The Arch (董夫人)

Set in 17th-century China, T'ang Shushuen's groundbreaking debut feature - one of the first independent films made in Hong Kong - traces the plight of a widow torn between passion and moral obligations. The Arch follows a young widow, Madam Tung, (Lisa Lu) as she finds her heart torn between her beloved daughter and a younger man who has awoken her dormant desires. Shot in luminous black-and-white in part by Subrata Mitra, best known for his work with Satyajit Ray and Merchant-Ivory, The Arch is a pioneering work of Hong Kong cinema combining traditional Chinese aesthetics with European nouvelle vague influences. While it's reminiscent of classic East Asian melodramas, The Arch uses a whole host of exhilarating experimental techniques - from an expressionistic score to the film's unconventional use of freeze frames, jump cuts and repeated shots (the film was co-edited by T'ang and the great American documentarian Les Blank) - which build to a startling crescendo. This was T'ang Shushuen's self-financed debut feature - produced and released when the broader Chinese film industry was almost completely dominated by men - was among the first independent films to break out and garner international acclaim. Many critics see the influence of T'ang Shushuen's work - which itself also draws inspiration from European cinema - in other Hong Kong filmmakers of the 1970s and 1980s. A striking portrait of the plight of women in Chinese society with striking visual richness and distinctive rhythms which you get to experience on the big screen, newly restored. The film was restored in 4K by M+, Hong Kong, in 2025, from a 35mm release print preserved at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, and Pacific Film Archive, and a 35mm release print preserved and scanned at the BFI National Archive. Conformation, restoration, and colour grading were undertaken at Silver Salt Restoration. With an introduction by Film scholar, curator and founder of Day for Night Sonali Joshi and a pre-recorded message from director T'ang Shushuen.