Hong Kong filmmaker Patrick Tam was at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater Saturday night for a party and a screening of “After This Our Exile,” his first movie in 17 years. (In the interim he taught as well as edited films for H.K. directors such as Wong Kar-wai and Johnnie To.)
Set in Malaysia, the powerful melodrama watches as a gambling-addicted father (portrayed by pop star Aaron Kwok) teaches his young son to break into houses and steal.
The Lincoln Center audience saw the full-length (2 hours and 40 minutes) version. At the insistence of the distributor, Tam was forced to cut “Exile” by 40 minutes for release in Hong Kong.
“I hope I don’t take another 17 years to make a movie,” the 59-year-old Tam said. “But it will probably be another three or four years.”