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Cheung is nine years of age and already a tough little businessman making deliveries for his father's restaurant. As he expertly urinates in the tea he is about to drop off to a thirsty customer, he explains to his accomplice how to get revenge on bad tippers.
Fan is a little girl in a family of poor mainlanders who live in Hong Kong illegally. It is her friendship with Cheung - who navigates their bustling, back-alley neighbourhood, wise beyond his years - that forms the basis for the film. Fruit Chan makes stupendous use of a largely non-professional cast, and even leaves a couple of flubbed lines (alright, it's a dacking) in the film for touching authenticity.
"Chan's films capture the casual brutality of street life for the city's underclass in a manner that can be both highly stylized and rigorously minimalist. With a ruthless sense of economy, Chan's film beautifully depicts the emotional tumult experienced by these two children in a society that thrives on conflict and chaos." - Eye Weekly --- D/S Fruit Chan P Doris Yang, Makoko Ueda, Keiko Ino WS Wild Bunch L Mandarin, Cantonese w/English subtitles TD 35mm/col/1999/118mins
