Introduction by Archive Research and Study Center Officer Maya Montañez Smukler. Q&A with Michael Berry, director of UCLA Center for Chinese Studies, and guest programmer Janet Louie, Ph.D. candidate, Harvard University.
Saturday, February 14, 2026
7:30 PM - 10:15 PM
Hammer Museum, Billy Wilder Theater
Screening 1 of 2
Passion
最愛
Year: 1986
Country: Hong Kong
Language: in Cantonese with traditional Chinese and English subtitles
Runtime: 90 min.
35mm Color
Sylvia Chang directs, writes and co-stars in this story of best friends Wendy (Chang) and Ming (Cora Miao), who fall in love with the same man, John (George Lam). Chang — described by The New York Times as “Taiwan’s answer to Barbra Streisand” — is also an accomplished singer, and she demonstrates her deft skill behind the camera in this D&B Films production, her second directorial effort. Melodrama shapes the film’s emotional terrain, as tensions unfold over decades and the characters face moral dilemmas that pit fidelity and friendship against the reckless pull of passion.
Director/Screenwriter: Sylvia Chang. With: Sylvia Chang, Cora Miao, George Lam, Chung King Fai.
Screening 2 of 2
Starry Is the Night
今夜星光燦爛
Year: 1988
Country: Hong Kong
Language: in Cantonese with traditional Chinese and English subtitles
Runtime: 94 min.
35mm Color
Prolific filmmaker Ann Hui plays with narrative structure as a means of exploring character interiority in this intergenerational love story between Chui Mei (Brigitte Lin) and her lovers, Dr. Zhang (George Lam) and Tian-An (David Ng). Lin delivers a tender performance as an ordinary woman confronting her past affairs while contemplating future entanglements. (She would later gain further acclaim in the wuxia genre of martial arts epics.) Lam once again co-stars as a tormented love interest whose brooding sex appeal makes him irresistible yet ill-equipped to navigate the temptations of human nature. A Shaw Brothers and Tomson Films production.
Director: Ann Hui. Screenwriter: Leung Suk-Wah. With: Brigitte Lin, George Lam, Derek Yee Tung-Sing, David Wu, Rebecca Pan, Yip San.
Ticket Info:
Free admission
No advance reservations
Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office
Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis
The box office opens one hour before the event
This event is part of the series "Echoes From Spring Street: The World of Sing Lee and Chinese-Language Cinema in L.A."
Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies, Film and Television Archive