An intimate epic of broken lives and renewed hopes. Winner of Best Film and Best Actress at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. Hong Kong in the 1980s is an exciting time. After a century of colonial rule and recovering from the tumultuous riots of the 1960s, the people are getting involved in social and political causes. Hui's film is about a group of idealists who throw themselves into the action but are soon confronted by reality.
Unity is torn apart by diverging beliefs and devotion is thwarted by mistrust and skepticism.
Hui blends real-life incidents with imagined events, using a mosaic of TV news, still photos and street theater to recreate the 1980s, when the Hong Kong people's social awakening was affected by historical, political and personal factors. The result is an insightful drama, at once universal and specific. The Dreamlife of Angels'' by French director Erick Zonca. A powerful portrait of a friendship between two young women and how it stands up to the test when one is drawn into a destructive romance. It took Zonca two years before he found the right actresses for the lead roles and made them live together to develop rapport.