Synopsis

In the final months before Hong Kong's 1997 handover, British journalist John Spencer learns he has only a short time to live. He pursues Vivian, a woman involved with another man, while filming the city's streets and people with a video camera. His encounters with Vivian and Jean, a guarded local woman, force him to confront love, mortality, and his uncertain place in Hong Kong.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film was shot in Hong Kong during the period it depicts, with the handover from British to Chinese rule forming both its setting and its deadline.

• Production incorporated real locations connected to the 1997 transition, including the temporary press room established at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Other scenes were filmed at the Foreign Correspondents' Club and near the Central-Mid-Levels escalators.

• The screenplay credits Jean-Claude Carriere, Larry Gross, Paul Theroux, and Wayne Wang. Theroux's 1997 novel *Kowloon Tong* served as a source of themes and atmosphere, rather than a straightforward adaptation.

• Gong Li made her English-language debut in the film. A language coach assisted both her English dialogue and Jeremy Irons' Chinese lines during production.

• The movie was selected for the main competition at the 1997 Venice Film Festival, where composer Graeme Revell won the Golden Osella for Best Score.