# Full Moon in New York
**Full Moon in New York** (人在紐約; original romanization Ren zai Niu Yue) is a 1989 Hong Kong drama film directed by Stanley Kwan about three Chinese women from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China who meet by chance in New York City and form a bond through their shared loneliness and displacement.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098187/releaseinfo/) • [2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film05.html) It won eight Golden Horse Awards, including Best Feature Film, and is remembered as a rare screen pairing of three award-winning actresses from the three Chinese-language film industries.[2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film05.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | Ren zai Niu Yue (人在紐約); released in Taiwan on November 18, 1989 and in Hong Kong on March 1, 1990[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098187/releaseinfo/) |
| Director and writers | Directed by Stanley Kwan; screenplay by Zhong Acheng and Chiu Kang-chien[2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film05.html) |
| Cast | Sylvia Chang, Maggie Cheung, and Siqin Gaowa, with Josephine Koo and Ko Yi-cheng[2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film05.html) |
| Production | Shiobu Film (H.K.); Sil-Metropole invested; cinematography by Bill Wong[2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film05.html) • [3](https://letterboxd.com/film/full-moon-in-new-york/details/) |
| Languages and length | Cantonese, Mandarin, and English; about 88 to 89 minutes[2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film05.html) • [3](https://letterboxd.com/film/full-moon-in-new-york/details/) |
| Awards | Eight Golden Horse Awards at the 26th Golden Horse Awards, including Best Feature Film, Best Leading Actress (Maggie Cheung), and Best Original Screenplay[2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film05.html) • [4](https://app2.atmovies.com.tw/film/fnatm0857010/) |
| Later releases | United States June 8, 1990 (New York City); Japan February 27, 1993; screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival on April 4, 2021[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098187/releaseinfo/) |
## Spoilers
### Story and characters
The film takes place in New York, where three women from different regions of "Greater China" meet and share their Chinese roots while experiencing the city from their individual perspectives.[5](https://lbms03.cityu.edu.hk/theses/c_ftt/mphil-scm-b39476492f.pdf) Siqin Gaowa plays a mainland woman who moves to the United States to marry her Chinese-American husband, struggling to fit in while clashing with him over bringing her mother from the mainland to live with them. [Maggie Cheung](https://www.edgepedia.org/maggie-cheung) plays the manager of a [Chinese restaurant](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-restaurant) who excels in her career and investments but is lost in her love life. Sylvia Chang plays an actress devoted to her art whose prospects are constrained by racial prejudice.[2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film05.html)
Despite their disparate backgrounds, cultures, and life experiences, the three form a bond through their common sense of loneliness and displacement in a foreign land.[2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film05.html) The Melbourne International Film Festival program described the film as a gentle, understated character study with little plot, whose rewards lie in the group portrait of three outcasts who establish a bond from their common plights.[6](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/19715/full-moon-in-new-york)
## Production and style
Stanley Kwan, a Hong Kong director known for delicate portrayals of female psychology, shot the film on location in New York.[2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film05.html) • [6](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/19715/full-moon-in-new-york) The Hong Kong Film Archive notes that gestures and expressions often say what words do not articulate, as when Siqin Gaowa's character conveys pain and frustration by not talking. Pan Lai's art direction takes inspiration from pencil sketching, creating greyscale images with color photography, and New York's wintry fogginess serves as a backdrop for the characters' alienation while contrasting with occasional dashes of red onscreen.[2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film05.html) Time Out credited Bill Wong's cinematography as superb.[7](https://www.timeout.com/movies/full-moon-in-new-york)
Kwan placed the film within his early body of work. In a remark quoted by the film scholar Stephen Teo, he said that in his previous films he had "projected the female sensibility onto the films, together with, of course, transformed gay sensibilities," describing pictures from his "repressed" period made before he came out publicly in the early 1990s.[8](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2001/cteq/newyork/)
## Reception and interpretation
The film was invited to more than ten international film festivals and won eight awards at the 26th Golden Horse Awards: Best Feature Film, Best Leading Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound Recording, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Music, and Best Art Design.[4](https://app2.atmovies.com.tw/film/fnatm0857010/) On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.7 out of 10 from 474 users.[9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098187/ratings)
Stephen Teo, a scholar of Chinese-language cinema, reads the three characters as symbols of the different social natures of Chineseness, making the film an allegory about China and its quest for political unity, with Hong Kong and Macao reabsorbed into the "motherland" in 1997 and 1999 and Taiwan remaining the unsettled question.[8](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2001/cteq/newyork/) A City University of Hong Kong thesis places the film in a line of Hong Kong movies set in New York, alongside *Farewell China* (1990) and the last part of *[Comrades: Almost a Love Story](https://www.edgepedia.org/comrades-almost-a-love-story)* (1996), arguing that New York serves as a mirror image of Hong Kong at a time when stories about the city "tended to turn into stories about somewhere else."[5](https://lbms03.cityu.edu.hk/theses/c_ftt/mphil-scm-b39476492f.pdf) The same thesis notes that Siqin Gaowa's character is unaccustomed to living abroad, and that her diaspora experience brings psychic trauma rather than the happiness the characters expected from America.[5](https://lbms03.cityu.edu.hk/theses/c_ftt/mphil-scm-b39476492f.pdf)
The Hong Kong Film Awards Association later named the film one of the Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures.[10](https://www.taipeiff.taipei/files/20250617135650565.pdf) A restored DCP screened at the Hong Kong Film Archive in 2024 as part of a classic-film program.[2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film05.html)
## References
1. [Full Moon in New York (1989) – Release info, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098187/releaseinfo/)
2. [Full Moon in New York, Hong Kong Film Archive](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2024/silver/pe-event-2024-silver-fs-film05.html)
3. [Full Moon in New York (1989), Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/film/full-moon-in-new-york/details/)
4. [三個女人的故事 Full Moon in New York, 開眼電影網](https://app2.atmovies.com.tw/film/fnatm0857010/)
5. [Yang Meiyuan (2010). Changing Representations of Contemporary Mainland Women in Hong Kong Cinema: 1979–2009. City University of Hong Kong MPhil thesis.](https://lbms03.cityu.edu.hk/theses/c_ftt/mphil-scm-b39476492f.pdf)
6. [Full Moon in New York, Melbourne International Film Festival archive](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/19715/full-moon-in-new-york)
7. [Full Moon in New York, Time Out film review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/full-moon-in-new-york)
8. [Stephen Teo (2001). Full Moon in New York, Senses of Cinema, issue 12.](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2001/cteq/newyork/)
9. [Full Moon in New York (1989) – Ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098187/ratings)
10. [2025 第二十七屆台北電影節 節目專刊](https://www.taipeiff.taipei/files/20250617135650565.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 1986 to 1989*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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