Kong Lung

Inspired by Albert Camus's The Plague, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow is perhaps Lung Kong's grandest vision, and a testament to his uncompromising humanist convictions. From a rat infestation in the slums, a fast-spreading virus grips Hong Kong, inducing panic when the government is slow to react. Mercilessly cut down by censors for its frank portrayal of class and political conflicts at the time of its release, the film found new critical acclaim in during the SARS outbreak decades later. (The Movie Database)

Lung Kong's first color feature expands on thematic concerns supplanted in The Story of a Discharged Prisoner made one year before, situating issues of social reform within an impassioned romantic melodrama. The relationship between a career criminal and a blind girl (a stunning performance by Josephine Siao) form a portrait of marginalized life in a rapidly-modernizing Hong Kong. (The Movie Database)

A man who is released after a stretch for theft finds it hard to get a job and reintegrate into society.