Artwork by Tom Estrera III
The idyllic, beach-side life of a retired Triad boss, his daughter Lap (Joey Wong) and her boyfriend Rick (Kenny Bee), shatters when a mob favor turns into a bloody shootout. Trading her freedom for her father’s, Lap becomes mistress to Godfather Shen, while Rick goes into exile. Years later, as Shen unknowingly hires Rick as a hitman, Lap sees her chance at escape, while doe-eyed Triad gofer (Tony Leung) completes the doomed quadrangle.
Directed by the foremost stylist of the Hong Kong New Wave (and a mentor to Wong Kar-Wai), My Heart Is That Eternal Rose is the apotheosis of Patrick Tam’s time within the strictures of the Hong Kong mainstream. Fulfilling commercial requirements while elevating formula with a lush sense of style, it sings with the painterly cinematography of Christopher Doyle and David Chung as Tam’s dream-like direction bridges the distance between the bullet ballets of a John Woo and the festering darkness of a David Lynch. It is the blue jewel in the crown of the Hong Kong heroic bloodshed sub-genre, shining bright to this day.