Ocean Flame

Wang Yao, a ruthless Hong Kong criminal, meets young innocent waitress Li Chuan, and the couple falls madly in love. Gradually he lures his girlfriend into his business of blackmailing and prostitution, and their initial passion is soon transformed into obsessive depravations. Violence and degrading sexuality escalates until the pitch-black finale, when the carcass of their dark romance is picked clean from every piece of rotten flesh.

Fendou Liu’s second feature is the very opposite of popularized Hong Kong filmmaking, usually associated with highly choreographed action sequences and slapstick humor. Here we get a dark erotic drama, delivered in a slow pace more in the line of mainland Chinese films. The elaborate cinematography has a mellow soundtrack, lending the scenes a dreamlike quality, and the artificiality is heightened since the film is set up as a flashback. Ocean Flame descends into the inferno of an impossible relationship.

Premiere Status
Nordic Premiere: Orig. title
Yi ban hai shui, yi ban huo yan: Cast
Fan LIAO, Monica Mok, Lawrence Cheng, Yitian Hai: Producer
Simon Yam: Script
Fen Dou LIU: Cinematography
Chor Keung Chan, Ying Chen: Music
Ronald Ng: Spoken language
Cantonese, Mandarin