My Name Ain't Suzie Blu-Ray w/ Limited Edition Slipcover (Kani)

Named after Yasujiro Ozu’s custom-made, tatami-level, crab-like tripod, Kani is a new home video label dedicated to leveling the gaze and furthering the understanding of Asian cinema in North America. Focused on genre-defying films, Kani aims to expand the canon, bolster up-and-coming filmmakers and reintroduce repertory classics in context. Vinegar Syndrome’s sister company, OCN Distribution, is thrilled to be representing this diverse and unique home video line!

In her ambitious follow up to Maybe It's Love, Angie Chen offers a rebuke to the colonial imagination of films such as The World of Suzie Wong (1960). Instead, she brings the Hong Kong of the 50s and 60s to life on her own terms with the story of Shui-Mei (Patricia Ha), a “salt water girl” from the outskirts of the city, who finds a way out of poverty in the Red Light district of Wan Chai, Hong Kong. Over the years, she rises through the ranks, discovering a world of equal hardship and sisterly camaraderie, where colourful characters abound – among them Jimmy (Anthony Wong, in his debut role), a mixed-race kid looking for his father in the crowd of thirsty American sailors. Penned by John Chan Koon Chung (My Heart Is That Eternal Rose), My Name Ain’t Suzie brings a New Wave sensibility to the waning years of the Shaw Brothers Studio with a decade spanning epic that resourcefully reconstructs a bygone era of Cantonese cinema. A rags-to-riches story blending romance and brothel drama, Chen’s film is above all a tale of feminine resilience at the nexus of historical events and shifting colonial powers.

directed by: Angie Chen
starring: Pat Ha Man-Jik, Anthony Wong, Deanie Ip, Angela Yu Chien
1985 / 103 min / 1.85:1 / Cantonese DTS-HD MA 2.0

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