I have always been drawn toward stories of exile and expatriation, of people living as strangers in strange lands. I enjoy their bittersweet longing for other places and other friends. Jeremy Irons plays John, a character with some of those feelings, in “Chinese Box,” Wayne Wang's film about the last days of British colonialism in Hong Kong. John is not a sentimentalist about the purpose of Britain's long dominion in its last Asian colony; his latest book is titled How to Make Money in Asia. But he has grown accustomed to Hong Kong, to his crowded little room, to his regular haunts, to hi...