The Illegal Immigrant (1985)

"A wanderer meets a wanderer"

The Illegal Immigrant was Mabel Cheung’s directorial debut, in fact, it was her graduate project at New York University Graduate Institute of Film and Television. Comprised of fellow students and borrowed equipment, with a little assist from Mona Fong, Mabel put together a solid bit of filmmaking on a small budget.

Cheung Kwan Chow swam to Hong Kong from the Mainland and then paid a smuggler for a boat ride to the United States. He’s sharing an apartment with Fatty Yuen in New York City. After being picked up by Immigration, Cheung has to find a way to get his green card and he’s running out of options. He ends up paying a young friend’s older sister, Cindy Li, to marry him on the condition they divorce in two years and keep their marriage secret. Like true love, the course of fake marriages doesn’t run smoothly.

The acting in this film was serviceable especially considering they were mostly friends of Mabel Cheung and Alex Law at school. The dubbing was fairly atrocious though with several characters. You could see Mabel trying out different filming techniques and while her efforts were commendable, they also looked cobbled together at times. Much of the action took place in Chinatown off of Canal Street with rundown apartments and buildings covered in graffiti. The music ran from quite well done to awkwardly obvious.

This was an interesting ground view of being an illegal immigrant in NYC during the 1980s. Smugglers demanding money. Immigration Officers dropping in and burdening immigrants with high fines and bureaucratic paperwork in an unfamiliar language. Black market green cards and scam marriages being tossed about. I would like to have known more about Cheung. He was said to be well educated and had performed in numerous kung fu films. He had no legal status in Hong Kong, but his mom lived there. What drove him to the US? Despite the presence of gangs, financial and legal difficulties, Mabel Cheung kept the mood light for the most part. The romance developed rather quickly yet not unexpectedly.

Director Cheung was the Hong Kong Film Awards winner for Best Director in 1986. I’m always pleased when women are given the chance to direct and succeed. And this film also showed women helping women as Shaw Brothers’ Mona Fong contributed $150,000 towards the film. Mabel would go on to direct An Autumn’s Tale in 1987 which I quite liked. The Illegal Immigrant was rough around the edges and had a typical 80s Hong Kong ending but it also felt authentic without preaching or being overly melodramatic. It was a nice show of restraint from a new filmmaker. I gave it a slight ratings bump for being pre-1990 and also being largely a school project.

2 August 2026

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