Less known today after his disappearance into the wilds of local television and independent documentary cinema, director Allen Fong was considered one of the leading lights of the Hong Kong New Wave throughout the 1980s. While his better-remembered, more commercially oriented peers pushed the visual language of genre cinema to its outer limits, Fong's films took a more naturalized approach, focusing on working-class characters and often pulling their narratives from their cast and crew's real, lived experiences. Ah Ying, his international breakthrough, was inspired by the life of fish vendor-turned-actress Hui Sui-ying who stars as the titular main character. With its cast of nonprofessionals pulled from Hui's real-life family and friends, Ah Ying is an especially committed exercise in verisimilitude, tracing the arc of Hui's relationship with her artistic mentor and the beginnings of her stage and screen careers. (Chicago Film Society)