# Love in a Fallen City (倾城之恋) (1984 film)
*Love in a Fallen City* (倾城之恋) is a 1984 Hong Kong romantic drama directed by Ann Hui (许鞍华), adapted from [Eileen Chang](https://www.edgepedia.org/eileen-chang)'s (张爱玲) 1943 novella of the same name. Produced by Shaw Brothers and starring [Chow Yun-fat](https://www.edgepedia.org/chow-yun-fat) as Fan Liuyuan and Cora Miao as Bai Liusu, it was the first film adaptation of Chang's fiction and the first of Hui's three screen versions of Chang's work, followed by *Eighteen Springs* (*Half Life Fate*, 1997) and *Love After Love* (2021).[1](https://www.tfai.org.tw/zh/program/movieDetail/2c9680829be501b801a00e1752f7084e) • [2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/sc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2019-5-1.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / source | Ann Hui; adapted from Eileen Chang's novella *Love in a Fallen City* (1943), screenplay by the Hong Kong writer Pang Cao (蓬草)[1](https://www.tfai.org.tw/zh/program/movieDetail/2c9680829be501b801a00e1752f7084e) • [2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/sc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2019-5-1.html) |
| Production | Shaw Brothers; cinematography by Tony Ho (何东尼), editing by Zou Changgen, music by Man Yee Lam[2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/sc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2019-5-1.html) • [3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/starlist/1931280.shtml) |
| Cast | Chow Yun-fat (Fan Liuyuan), Cora Miao (Bai Liusu), Chiao Chiao, King-fai Chung, Elaine Jin, Jiang Zhongping[3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/starlist/1931280.shtml) |
| Release | Hong Kong, 2 August 1984; color, Cantonese with Chinese and English subtitles; runtimes listed as 98, 100, or 95 minutes by different archives[4](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/1931280/) • [1](https://www.tfai.org.tw/zh/program/movieDetail/2c9680829be501b801a00e1752f7084e) • [2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/sc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2019-5-1.html) |
| Awards | 1985 Hong Kong Film Award for Best Original Film Score; 1988 Golden Horse Award for Best Costume Design; twelve nominations across the 4th Hong Kong Film Awards and 25th Golden Horse Awards[1](https://www.tfai.org.tw/zh/program/movieDetail/2c9680829be501b801a00e1752f7084e) • [5](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB9jAEGwUik) |
| Historical place | The first film adaptation of Eileen Chang's fiction, and the film that opened a wave of Hong Kong nostalgia cinema[1](https://www.tfai.org.tw/zh/program/movieDetail/2c9680829be501b801a00e1752f7084e) • [6](https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ics/21c/media/articles/c163-201611024.pdf) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The film follows Bai Liusu, a divorced daughter by adoption of a wealthy Shanghai family, who returns to her natal home after her marriage collapses and is treated coldly there. She meets Fan Liuyuan, a stylish playboy back from studies in Britain and doing business in Shanghai, and the two dance together through a night. Liusu then gambles on a new life in Hong Kong as war looms; the couple's courtship is a tug of war between two worldly people testing each other's sincerity. When the [Pacific War](https://www.edgepedia.org/pacific-war) breaks out and Hong Kong falls, the catastrophe completes what their maneuvering could not: the two settle into marriage and ordinary life, and Liusu reflects that the fall of the city fulfilled her, though in an unreasonable world no one can say what was cause and what was effect.[2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/sc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2019-5-1.html) • [1](https://www.tfai.org.tw/zh/program/movieDetail/2c9680829be501b801a00e1752f7084e) • [4](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/1931280/)
## Production
Ann Hui had wanted to film Chang's fiction since her days at Hong Kong's television station TVB, where her proposal was turned down on the grounds that there was no slot for such material. She began preparing the film in 1982. She later said that her favorite Chang novel was actually *Half Life Fate*, but that *Love in a Fallen City* was the better fit for a feature film, since the novella is short and, like a film, unfolds scene by scene.[7](https://m.1905.com/m/film/feature/1931280.shtml)
**Casting.** The original choice for the male lead was Adam Cheng (郑少秋), not Chow Yun-fat, as Hui revealed in a 2024 interview.[8](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202403200095.aspx) Hui engaged the Hong Kong writer Pang Cao, who had begun publishing in the 1960s and moved to Paris in 1975, as screenwriter; Pang said in a recorded interview that a central idea of the adaptation was to foreground the marriage experience of a divorced woman in the 1930s and 1940s.[9](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-04_Electronic-Publications/ebook_chi_06.pdf) • [10](https://www.sohu.com/a/488593033_268920)
**Design.** The production set a high standard for art direction, costumes, and set reconstruction, carefully recreating the visual world of 1940s old Shanghai and old Hong Kong, and in doing so established an aesthetic benchmark for Chinese-language literary films of its period.[1](https://www.tfai.org.tw/zh/program/movieDetail/2c9680829be501b801a00e1752f7084e)
## Adaptation approach and reception
Hui kept the film very faithful to the novella, transferring large passages of Chang's prose directly to the screen. The Hong Kong Film Archive's program note describes this as a "hard translation" of the original's sensibility, and observes that the second half, which handles the war, works better: a few simple scenes capture the desolation of a world at war. Hui herself learned from the experience how difficult it is to turn literary imagery into images, a lesson that informed her second Chang adaptation thirteen years later.[2](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/sc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2019-5-1.html)
The film's most contested choice was showing the war on screen. Commentators have noted that Chang's signature move is to keep war in the background and the man and woman in front, and that Hui's reversal of this direction struck many as un-Chang-like.[11](https://hkctp.com.hk/news/id/3050) A common critical view holds that the film was weighed down by a heavy literary tone and that dialogue in [Cantonese](https://www.edgepedia.org/cantonese) sounded awkward.[9](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-04_Electronic-Publications/ebook_chi_06.pdf) Hui herself was dissatisfied, saying in an interview that adapting an excellent work is especially dangerous: film it too faithfully and people say it is like the original but not as good; change it and people say it is not the thing at all.[12](https://m.fx361.com/news/2020/0712/10818428.html)
**Commercial and historical context.** The film was a large production for its time, and its 1984 Hong Kong release set off a boom in nostalgia films in the city.[9](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-04_Electronic-Publications/ebook_chi_06.pdf) • [6](https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ics/21c/media/articles/c163-201611024.pdf) It was completed at the moment the [Sino-British Joint Declaration](https://www.edgepedia.org/sino-british-joint-declaration) was being negotiated and signed, and scholars have read the film's preoccupation with 1940s Shanghai and Hong Kong against that political turning point.[13](https://www.twreporter.org/a/opinion-ann-hui-our-time-will-come)
## Legacy
The film opened the screen history of Eileen Chang adaptation: after 1984, Chang's fiction was repeatedly adapted for film, television, and stage, including the 2009 34-episode television series and Hui's own *Eighteen Springs* (1997).[12](https://m.fx361.com/news/2020/0712/10818428.html) • [14](https://njucml.nju.edu.cn/5e/ed/c22609a351981/page.htm) The Hong Kong Film Archive screened the film in 2019 in its "War Images Revisited" program as a portrait of Hong Kong society during the war years, and the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute has circulated a restored DCP.[15](https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201908/06/P2019080500604.htm) • [1](https://www.tfai.org.tw/zh/program/movieDetail/2c9680829be501b801a00e1752f7084e)
## References
1. [傾城之戀, Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute program page](https://www.tfai.org.tw/zh/program/movieDetail/2c9680829be501b801a00e1752f7084e)
2. [倾城之恋, Hong Kong Film Archive, 抗战影像回眸 program](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/sc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2019-5-1.html)
3. [倾城之恋 演职员表, 1905电影网](https://m.1905.com/m/film/starlist/1931280.shtml)
4. [倾城之恋 (1984), 1905电影网](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/1931280/)
5. [傾城之戀．許鞍華改編張愛玲的第一次, myTV SUPER (YouTube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB9jAEGwUik)
6. [許鞍華執導改編的《傾城之戀》1984年在香港上映，引起香港的懷舊片熱潮, 二十一世紀 (CUHK)](https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ics/21c/media/articles/c163-201611024.pdf)
7. [倾城之恋 幕后花絮, 1905电影网](https://m.1905.com/m/film/feature/1931280.shtml)
8. [許鞍華因文學與電影結緣 花50年構思紀錄片「詩」, 中央社 CNA](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202403200095.aspx)
9. [City Portraits: Hong Kong Film and Literature, Hong Kong Film Archive e-book](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-04_Electronic-Publications/ebook_chi_06.pdf)
10. [许鞍华｜改编与怀旧——由《倾城之恋》谈起, 搜狐](https://www.sohu.com/a/488593033_268920)
11. [張看香港 張愛玲百年誕辰回望, 香港中國旅遊出版社](https://hkctp.com.hk/news/id/3050)
12. [浅析张爱玲小说的影视剧改编——以《倾城之恋》为例, 参考网](https://m.fx361.com/news/2020/0712/10818428.html)
13. [变化就是永恒──专访《明月几时有》导演许鞍华, 報導者](https://www.twreporter.org/a/opinion-ann-hui-our-time-will-come)
14. [新世纪十年以来张爱玲研究综述, 南京大学](https://njucml.nju.edu.cn/5e/ed/c22609a351981/page.htm)
15. [電影資料館免費放映《傾城之戀》, 香港特區政府新聞公報](https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201908/06/P2019080500604.htm)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media › Films based on novels, novellas, and short fiction › Films based on early 20th-century literature*
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