# Father and Son (父子情) (1981 film)
**Father and Son** (父子情) is a 1981 Hong Kong family drama directed by Allen Fong (方育平), produced by the Feng Huang (Phoenix) film company, and released in Hong Kong on 16 April 1981[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E7%88%B6%E5%AD%90%E6%83%85/5965). Fong's feature debut, it won Best Film and Best Director at the first Hong Kong Film Awards in 1982 and was selected for the 31st [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival)[2](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/2008-04-02/16461972119.shtml) • [3](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film01.html). The Hong Kong Film Archive describes it as a representative work of social realism within the Hong Kong New Wave[4](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-16.html).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / debut | Allen Fong (方育平, born 1947 in Hong Kong); his first feature film[5](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/Chinese/Allen-FONG_c.pdf) |
| Production | Produced by Feng Huang (凤凰影业); released 16 April 1981; Cantonese dialogue, color[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E7%88%B6%E5%AD%90%E6%83%85/5965) • [4](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-16.html) |
| Screenwriters | Chan Chiu (陈召), Li Bihua (李碧华), and Clifton Ko (张坚庭)[4](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-16.html) |
| Principal cast | Shih Lei (石磊), Chu Hung (朱虹), Yung Wai-man (容惠雯), Lo Hoi-pang (卢大伟), Cheng Ho-wai (程可为)[4](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-16.html) |
| Runtime | 93 minutes in the original D Beta presentation; 97 minutes in the 2024 4K digital restoration[4](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-16.html) • [3](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film01.html) |
| Awards | Best Film and Best Director at the 1st Hong Kong Film Awards (ceremony 9 March 1982)[2](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/2008-04-02/16461972119.shtml) |
| Festival | Selected for the 31st Berlin International Film Festival[3](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film01.html) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The film follows Law San-muk (罗山木), a low-ranking office worker played by the veteran actor Shih Lei, who has been bypassed for promotion because of his limited education. Determined that his young son Kar-hing (罗家兴) avoid the same fate, he pushes the boy toward a university degree. Kar-hing, played as a child by [Li Yu](https://www.edgepedia.org/li-yu)-tien (李羽田) and as a teenager by Cheung Yu-ngor (郑裕柯), prefers films to studying and is expelled from school five times[6](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3343267/why-hong-kong-new-wave-director-allen-fongs-father-and-son-and-ah-ying-are-true-gems).
As the boy grows older the father grows desperate. He plans to send Kar-hing to a "low-ranking" university in the United States, forces his eldest daughter to marry a man affluent enough to pay her brother's tuition, and stops his intelligent younger daughter from attending college, sending her to work as a nurse to help the family's finances[6](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3343267/why-hong-kong-new-wave-director-allen-fongs-father-and-son-and-ah-ying-are-true-gems). The Taipei Film Festival synopsis places the frame at the father's death: on receiving news of his son's graduation he suffers a fatal heart attack, and Kar-hing returns home to recall his childhood[7](https://www.opentix.life/event/1925179876355235840).
The story is strung together from the boy's growth from primary school to university, and the son's dream of making films mirrors the director's own path; the Hong Kong Film Archive notes the film's strong autobiographical coloring and its grounding in Fong's personal experience[3](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film01.html) • [5](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/Chinese/Allen-FONG_c.pdf).
## Style and themes
**Social realism.** Unlike New Wave contemporaries who pursued genre experimentation, Fong took a socially realist literary-drama path, extending the realist tradition of 1950s and 1960s [Cantonese](https://www.edgepedia.org/cantonese) cinema with new techniques[4](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-16.html) • [3](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film01.html). The Archive compares its father-son material to the earlier Cantonese films *Father and Son* (父与子, 1954, directed by Ng Wui) and *Parent's Heart* (父母心, 1955), but notes that Fong shifted the narrative viewpoint toward the son and dropped the sentimental, moralizing conventions of earlier family ethics films[3](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film01.html).
The film's central theme, in the [South China Morning Post](https://www.edgepedia.org/south-china-morning-post)'s account, is Confucian patriarchalism: a father focused solely on his son's future at the cost of his two daughters' aspirations[6](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3343267/why-hong-kong-new-wave-director-allen-fongs-father-and-son-and-ah-ying-are-true-gems). The Film Archive describes the father as an authoritarian who favors sons over daughters, yet whose stern, unrelenting devotion to the boy remains moving; the result is a father-son bond that is at once loving and resentful[4](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-16.html).
**Setting.** Extensive location shooting and realistic sets reconstruct the living environment of ordinary people, reflecting social change and economic development in Hong Kong from the 1960s to the early 1980s[3](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film01.html). The young son and his friend move through squatter areas, rooftop schools, old cinemas, and rocky hillsides, and their mutual support becomes the boy's only family and support apart from his father[4](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-16.html).
## Place in Allen Fong's career and the New Wave
Fong came to features from television. After film study in the United States, including a master's degree at the [University of Southern California](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-southern-california), he joined Radio Television Hong Kong in 1975 and was promoted to director in 1976, making realist *Lion Rock* (狮子山下) unit dramas such as *Wild Child* (野孩子, 1977) and *Song of Yuen Chau Tsai* (元洲仔之歌, 1977); although television works, both were exceptionally invited to the 21st London Film Festival[5](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/Chinese/Allen-FONG_c.pdf). At the end of 1979 Feng Huang invited him to direct for the cinema, and *Father and Son*, drawing on his own experience, was warmly received and won the first Hong Kong Film Awards' Best Film and Best Director[5](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/Chinese/Allen-FONG_c.pdf).
The film opened a run in which Fong's first three features for Feng Huang and its successor Sil-Metropole all earned Hong Kong Film Awards recognition: *Father and Son* and *[Ah Ying](https://www.edgepedia.org/ah-ying)* (半边人, 1983) each took Best Film and Best Director, and *American Heart* (美国心, 1986) took Best Director[8](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/18995340/19057014/newsletter49.pdf). A PolyU master's thesis on public housing in Hong Kong cinema treats *Father and Son* as one of the representative realist works of the New Wave, noting its depiction of resettlement-block life and its unadorned, static camera style[9](https://www.polyu.edu.hk/chc/-/media/department/chc/content/study/master-of-arts-ma/dissertations/2016-17/07.pdf?hash=6ADC3262C5E41C2F4BCFD5569B4CDA50&rev=-1).
## Restoration and later screenings
In 2023 Sil-Metropole Organization donated its film library materials, including the original film elements of *Father and Son*, to the Hong Kong Film Archive for permanent preservation. The Archive began a 4K digital restoration the following year, covering color grading, reduction of image instability, removal of defects, sound repair, and re-setting of subtitles, aiming to return the film to the audiovisual quality of its original release[10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPvSDkVsgwo). The 4K restoration screened at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre on 23 June 2024[3](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film01.html), opened a Sil-Metropole retrospective at the 2024 Chinese Culture Festival[11](https://www.ccf.gov.hk/media/2024/04/%E4%B8%AD%E8%8F%AF%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96%E7%AF%80%E7%AF%80%E7%9B%AE%E5%86%8A-Chinese-Culture-Festival-2024-Brochure.pdf), was selected for the 27th Shanghai International Film Festival in 2025[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E7%88%B6%E5%AD%90%E6%83%85/5965), and appeared in the Taipei Film Festival's Classics Revisited section in 2025[7](https://www.opentix.life/event/1925179876355235840).
## References
1. [父子情（1981年方育平执导的剧情电影）, 百度百科](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E7%88%B6%E5%AD%90%E6%83%85/5965)
2. [香港电影金像奖发展历程：艰辛起步（第1届）, 新浪娱乐](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/2008-04-02/16461972119.shtml)
3. [父子情（4K數碼修復版）, 香港電影資料館](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film01.html)
4. [父子情, 香港電影資料館](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-16.html)
5. [香港影人小傳檢索：方育平, 香港電影資料館](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/Chinese/Allen-FONG_c.pdf)
6. [Why Hong Kong New Wave director Allen Fong's 'Father and Son' and 'Ah Ying' are true gems, South China Morning Post](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3343267/why-hong-kong-new-wave-director-allen-fongs-father-and-son-and-ah-ying-are-true-gems)
7. [父子情（4K修復版）, 2025台北電影節 / OPENTIX](https://www.opentix.life/event/1925179876355235840)
8. [香港電影資料館通訊 第49期](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/18995340/19057014/newsletter49.pdf)
9. [城市空間和香港意識：香港電影中的公屋情結（1976年至今）, 香港理工大學碩士論文](https://www.polyu.edu.hk/chc/-/media/department/chc/content/study/master-of-arts-ma/dissertations/2016-17/07.pdf?hash=6ADC3262C5E41C2F4BCFD5569B4CDA50&rev=-1)
10. [香港電影資料館──《父子情》修復故事, YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPvSDkVsgwo)
11. [影以載道─銀都作品回顧, 中華文化節2024節目冊](https://www.ccf.gov.hk/media/2024/04/%E4%B8%AD%E8%8F%AF%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96%E7%AF%80%E7%AF%80%E7%9B%AE%E5%86%8A-Chinese-Culture-Festival-2024-Brochure.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1980s › Released 1980 to 1985*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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