Yonfan, prince of sensuous Hong Kong cinema, will make a return to the big screen this year with his first new feature in a decade. The picture will be his first animation.
“No. 7 Cherry Lane,” is the story of a love triangle involving a university student, a single mother and her teenage daughter. It is set in 1967, a year of political turmoil in Hong Kong, which at the time was a British colony. Yonfan, who moved to the territory in 1965 as a young man, describes the film as his love letter to Hong Kong and to cinema.
Yonfan, whose movie credits include “Bishonen,” “Peony Pavilion” and “Color Blossoms,” has spent much of his time since 2009 Venice competition film “Prince of Tears” on photography, art and publishing. During that time Yonfan has also worked secretly on developing and directing “No. 7 Cherry Lane” from his own short stories. He was also on the jury of the Venice festival in 2017.
The film is a Hong Kong production through Far-Sun Film, made on a budget of some $8 million that was raised independently. It is now in advanced post production, with completion targeted at the second quarter of the year.
A local distributor has not yet been attached. Discussions are under way with international sales agents.
Three decades of Yonfan’s earlier works were previously restored and reissued through sales agent Fortissimo. The collection included the 1985 Chow Yun-fat and Maggie Cheung hit “The Story of Rose” and “Bishonen,” which represented a breakout for Daniel Wu, Shu Qi, and Stephen Fung in 1998.