Produced by legendary actress Xia Meng’s Bluebird Movie Enterprises—the same company behind Ann Hui’s Boat People (1982)—Homecoming was the second art-house film of the Hong Kong New Wave to be shot in the Chinese Mainland. After suffering repeated professional and romantic setbacks as well as family turmoil in Hong Kong, Shan Shan (Josephine Koo) returns to her rural hometown in Chaoshan, which she has not visited in many years, for her grandmother’s funeral. There, she reconnects with her childhood friends Zhen (Siqin Gaowa) and Xiaosong (Xie Weixiong), who are now married with a daughter. Soon, Shan Shan’s return disrupts the peaceful rhythm of their rural life.

Yim Ho undergoes a metamorphosis with Homecoming, completely breaking free from commercial genre conventions. With an understated, prose-like style, the cinematography is sensitive and composed, portraying nuanced relationships alongside the material and spiritual gaps between urban and rural life. The scenes shared by the two female leads convey a complex mix of emotions, intricately constructed with precision. Released in 1984, the year Hong Kong’s return to China was officially declared, the sentiment behind Shan Shan’s homecoming carries significant historical resonance. Upon its release, the film won widespread acclaim and received six awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Film.

The restoration was made using the original 35mm picture and sound negative as well as the 16mm print preserved at the Hong Kong Film Archive, Leisure and Cultural Services Department. It is presented in the intended Mandarin dubbed version. As the negatives showed significant deterioration in reels 8 and 9, the affected sequences were replaced using the 16mm copy. The restoration was undertaken at Silver Salt Restoration.

Homecoming is one of the films under M+ Restored, an initiative supported by CHANEL.

The screening on 7 November will be followed by a talk with the director of Homecoming, Yim Ho. This talk will be held in Cantonese.

Yim Ho (b. 1952, Hong Kong) grew up in Hong Kong and graduated from the London Film School. He worked as a screenwriter and director at TVB. In 1978, he moved into the film industry, directing works such as The Extras (1978) and The Happening (1980). In 1984, he directed Homecoming, which refreshed Hong Kong cinema with its deep sense of countryside nostalgia and swept six awards at the 4th Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Film and Best Director. His subsequent titles include Red Dust (1990), The Day the Sun Turned Cold (1994), The Sun Has Ears (1996), and Kitchen (1997), all of which received accolades at international film festivals.