A Tribute to Hong Kong Cinema’s Pinnacle

The American Film Institute, in association with the Hong Kong Motion Picture Industry Assn. and the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office, will present “A Tribute to the Hong Kong Motion Picture Industry,” with eight films set to screen Friday through June 20 at the Monica 4-Plex.

To look at a selection of these vital films is to consider that the Hong Kong cinema is at its peak as a lively, freewheeling popular art form just as the British crown colony is to return to China’s rule.

It is likely that the Hong Kong cinema will never be the same again, even if many filmmakers move to either Singapore or Taipei, for Hong Kong has a special excitement and distinct setting impossible to duplicate elsewhere.

It’s hard to imagine that filmmakers who remain will have the same irreverent spirit and freedom of expression under Communist rule.

Consequently, this may be one of the last tributes of its kind, and it will open appropriately with the Raymond Chow production “Stage Door” (screening Friday at 7:30 and again at 9:30 p.m.), which stars the beloved comedian Josephine Siao.

Earlier this year she took the Berlin Film Festival’s best actress award for her portrayal of an acclaimed actress at a crossroads. Siao is as gifted as Lucille Ball in zany physical comedy, but this time she’s in a serious role as an acclaimed actress-manager of an immensely popular traditional Chinese opera troupe.

At an elegant 40, she’s at the height of her career when her husband’s factories fail to the extent that he feels he must emigrate to Australia if he is to have a prayer of recouping his fortune.

Thus the actress must choose between the profession--the art form--that is her life’s work and her personal life. Deftly adapted by Raymond To from his stage play and directed with the compassion and insight of a George Cukor by Shu Kei, “Stage Door” is unabashedly a star vehicle--but of the highest order.

Anita Yuen won last year’s Hong Kong Film Award for best actress as Siao’s headstrong daughter in “Stage Door,” and she has an even meatier role in Peter Chan’s scintillating comedy “He’s a Woman, She’s a Man” (Sunday at 1:30 and 7 p.m.), a movie that is ideal not only for American distribution but even more so for a Hollywood remake.

Yuen plays a typically star-struck young Hong Kong woman in a nothing job who disguises herself as a boyish young man to audition for a highly publicized singing talent search conducted by a fabled recording star super-manager (Leslie Cheung).

Cheung has transformed his beautiful live-in lover (Carina Lau) into Hong Kong’s most popular singer but, having reached the summit, the couple is a little jaded and bored. When Yuen wins the competition and moves in with the couple, both Lau and Cheung--much to his confusion and consternation--find themselves attracted to this sweet-natured Peter Pan-like creature.

What results is a sparkling romantic comedy along the lines of “Victor/Victoria” that succeeds because everyone has been drawn with such wit and dimension and so winningly played. Chan’s direction makes “He’s a Woman, She’s a Man” flow as effortlessly as a classic Hollywood screwball comedy.

Every bit as madcap as Yuen, Fan Hsiao Shun plays a young woman from China who turns life upside down for a drifting, disaffected Hong Kong gumshoe (Jacky Cheung) in Fong Ling Ching’s giddy, frenetic comedy “Private Eye Blues” (Sunday at 4 and 9:15 p.m.).

Hired to keep an eye on the pretty visitor, the private eye snaps to attention when his charge is swiftly pursued by local triads, mainland gangsters and apparently even the CIA.

Information: (310) 394-9741.

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Transitions: The American Cinematheque’s Alternative Screen series will continue Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Raleigh Studio with Steve Sobel’s deeply personal “Fall & Spring,” a study of two young men, lifelong friends, each at a crossroads.

Each is highly self-absorbed and not very interesting, yet it’s safe to say that many people in their early 20s will easily identify with them.

Information: (213) 466-FILM.

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Dark Obsession: Nagisa Oshima’s dark tale of sexual obsession, “In the Realm of the Senses,” which seemed overrated upon its release 20 years ago, will return for a one-week engagement Friday at the Music Hall, where it will be shown on a new 35-millimeter print.

Information: (310) 274-6869.