As Tears Go By [New Restoration] (1988)

Price: $11.99 + taxes and fees

NEW RESTORATION!
This 4K digital restoration was undertaken from the 35mm original camera negative by the Criterion Collection in collaboration with L’Immagine Ritrovata and Jet Tone. It was supervised and approved by Wong Kar Wai.

Bonus Content: Included in your film rental is over two hours of bonus content, including a video essay by TIFF Cinematheque Senior Programmer and world-renowned film expert James Quandt and never-before-seen archival interviews with frequent Wong Kar Wai cinematographer Christopher Doyle. Scroll down to watch.

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Wong’s 1988 directorial debut stunned audiences at Cannes with one of the most singular visual styles to emerge in recent cinema.

“Flashy, entertaining moviemaking … joltingly violent, sentimental and profane” –Variety

Wong’s directorial debut stunned audiences at the Cannes Film Festival with one of the most singular visual styles to emerge in recent cinema. Set in the Hong Kong underworld, As Tears Go By focuses on low-level mobster Wah (Andy Lau), who is torn between his loyalties to his gang and to his hapless, excitable “disciple” (Jacky Cheung), who has gotten in over his head with one of Wah’s triad colleagues; meanwhile, Wah’s romance with his cousin Ngor (Maggie Cheung) starts him thinking about leaving the life behind for good. A refashioning of Scorsese’s Mean Streets, Tears is more violent and less complex than Wong’s subsequent work, but introduces his heady technique at full flood.

Content advisory: violence