Single but not so ready to mingle, dance instructor Phillip Wong (Aaron Kwok) struggles to make sense of love until the free-spirited Yuriko (Cecilia Cheung) brings colour into his monochromatic life—literally, since he is completely colour-blind. When a three-million-dollar bounty is put on Yuriko, who turns out to be the daughter-on-the-run of a Japanese department store mogul, a wacky escapade across Shanghai, Suzhou, and Tokyo ensues.

Para Para Sakura boasts Aaron Kwok’s versatile groove as the ‘God of Dance’, and its theme song of the same name was an instant hit that affirmed the continued influence of Japanese culture on Cantopop and Hong Kong cinema. The film is the only mainstream cinematic tribute to Para Para dance, a cultural relic that reminds us of how collective joy can be achieved by simply swaying your arms in synchronisation with friends, which was as short-lived and spectacular as sakura.

Jingle Ma (b. 1957, Hong Kong) is a director and cinematographer who began his film career in the 1980s. He had won numerous accolades as a cinematographer for Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996),City of Glass (1998), and Kawashima Yoshiko (1990), among others. His excellence in cinematography remains apparent in his directorial efforts such as Fly Me to Polaris (1999) and Summer Holiday (2000).