Clara Law
2021Law turned her sights on film in 1988 and directed her first dramatic feature The Other Half and the Other Half. She then directed the Lillian Lee Pik-wah-scripted The Reincarnation of Golden Lotus the following year. In 1992, she won the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno Film Festival and the European Art Theatres Association’s Best Picture award with Autumn Moon. Her 1993 period drama Temptation of a Monk was selected to compete for the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival and won Best Picture at the Cr�teil International Women’s Film Festival in France.
In 1995, Law relocated to Australia with her husband Eddie Fong while continuing her filmmaking career. Her 1996 film Floating Life was awarded the Silver Leopard at Locarno while collecting Grand Prix Asturias and Best Director prizes at Gij�n International Film Festival. While 2000’s The Goddess of 1967 won Law the Best Director award at the Chicago Film Festival, a young Rose Byrne—then a little known Australian actress—was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at Venice for her performance in the film. Letters to Ali, Law’s 2004 documentary about the life of a young asylum seeker in Australia, was selected as one of the 100 greatest films in the history of Australian cinema. She eventually returned to Chinese-language cinema with the Hong Kong- Chinese production Like a Dream (2009).
Law’s husband, Eddie Fong, is also her long time collaborator. Most of her films were written and produced by Fong. In 2010, they made the short film Red Earth.
Floating Life
Clara Law
Annette Shun Wah, Annie Yip
An aging Hong Kong couple move to Australia with their two youngest sons. They stay with a daughter who has already begun a successful career. Meanwhile their eldest daughter lives in Germany and their eldest son remains in Hong Kong. The film explores the different ways the family members cope with isolation and alienation.
Floating Life
愛在別鄉的季節
Clara Law
Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Maggie Cheung
Li Hung is a desperate mother who tried for years to obtain an American visa to study to create a better life for her husband Nansan and her son. But after a short time, she loses contact with her family, and her husband, Nansan smuggles himself to New York to find her.
Farewell China
The Goddess of 1967
Clara Law
Роуз Бирн, Rikiya Kurokawa
A rich, young businessman travels to Australia with the intention of buying a 1967 Citroën DS. Once he arrives, things do not go to plan, and he must drive the DS into the outback alongside a blind young woman in order to track down its seller.
The Goddess of 1967
西楚霸王
Clara Law, Stephen Shin
Gong Li, Rosamund Kwan
Insurrection deposes the tyrannical first emperor of China during the evil Qin Dynasty. Warrior/general Xiang Yu and the cunning peasant Liu Pang join forces to win through civil war. Xiang Yu's weakness for Lady Yu combine with Liu Pang's treachery result in Liu founding the legendary Han dynasty
The Great Conqueror's Concubine
誘僧
Clara Law
Joan Chen, Hsing-kuo Wu
Near the beginning of the Tang dynasty, in 7th century China, General Shi Yan-sheng is tricked into leaving the crown prince unguarded. The crown prince is murdered by one of his brothers who then becomes emperor. Shi retreats to a monastery, perhaps to hide, perhaps to plan a coup. When his loyal troops as well as the princess he desires are slain, he seeks refuge in a remote, abandoned monastery where an aged abbot schools him with practical, earthy teachings. The emperor's forces pursue Shi: first a woman, then a general seek to overpower him with lust and might. Over the course of the film, the reds of battle give way to blues of meditation.
Temptation of a Monk
They Say the Moon Is Fuller Here
Clara Law
Clara Law
In the early 1980s, director Clara Law Cheuk-yiu left her position as a producer at Radio Television Hong Kong’s TV division and became the first Chinese student at the National Film and Television School in the UK. Her graduation project, They Say the Moon Is Fuller Here, became a feature-length film and won the Silver Plaque award at the 1985 Chicago Film Festival.
They Say the Moon Is Fuller Here
我愛太空人
Clara Law
Cora Miao, Eric Tsang
Clara Law's debut feature deals with her common theme of emigration as two people, man and woman, from separate couples, have to room together while their spouses are in America to finalize the Canadian citizenship process.
The Other ½ & the Other ½
潘金蓮之前世今生
Clara Law
Joey Wong, Wilson Lam
A woman is cursed with beauty in China and becomes prey for men. Raped by the prefect of her ballet school and sent to work camp, she escapes to decadent Hong Kong by marrying a wealthy banker. She finds herself drawn to sadomasochistic affairs and in flashbacks discovers she is the reincarnation of a famous courtesan of ancient China.
The Reincarnation of Golden Lotus
Erotique
Lizzie Borden, Monika Treut
Claudia Ohana, Robert Kotecki
Four women filmmakers examine sexuality in this anthology. Segment 1 is entitled "Let's Talk About Sex" and is the story of an aspiring actress whose day job is as a phone-sex operator. Tiring of listening to callers' fantasies, she finds a caller who is willing to listen to hers. Segment 2 is called "Taboo Palor" and tells the story of two lesbians, who, for variety, pick up a man for sex. He ends up getting more than he bargained for. Segment 3 is "Wonton Soup." Here an Australian-Chinese man tries to rekindle his affair with a Chinese woman by returning to their roots: both in the kitchen and in the bedroom.
Erotique
