International Premiere | Restored Classics | Out Of Competition
Hong Kong, 1992/4K 2026, 150’, Cantonese
Directed by: Jacob Cheung
Screenplay: Jacob Cheung, Yank Wong, Ng Chong-chau
Cinematography (color): Ardy Lam
Editing: Henry Cheung
Art Direction: Chin Yiu-hang, Yank Wong
Music: Eugene Pao
Producer: Jacob Cheung
Cast: Roy Chiao (Fatso), Ku Feng (Luk Tung), Tong San (Teddy Robin), Liu Kai-chi (Prince Sam), Wong Ka-kui (Mao), Michael Lee (7-11), Lau Shun (Taoist), Wu Feng (Officer Lam Tsung), Victor Wong (Sissy), Dennis Chan (Councilor Tsui), Chow Chung (Councilor Chow), Teddy Chan, Joe Junior, Tats Lau, Jacob Cheung
Date of First Release in Territory: November 19th, 1992
Winner of four Hong Kong Film Awards in 1993, including Best Picture and Best Director for Jacob Cheung,
Cageman is an incisive and surprisingly upbeat look at Hong Kong’s “cagemen,” poor workers (mostly male) who live in small bedspace apartments fitting only a single loft bed surrounded by cage wire. Known as “cage homes” or, more ominously, “coffin homes,” these living spaces exist even today despite concerns over privacy, hygiene and safety.
At the Wah-Ha cage house, one of the residents dies in bed, so supervisory resident Fatso (Roy Chiao) arranges for the body’s removal from the cage. While the film introduces us to its motley cast of characters, we learn that their landlord will reclaim the building and evict all the residents. Over the following weeks, as lawyers and politicians visit and cajole the cagemen, the group becomes resolute in their stance: they will reject the meager compensation and demand to remain in their homes. Their resistance is predictably futile.
Possessing natural performances and dialogue,
Cageman moves at a leisurely pace, giving the audience time to meet its characters, including Fatso’s developmentally challenged son (Liu Kai-chi, who won Best Supporting Actor for his performance), a short man (Teddy Robin) with a pet monkey, the aged 7-11 (Michael Lee), and ex-con Mao (Wong Ka-kui). The youngest of the Wah-Ha residents, Mao is an increasingly pivotal character, as he’s recruited by the landlord’s law firm to quietly influence the residents into accepting eviction.
Corrupt bureaucracy and faux-sympathetic politicians also receive focus, though criticism of them is conventional and not revelatory. The cagemen are paid lip service by various political figures, but there is never a moment when hope or justice seems possible. The cagemen, true to their societal position, are forever receiving the short end of the stick and the film’s progression merely acknowledges that. Mao is welcomed by the cagemen initially, but due to his poor prospects he understandably betrays them. When dealing with two-faced politician Tsui (Dennis Chan), Mao declares, “I take human relationships seriously.” The statement seems righteous, but it’s just negotiation by Mao for a larger bribe – pure irony that’s in keeping with the film’s lightly satirical, knowing tone.
However, Mao’s statement is also revealing in that it effectively conveys the main takeaway of
Cageman. The film’s production comes from a social concern – Jacob Cheung and his crew drew inspiration for the film from a 1990 fire in a Sham Shui Po cage home that led to the deaths of multiple residents, and
Cageman is a sympathetic document of individuals who rarely get societal focus. The film does not proselytize or demand action, nor does it try to compare the cagemen to all Hong Kongers, as both are arguably helpless victims of uncaring governments. Instead, the film emphasizes and even celebrates the camaraderie between the cagemen. Indeed, the evening before their eviction, they dance and sing together as the camera follows them in, around, and through the cramped spaces of the cage home, and their fleeting
joie de vivre may be more poignant than their cruel fate only a day later.
Cageman ends with a coda many years later when one of the characters finds himself in a different cage. He meets other former residents of Wah-Ha by happenstance, and their brief reunion carries a remarkable weight that overshadows the indignation from their eviction. Despite its depressing subject matter, the lasting emotion of
Cageman is the warmth, the friendship, and the acceptance that the cagemen share. The cage home was where they lived, but it was with one another that they belonged.
Jacob Cheung
Jacob Cheung (b. 1959) is a director, screenwriter, producer and actor whose career has resulted in some of Hong Kong’s most enduring films. Cheung made his directorial debut with period drama Last Eunuch in China (1987), which earned a Best Director nomination at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Known best for relationship dramas, Cheung has also made films as varied as action-drama Lover’s Tear (1991), sophisticated horror The Returning (1994), historical war epic A Battle of Wits (2006), and martial arts fantasy The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom (2014).
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
1987 – Last Eunuch in China
1989 – Beyond the Sunset
1992 – Lover’s Tear
1993 – Always on My Mind
1994 – The Returning
1997 – Intimates
1999 – The Kid
2001 – Midnight Fly
2006 – A Battle of Wits
2014 – The White