{ "id": "ep849wt5cw", "slug": "my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-sha-shou-hu-die-meng", "title": "My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (Sha shou hu die meng)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1980s-films", "label": "1980s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1980s-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "China · 1946 to 2000: Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946", "label": "China · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" } ] } ], "excerpt": "My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (殺手蝴蝶夢, Sha shou hu die meng) is a 1989 Hong Kong heroic-bloodshed romance by Patrick Tam, starring Kenny Bee, Joey Wong, and Tony Leung, who won the 9th HK Film Award Best Supporting Actor.", "snippet": "My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (殺手蝴蝶夢, Sha shou hu die meng) is a 1989 Hong Kong heroic-bloodshed romance by Patrick Tam, starring Kenny Bee, Joey Wong, and Tony Leung, who won the 9th HK Film Award Best Supporting Actor.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1980s-films", "markdown": "# My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (Sha shou hu die meng)\n\n**My Heart Is That Eternal Rose** (殺手蝴蝶夢, also romanized as *Sha shou hu die meng*; literally \"Butterfly Dream of the Killer\") is a 1989 Hong Kong crime-romance film directed by Patrick Tam, starring Kenny Bee, Joey Wong, and [Tony Leung Chiu-wai](https://www.edgepedia.org/tony-leung-chiu-wai), and blending action, crime, drama, and romance.[1](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/78033) It was Tam's last film before he withdrew from directing for seventeen years, and after decades of poor availability it returned to screens in a 2K restoration in the 2020s.[2](https://www.thegardencinema.co.uk/film/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title / romanization | 殺手蝴蝶夢 (simplified 杀手蝴蝶梦); *Sha shou hu die meng*; alternate translated titles include *My Heart Is That Eternal Love* and *Asia's Number One Killer*[3](https://baike.sogou.com/v80545690.htm) |\n| Release | 20 April 1989, Hong Kong; Cantonese language; Hong Kong rating IIB[1](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/78033) • [3](https://baike.sogou.com/v80545690.htm) |\n| Runtime | 91 minutes (some listings give 90 minutes)[3](https://baike.sogou.com/v80545690.htm) • [4](https://www.cinemamoderne.com/en/films/details/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose/) |\n| Principal cast | Kenny Bee (Rick Ma), Joey Wong (Lap), Tony Leung Chiu-wai (Cheung), Kwan Hoi-San (Uncle Cheung), Michael Chan Wai-Man (Godfather Shen), Gordon Liu Chia-Hui (Lai)[1](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/78033) |\n| Box office | HK$3,119,677, placing 117th for the year in Hong Kong[5](https://kungfutube.info/23261) |\n| Awards | Best Supporting Actor for Tony Leung at the 9th Hong Kong Film Awards (1990); nominations for Best Editing and Best Art Direction[6](https://moviecool.asia/film/qdEV3N4fG9kV) |\n| Later release | 2K restoration from 35mm color negatives, shown theatrically from 2024 and released on Blu-ray by Radiance Films[7](https://filmthreat.com/reviews/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose/) • [2](https://www.thegardencinema.co.uk/film/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nThe story opens at a beach bar run by Uncle Cheung (Kwan Hoi-San), a retired gangster, whose daughter Lap ([Joey Wong](https://www.edgepedia.org/joey-wong)) is in love with Rick (Kenny Bee). A gangster named Law Man-Shing pressures Uncle Cheung into helping smuggle his teenage son into Hong Kong, with Rick as driver and a corrupt police officer, Inspector Tang (Ng Man-Tat), in tow. A double-cross leaves the boy and Inspector Tang dead, Uncle Cheung is taken hostage, and Rick flees to the Philippines.[8](https://filmint.nu/patrick-tam-my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-1989-review-thomas-m-puhr/)\n\nTo save her father and secure Rick's escape, Lap agrees to become the kept woman of the crime boss Godfather Shen (Michael Chan Wai-Man). Rick, unaware of the sacrifice, leaves for the Philippines and later works there as a contract killer. A title card reading \"6 years later\" precedes the reunion: Rick returns to Hong Kong for a hit on a tainted witness and encounters Lap, now trapped under Shen's control and admired by Shen's driver Cheung (Tony Leung Chiu-wai). Lap resolves to leave Shen and flee with Rick; Cheung betrays his boss to help the couple, and Shen pursues all three. The pursuit ends in a bloody shootout in which only one of them survives.[9](https://wmoov.com/movie/post/15822) • [8](https://filmint.nu/patrick-tam-my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-1989-review-thomas-m-puhr/)\n\n## Production and context\n\nTam was a leading figure of the Hong Kong New Wave, a late-1970s and 1980s movement of directors who moved from television into features and mixed modernist aesthetics with commercial genre structures.[10](https://www.thechinesecinema.com/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-patrick-tam-1989-2/) The film capitalized on the \"heroic bloodshed\" (hong Kong genre of stylized, tragic gun-crime action films) gun-crime trend that followed [John Woo](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-woo)'s *A Better Tomorrow*, but Tam gave it a modernist treatment in both visual style and storytelling; critics have placed it between [Wong Kar-wai](https://www.edgepedia.org/wong-kar-wai)'s cinema of longing and Woo's cinema of vengeance.[10](https://www.thechinesecinema.com/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-patrick-tam-1989-2/) • [11](https://metrograph.com/film/9999003698-my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose/) It was shot by [Christopher Doyle](https://www.edgepedia.org/christopher-doyle) and David Chung, the key cinematographers of the New Wave in the 1980s and 1990s respectively.[10](https://www.thechinesecinema.com/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-patrick-tam-1989-2/)\n\nThe film also marks a turning point in Tam's career. After completing it in 1989 he stopped directing, saying he needed time to adjust to the commercial considerations of filmmaking in Hong Kong, and instead worked behind the scenes as an editor, including on Wong Kar-wai's *[Days of Being Wild](https://www.edgepedia.org/days-of-being-wild)* (1990) and *Ashes of Time* (1994). He did not direct again until *After This Our Exile* in 2006.[12](https://www.cntv.cn/program/sjdyzl_new/20070917/107016.shtml) • [2](https://www.thegardencinema.co.uk/film/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose/)\n\n## Style and music\n\nDoyle and Chung's cinematography uses strong blocks of color, with the youthful scenes in soft earth tones at the bar and the later scenes under harsh neon in Shen's nightclub, where Lap is bathed in deep blue while singing on stage.[8](https://filmint.nu/patrick-tam-my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-1989-review-thomas-m-puhr/) Danny Chung's synth-heavy score underlines both the moody and the violent sequences.[13](https://awfj.org/blog/2024/06/19/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-review-by-diane-carson/) The film opens with [Anita Mui](https://www.edgepedia.org/anita-mui)'s Cantopop song \"Zhuang Shi De Yan Lei\" (裝飾的眼淚, \"Decorated Tears\") over flames engulfing white roses, and the song returns when Lap sings it in a bar; BEYOND's \"Xi Huan Ni\" (喜歡你) is also heard.[8](https://filmint.nu/patrick-tam-my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-1989-review-thomas-m-puhr/) • [3](https://baike.sogou.com/v80545690.htm) The action is compact rather than spectacular: two bloody shootouts punctuate the film, with slow-motion effects and freeze-frames in the manner of John Woo.[8](https://filmint.nu/patrick-tam-my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-1989-review-thomas-m-puhr/)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nAt the 9th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1990, Tony Leung won Best Supporting Actor for his role as Cheung, a performance made when he was still a television actor before his award-winning film career, and the film received nominations for Best Editing (Cheung Kwok-kuen) and Best Art Direction (Mok Kwan-jai and Patrick Tam).[6](https://moviecool.asia/film/qdEV3N4fG9kV) Critics have linked the film's imagery to Wong Kar-wai's later work: a handheld camera sequence of Rick fleeing pursuit is described as a prototype for similar movement through [Chungking Mansions](https://www.edgepedia.org/chungking-mansions) in *Chungking Express* (1994).[14](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/2007-02-05/15301439320.html)\n\nThe film was difficult to see for many years, circulating only in poor transfers, until a 2K restoration from the 35mm color negatives began repertory theatrical runs in 2024, released by Kani Releasing in North America and Radiance Films in the United Kingdom.[7](https://filmthreat.com/reviews/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose/) • [8](https://filmint.nu/patrick-tam-my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-1989-review-thomas-m-puhr/) The 2024-2025 reviews consistently identify it as a high point of the Hong Kong New Wave and note its place in the genre alongside John Woo's gun-fu films.[7](https://filmthreat.com/reviews/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose/) • [10](https://www.thechinesecinema.com/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-patrick-tam-1989-2/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (1989), The Movie Database](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/78033)\n2. [My Heart is that Eternal Rose, The Garden Cinema](https://www.thegardencinema.co.uk/film/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose/)\n3. [杀手·蝴蝶·梦 (香港电影), Sogou Baike](https://baike.sogou.com/v80545690.htm)\n4. [My Heart is That Eternal Rose, Cinéma Moderne](https://www.cinemamoderne.com/en/films/details/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose/)\n5. [風にバラは散った／殺手蝴蝶夢 (1989), Kungfu Tube](https://kungfutube.info/23261)\n6. [殺手蝴蝶夢, 華文影視數據平台](https://moviecool.asia/film/qdEV3N4fG9kV)\n7. [My Heart is That Eternal Rose, Film Threat (Perry Norton, 2024)](https://filmthreat.com/reviews/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose/)\n8. [My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (1989) review, Thomas M. Puhr, Film International](https://filmint.nu/patrick-tam-my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-1989-review-thomas-m-puhr/)\n9. [殺手蝴蝶夢 上映資料, WMOOV](https://wmoov.com/movie/post/15822)\n10. [My Heart is That Eternal Rose (Patrick Tam, 1989), Sean Gilman, The Chinese Cinema](https://www.thechinesecinema.com/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-patrick-tam-1989-2/)\n11. [My Heart Is That Eternal Rose, Metrograph](https://metrograph.com/film/9999003698-my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose/)\n12. [厚积而薄发的谭家明, CCTV.com](https://www.cntv.cn/program/sjdyzl_new/20070917/107016.shtml)\n13. [My Heart Is That Eternal Rose, Diane Carson, Alliance of Women Film Journalists (2024)](https://awfj.org/blog/2024/06/19/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-review-by-diane-carson/)\n14. [资料：香港著名导演谭家明简介, Sina Entertainment (2007)](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/2007-02-05/15301439320.html)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1980s films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-sha-shou-hu-die-meng", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-sha-shou-hu-die-meng.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (Sha shou hu die meng)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-sha-shou-hu-die-meng. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (Sha shou hu die meng)](https://www.edgepedia.org/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-sha-shou-hu-die-meng)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-sha-shou-hu-die-meng](https://www.edgepedia.org/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-sha-shou-hu-die-meng). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (Sha shou hu die meng)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/my-heart-is-that-eternal-rose-sha-shou-hu-die-meng. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "My Heart Is That Eternal Rose is a 1989 Hong Kong heroic-bloodshed romance by Patrick Tam, starring Kenny Bee, Joey Wong, and Tony Leung, who won the 9th HK Film Award Best Supporting Actor." }