The Arch

2025 4K restoration by M+, through the support of CHANEL

Ranked #20 in the 100 Greatest Chinese Films of All Time poll, 2005 Hong Kong Film Awards
Ranked #47 in the 100 Greatest Chinese-Language Films of All Time poll, 2010 Golden Horse Film Festival

Official Selection, 2025 Cannes Film Festival

Waiting is also a romance, and this lush, black & white, dreamy 4K restoration of the 1968 classic THE ARCH is possibly the most romantic film of the year. Like laughing horseback with your beloved while riding in the stream. Like lounging in the sun (in seventeenth century China), playing chess before the rain. The feature debut of the pioneering T’ang Shushuen, the rare female director working in Hong Kong in the 1960s and 70s, THE ARCH follows three women from three generations—a young widow, her daughter and mother-in-law—who live in a quiet house when the arrival of a cavalry officer sets off a chain reaction of interlocked impossible attractions.

Tang masterfully and experimentally weaves together a film of precise images and storytelling. THE ARCH portrays the passing of time like falling in love—first nothing, then suddenly in too deep. All this accompanied by a zither score that dances with her characters’ repetitions. THE ARCH explores the inner life of its protagonist Madam Tung, brilliantly portrayed by Lisa Lu, with a patience and nuance wholly different from Hong Kong or western films of this era. Lucky us to now be able to fall into the chrysanthemum world of THE ARCH—it’s about time.

– Michelle Sui