Green Snake

99 minutes | 1993 | Fiction | Cantonese | English and Chinese Subtitles
4K Restoration
Toronto Premiere

In the Southern Song dynasty, when humans and spirits walk the same earth, young monk Fat-hoi (ZHAO Wenzhou) vows to cleanse the world. Beneath West Lake, two snake spirits—White (Joey WONG) and Green (Maggie CHEUNG)—awaken into human form. Drawn to the mortal world, they encounter the scholar XU Xian. White falls in love while Green is tempted by desire. Caught between the two, XU Xian caught himself in a web of longing he cannot name. As Fat-hoi strikes, heaven’s law clashes with humanly feelings—unraveling a tale of beauty, danger, and dreams too wild to last.

TSUI Hark (b. 1950 in Saigon, Vietnam) moved to Hong Kong in 1966, and later studied film in the US. After graduating, he moved to New York and became active in the Chinatown community. In 1977, TSUI returned to Hong Kong and directed the widely acclaimed wuxia series The Gold Dagger Romance (1978) and his breakout film The Butterfly Murders (1979). His rise was swift: All the Wrong Clues for the Right Solution (1981) earned him the Golden Horse Award for Best Director. In 1984, TSUI co-founded a film company with his wife SHI Nansun, producing a series of now-classic films including A Better Tomorrow, Peking Opera Blues, A Chinese Ghost Story, and Once Upon a Time in China. With a prolific career of over 40 films, TSUI ushered in a new era of Hong Kong cinema.