The Story of a Discharged Prisoner

With Patrick Lung Kong and Tsui Hark in person 

Patrick Lung Kong will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from director Tsui Hark on opening night. The directors will participate in a conversation with Grady Hendrix of the New York Asian Film Festival/Subway Cinema, and Sam Ho, film historian and former programmer of Hong Kong Film Archive. 

Dir. Patrick Lung Kong. 1967, 119 mins. Digibeta. With Patrick Tse, Patrick Lung Kong. Patrick Lung Kong’s breakthrough action-melodrama is the first Hong Kong film shot on-location in the slums, profoundly reinvigorating the genre, and reimagined decades later by its admirers John Woo and Tsui Hark as A Better Tomorrow (1986). Patrick Tse (in a star-making performance) plays Lee Cheuk—a prisoner released after fifteen years of incarceration to find his family estranged and his ex-fiancée the mistress of powerful triad boss, One-Eyed Jack (Sheh Kien from Enter the Dragon). In the rapidly-modernizing streets of Hong Kong, Cheuk tries to stay straight as he faces harassment from the violent triads and the hardened police. A vital film in the revival of post-war Cantonese-language cinema, The Story of a Discharged Prisoner has been celebrated by Time Out Hong Kong as one of the 100 greatest Hong Kong films of all-time. “[Both] a damning critique [and] a call for hope… [It] is filmmaking at its sharpest and most masterful” (South China Morning Post).

Tickets: $15 public / $9 Museum members / free for Silver Screen members and above. Museum members may reserve tickets in advance by calling 718 777 6840 or emailing [email protected]. Order online or call 718 777 6800 to reserve tickets. For more information on membership and to join online, visit our membership page.