Hong Kong master Yonfan’s first feature since 2009’s Prince of Tears is also his first foray into the world of animated filmmaking. But regardless of his choice of medium, the film – which won the Best Screenplay prize at Venice – is essentially and unmistakably his. And – like when any living legend creates something new – a cause for celebration.
During the rise of the materialistic comfort of life in the 1960s, there emerges an undercurrent of danger in Hong Kong. No.7 Cherry Lane tells the tale of Ziming, a handsome Hong Kong University undergraduate, entangled between his amorous feelings for Mrs Yu, self-exiled mother from Taiwan, and her beautiful daughter Meiling. He connects with them initially through shared culture and intellectual pursuits but soon forbidden passions are revealed. The era coincides with Hong Kong’s turbulent times of 1967.