Autumn Moon was a melancholy story of three lives in transition set in Hong Kong. The blue filter gave an added layer of existential angst to a 25-year-old Japanese traveler, a 15-year-old girl readying to meet her family in Canada, and her grandmother who knows that won’t be the trip she’s making.

Hong Kong teenager Lee Pui Wai and Japanese traveler Tokio meet on a bridge where he’s fishing. Tokio’s looking for a great place to eat, having been let down by his guidebook. Wai takes him to her favorite restaurant---McDonald’s. Later she brings him to the home she shares with her grandmother. Wai and Tokio communicate in broken English but Grandma doesn’t speak any and aside from asking his name, generously feeds him. Wai and Tokio strike up a friendship sharing their life experiences and the difficulties they are going through.

I was concerned this would be an age-inappropriate romance but there wasn’t a hint of romance between Tokio and Wai. Tokio had become involved with an older woman and Wai was in love with her classmate. Tokio went through women like a giant Pez dispenser. The casual sex didn’t bring any satisfaction, only reinforcing his alienation from society and himself. Aside from her grandmother, the rest of Wai’s family had already emigrated. Most of her friends had left Hong Kong as well. Once her family found a house, she would be moving. Grandma was the odd person out, unable to emigrate due to her age. The only trip she was planning on was to the Goddess of Mercy.

The available version of this movie that I found was badly degraded and cropped for television. Visually, I could see the potential spoiled by graininess and wavy lines. The dialogue could also be hard to follow when the friends were speaking broken English as there were no subtitles during the common language scenes. What still held up well was Tats Lau’s music which ranged from playful to mournful and always hauntingly beautiful.

Director Clara Law filmed the leads on different locations around Hong Kong. Though the crowded city is usually shown packed with people, Wai and Tokio always seemed to be alone. Surrounded by the unseen people and crowded buildings, they were desperately isolated in worlds of their own. The two suffered from having “trapped hearts”, unable to break through the barriers. Tokio wanted someone to get to know him instead of his 'wham, bam, thank you mam' anonymity. Wai struggled with being separated from her family and friends. Yet she wasn’t prepared to say good-bye to her grandmother and her home. She was also dealing with the complicated feelings first love creates in a young girl's heart and body. Grandma’s legacy lay in the refrigerator filled with secret, sacred ingredients that would no longer be needed.

Three generations of people and two different cultures were lovingly and respectfully shown. The characters dealt with loss, soul shattering boredom, and the unknown. Through their friendship and a private celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Tokio and Wai would discover how to revel in the small moments and find the courage and contentment they would need to travel the paths that led to happiness.

“When will the spring flower and autumn moon fade,
How much of the past do we know?
At my home last night the East wind blew…”

21 August 2024