Wong Kar-Wai releases an extended director's cut of his dazzling The Hand, to January 27

The cheongsams are gorgeous in this story of a tailor and a high-class prostitute

The Cinematheque presents The Hand from December 24 to January 27

BACK IN 2004, Wong Kar-Wai’s short film in Eros, a three-part anthology with other segments by Michelangelo Antonioni and Steven Soderberg, was the dazzling standout.

Now there’s a new director’s cut, restored and extended to an hour long. It’s being released as part of a big retrospective of Wong’s work being presented by The Cinematheque via Janus Films.

The cheongsam has rarely looked so gorgeous and erotically charged as it does in this story of an apprentice tailor (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s Chang Chen) who becomes obsessed with a high-class prostitute (radiant Chinese star Gong Li) in 1960s Hong Kong.

When he’s sent to take measurements for her cheongsams, their first meeting sparks a silent yearning—one the master director conveys through the meticulous sewing, creation, and packing of these highly symbolic dresses (crafted to couture perfection by Wong’s longtime collaborator William Chang).

Watch it as a double bill with Wong’s more well-known In the Mood for Love, another dazzling story of longing from a similar era—with equally stunning cheongsams.

Articles

Queering Cinema series brings five form-pushing features to the VIFF Centre, May 15 to June 12

Moonlight, Tehran: City of Love, and more explore themes of loneliness, belonging, and desire in program curated by Fay Nass

Love and monsters stalk the backwoods of Kourtney Roy's macabre Kryptic

Ahead of a special live-scored screening, the renowned photographer and director reflects on “liminal spaces” and gore-filled supernatural encounters

Film reviews: At DOXA, haunting exposés, off-grid hermits, and meaningful cooking

Mr. Nobody Against Putin takes an urgent look at Russian indoctrination; Spare My Bones, Coyote! finds horrors at the U.S. border; Eight Postcards From Utopia runs weird commercials from free-market Romania; and more

Stir Q&A: At DOXA, Baljit Sangra throws a spotlight on an undersung Canadian jazz songstress

In Have You Heard Judi Singh?, Vancouver director interweaves archival footage, re-created moments, and mesmerizing music in tribute to late Punjabi-Black artist

At DOXA, Paul explores the loneliness and anxiety of a “cleaning simp”

Montreal filmmaker Denis Côté started out making a portrait of a shy BDSM worker and ended up capturing a generation’s encounter with the endless recursions of social media

Nechako: It Will Be a Big River Again follows the flow of a multigenerational legal battle at DOXA

In NFB documentary, Lyana Patrick chronicles the environmental harm caused by the Kenney Dam

At DOXA's Justice Forum, The Pickers follows migrant workers on European farms, May 2

A panel discussion with workers and community advocates takes place after the VIFF Centre screening

Tea Creek and Firma Aquí take top awards at Sundar Prize Film Festival

Mareya Shot Keetha Goal: Make the Shot won a spot as best B.C. feature, plus much more as Surrey-based event hands out cash and development support

Film review: Carl Bessai travels through time and midlife crisis in Field Sketches

Moving from architectural marvel to frozen cabin, the film mixes bitter humour with a poetic fugue fuelled by familial trauma

Are We Done Now? is a bittersweet exploration of the way lockdown changed us all

Vancouver director Ben Immanuel drew from his acting students’ real experiences to craft a funny and poignant collaborative film that was years in the making