Lady Bond (1966), directed by Mok Hong-si and starring Connie Chan in the title role. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Hong Kong Film Archive is marking its 20th anniversary by screening 36 films from its library. Gathered under the banner of “Treasure-Hunt Stories,” the films help chart the center’s course across two decades of “acquisition and sharing.”

“We turned to feedback from younger members of the staff to help find ways to continue to attract new generations of film lovers to these classics,” explains Priscilla Chan, assistant curator (programming), at HKFA. “These films were also chosen to help us tell the behind-the-scenes stories about our acquisitions.”

Confucius (1940), directed by Fei Mu. The movie was last screened in 1948. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Some of these stories are so fascinating that they probably deserve a film treatment of their own.

Take the story behind the Ying Yunwei-directed war-time classic Eight Hundred Heroes (1938), donated to HKFA by Dolores Wang. It’s a film her late father Daniel Wang kept hidden from the eyes of the Japanese soldiers throughout the war, at what must have been great personal risk.

Based on the folklore of the butterfly lovers, The Love Eterne (1963), directed by Li Han-hsiang, was a blockbuster. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Feast of a Rich Family (1959) was a fundraiser to support the cause of Cantonese cinema. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

HKFA staff visited the ancestral home of the Wu family in San Francisco, owners of the famed World Theatre, which operated from 1909 to the mid-1980s. That was where they found a basement full of old classics from the 1950s and 1960s, including the Mok Hong-si-directed Lady Bond (1966) starring the great Connie Chan Po-chu.

“Treasure-Hunt Stories” opened on April 30 with the 4K digitally restored version of director King Hu’s martial arts classic The Valiant Ones (1975) and will continue through to December, closing with a midnight screening of Wong Kar-wai’s romance-soaked breakthrough hit, Days of Being Wild (1990), on New Year’s Eve.

Star Wonderfun (1976), directed  by Ng Wui, tried cashing in on the popularity of TV stars. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The Butterfly Murders (1979),  directed  by Tsui Hark, tweaks the conventions of the wuxia genre by referencing Hitchcock. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Among the many other highlights is Wong Tin-lam’s musical masterpiece The Wild, Wild Rose (1960), starring a vamped-up Grace Chang, showing on Aug 21. There’s also an outdoor screening of the epic family drama Feast of a Rich Family (1959) planned for Oct 27 at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. The film combines the talents of the directors Lee Sun-fung, Lee Tit, Ng Wui and Law Chi-hung.

“We are always learning, every day,” says Chan. “What we want to do with this program is to share these stories in the catalogue, and to introduce the films and how we came to acquire them.”

She adds that HKFA has invited many donors, scholars, former colleagues and film critics to introduce the films to the audiences so that “together we can celebrate Hong Kong cinema.”