Mabel Cheung’s debut unfolds as the quintessential American story: that of the “illegal” immigrant, doing anything they must to survive in the so-called land of the free. After a raid on a Canal Street garment factory leaves Cheung (Ching Yong-Cho) targeted by immigration agents, the mainland refugee resorts to a sham marriage with a reluctant acquaintance named Cindy to access a green card. An NYU graduation project miraculously funded by Shaw Brothers Studio, Mabel Cheung’s The Illegal Immigrant was entirely shot on location in New York’s Chinatown, in authentic gambling parlours and video stores, amidst real-life gangsters and undocumented immigrants cast as non-professional actors. From this results a remarkable encapsulation of a time and place that no longer exists; a comic tragedy that establishes, with unusual freedom, the foundations of what would become Mabel Cheung “immigration trilogy” a short few years later with the successes of An Autumn’s Tale and Eight Taels of Gold.
directed by: Mabel Cheung
starring: Ching Yong-Cho, Wu Fu-Sheng, Liao Chong-Yu, Peter Lee Gui-Yuen
1985 / 98 min / 1.85:1 / Cantonese, Mandarin, Taishan, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Additional info:
Region A Blu-ray
Interview with director Mabel Cheung (19mins, 2026)
“Bringing Cindy and Chau to Life” (7mins, 2026)
Selected Scenes Commentary with director Mabel Cheung (18min, 2026)
Booklet with new writing by Chiarina Chen
English, English SDH subtitles