"Monkey", a taxi driver in New York's Chinatown, returns to visit his home village in Guangdong after sixteen years away; on the boat back he meets a woman from his home region who is just as adrift and about to marry in America. In his brief homecoming, the home dialect, his clan, the old house and a love that cannot be fulfilled intertwine, showing an overseas son caught between "home" and "far away". The film closes the "immigrant trilogy" of Mabel Cheung and Alex Law, stars Sammo Hung and Sylvia Chang, and is a lasting classic of Chinese films about emigrant home villages and diaspora. It won Best Original Film Score at the 9th Hong Kong Film Awards among seven nominations, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actress.
"Monkey" comes back from New York wearing a borrowed gold chain, wanting to prove he is doing well and afraid above all of being thought to have forgotten his home and his roots. The tiny pauses are always the best part: before he speaks he glances at the others; when he laughs a little guilt shows through. Watching it again as an adult, you suddenly feel that the borrowed gold chain is not so heavy after all. What really bends a person is always wanting to live as the person others believe you to be.
