draws the attention of one of her clients - a shy underdog nicknamed Four Eyes. He bribes Second Brother to marry Mui, but living on land in a cramped social housing makes her unhappy. After all, she turns out to be a truly unique woman; her mysterious origin will push Mui and her three partners to search for the most intricate ways of sexual satisfaction. Suffice to say that Mui can do more with a papaya than Lee Kang-sheng’s character with a watermelon in Tsai Ming-liang’s “The Wayward Cloud”.

In "Three Husbands" the director once again reveals the lesser-known face of Hong Kong. Instead of skyscrapers and streets full of neon lights, the plot is set against a backdrop of junkyards on a quayside, run-down fishing villages and numerous bays, where the main characters' boat lazily floats. Fruit Chan refers to the oldest Hong Kong legends about the people from Lantau Island to sketch an imaginary tale about fierce capitalism and consumerism, which have grown into the tissue of Hong Kong inhabitants’ bodies and are becoming a cause of the city’s gradual downfall. The visual style harmonizes perfectly with the plot, drawing an extremely naturalistic and organic picture of a world that is long remembered. In Fruit Chan's perspective, the Fragrant Harbour irreversibly begins to smell of decay, and Hong Kong itself is slowly becoming a deserted city of disappointment.

Maja Korbecka

Fruit Chan

Born in 1969 in China, from where his family emigrated to Hong Kong. A director, producer, actor and screenwriter, representing what is known as the Second New Wave of independent Hong Kong cinematography. Appreciated for films immersed in urban climate, for which he often engaged non-professional actors to show in a close-up the life of modern metropolis. Interested in social issues and fascinated with the Japanese 1960s avantgarde, for instance the works of Nagisa Oshima.

Selected filmography:

1991 Wu ge ji mo de xin / Five Lonely Hearts

1997 Made in Hong Kong / Xiang Gang zhi zao

1998 Najdłuższe lato / Hui nin yin fa dak bit doh / The Longest Summer

1999 Mały Cheung / Xilu xiang / Little Cheung

2000 Durian durian / Làuh Lìn Pìu Pìu / Durian Durian

2001 Hollywood Hongkong / Heung Gong you ge He Li Huo / Hollywood Hong Kong

2004 Pierożki / Jiao zi / Dumplings

2009 Chengdu, wo ai ni / Chengdu, I Love You

2015 My City

2016 Mou sha si shui nian hua / Kill Time

2018 Trzej mężowie / Sam fu / Three husbands

Festival guests

Fruit Chan

director

Lam Kee-to

writer

Well-established screenwriter, critic and radio presenter, working in the film industry for over 30 years. He also worked as an animator. He co-wrote screenplays for Tsui Harek and Fruit Han, and was nominated for the Hong Kong Film Awards and Golden Horse Awards.

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