| Exploding a seemingly simple premise—a nameless “cowboy” courier (Spencer Nakasako) arrives in pre-Handover Hong Kong to deliver a mysterious briefcase to a mercurial Mob boss whilst becoming entangled with his femme fatale mistress (Cora Miao)—independent filmmaking legend Wayne Wang’s Life is Cheap… But Toilet Paper is Expensive barrels through inspired genre deconstruction, guerrilla docu-fiction and fierce political jeremiad, all with a keen sense of humor and one of the richest visual palettes of the 1990s.
Tracking the Man-with-no-name’s increasingly byzantine mission across every level of the
city’s social strata, we’re introduced fortune families, cabdrivers, hustlers, butchers and more, each punctuating the high-octane Neo-noir narrative with instantly memorable monologues that capture a now-distant era in Hong Kong history. Multifaceted but never incoherent, Life is Cheap… But Toilet Paper is Expensive is among Wang’s most unique and bracing contributions to the independent film cannon. Much-loved on the 90s international film festival circuit but unjustly overlooked in North America, this is a maverick tour de force ripe for rediscovery.
Wayne Wang has continued to revise Life Is Cheap… But Toilet Paper Is Expensive since its initial release in 1989. Wang stated that the 2021 version is his preferred cut and should be taken as the definitive version.
Digital restoration by Lightbox Film Center at University of the Arts in collaboration
with University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Funding
provided by Ron and Suzanne Naples. Restoration and remastering supervised by
Ross Lipman in consultation with Wayne Wang. |
