I'm ordering a DVD of a Japanese movie (with English subs.) from YesAsia, but I want to order something else while I'm doing it and all the other Japanese stuff I want is cheaper from CDJapan. So there must be some HK classics carried on the site that never show up in Chinatown. I hoped to find some Kwan Tak Hing/Wong Fei Hung titles, but I found only one old film of Kwan's listed--WU SONG'S BLOODY FIGHT ON LION'S BOWER (1956), based on an oft-filmed chapter from "Water Margin," so it shouldn't be a problem without subs.

Anyway, I keep hearing about action films Josephine Siao made in her prime (1960s), so I thought I'd try to get one of those. There's a BUDDHA'S PALM box set that has Josephine and Connie Chan in it. Is that worth getting, even though it's without subs.? I have a few Connie Chan films on VCD. Anyone got any Josephine Siao titles that would be worth getting even without subs.?

Thanks.

Don't know if THE TEDDY GIRLS is out on DVD but if it is, you could give it a try...

http://www.kowloonside.com/screenings/teddygirls.html

I already ordered from YesAsia (I'm still waiting for the package to arrive). I ordered CARMEN COMES HOME, Japan's first color movie; WU SONG'S BLOODY FIGHT ON LION'S BOWER (1956), with Kwan Tak Hing; and SENNEN GENJI MONOGATARI, a version of TALE OF GENJI with legendary J-pop star Seiko Matsuda.

There are a lot of Josephine Siao titles listed, many co-starring Connie Chan, but I need some guidance before trying to figure out which ones to order. I'm going to take a chance with BUDDHA'S PALM, but I was hoping to add a couple of others.

They don't have THE TEDDY GIRLS under that title (or its alternate title, THE TRUE STORY OF A REBELLIOUS GIRL). But I'm intrigued. I wonder how it fits in to that whole genre of English juvenile delinquent "Teddy Boy" dramas of the early '60s.

Hiya,

The majority of Josephine Siao's martial arts pictures were made before 1968. After that year, however, she diversified her roles and began making the dramas and comedies for which she is now currently famous (not to take anything away from her output as a wuxia draw.) In contrast to this, Brigitte Lin started out as melodrama actress who transformed herself into a martial arts icon. If you like weepies (and one must admit Asian ones can be an acquired taste at times), there's an interesting 1974 specimen by director Pai Ching-jui (Bai Jingrui) called "The Girl Friend" starring Josephine, Brigitte, and Brigitte's longtime silver screen paramour Charlie Chin wherein Siao started to come into her own as a dramatic actress away from her wuxia roots whilst Lin was digging into the niche that would define her career until the mid-1980s. Siao won a Golden Horse for best supporting female actor (the first film prize in her career) as part of compelling on-screen love triangle among those three marquee players.

If you're really into her martial arts pictures, check out things from the 1960s with the word "fire" (huo) in the title. She starred in lots of remakes of films based upon "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple," some of them co-starring legendary Shanghai silent film star Hu Die whom herself made a name for herself in the 1920s as the "Red Rogue" in Red Lotus Temple serials. Interestingly enough, Siao plays that signature role which Hu made famous four decades prior (the character isn't in the novels and was specifically created for screen back in the day.)

Lastly, if you know someone who has copies of old Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on tape, Josephine Siao is on one episode (don't know the specific date) from 1970, the year she temporarily retired from filmmaking to pursue a BA in mass communications (media) at Seton Hall. Interesting note: sometime during those three years, she converted to Judaism and, if I'm not mistaken, is still a practicing Jew. "The Girl Friend" was one of the first films she made returning to the industry after her college degree.

Now, this thread is the sort of thing I still come to Mobius for!

None of these movies are available with English subs, right? Might be worth picking up a couple of the wuxias anyway, just for curiosity's sake, since so much of the interest will be visual anyway (one presumes).

Hey,

It's kinda sad but a lot of her movies haven't even been released on the VCD format.

I was browsing YesAsia and there are a thing or two worth checking out besides "The Girl Friend." There's:

"The Aftermath of a Fire [parts 1 and 2]" (1966), a "fire" or "burning" movie related to Red Lotus Temple storyline co-starring Connie Chan and Shek Kin. Four VCDs of unsubtitled material if you're willing to sit through it.

Now here's the stuff I wish they did have:

"Teddy Girls" (1969): see above description.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (1963): Siao made a wuxia movie titled "Wohu Canglong"--just like the 1999 Ang Lee movie--and I'm curious to see if it's another Wang Dulu adaptation.

"Seven Princesses, parts 1 and 2" (1967): this movie featured Siao, Connie Chan, and the five other "princesses" of then contemporary Hong Kong cinema. I was remade as "Holy Weapon" in 1993 headlining Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, and Carol Cheng.

"The Golden Bat" and "Revenge of the Golden Bat" (1966): one of her signature wuxia heroines from the sixties.

"The Way of Being Filial [Xiao Dao]" (1960): was a family drama she did with legendary Shanghai siren Hu Die.

"Mother [Mu]" (1961): another non-wuxia drama Siao acted alongside Hu Die.

"Huayang de Nianhua" (1968): a Siao musical whose title is almost exactly like "In the Mood for Love" (Huyang Nianhua.) I know what "flower-like years" means in Chinese but I'm keen to see if Siao's character was the basis for Maggie Cheungs in both "Days of Being Wild" and "In the Mood for Love."

"Red Rose, the Flying Thief" (1967): a martial arts love story featuring Siao in ten different roles!

"Burning of the Red Lotus Temple, parts 1 and 2" (1963): this film started the whole "fire/burning" revival of the sixties, features most the the major stars of the time, fight choreography by one of the Woo brothers, and is one of the first credited performances of Lau Kar-leung as a principal.

Like I said, lots of cool Josephine Siao stuff out there that hasn't been released. One just has to catch them at an archive if they're still extant. You'd think they would have released this stuff by now but nope, no one has bothered to do so yet.

Hiya,

A purchase review of Winson Entertainment's un-subbed VCD of "Girl Friend" (1975.)

Based on Chiung Yao's (pinyin: Qiong Yao) 1974 novel of the same name, Pai Ching-jui's (Bai Jingrui) 1975 melodrama tells a semi-fictionalized account of real-life Taiwanese crooner Frankie Kao Ling-feng's (Gao Lingfeng) college years before making it big in the Chinese recording industry. Charlie Chin plays Frankie as a carefree, cocksure senior from a working class family studying to become a park ranger but dreams of dropping out and pursuing a career in music. While looking for a Friday night date, a fellow classmate sets him up with fresh-faced co-ed Brigitte Lin playing the sheltered only daughter of a middle class family set on seeing her married off to nerdy engineering student Shih Feng/Shek Fung (Shi Feng.) Despite being engaged already to Shih, Charlie charms his way to Brigitte's heart--much to the chagrin of Brigitte's meddling parents who think she'll be throwing away her life if she pursues a relationship with this boy from the wrong side of the tracks. Using a little trickery they take their daughter on an overseas holiday where they furtively hold a surprise wedding for her and Shih Feng whilst visiting relatives in the US. Heartbroken, Charlie throws himself into his fledgling singing career where he catches the eye of Josephine Siao, down-to-earth small town girl turned leggy fashion model who notices him at one of his first night club gigs. Still pining for Brigitte, will Charlie realize what a keeper he has in Josephine (I repeat: down-to-earth leggy fashion model!) instead of future Stepford wife-to-be Brigitte?

Though marketed as a Bigitte Lin and Charlie Chin pic, Josephine Siao steals the show in her 1975 return to acting after her temporary retirement to pursue a BA in journalism at Seton Hall (see above posting.) I had seen stills of twenty-something Siao Fung-fung but seeing her in an actual film doing her thing... yowzers, she had it dialed up to eleven in this one! Young Brigitte is cute and all--in this pic she looks only slightly older to her previous performance in "Moon River" (1974), a Taiwanese take on "Roman Holiday" (1953) where Lin plays a role comparable to Eddie Albert's in the Hepburn-Peck original--but Josephine, in contrast, is an absolute stunner who gives a nuanced and naturalistic performance that won her her first major acting award (see above.)

No version of this film has English subs but when/if(?) one comes out (or maybe someone will produce an English subtitle script for the Hoker Media Brigitte Lin box set, vol. 3, which includes "He Loved Once Too Many" [1975] and "Love, Love, Love" [1974] alongside "Girl Friend"), grab this one up. It's a top shelf Taiwnese weepie from the mid-70s as the genre was really hitting its stride. Of gossipy note, I wonder if there was an on set love triangle among the three principals during filming. Charlie and Josephine quickly got married after this pic was released only to divorce a year later whereupon he started dating... Brigitte. Who knows? Regardless, this is a must purchase for Josephine Siao fans who not only is gorgeous but turns in a fantastic performance as well.


Back cover of Frankie Kao Ling-feng's "My Girl"/Fong Yi-jan's (Fang Yizhen) "Girl Friend" soundtrack vinyl LP (Kolin [Taiwan] KL-1034) featuring Charlie and Brigitte (but, alas, no Josephine.)

Hey hey hey,

Just following up on an earlier post. If anyone has old Tonight Show tapes, I think you'll find that Josephine Siao Fung-fung appeared with Micheal Kwan Ching-kit sometime in 1970 to sing "Little Green Apples." See:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo_yz4ftqTg

Man, just check out some of those other vintage links....

G'day everybody,

And now for a Christmas Eve review courtesy of the above vintage links: "Teddy Girls" (1969.) Director Patrick Lung Kong's (pinyin: Long Gang) "social issues" pic cannily straddles the thin line between didactic commentary and populist entertainment though if it were re-made in Hollywood given today's sensibilities, it'd come out as a cross between "Mean Girls" (2004) and "Death Proof" (2007) with maybe a little "Thirteen" (2003) thrown into the mix.

Josephine Siao Fong-fong (Xiao Fangfang) plays the teenage daughter of a tony middle class family. After the untimely death of her father on an overseas business trip, she grows disillusioned with her increasingly distant mother--played by longtime character actor Teresa Ha Ping (Xia Ping) in an unexpectedly glamorous turn (otherwise she's the prototype for the "evil kung-fu granny" that appears in many a fantasy wuxia pic)--who is being romanced by a slimy rake assayed by the director himself (and sporting a pencil thin mustache that alternately evokes both Clark Gable and John Waters.) Rebelling, she starts hanging out with her friends in adult night spots, which eventually leads her to being arrested for juvenile delinquency. Unrepentant, she is sent to a girls-only reformatory supervised by an idealistic Kenneth Tsang (Zeng Jiang) and his wife Sheng-kwan Yuk (Shangguan Yu.)

Nancy Sit Ka-yin (Xue Jiayan)--"queen bee" of the girls detention center with Lydia Shum Din-ha (Shen Dianxia) acting as her most trusted lieutenant ("chief minion" in today's yoof parlance)--don't take too kindly to the prissy up-market girl from the Peak and begin to haze her mercilessly. Kenneth's daughter Wong Oi-ming (Wang Aiming), the third of the "Seven Princesses" alongside Josephine and Nancy to appear in the film--famous child stars in the world of Hong Kong cinema that blazed through a run of musicals, costumed period fare, and puppy love rom-coms from the 1950s to the early 1960s--brings both sides together after a particularly nasty tussle. Things settle to a somewhat mundane routine of class, vocational training, and moral education until tragedy from outside disrupts the close-knit clique of "teddy girls" (local period slang for "troubled teenage girls"): Nancy's infant son, passed on to her wannabe pimp boyfriend for care during her detention, dies of smallpox; Josephine's mother commits suicide after financial calamity wrecks the family while her beau moves on to newer, more financially solvent conquests.

Grief stricken yet inflamed by a powerful new proto-feminist rage, Nancy and Josephine decide to break out and take justice into their own hands, bringing wrath unto all the men that have wronged them in life. Two other girls--Suzy Maang Lee (Meng Li), saucy night club dancer who has suddenly stopped hearing from her once doggedly loyal boyfriend, and Yip Ching (Ye Qing), dirt poor farm girl from the New Territories who wants out to look after her ailing mother--tag along for their own reasons and the four enact a daring nighttime escape. Two days and two bloody corpses later, the girls meet up at Patrick Lung's hotel building with concealed weapons whist Kenneth Tsang frantically scours the city trying to locate the girls before any further mayhem ensues....

Filmed in a more innocent age, "Teddy Girls" packs quite a punch to the gut but is decidedly less edgy when viewed with contemporary eyes. The female bonding reminds me of two recent pictures: sleeper hit "Sunny" (2010) about a group of South Korean housewives, once best friends in high school, who re-connect after decades apart when the "queen bee" of their clique starts dying of terminal cancer and "VYG" (2007), a shocking documentary about the "very young girls" caught up in child sex trafficking but rescued and living in a New York safe house, slowly being rehabilitated to lead normal lives after their harrowing experiences. The latter is why "Teddy Girls" seems so quaint nowadays: the situation of deteriorating youth morals in late 60s Hong Kong pales in comparison to the contemporary tragedy of child sex trafficking (the US Justice Department estimates some 350 thousand girls and boys between the ages of 8 and 17 are bought and sold every year in modern day "sex slavery" inside America's borders; the State Department estimates between 10 and 12 thousand are non-US citizens.) What that things could go back to the halcyon days of the 1960s!

Josephine turns in fine work here but the real eye opener is Nancy Sit--she of the bindi birthmark--who really takes a plunge into the abyss going from insouciant leader of what essentially is a high school clique to cold blooded murderer hell-bent on taking it to The Man. Supporting actor Maang Lee is also impressive for drinking from that selfsame cup dipped into the Styx. Note to self: gotta check out more of these vintage pics. Of note to others: if you have a Cantonese-speaking aunt on hand that grew up around the time the movie first ran, very useful for having her alongside to point out actors’ names and explain little background nuggets (watched this with my mom who serves as my informal tour guide to the past.) Highly recommended.


Lobby card depicting Nancy Sit (off center) planning the escape from the reformatory flanked by Maang Lee (left) and Josephine Siao (right.) Eng Wah's print has burned-in Chinese and English subs.

Happy Boxing Day everybody,

Today's post is a purchase review of Pearl City's un-subbed VCD of "Purple Night" (1968) featuring both the original Cantonese and Mandarin audio tracks. Set between Christmas of one year and Christmas of the following year, it makes for a compelling alt-Chinese replacement to "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) evoking the classic Chinese proverb "Yinshui Siyuan" (While drinking water, consider the place from whence it came.)

If Taiwan's Pai Ching-jui (pinyin: Bai Jingrui) was considered the master of Chinese-language melodramas of the 1970s, then the crown for the 1960s belonged to, arguably, Hong Kong's Chor Yuen (Chu Yuan)--he of the many Ku Lung (Gu Long) adaptations for Shaw Brothers beginning in the early 1970s and starring the studio's vast stable of versatile contract players. Filmed with lush decor like a Douglas Sirk picture and with actors dressed to the nines at all times, Chor's name on '60s posters guaranteed opulent production values alongside swelling melodramatic performances--terms that were equally descriptive of his later wuxia work for Shaws as well.

Twenty-something heart throb Patrick Tse Yin (Xie Xian, father of contemporary heart throb Nic Tse) plays a struggling composer studying under kindly sifu Lok Kung (Luo Gong) while dating Lok's straight-laced daughter Nam Hung (Nan Hong.) Though extremely gifted, Patrick hasn't had his big career break yet. Whilst catching a modern dance troupe's matinee performance headlined by beguiling Josephine Siao Fong-fong (Xiao Fangfang), he instantly finds a new muse who propels his music to new creative heights. Josephine introduces Patrick to the company's worldly and well-connected director Kenneth Tsang (Zeng Jiang) who, impressed by the journeyman composer's portfolio, agrees to allow him to score their upcoming avant garde show called "Purple Night." The collaboration turns out to be a smash success and an increasingly self-confident (bordering on insufferably arrogant) Patrick starts gravitating towards the jet set world of posh after parties held in chic penthouse digs whilst pursuing it girl-of-the-moment Josephine. Heartbroken, Nam Hung tries to reach through to Patrick but, alas, to no avail. Kenneth, secretly pining for the unsophisticated Nam, keeps nudging Patrick towards his former girlfriend and sifu. As an aging Lok Kung falls ill, will self-centered Patrick Tse remember his authentic creative roots instead of chasing after fleeting fame? Can Nam Hung win back her man from siren Josephine Siao? Of note to vintage film fans: see if you can spot Suzy Maang Lee (Meng Li) as Josephine's dance troupe understudy.

With nearly a third of the film showcasing Josephine's dance moves in (techni-)colorful stage pieces, there's little wonder why she became the biggest draw among the "Seven Princesses" in blooming adulthood: though possibly eclipsed by Connie Chan Pao-chu (Chen Baozhu) and Petrina Fung Bo-bo (Feng Baobao) in their childhood careers for sheer dimpled-cheek cuteness, adult Fong-fong was an amazing stunner who could also act, sing, dance, or do whatever else was required for the scene. Add to that her multi-lingual recording career in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English(!)--she also sang the theme song for this movie--and it's small wonder why she didn't leave a larger mark on the Chinese entertainment industry (probably her mid-life desire to become a respected child psychologist had something to do with her reluctance to be perceived solely as a pop entertainer.) That noted, the combination of talent and physical beauty--which, without the talent could have led to a steady career in simmering sexpot roles--plus intellect remains unsurpassed to this day in Hong Kong (what that Karen Mok had a better agent!) Although Josephine could have vamped it up and strutted around as a "worldly bad girl diva" to Nam Hung's "innocent girl next door," both women slightly underplay their roles and come out more sympathetic for their dramaturgical choice. The surfeit of dance scenes might be a turn-off for to modern viewers but given how Josephine simply dazzles in all of them, "Purple Night" is an absolute treat for fans.


A complete entertainer, this is the cover of Josephine's 1968 (mostly) English-language EP "Fong Fong Sings Hits" for EMI-Columbia/Pathe of Hong Kong (ECHK-523), which came out in the same year as the movie. Considering that she was deaf in her right ear at the time--and became totally deaf in her left one as well sometime in the early 1990s--her diction was always impeccable. Take a listen to the A side track "L-O-V-E Love" and the bilingual B side mash-up "Ding Dong Song" (a cover of Tsai Chin's [Cai Qin] Decca rendition adapted from a traditional Mandarin folk melody):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiWhg-aqoyQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qb4Av_HSXA

Hola,

And now for something completely different. Screenwriter Wong Fung (pinyin: Wang Feng) had compiled over a hundred writing credits--forty of them alone being Wong Fei-hung scripts for Kwan Tak-hing (Guan Dexing)--before venturing to the director's chair and specializing in costumed fantasy fare. "Golden Skeleton" (1967) just might be the only Euro-spy entry on his 200+ film resume and is marked by an explosive jazz soundtrack heavy on brass, drums, and attitude. In Cantonese and un-subbed. Oh hells yes, time to pop the Champizzle.

Singer-turned-actor Cheung Ying-tsoi (Zhang Yingcai) is SAA9, an international man of mystery cut from the same cloth as Joe Shishido whose main skills seem to be a crippling karate chop to the neck, the occasional judo flip, and bedding all the sultry vixens. Whilst recovering from a lower back injury at a Japanese spa--his main form of rehab seems to be wrestling nubile Japanese twins wearing only thigh-length yakuta and cotton knickers (worn just for the censors?)--he receives word from the Agency that he's urgently needed for a special assignment in Hong Kong to assist a colleague codenamed "Pink Bomb."

It seems Professor Lee Ying (Li Ying)--longtime character actor and occasional studio director--has invented a new formula for desalinizing sea water. Kriminal-like mastermind Golden Skeleton and his syndicate have threatened to kidnap the professor and to ransom him back for a princely sum of US$ 5 million. Hopping onto the next flight bound for Hong Kong, Cheung meets up with a series of alluring impostors pretending to be Pink Bomb only to (barely) escape each time--in the battle between handgun and karate chop to the neck, open palm always wins. Checking into a swanky "safe room" at the Peninsula Hotel, he's immediately greeted by a punch to the face from the real Pink Bomb, a.k.a. SAA6, played by Josephine Siao Fong-fong (Xiao Fangfang) channeling Emma Peel at the height of Mod couture and looking none-too-pleased that Cheung's inveterate skirt chasing has delayed their rendezvous. Peking Opera actor turned wushu stunt coordinator Kwan Jing-leung (Guan Zhengliang) plays SAA10, Josephine's Agency partner tasked with guarding the professor. Of interesting note, Kwan was a disciple of Yu Jim-yuen (Yu Zhanyuan)--the opera master who trained the "Seven Fortunes" including Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and all the Yuen brothers. In addition to his Shaw Bros. stunt work, he also founded his own movie studio followed later by his own stuntman training school. "Golden Skeleton" was one of the first films made by his Dragon Nation [Kingdom] Films, Ltd. and Kwan served as the pic's executive producer whilst handling all the action choreography.

Needless to say, the Golden Skeleton syndicate manages to kidnap the professor from under the noses of our trio forcing them to infiltrate the gang's underground lair located on a secluded private island. With Eurasian-looking Gam Lau (Jin Lu) as Golden Skeleton's sexy spy mistress in chief--a hand-to-hand bout between her and Josephine ending with Kam being disrobed and wearing only her sexy undies must be seen to be believed--and featuring popular singer Chang Lye-lye (Zhang Lailai) as a nightclub chanteuse who provides the pic's theme song just before a club-wrecking fight erupts between our heroes and Golden Skeleton's plain clothes henchmen (the regular salaried lackeys look a little like Spectreman while Golden Skeleton himself resembles a gold-domed luchador in a white tuxedo flanked by two midriff-bearing babes in hot pink and gold uniforms!)

At a breezy 83-minutes, "Golden Skeleton" never overstays its welcome but feels surprisingly rushed in the final reels during the explosive island rescue sequence. Given that Kwan Jing-leung did the fight choreography, I'm not quite sure why the action in this one isn't better but I think it has something to do with bad angles by cinematographer Lee Man-kit (Li Wanjie)--D.P. on Chor Yuen's (Chu Yuan) "Purple Night" (1968)--coupled with a cast with nearly no previous wushu training. Surprisingly, Josephine Siao takes quite a few direct punches to the face but she dishes out considerable damage as well with all manner of jabs, kicks, and throws in her repertoire. Since this is a Josephine thread, let me say it's worth the price of admission alone for all the "Negro, please" eye rolls she gives to co-star Cheung Ying-tsoi at his failed attempts to bed her. If the rights issues are ever solved--the copy I watched was a VHS tape sourced from a TVB Jade Channel terrestrial broadcast showing considerable wear and tear--I think this pic would look great digitally restored with the option of having removable English subs.

Lastly, SAA6--who david wells refers to as "Jane Bond" in his blog postings--has a civilian name: Lin Zhenni or "Jenny" Lin. I wonder if Josephine's later comedic character Lin Yazhen, "Plain Jane" Lin, for a TVB sitcom and then a 1982 big screen feature directed by John Woo Yu-sen (Wu Yusen) are supposed to cousins or something (or SAA6 in anonymous post-globe trotting retirement?) They both share many of the same traits and resourcefulness. Something to ponder on one's next visit to the island.


Soundtrack to another of Josephine's 1967 Mod capers--"Lady in Pink" or "The Female Agents" co-starring Bowie Wu Fung (Hu Feng)--put out by EMI-Pathe [Columbia] (PHK-1027.) This October movie was released about a month before "Golden Skeleton's" November opening.

Our heroes at a night club just as Chang Lye-lye pops in to sing theme song "Why do you wanna break-up?":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWTJ8Ie-aw8

Hello everybody,

Today's post was going to be on "A Child Was Born under [a] Bridge" (1962; on DVD by Winson w/o English subs), a hybrid Peking-Canton Opera retelling one of the more optimistic variants of the [Madam] White Snake Legend--featuring some nifty then-state of the art effects work--but as I started my post I thought: who among you, even the most diehard completists, are going to go out of your way to purchase a disc of people singing music that sounds like cats being tossed into a blender whilst a throng of deaf people wildly thrash empty aluminum trash cans? I don't even know that many Chinese people who dig Chinese Opera save for my mom and a few aunties here and there (and that's because she does singing stuff for church and older overseas Chinese around the world just love their opera--reminds 'em of the ole ancestral home, I suppose.) But, for the one or two of you out there who are actually reading any of these holiday postings with bated breath--ha!--a few viewing notes just in case the lure of ear-drum splitting crackling is just too irresistible for you (ahhh yesss... more cacophony, please!) For those less patient, I'll be writing on the 1984 Shaw Bros. kiddie film "A Friend from Inner Space," which unlike most of the movies I've discussed heretofore, A) is on DVD (Region 3, though); B) has *English* subtitles; and C) isn't so obscure that it's nigh impossible to find anything about it on the Anglosphere fluggen-web. For those of you in such a rush, skip the next paragraph entirely.

The skinny on yet another White Snake adaptation. Directed by Wong Fung (Wang Feng)--yes, the guy that helmed "Golden Skeleton" (1967)--and starring Yu So-chow (Yu Suqiu) as White Snake and a fifteen year-old Josephine Siao Fong-fong (Xiao Fangfang) as Green Snake. Of note, Yu was: 1) the daughter of Peking Opera master Yu Jim-yuen (Yu Zhanyuan--see above post); 2) the high-profile Michelle Yeoh-like action star of her generation who made some 220 movies with about 180 of them being wuxia pics; and 3) part of the so-called "Eight Peonies" of Hong Kong Cinema, acclaimed mature screen actresses whose renown stood in contrast to the teeny-bopper fame of the adolescent "Seven Princesses" (see above postings.) Still alive and kicking out in San Francisco I might add! Co-starring Yu's real-life opera star husband Mak Ben-weng (Mai Bingrong) as Scholar Xu Xian who falls in love with White, Leung Sing-po (Liang Xingbo) as dour Buddhist monk Fahai--Josephine's stern dad in "[My] Four Darling Daughters" (1969--N.B. on DVD w/*English* subs by Winson)--zealously intent on preventing any "perverted" human-spirit world miscegenation, Connie Chan Pao-chu (Chen Baozhu) as the Magic Crane guardian of the supernatural lingzhi mushroom used to bring Scholar Xu back to life, and Yuen Siu-Fai (Yuan Zhaohui) as the adult son of White, the so-called child born under a bridge, whose virtue as an upstanding scholar allows his mom to ascended to heaven after, you know, that disastrous showdown between her and Fahai that leaves thousands of innocent people dead. Got that? Good. If the above info intrigues you and you decide to purchase the disc, be sure to turn down the volume on your entertainment system as not to shatter your eardrums.

Ahem. 1984 was a big year for Hong Kong's entertainment industry. Two of my favorite Chow Yun-fat dramas came out that year: "Love in a Fallen City" directed by Ann Hui for Shaws and "Hong Kong 1941" by Leong Po-Chih for D&B. TVB's adaptation of _The Duke of Mt. Deer_ was about to shoot rising stars Andy Lau and little Tony Leung into the stratosphere. Johnny Mak's "Long Arm of the Law" was going to pave the way for the flood of "Heroic Bloodshed" flicks to come. Cinema City released two of my favorite supernatural genre pics from my childhood that year: the first installment of the Raymond Wong's "Happy Ghost" franchise, directed by Clifton Ko, and Ronny Yu's ghost picture "The Occupant" starring a really haam sup Raymond Wong alongside Chow Yun-fat and Sally Yeh (on-screen together five years prior to their iconic pairing in "The Killer") in a tale about supernatural possession and amateur ghostbusters trying to avert karmic calamity. Even with frequent access to the local Chinatown video store, though, lots of interesting movies just managed to slip one's notice....

With all these Celestial/IVL re-mastered Shaws discs appearing over the past few years, it's been a joy discovering pics one missed the first time 'round. One of these has been "My Darling Genie" co-starring Derek Yee as a rough 'n tumble construction worker and Cherie Chung as, you guessed it, his darling genie who Derek finds bound to an antique magical umbrella. The second interesting find from 1984 is the topic of this post,"A Friend from Inner Space" featuring both the original Cantonese and Mandarin audio tracks. Directed by Ricky Chan Ga-Suen (Chen Jiasun)--older brother of actress Nora Miao who first worked with Josephine as the director on her "Plain Jane" sitcom for TVB in 1978--"Friend" stars child actor Leung Jun-Git (Liang Junjie) as the bespectacled, cherub-faced only child of (black) cowboy hat-wearing(!) importer/exporter Ti Lung (Di Long) and former model-turn-fashion designer Josephine Siao who have been living in an uneasy trial separation for the past year. During a class field trip runty little Leung, ostracized by his bigger classmates, gets lost and stumbles in on an abandoned haunted house. Just as the resident house demon is about to devour him, a benevolent ghost played by Shek Kin (Shi Jian)--in a rare non-villainous turn--leaps in the way to save the kid. Though frightened of him at first, Shek becomes Leung's invisible playmate who pledges to help the boy save his parents' dying marriage.

Notable supporting roles include Walter Cho Tat-wah (Cao Dahua)--Shek Kin's longtime heroic adversary in many a wuxia pic--in a cameo riffing on his iconic "Inspector Wah" persona, Wong Wan-si (Huang Yunshi) as Ti Lung's live-in sister/Leung's sassy auntie who takes care of him in Josephine's absence and who bears a striking resemblance to Shek Kin's first love before his untimely death; funnyman Natalis Chan Bak-cheung (Chen Baixiang) as the wimpy headmaster of Leung's private school who has the hots for Josephine; and Bonnie Wong Man-wai (Huang Wenhui) as Leung's shrewish homeroom teacher who obviously fancies Nat. Also with Taiwanese actress Elaine Jin Yan-ling (Jin Yanling)--she of many Edward Yang arthouse productions--as a gold-digger trying to move in on Ti Lung before he can reconcile with his wife.

It's funny how many state of the art effects in "A Child Was Born under [a] Bridge" from the 1960s carried over to and were refined to technical perfection in Shaws' 1980 productions (I'm thinking of both this movie and "Darling Genie.") Under normal circumstances I'd probably rate it as throwaway family film but I found "A Friend from Inner Space" oddly compelling as a time capsule of the fat years in Hong Kong when the place and its entertainment industry were so flush with liquidity. It's also neat seeing major stars like Shek Kin, Ti Lung, and Josephine Siao acting in a Shaws production just as the studio was going under from increased industry competition (and for its decision to plug so much of its creative capital into the whole TVB enterprise.) Also, as a very interesting performance from Josephine that prefigures her award-winning work in things like "Hu-Du-Men" (1996) and "Summer Snow" (1995) a decade later, that is, from her middle period as eccentric comedienne to her final(?) industry pictures as deteriorating older women who use their fading good looks and infectious charm to mask severe mental and/or physical decline. A "potpourri" movie that plays fast and loose with genre and tone and featuring a final reconciliation between the parents that feels a little bit unearned but hey, that's the formula, folks. Despite this, worth a look because of all the old-time studio care put into it by the players and the pic's crew--for better or worse, they just don't make 'em like this anymore.

Well, this is probably my next-to-last holiday review post--six being a round number to Chinese sensibilities the way five or ten are "round" in the Western mindset. Although I may sound like a pollyannaish autistic dilettante for my long-winded posts hitherto--ha!--I've genuinely enjoyed watching them with friends and family over the current Christmas holiday. I've gone into overly "thick" description of plots and personnel because I suspect a good many people here scanning these posts don't have the language skills to watch them un-subbed, un-assisted. Nonetheless, armed with these semi-detailed descriptions, I sincerely hope some of you do venture out, take the plunge, and check out these enjoyable productions even if you can't understand every single line of dialogue or every single cultural nuance of this-or-that plot point. Josephine was a genuine star back in the day, and it's a shame so few of her pictures, albums, TV shows, etc. are available to the legion of (potential) fans out there.

And what's up next? Either something with English subs and obtainable off of YesAsia or something so ultra obscure with little to nothing written about it in English--it depends on what the fam wants to catch later tonight.


A still depicting troubled drug abusing(!) "teddy girl" Josephine Siao impersonating millionaire industrialist Shek Kin's long missing granddaughter in 1967's "Tender Love" co-starring Lui Kei (Lu Qi) as Josephine's love interest who unwittingly mistakes her for the genuine thing and initiates the whole ruse.

New Mandarin trailer for "A Friend from Inner Space" found on Celestial re-mastered DVDs:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTcyMjUxMjQ4.html

Happy New Year weekend everybody,

The final movie for Josephine-fest '11 is the picture that first put her on the map... for Cantonese-speaking audiences, that is. Her first big exposure came with the Mandarin-dialect film "Nobody's Child" (1958), which was shot in Hong Kong and Hokkaido and co-starred legendary Shanghai star Hu Die as her adoptive mother. "Child" was adapted freely from Hector Malot's _Sans Famille_ (first published in French in 1878) and helmed by Shanghai emigre Bu Wancang (sometimes credited as Richard Poh for his work in self-exile from China.) 1960's "Madam Wan" ("Madam Yun" in Mandarin pronunciation), on the other hand, was more reflective of local Cantonese Opera traditions and Hong Kong cinema staging techniques than the socialist-realist naturalism favored by Golden Age filmmaker Bu and other recent mainland transplants. It was also loosely based on (obscure government clerk) Shen Fu's incomplete memoirs _Six Records of a Floating Life_ written some 200 years ago at the height of Qing splendor. The picture stars longtime on-screen opera couple Yam Kim-fai (Ren Jianhui--cross-dressed, as usual, as a dude) and Pak Suet-sin (Bai Xuexian) respectively as Shen Fu and his wife, the eponymous Madam Wan. On restored all region DVD as part of Winson's series of Yam [Kim-fai]/Pak [Suet-sin] re-issues (sadly, no English subs.)

I don't know if this is a spoiler considering that the text is so old and has been translated into so many different languages but generally speaking, part of the tension in _Floating Life_ was the death of Shen Fu's wife caused by, to be totally honest, his complete incompetence at holding a regular day job. As a failed exam candidate he was often employed as a yamen clerk working under various officials who had passed those selfsame tests and were now serving as provincial prefects and county magistrates.) The movie follows the book a little bit in that Pak's illness--probably a case of tuberculosis--propels the plot forward and is the main reason behind Shen's increasingly desperate attempts at making money to purchase much needed medicine. Thirteen-year old Josephine Siao Fong-fong (Xiao Fangfang) plays the couple's teenage daughter while seven-year old Petrina Fung Bo-bo (Feng Baobao) is their too-cute-for-words younger daughter. Wenyi maestro Chu Kei's (Zhu Ji) real-life daughter plays Josephine's role as a toddler and has that adorable habit of either looking straight into the camera or slightly off center of it at, presumably, daddy in the director's chair.

Anyway, Yam is the failed third son of sour-faced government official Liang Tsi-pak (Jing Cibo)--"Southern King of the Wusheng," the main speaking masculine role in Chinese dialect opera--serving in cosmopolitan Suzhou. Living with them in a large courtyard compound are Cantonese Opera star Poon Yat-on (Ban Ri'an) as his step-mother--you know she must be evil when they have an ugly dude in drag who looks kinda like Eric Tsang assaying her--and conniving pretty boy half-brother So Siu-tong (Su Shaotang) plus his pouty wife. In an attempt to make Yam look especially inept (not that difficult really), step-mom and scheming son plot to have the old patriarch put Shen in charge of the family's rice shop where he loses money hand over fist in giving notes of credit to lowlifes who have no intention of ever repaying back their loans. Next the family is sent down to the boonies where Yam and Pak's unconventional lifestyle as Romantic aesthetes get them ostracized by the village's conservative elders. Allowed to move back home to the walled compound after the failed resettlement adventure--and Pak starting to show signs of serious illness--daughter Josephine is falsely accused of stealing some of granny's tacky jewelry leading to the Yam brood being completely disinherited and turned out onto the streets.

Just when things get really desperate with Shen pawning off his wife's finery, the family receives word that old acquaintance Ling Mung (Ning Meng)--a stalwart supporting character actor in over 500 films(!)-has made it big in Henan and requests their presence there. With only enough cash to support two adults on the arduous journey by foot, Shen and his recovering wife make the trek north whilst the two daughters stay in their pitiful hovel looked after by loyal housekeeper Lai Man (Li Wen)--yet another great old character actress with some 500 film credits to her name.

With a nice third act about karmic payback when Shen Fu's father is arrested for embezzlement, slimy half-brother and wife run off with the family's assets before the government swoops in to confiscate everything, and dude-looking-like-a-lady step-mom being forced into begging on the streets to survive. Newly re-united with their daughters in gentry comfort, have Shen Fu and his family learned the true value of family ties or have they become justifiably bitter old coots ready to extol the simple wisdom of, "Karma's a bitch, eh?" Obviously being a half-sung, half-acted film/opera production prevents any such face rubbing from taking place, but it's neat nonetheless how the whole thing possesses the satisfying symmetry of a traditional morality play.

Josephine only shows up thirty minutes into this 100-minute movie but displays considerable charm in it as the protective older sister of Petrina and human emotional shield between long suffering mother Pak and near useless father Yam. Her "Moonlight Song"--alluding to Tang Dynasty poet Li Po/Li Bai's poem about homesickness for friends and family--is a nice companion piece to her "Momma's Great" tune in "Nobody's Child" (where a poor peasant family, unable to both pay for dad's urgent medical treatment and raise Josephine, send her off to the orphanage but she ends up with an old traveling circus performer as her caretaker instead. Note to anyone ever considering selling off their ten-year old daughter to some old pervy hobo: somebody's soon gonna be on some outraged national coverage about little dead girls being found buried in roadside ditches....) Shen Fu is at least not a total loser for keeping his family intact--yay?

Kinda old fashioned with the singing parts confined to little arias here and there when composer/librettist Tong Tik-sang (Tang Disheng) wants you-the-audience to know that the characters on-screen are experiencing extreme and exquisitely profound emotions. But the part about the disintegrating family and desperation of poverty, well, that's vintage kinda-makes-you-wanna-kill-yourself depressing Chinese arthouse cinema, which never goes out of style. Essential viewing for those into local dialect Chinese cinema; it was also really neat to see how different linguistic and local cultural considerations impacted the choice of genre and plotting when adapting such a famous literary work onto the big screen.


Cross-dressing Canton Opera star Yam Kim-fai, one of the biggest B.O. draws of her day, plays Shen Fu in this big screen rendition of a beloved literary classic. Extra vintage idol goodness: be sure to check out this neat little photo of Pak Suet-sin (in red on the left), Josephine (in purple, first left on the back row), little Petrina (in the middle), Yam Kim-fai (in gold), and Connie Chan (in blue, back row right.)

A Mother's Day standard since 1958:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIpUcV7iO4k

Hola,

It's a new year and will keep watching these old Siao Fong-fong flicks plus writing about them until halted by the upcoming Mayan apocalypse or something. Two things of note plus a cute family anecdote.

First, it seems what appears on disc is only subtitled in simplified/traditional Chinese. Occasionally there are dual Cantonese/Mandarin audio tracks. This sucks for non-speakers.

Number two: what hasn't been put on disc seems to be floating around on late night TV on TVB Jade/Jadeworld. Some of my mom's Malaysian friends at her Chinese congregation get the Direct TV TVB package. Also being keen Josephine fans, they tape the movies that make up the daily late late night 1am to 3am filler. That's how we managed to catch a majority of these movies. Anyway, with the exception of people who reside in NYC, SoCal, and Vancouver--where local cable carriers have either TVB Jade or TVB-E (Entertainment: focuses on soap operas and talk shows but vintage movies are shown there occasionally) on tap--everyone outside of the relevant media markets must pony up $36.99 for 3 Cantonese and 2 Mandarin channels to see these old movies heretofore unreleased on disc. It's only really a good deal if you watch enough TV serials--the vintage pics only show up during the wee hours reserved for insomniacs and night owls so that stuff obviously must be Tivo'ed. Thus, dish seems to be the only legitimate route to catch Josephine's vintage gems.

Now, family anecdote: I grew up under the impression that Brigitte Lin was my mom's favorite movie star owing to their similar ages. Actually, as it turns out, her favorite idol growing up was Josephine. Her best friend's favorite star, however, was Connie Chan since the two of them shared the exact same forenames: Pao-chu (differing spelling owing to Teochew romanisation conventions.) Talking about growing up in 60s Kuala Lumpur, mom reminisced about how Connie Chan fans and Josephine Siao fans absolutely detested one another. Large public shouting matches that sometimes broke out into brawls-level of mutual antagonism. Odd considering how both actors co-starred in so many movies with Connie usally cross-dressed as the dude with Joesphine as her female love interest. Anyway, just to avoid the headache of teenage girl screaming and being chased around with sticks(!) mom said Brigitte was her favorite idol/ou-hsiang thereby avoiding much unnecessary drama in her teenage routine.

Whenever I go back to the Straits for the Lunar New Year--which for the record is just twelve days away so maybe another one of these vintage marathons will be coming up around the corner--and I meet some of my mom's childhood chums, I'll never look at them the same after this. It's like they were in some South Korean high school action movie. Kindly old ladies who, as teenagers, once yelled at one another full bore whilst wielding melee weapons defending the reputation of their screen idols.... Good times, good times.

Are any of their offerings subtitled?

Hey Brian (and everybody else),

Unfortunately, no. No subs at all unless in Mandarin, which are then subtitled in traditional Chinese characters for Cantonese speakers. Prints vary in quality too. For instance, "Golden Skeleton" looks like it could be released on disc with relatively little work done to it while something like "Teddy Girls" was really washed out and scuffed up pretty badly in places. Of additional note: somebody's put these on-line at you-know-where (a popular site owned by Google that uses Adobe flash player) with the commercials cut out. I'm not providing links because last time I did this--with the TVB show _Beautiful Cooking_ and the TV Asahi series _Trick_, the clips were taken down really quickly. Owing to their rarity, I believe they should be out there in the ether for, if nothing else, basic reference purposes.

G'day everybody,

Of all of Josephine Siao Fang-fang's (Xiao Fangfang) on-screen pairings from her grown-up acting career--Connie Chan cross-dressed as a lad, Bowie Wu, Lui Kei, Patrick Tse, Kenneth Tsang, Charlie Chin--the most fun have been--for this bloke with a strong affinity for comedy, at least--her pictures with old school leading man Lui Kei (Lu Qi.) Contemporary HK actor big Tony Leung bears a noticeable resemblance to Lui and can, when called upon, do a hilarious falsetto not too far removed from Lui's own when caught in loopy hijinks. Most people familiar with Lui today are cognizant of him though Leung's send up of the star in Jeff Lau's "92 La Legendary Rose Noire," a post-modern riff on 1960s crime fighting icon Nam Hung as the so-called "Black Rose" and her little sister Connie Chan playing Dick Grayson to Nam's more seasoned Bruce Wayne. Peter Nepsted has an essay on that forgotten classic at his Illuminated Lantern website.

Filmmaker Chor Yuen's (Chu Yuan), the same director on the Black Rose films, shot 1967's "The Maiden Thief" aka "The Precious Mirror," which was scripted by prolific "Golden Age" scribe Sze-to On (Situ An.) Josephine Siao stars as the sassy teenage daughter of retired master burglar Leung Sing-Bo (Liang Xiangbo) who now spends his days as a card sharp/high society raconteur . During a high stakes hand, Leung loses a prized antique mirror to gangster businessman Hui Ying-sau (Xu Yingxiu) who has pretensions of being an upscale art collector. Just prior to a visit by an insurance appraiser who comes to examine the mirror before final transferral of ownership rights, a mysterious thief breaks into Leung's home to steal the gaudy artefact. Father and daughter replace it with a fake just in time but must switch it out with the genuine article after they learn Mr. Hui intends to show it at a special exhibition that will be attended by many art experts. Realizing his skills are much too diminished and that his daughter is still just learning the family trade, the two visit incarcerated colleague Chu Siu-boh (Zhu Shaopo) who uses the big house as a retirement home of sorts. Soliciting his professional expertise, they are directed to Chu's nephew on the outside Lui Kei, himself a rising star in the jianghu world of elite international cat burglars.

The tandem of Josephine and Lui now have to find the real mirror from the thief who stole it from them, replace the fake replica during the high profile art show, and steal it back for daddy Leung once it passes the scrutiny of the assembled experts--all under the noses of Mr. Hui's twitchy goons. Look out for a young Lee Heung-kan (Li Xiangqin)--nowadays typecast as sympathetic mothers and aunties--as a dowdy insurance agent harboring a deep family secret and a propulsive jazz soundtrack that includes a Latinized cha-cha take on "Misirlou" [literally "Egyptian Girl"], featured in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" (1994) as that pic's unofficial (rockin') surf guitar theme.

Lots of fighting and running around in this one choreographed as extremely stylized dance routines--think "West Side Story" (1961) right until actual fisticuffs where people get punched and thrown in a realistic manner (the jazz soundtrack really sells the transition.) Also lots of physical comedy between Lui Kei and Josephine that is immensely fun to watch. Maybe not museum or film festival retrospective worthy but definitely an enjoyable Saturday afternoon diversion. This Josephine picture is kinda like Keanu Reeves' "Johnny Mnemonic" (1995) to Nam Hung and Connie Chan's Black Rose films if that series were likened unto Reeve's better known Matrix movies. Funny thing is Lui eventually became Connie's longtime screen partner whilst Josephine moved on to more serious leading men Patrick Tse and Kenneth Tsang.


Image capture of "The Maiden Thief" on TVB Jade.

Josephine's Cantonese theme to another caper film co-starring Lui Kei (with Shek Kin in tow, no less), 1967's "The Lady Killer" aka "Bat Girl"(!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2jKk32oZzw

Happy MLK, Jr. National Holiday everybody,

Today's film is a purchase review of "Grievances of a Family" aka "Kindred Love" (1963), which is out on restored DVD by Universe albeit without subtitles of any sort. This is a pity because "Grievances" is a superb film that should be important for three reasons: 1) it's a well-made family melodrama that compares favorably to, say, Ozu's work from the same period; 2) is a historical document featuring a wealth of talent behind the camera showcasing the transition of Golden Age Shanghai filmmaking conventions to the Canton opera-based staging of Golden Age Hong Kong cinema; and 3) remains one of screen icon Hu Die's few movies to be put out disc (more about her in a bit.) If you consider yourself a fan of (transnational) Chinese cinema(s)--loaded term, that--this is a must-buy for individual collectors and institutional buyers looking to build a serious reference set of historical important, artistically significant major Chinese language and minor dialect films. I'd opine this one is ripe for somebody to insert English subs, add a featurette or two plus slap on an informed commentary track for a high profile region 1 re-issue. That the movie co-stars Fong-fong is a nifty bonus.

Butterfly Hu Die (her screen name of "Hu Die" was a pun on the word "Butterfly") and Josephine Siao Fong-fong (Xiao Fangfang) star as a working poor mother-daughter pair. Actually Hu is Josephine's aunt--her brother and sister-in-law, Josephine's biological parents, died from pneumonia. Hu and her brother's late mother married a wealthy businessman whereupon their new upper class relatives turned them, the new and unwashed step-scions, out. Her brother marries a fellow working class gal but both eventually pass away leaving Hu to raise Josephine as her own. Mother and daughter make a living running a small roadside stall that sells congee, cigarettes, and used newspapers.

Canton opera star So Siu-tong (Su Shaotang, also the executive producer)--using his matinee idol looks for good in this outing as opposed to his dastardly turn in "Madam Wan"--and his wife Patricia Joe Quan Ling (Catonese: Chow Kwun-ling; pinyin: Zhou Kunling)--the Chinese-American "Hedy Lamarr of the East" who churned out Cantonese-language films for the San Francisco-based Grandview Studios (they were responsible for all the Kwan Tak-hing pictures shot in America)--are Hu's neighbors who treat Josephine like their very own flesh and blood. Canton opera clown Miu Yan (Mei Yin), looking like Sammo Hung's long-lost uncle, plays a jocular barber who lives in the same tenement owned by talkative landlady Tai Sang-po (Da Shengpo) and is good friends with his fellow house mates.

One day Hu Die gets sick and Josephine must quickly sell off their stall's tobacco stock at wholesale prices to purchase much needed medicine for her mom. Basically out of work, So Siu-tong inquires for a new job for Hu Die once she recovers leading to him visiting the home of factory owner Poon Yat-on (Ban Ri'an)--Canton opera star who played the evil step mother in "Madam Wan"--and his good-for-nothing son Yu Ming. Smitten, mustachioed Mr. Poon hires Hu to come work for him as a live-in housekeeper. Josephine is left to stay with So and his wife Patricia while mother works at the Poon family mansion.

Poon pursues Hu but she resists owing to her fears that if she marries this well-to-do gentleman, he will turn out Josephine the way Hu and her brother were thrown out of a moneyed household when her own mother re-married. Things stay this way for a bit until So and his wife lose their jobs whereupon Josephine intervenes and gets Mr. Poon to hire them. During monsoon rains after a massive fire that burns down many local warehouses, Josephine contracts pneumonia. Unable to afford the required hospital treatment, Hu relents to Mr. Poon and acquiesces to his offer of marriage. Contrary to her fears, he fully adopts Josephine as his own and the future looks bright (while just a housemaid, Poon had been paying for Josephine's school fees.)

On their wedding day, however, Mr. Poon loses a small fortune of $50,000. His high society friends label new wife Hu a "jinx" and she starts getting all sorts of nasty looks from her new circle of rich acquaintances. Her old tenement friends, who visit the banquet in addition to other subsequent occasions, are stink-eyed for dragging their plebeian chi onto the estate grounds. Mr. Poon is, at first, insulated from the speculation but as he loses more and more money from soured business deals, he too begins placing stock in the spurious superstitious reasoning (it doesn't help that his son is rolling up huge gambling debts.) Things come to a head when son Yu Ming steals $400 from Mr. Poon's wallet and nasty housekeeper Chan Lap-ban (Chen Lipin)--the husky-voiced Anne Ramsey of Golden Age Hong Kong cinema--believes Hu and Josephine have stolen the sum (they had given money to So Siu-tong earlier in order to help him celebrate his wife's birthday.)

Mr. Poon declares bankruptcy and moves with Hu back to her old digs. The family lives a grindingly poor existence with ne'er-do-well Yu swiping "comp" cigarettes from the family's roadside stall and slapping around Josephine for not fetching him things. One night he runs off with his dad's final handful of hard cash to settle his underworld debts leading to an explosive showdown where Hu and Josephine literally catch him red handed and he nearly knocks out father in return.

The next day barber Miu notices a newspaper notice searching for Mr. Poon. It seems that former partner Cheung Chi-suen (Zhang Zhisun) is planning on starting a new factory and wants Poon as his general manager in their new manufacturing enterprise. Things turn around relatively quickly and the the close-knit tenement circle enjoy the fruits of hard-won wealth. Poon's son Yu, now reduced to street begging, passes through the old neighborhood one day. Will his former family and neighbors accept him? Does "kindred" love or hard-nosed experience win out? With ever faithful Lai Man (Li Wen) as a colorful neighbor--mother of future Shaw Bros. star Anthony Lau Wing (Liu Yong)--who helps out our crew by giving them unsold food from her homey vegetable stall.

Whew. That was a long and over-detailed recap but "Grievances" does pack a lot of plot into its 113-min. running time. It's well paced and never boring, though, and is a remarkable combination of of the socialist realism favored by the Shanghai masters and the slice-of-life family drama preferred by Hong Kong's own screen maestri. The only thing that was off--at least to this contemporary viewer--was the overly strong melodramatic soundtrack heavy on piano and strings for the first hour. After the mid-way point, however, the soundtrack became more restrained and started using less obtrusive music along with unusual instrumentation (for instance, jazzy xylophones.)

Written and directed by Golden Age screen writer Lo Yu-kei (Lu Yuqi)--he did the adaptation for the above "Madam Wan"--and based off a story by Lee Yuen-man (Li Yuanwen)--the Frankie Chan of his age who wrote, directed, starred in, and scored all manner of movies--"Grievances of a Family" has a wide assortment of personnel from all over the globe: Hu and a bunch of emigre technicians from Shanghai; top stars from the world of Cantonese dialect opera; Chinese-American actor Patricia Joe on loan from Grandview, which was cranking out original pictures for North American Chinatown theaters; and local Hong Kong hands from the competitive studio world found there. This was supposed to be Hu's last film before retirement to the United States but she briefly returned and finally retired to Taiwan for good in 1966. In 1975 Hu moved to Vancouver where she lived until her passing in 1989.

Hu was the last "empress" of Chinese cinema, that is, the silent era muses who made the transition to sound. An action heroine in her heyday, she graduated to serious dramas and weepies in her later period. More sexually alluring than her contemporaries--her starring turn as the "Red [Female] Bandit" contributed in large part to the blockbuster success of the Burning of the Red Lotus Temple films from the Nanking Decade (Josephine essentially followed Hu's career trajectory when she was cast in that same role in the 1950s Hong Kong remakes)--mature Hu went from being the Marilyn Monroe of her age to becoming the Marlene Dietrich of the post-war Chinese silver screen.

During the height of Japan's imperial adventures in China she caught the eye of hard drinking Dai Li--Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's military spymaster and alternately referred to in posterity as "China's Himmler"--who had her kidnapped from her husband mid-way through the war and forced her to be his mistress until 1946, the year in which Dai was killed in a plane crash (assassination plot?) conducted by Communist intelligence(?)/competing KMT intelligence agencies in the civilian bureaucracy(?)/the OSS [American precursor to the CIA](?) Hu fled for Hong Kong and never looked back; she even became one of Shaws' highest profile contract players (some of these are out on DVD or play on TVB in the wee hours on the morning.)

The best regarded of the Shaw films is probably the award winning "Back Door" aka "Rear Entrance" (1960), directed by Li Han-hsiang (Li Hanxiang) in the same year he made "Enchanting Shadow." Co-starring child actor and future "princess" Wong Oi-ming (Wang Aiming), Celestial has released a restored R3 DVD with English subtitles. There is a certain poetic symmetry that she returned to Shaws whilst working in Hong Kong; in the 1920s Runje Shaw--eldest scion of the Shaw clan who turned his family away from the textile business on to the dream making business by forming Tianyi (Unique) Film Studios in 1925--had scouted Hu to be one of their top headliners only to lose her out to Mingxing (Star) Pictures instead. Sixth brother Sir Run Run Shaw made sure the same mistake was not repeated.

My description does this film little justice but irrespective of language ability--the above recap should provide enough of a gloss to follow the plot--this one is truly a forgotten gem that deserves a place in the canon or, in less loaded terms, on discerning viewers' essential films lists.


Butterfly Hu, a Guangdong girl made good in the Shanghai film industry.

Hiya,

It's kinda hard to believe but in the 1980s Stephen Chow Sing-chi (Zhou Xingchi) and little Tony Leung Chiu-wai were co-hosts of a children's edu-tainment program called _4:30 Space Shuttle_ on TVB Jade. Chow eventually become a top contract player in prime time with _Final Combat_ (1989) but when he branched out into movies, producers weren't quite sure what to do with him. Sure, he could be a fast-talking funnyman but "heroic bloodshed" films had been all the rage and if he toned down the verbal pyrotechnics, Chow could feasibly pass as a standard action hero... maybe (David Chiang by way of Micheal Hui)? Today's post in on one such film from this early period, "New Fist of Fury 1991, Part 2" (1992) co-starring Josephine Siao Fong-fong (Xiao Fangfang)

Producers had previously struck gold with 1990's "All for the Winner" riffing on the recent gambling film craze and casting Sing-sing as the so-called "Saint of Gamblers" in contrast to Donald(!) Chow Yun-fat's ultra suave "God of Gamblers." Thus began the "Stephen Chiau" series of movies: the tail end of his action hero phase--Bruce Lee without the martial arts skills--and the early phase of his blockbusting smart-ass phase with copious homages to his adolescent film fandom without too much moleitau mash up (yet.)

"Stephen Chiau" movies follow a relatively consistent template. In them Chow often plays a wet behind the ears, Mainland naif who immigrates to Hong Kong for a better life. Good natured but awfully impressionable, he usually possesses some extraordinary ability--in "Winner" it was x-ray vision that allowed him to read opponents' cards--which is quickly noticed by an unscrupulous stand-in father figure--for years played by Ng Man-tat doing a variation of "Ol Dirty" Yuen Siu-tien--who turns Chow into a fast-talking scheister who then becomes over-confident in his fame requiring, in the end, some sort of comeuppance leading to a humbled repentance of sorts. Chiau blockbusters at the height of his box office draw ditched the first half of the formula having him as a successful and arrogant fellow needing the help of another character--usually the attractive leading lady--to set him straight. After his falling out with stunning Sharla Cheung Man--who was always surprisingly game to be the butt of Chiau's most cruel pranks on screen--a bevy of rising starlets filled in the role of the supportive but shrewed girlfriend whilst gossipy ou-hsiang news media gawked at Chow's notorious casting couch searches for ever younger underage actresses to become his next leading lady.

A decade before the Wachowski siblings or Quentin Tarantino did it, po-mo maestro Jeff Lau (Liu Zhenwei) and company filmed a three-hour martial arts comedy epic, cut it into two parts, and released it as two separate Category III(!) pictures. If "New Fist of Fury 1991, Part 1" was a freestyle riff on Bruce Lee's 1972 classic film with Kenny Bee (Zhong Zhentao) filling in as con-man mentor to Chiau's fresh-off-the boat bumpkin, then "Part 2" is Chow's idiosyncratic take on Walter Tso Tat-wah's (Cao Dahua) five part Buddha's Palm cycle (1964-65) with Josephine Siao assaying a righteous pugilist not unlike her own turn in the original 1960s series. Yuen Wah (Yuan Hua) plays the brother of one of the fallen masters in "Part 1" looking to avenge his elder sibling's death to Chiau in the previous film. Although Chiau possesses a killer right arm--not unlike his "golden leg" in "Shaolin Soccer" (2001)--he knows he doesn't have the martial skill to best Yuen in a one-on-one contest leading him to seek out a supreme style that will enable him to prevail against the more skilled (and ruthless) Yuen. This leads to an encounter with admiring fan Natalis Chan (Chen Baixiang) whose aunt Josephine Siao is the reclusive heir to such a fighting school. Anyway, Sifu Siao pushes Chiau around like the way she might treat Cheung Ying-tsoi (see above) from a 60s actioner.

Having watched so many films from the Golden Age, you can clearly see where Jeff Lau is coming from and a lot of the zany martial arts action is carefully patterned after 60s wuxia convention (but the Buddha's Palm pictures in particular.) For those who haven't caught those vintage flicks, "Part 2" is notable for how much it prefigures Chow's mega blockbusters "Shaolin Soccer" and "Kung Fu Hustle" (2004)--it's as if this those two pictures are spiritual remakes of this one obscure film from the early Chiau period. Anyway, a must-see for Chow fans seeking to trace his influences, obsessions, and pathologies. For Josephine fans, it's a transitional picture before the Fong Sai-yuk films with Jet Li--with lots of reference to her sixties career if you can spot them. Also, pretty funny subplot with con-man Kenny Bee lusting after old maid Josephine (he seems to see the cougar underneath the dowdy spinsters' wear.)


Long OOP with English subtitles, a Mandarin dub with traditional Chinese subs is out on VCD by League Media of Taiwan.

G'day everybody,

I'm re-watching the Buddha's Palm cycle with my mom and some older aunties who had caught these pics in the cinema back in the 1960s during their initial run. Will do some write-ups soon. But of quick note:

Films #1-4 focus on Walter Tso Tat-wah (Cao Dahua) and his love interest Yu So-chow (Yu Suqiu.) And the martial rivalries between their opposing families that prevent them from getting married straight-up.

Film #5 is the only one that features Connie Chan Po-chu (Chen Baozhu) and Josephine Siao Fong-fong (Xiao Fangfang.) I think I got Yu So-chow and Josephine mixed up in my mind's eye since they both share a more than passing physical resemblance (very similar facial structures.) Anyway, Connie is in drag as Walter Tso's sworn martial brother and Josephine is the unwitting disciple of evil Shek Kin (Shi Jian) who gets her to do all sorts of evil things for him--like mortally wounding Walter(!)--because he made her swallow a poisonous magical centipede that grants him mind control over her.

Films #6-7 focus on Walter's friend Kenneth Tsang Kong (Zeng Jiang) who has to clean up all the mess the Buddha's Palm technique has created in the martial world. At the start of the series only hermit-on-top-of-a-mountain Ning Meng possesses the supreme technique but in the ensuing plot developments, everybody and their mother gets to learn a little bit of Budha's Palm to fight all the jianghu baddies that are trying to settle old scores amongst all the warring factions that pop up during the storyline.

I'll probably just discuss the first five, which are part of the Pearl City box set. But the short of my comments is this: if you're a fan of fantasy wuxia, this is a seminal series that is well worth checking out even sans English subtitles.


Lobby card depicting evil granny Yung Yuk-yi (Rong Yuyi) using her "Capricious Flying Rings" to ensnare our heroes. Also, here's Pearl City's website for their 5-DVD set.

Hey everybody,

The next few posts are going to be about the Buddha's Palm cycle of films. Without saying anything further, he's a quick trailer that should give you a taste about the first four films in the series.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qQd9Zvekho

The cycle, highly influential during its time though badly dated by today's standards, was produced by the Foo Hwa Film Company in the mid-1960s and based off of two serialized martial arts novels that appeared in print: Taiwanese author Liu Canyang's _Divine Buddha's Palm_ and Cantonese author Seung-Goon Hung's (Shangguan Hong) _Thousand Buddhas' Fist_, which apparently ran in the _Ming Pao Daily_ (founded by Louis Cha, who himself published some milestone martial arts fiction within the esteemed periodical as "Jin Yong.") The plot mostly derives from Liu's story whilst character names and the finer bits of background information come from Seung-Goon's work.

The central figure of the tale (though he is not the protagonist) is cocky martial artist who goes by the title of "Huo Yun Xie Shen" [Evil God of the Fiery Cloud.] The "Beast" character in "Kung Fu Hustle" (2004) played by "Bruce" Leung Siu-lung is named after him and clearly is an homage to the genre defining anti-hero. In contemporary American street patois, "Evil God of the Fiery Cloud" could probably be rendered as "Badass Motherfucker." Anyway, cocky (and douchey) martial arts practitioner spends years inventing and mastering a supreme skill that he dubs the Buddha's Palm. Wanting to show off his cool new technique, he invites the masters of the seventy-two most powerful sects onto a mountain top and challenges them to a duel. And he shows up in a d-bag outfit (gold robe with a skull and crossbones embroidered on his chest) before proceeding to kill all seventy-two challengers.

So, what did "Badass Motherfucker" do wrong? First, being all douchey and giving himself a really poncey nickname. Second, wearing a tacky "look at me" fighting outfit. Oh, and third: killing seventy-two masters of the main wushu schools in China in what was supposed to be a sparring match. For all I know, he might have just been sparring. Mental note to self if you ever master a martial art that gives you so much control over chi that if you point at something, it explodes: *DO NOT* spar with folks if the only two probable outcomes are 1) you stance misses and nothing happens or 2) your stance connects and your opponent ends up a puddle of blood and tissue on the ground. And that's the thing: the only difference between the first stance of Buddha's Palm and the eighth stance are whether you plan on killing one person or, I dunno, a ten thousand by showing your upturned palm at them/their general direction.

Needless to say, everyone in the jianghu is kinda ticked off at Badass Motherfucker for, and I reiterate, A) killing all the heads of the main martial arts schools in China and B) being a jerk. The whole conflict in the series is everyone who comes across Badass Motherfucker wants to kill him--and his disciples--because, well, he killed their master(s) on a mountain top gathering many decades ago.

When the audiences first meets Huo Yun Xie Shen, he's just some kooky old man living in a hermit's cave atop a mountain with a magical pet eagle, spouting off peppy nonsense and cheerful help-you-out wisdom. Here's a clip of Cantonese character actor Ning Meng as an avuncular Hou Yun Xie Shen instructing Walter Tso Tat-wah on just the first two stances of Buddha's Palm:

Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJCea3YIu1I

Anyway, next installment: what character does Walter Tso play and why does everyone want said character dead?


"Buddha's Palm," kicking butt since 1965. With "amazing special effects."