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Movie
Poster for Song of the Exile

Song of the Exile

1990 · 100 min

A quiet, aching memoir that drifts between past and present, leaving a lingering sense of family wounds slowly understood.

Overview
Set in the early 1970s, it tells the story of a Chinese-Japanese student who returns to her native Hong Kong after graduating from a university in London. Once she arrives back home, she and her family begin to fight, largely due to cultural and societal conflicts between her mother and herself.

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In the UKNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.
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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • melancholicstrength 2 of 3
  • earneststrength 2 of 3
  • warmstrength 1 of 3
  • tensestrength 1 of 3
Pacing
slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • family
  • identity
  • isolation
  • memory
  • immigration
Places
  • big city
  • countryside
  • home
Era
period
Audience
adult
Form
  • nonlinear
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language mild
  • Violence mild
  • Sex none
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action1
Horror0
Humour2
Realism8
Romance3
Tension4
Darkness4
Complexity6
Emotional weight8

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Where to watch in the UK

No UK streaming, rental or purchase options are known.

Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres
drama
Directed by
Ann Hui
Written by
Wu Nien-jen
Starring
Maggie Cheung Man-yuk, Lu Hsiao-Fen, Waise Lee Chi-hung, Tien Feng, Hsiao Hsiang, Chung Siu-Kwong, Tan Lang Jachi Tian, Tinlan Yang
Music
Chen Yang
Cinematography
David Chung, Zhiwen Zhong
Runtime
100 min
Country
Hong Kong, Taiwan
Languages
Cantonese, English, Mandarin, Japanese

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