Blu-ray Film Review | Eureka

Hong Kong 1941 (1984) • Limited Edition Blu-ray [Eureka! Masters of Cinema] — lyrical tale of love and loss set amidst the horrors of war

Years later, a woman narrates her personal story of the Japanese takeover of Hong Kong in 1941.

Hong Kong 1941, from disparate director Po-Chih Leong, is a surprisingly poetic human-scale romantic drama set amidst the horrors of war. Oscillating between lyrical beauty and harrowing brutality, it operates on several levels. Despite its setting, it remains absorbing and enjoyable with a light touch, at least for the first act, but the more one mines the deep strata of subtexts, the darker it gets. As it was never granted general distribution outside Hong Kong, this new 4K restoration from Eureka Entertainment, presented on Limited Edition Blu-ray, is an essential release that deserves to reach a broader audience.

The opening scenes are a framing device in which Nam (Cecilia Yip) watches the sunrise over the sea while reminiscing about the many dawns she has witnessed and recalling the…