Kickin' It Old School


I'm proud to announce that Jean Lukitsh, who has been laying down the fundamentals of Hong Kong martial arts cinema in her Electric Shadows blog over at Kungfucinema.com, is now mistress of her own domain, electricshadows.com, where she will be showing off her collection of early kung fu movie advertising fliers, starting with some wonderful fliers from the 1950s Wong Fei Hung series.

In honor of her new website, I'm posting this cover from the movie brochure for The Heroine with Invincible Legs (1952), starring Yam Yin. (I love those special trousers highlighting her powerful right leg!)

If it weren't for Jean's research about Yam Yin's father, martial arts movie pioneer Yam Yu-tin, I wouldn't have known anything about Ms. Yam beyond her filmography. I'd love to see more of her films. Besides The Story of Wong Ang the Heroine (1960), which Jean mentioned in her post, I'm also dying to watch another crime film that she made with Yu So Chow: The Breakthrough (1961). Finally, I would be remiss if I failed to mention that Yam Yin also starred in several movies with 60s superstar Connie Chan, including The Swords of Tien Shan (1961), The Snowflake Sword (1964), and The Six-fingered Lord of the Lute (1965), all of which are available on VCD and highly recommended as well.

Sexy but Serious: Diana Chang Chung-wen


Here's another Shaw Brothers pinup: this centerfold of Diana Chang Chung-wen appeared in Southern Screen No. 41 (July 1961), accompanied by the following English text.
Sexy but Serious: Diana Chang Chung-wen

Original name: Chang Chung-wen
Native of: Peking
Her recent films: "The Lost Love", "Bride Napping" (in Eastmancolor and Shawscope), and "Empress Wu Tse-tien (in Eastmancolor and Shawscope)

Diana Chang Chung-wen, often billed as the "most beautiful animal of Free China" and rightly so, decided to turn serious in her roles about a year ago.

She took the starring role in three serious productions. They were "Flames of Passion", "Twilight Hours", and "The Lost Love" which were immediate successes.

Diana herself is happy about the change. "At last I can do more than just look Chang Chung-wen on the screen," she had once said.

Off-screen Diana is frank and amiable. She makes friends easily and has a most pleasant disposition.

In her recent films, Diana Chang Chung-wen is making guest appearances in two Eastmancolor Shawscope productions. One of them is "Empress Wu Tse-tien" in which she plays the role of Empress Wang, and the other is "Bride Napping" in which she plays the role of a fighting amazon.

Further Reading
"Diana Chang Chung Wen: the Hottest Girl in the 50s"

Darling of the Screen: Patricia Lam Fung


This centerfold of Lam Fung appeared in Southern Screen No. 29 (July 1960), accompanied by the following English text.
Darling of the Screen: Patricia Lam Fung

Original Name: Fung Suk-yi
Native of: Shun Tak, Kwangtung
Her recent films: "Sleeping Beauty", "Revolutionary Heroine", "Her Foolish Heart", "Love and Chastity", and "First Love"

Three years ago she packed up her school books and walked out of the school gate into a new life, a screen career, the dream of every girl but which only comes true for a few.

Those who had known her then would remember a fresh young thing whose dark silken tresses hung almost to her waist.

Now three years and some 20 films later Patricia Lam Fung has clipped her tresses short and she has acquired that touch of sophistication and glamour, which are the marks of a movie queen. But she has not lost any of her freshness and charm, which makes her the darling of the screen.

Lam Fung owes her success to no one but herself. She had not started off playing opposite any of the big name leading men. She had always beens starred with young blood like herself.

She is without doubt the most treasured star of the Shaw Cantonese section. Last year she went to Singapore and Malaya for a series of three films which were shot there. The three were "Merdeka Bridge", "When the Durians Bloom" and "Bride Abroad".

On her return Lam Fung had just one thing to say: "My ambition is to travel around the world".

Sek Kin as a Were-what?!


I'd love to flat out say that Sek Kin was a werewolf in Hound Murder Case (1961), but you know... I'm just not sure. There were no transformation scenes to provide undeniable proof. Also, I was uncertain whether being bit by a seemingly normal German Shepherd could turn one into a lycanthrope. But how do you explain those overgrown canine teeth? Perhaps I'm thinking about this too much. What really matters is the pleasure of seeing "Bad Guy Kin" in what is simultaneously his most frightening and most ridiculous guise.

While I would be criminally insane to recommend Hound Murder Case to the average Hong Kong movie fan — the attempt to create a blood-thirsty, murdering hound from a real German Shepherd and some dodgy-looking propwork provokes too much laughter and not enough terror — the film does offer some unique pleasures not easily found elsewhere. Besides Sek Kin as a werewolf, Hound Murder Case also features martial-arts queen Yu So-chow in a rare contemporary role as a police inspector (alongside Tso Tat-wah as the chief detective). If you ever wanted to see Ms. Yu decked out in evening gown and heels *and* flipping bad guys over her head, then this is the film for you. Lau Kar-leung and Tong Gai also show up as gangsters (and likely served as the film's fight choreographers as well). They have a wonderful scene with Yu involving an, unbeknownst to them, Bond-type lipstick gun.


But in the end, the most compelling reason to see Hound Murder Case is Sek Kin... as a werewolf!


Thanks to Todd at Die, Danger, Die, Die, Kill! for the disturbing synchronicity that inspired this post and for sowing the seed of coincidence several months ago. The world of pop cinema is indeed strange and wonderful!

Lam Fung Shakes Her Thing


Patricia Lam Fung was Shaw Brother's answer to MP&GI's singing-and-dancing diva Grace Chang. In 1957 Chang had became a huge star with Mambo Girl, which was tailored to showcase her talents. The film also introduced to Chinese audiences the latest latin dance styles. Never failing to cash in on a trend, Shaws followed suit with A Pretty Girl's Love Affair (1958), where it was Lam Fung's turn to dance the cha-cha. Indeed, one of the film's songs was called "Why Don't You Learn Cha-cha" and to get movie fans up to speed before the film's release, Lam demonstrated some of her moves in the February 1958 issue of Southern Screen. Three years later, she was still keeping up with the "latest dance steps" (Southern Screen No. 36, Feb. 1961).

Sadly, it's not possible to see how Lam Fung's cha-cha compared with Grace Chang's, but this clip from one of Lam's later films in the mid-60s shows that she was no slouch on the dance floor.

HK movie posters à la Thai


Thailand has a rich tradition of painted movie posters and billboards, which were created not only for their own films but for foreign films as well. I recently came across an eBay store that has a wonderful collection of posters. Some of my favorites include the one shown above for My Cousin the Ghost (1987), with its exaggerated comic figures. This poster for Tsui Hark's gothic-noir wuxia debut The Butterfly Murders (1979) is boldly transformed by the Thai love of bright colors. And although this poster for arthouse director Clara Law's Reincarnation of Golden Lotus (1989) can be justly accused of false advertising, it does illustrate Thai audiences' taste for gruesome ghosts.

Finally, here is a poster from my own collection for the Connie Chan film Lady in Distress: The Invincible Fighter (1967). Notice how the poster calls attention (in the blue circle on the right) to the presence of David Chiang, who only has a bit part as one of the bad guys. The film must have been released in Thailand a few years later, after Chiang had already become a star at Shaw Brothers.

Further Reading
Movie posters in Thailand: Same same, but different

Patricia Lam Fung: Sweet Girl in Terror



In my last post I wrote that Shaw Brother's second release was the Cantonese production, Sweet Girl in Terror (1958), starring Patricia Lam Fung. I was surprised to discover that it was a color film (according to the Hong Kong Film Archive's online catalog). At the time, all of Shaw's films were shot in black and white except for prestige productions like The Kingdom and the Beauty (1959), The Enchanting Shadow (1960), and Les Belles (1961), the first presented in the widescreen Shawscope format. After the completion of its film processing facilities in the fall of 1961, Shaw Brothers ramped up its color film production. That Sweet Girl in Terror was filmed in color in 1958 is proof of how big a star Lam Fung was. Indeed, she was so popular that she was known as "The Jewel of Shaw". All the more unfortunate then that Sweet Girl in Terror is the only one of Shaw's early color productions not available on DVD. I don't know why this is the case, since Sweet Girl in Terror was shown along with five other of Lam's films as part of the HKFA's "Shaws on Screen" retrospective in 2003. Whatever the reason, it's a huge loss for fans of Hong Kong cinema.

Stay tuned for more about Patricia Lam Fung in the coming weeks!

Further Reading
Shaw Studio, Hong Kong

Ronaldo... following Becks' footsteps of disgrace

Was it greed or just plain stupidity? Christiano Ronaldo kept suggesting about his switch Madrid since the end of the previous BPL season. 2 days ago he confirmed it. A 300,000 pounds per week salary at a fallen Spanish club? I really can't understand why he calls it a dream. United are the BPL champs and the European champs, isn't that a bigger dream? Who was Ronaldo before United bought him? Well, for one, it better that he leaves because United is a team of champions and champions do not betray their own club. Beckham did the same when he was at his peak and look where he is now... look at what he achieved in Madrid... nothing.

Which one's the bigger betrayer?


Ronaldo said that Scolari advise him to move to Madrid, kind of obvious that Scolari was saying that to get rid of Ronaldo from the BPL just because he's Chelsea's new manager and he thinks that United will be weak without Ronaldo. News flash for Scolari: United is not an individual, United is a team. So, I don't think we'll miss Ronaldo.

Robinho: Ronaldo's replacement? Or someone better?


Rumors have been circulating that Real might offload Robinho to United as part of Ronaldo's 100,000,000 pound transfer from United. Robinho has stated recently that he wouldn't mind a move to United. I think if thats the swap, Robinho would be great for us. The coming week will be crucial for us. Just wait and see... Glory glory Man United!


Update (30/06/08):

Even Hitler hates Ronaldo now...

Shaw's Lost Era (1958-61)


Don't get me wrong, I've been just as excited as every other Hong Kong movie fan about the recent restoration and release of the Shaw Brothers Film Library, but I can't hide my disappointment about the dearth of films from the studio's early years. According to The Shaw Screen: A Preliminary Study, the first Shaw Brothers film was The Magic Touch, starring Betty Loh Tih and King Hu. It premiered on December 4, 1958 and was followed on December 31 by the Cantonese production, Sweet Girl in Terror, starring Patricia Lam Fung and Cheung Ying-Choi. Yes, that's right... Shaw Brothers made Cantonese films... at least until 1963. But you wouldn't necessarily know this, because ZERO of their Cantonese films were restored and released on DVD. I have heard this was because none of these films survived in the Shaw Brothers library, but I don't know for sure. Whatever the reason, it's a real shame. The same goes for all the Mandarin films from 1958 to 1961 that are missing in action. Of the 91 films released by the studio during that period (51 Mandarin, 39 Cantonese, and 1 featuring both dialects), only 5 are available on DVD. That's a huge loss. While most of the early Shaw films may never be seen again, at least traces of them have survived in the pages of Southern Screen, the studio's publicity magazine. In the coming weeks, I'm planning on digging through the few issues that I own and posting items about the films and stars from this lost era.

The early issues of Southern Screen are not easy to come by and are subject to highly competitive bidding on eBay. Fortunately, you can get a taste of the early years of Shaw Brothers from two wonderful Flash slideshows, which are featured as issues of the online tofu-magazine. Here are direct links. Once the video has loaded, click on the right hand side of the window to advance to the next screen.

mini-tofu #10
SOUTHERN SCREEN: A Shaw Brothers' pictorial part 1
features covers and photos from Southern Screen Nos. 1-17
(December 1957 through July 1959)

mini-tofu #11
SOUTHERN SCREEN: A Shaw Brothers' pictorial part 2
features covers and photos from Southern Screen Nos. 40-52
(June 1961 through June 1962)

Enjoy!

BTW, the cover of Southern Screen No. 3 shown above features "Little Wildcat" Chung Ching, who made movies for Shaws and Sons before that studio and many of its stars were incorporated into the newly founded Shaw Brothers company.

Me @ The Med

If you could find heaven in Malaysia... It would be at Cherating's Club Med. I spent my previous weekend there for 3 days and I really didn't want to come back here. Beach, babes and booze, what else would you want? It was actually a company trip, so it was FREE. We enjoyed the activities around the grounds during the day and partied like animals at night with a free flow of booze. Met this really hot chick there and drank till I couldn't drink anymore. The food was also fantastic as we had about 100 different dishes for every buffet meal. Given a choice, I would really like to go back there someday.


Me sippin' Club Med's Monkey Juice at the beach bar


The Macha gang


Don't we look wasted?


Me and the 'intern gang'


Me and Prasad chillin' under the trees at the beach... it was so freaking relaxing...


Hurmmm... me and my Bombay Blue... I think this was drink no.9 of the night...


Compare this with PD... which one would you rather visit?

AKA (former) Mrs. Lo Wei


One of the many temptations that Ho Fan faced in his role as the monk Xuan Zang (see my previous post) was the sexy Lau Leung-Wa, who played one of the spider demons in Cave of the Silken Web (1967) and the prime minister of the Country of Women in The Land of Many Perfumes (1968). Besides those small but memorable roles in Shaw's Monkey King series, she was also unforgettable as the stylish, face-changing villain of Temptress of a Thousand Faces (1968). Lau seems to have been a strong-willed and multi-talented woman: she was a producer, actress, costume designer and furthermore — according to this article from the May 1959 issue of The Happiness Movieland — a "first-rate automobile driver" and a "real Z-bomb"!

BTW, while I knew that her husband Lo Wei directed Bruce Lee's kung-fu debut The Big Boss (1971), I was surprised to discover that it was Lau who negotiated Lee's contract with Golden Harvest.

A Star Unborn, a Monk Makes Porn


Who is this "handsome young man" who was "destined to climb the heights of filmdom" (according to an article in the July, 1961 issue of Southern Screen)? Why it's Ho Fan... um... you know... that guy who played the monk in the Shaw Brothers' four-film adaptation of Journey to the West. Like poor Mark Hammill and his career-defining role as Luke Skywalker, Ho Fan's closest claim to movie star fame was this stint playing straight man to the Monkey King. The role didn't exactly lead to more acting opportunities. In fact, his career slowly petered out after the last Monkey film, The Land of Many Perfumes (1968). Ho did eventually break free of his monk role, not as an actor but as a director... of erotic films. Maybe the seed of lust was planted in him by one of the sexy temptresses that appeared with increasing frequency in the Monkey series. Whatever the cause, Ho eventually found his way back to Shaw Brothers, where he made the artsy Girl with the Long Hair (1975).

However, my reason for posting about Ho Fan is not to plant in your pure minds an image of the venerable monk Xuan Zang shooting soft-core porn. Rather, I want to draw your attention to Ho Fan's career as a photographer. His images of Hong Kong are a stunning testament to his true calling. And it seems that he was also making films long before he played a monk or directed erotic movies. His newest book of photographs, The Living Theater, includes a DVD of a short film he made in 1963.

Further Reading
Review of Monkey Goes West (1966)

Chang Cheh's Declaration of War





Although I'm not a fan of director Chang Cheh, I quite like his early films (from 1966 to 1969) because of the way they embody the conflict between the long standing women-centered tradition of Chinese cinema and the values and aesthetic of yang gang (or staunch masculinity) that he advocated. In this regard, I've always been fascinated by the opening title sequence of Magnificent Trio (November, 1966), the film he made after the success of Tiger Boy (February, 1966), a low-budget, black-and-white film—and the first over which he had total creative control—that he made to prove to Shaw Brothers that his plan to create movies anchored by strong male stars was financially viable.

The billing order in the credits of Magnificent Trio reflects the legacy of a female-dominated star system but is boldly contradicted by the striking image of Wang Yu, Lo Lieh, and Cheng Lui running towards the camera against the abstract background of a blood red sky. Although billed as co-stars, these three men are the real stars of the film. In Chang Cheh's world, leading ladies Margaret Tu Chuan, Ching Ping, and Fanny Fan can only exist on the sidelines. Most striking of all is the burning flag that inaugurates the film. It loudly declares Chang's intention to shake up the Hong Kong film industry.

The following summer, One-Armed Swordsman would earn Chang the title of "Million Dollar Director". The yang gang revolution was well under way, and by the end of the decade, the battle had been won. Even veteran award-winning writer/director Tao Qin, who had made some of Shaws' greatest melodramas and musicals throughout the 60s, was forced to adapt to the times. His last film was a wuxia movie; he died of stomach cancer in 1969 before it was completed. Chun Kim, the renowned Cantonese director who had moved to Shaw Brothers in 1965 and made several melodramas with top actresses Jenny Hu and Julie Yeh Feng, also died that year. He committed suicide in the studio's staff quarters. Two years earlier, his wife, actress Jeanette Lin Tsui, had run off with the One-Armed Swordsman himself, Wang Yu. And then there were Margaret Tu Chuan and Fanny Fan. At the beginning of the 60s, they were bright and sexy young stars making romantic dramas and comedies, but in 1969 they starred together as "loose women" and eventual murder victims in what what would be their final film, the simultaneously sleazy and puritanical Diary of Lady-Killer. Several months after the film's release, Margaret Tu Chuan killed herself with sleeping pills...

Further Reading
"Chang Cheh's Revolution in Masculine Violence" by Sek Kei

Shaw's Bathing Beauties


This picture from the August 1964 issue of The Screen & Stage Pictorial shows seven beauties who were being groomed by Shaw Brothers to become the new generation of starlets that the studio desperately needed at that time. Just one month previously, one of Shaws' greatest assets, box office queen and award-winning actress Lin Dai, killed herself from an overdose of sleeping pills. Her final completed film, The Last Woman of Shang, was released that August. Almost as if waiting in the wings for a chance to take center stage, all seven of these young ladies had bit roles in the film backing up Lin Dai as palace dancers.

Two months later, Cheng Pei Pei got top billing in Lovers' Rock. Three months after that, Li Ching starred alongside Ivy Ling Po in The Mermaid and became known as the "Baby Queen" of Shaw Brothers after receiving the Best Actress Award at the 12th Asian Film Festival for her performance in the film. And in October 1965, Chin Ping helped launch Shaw's "Action Era" with her lead role in The Temple of the Red Lotus. All three actresses became superstars during their tenure at the studio. As for the remaining four, Fang Ying, Angela Yu Chien, Margaret Hsing Hui, and Allyson Chang Yen, they never made it big. It's true, Yu Chien did win Best Supporting Actress Award in 1966 at the 5th Golden Horse Awards for her performance in The Blue and the Black, but after that she got stuck with supporting roles that only capitalized on her sex appeal.

Yau Leung: Photographer of the Stars


This portrait of legendary singer and actress Bai Guang is just one of countless photos taken by Yau Leung during his career as stills photographer for the Hong Kong movie industry. I don't know too much about him, except that he worked for both Shaw Brothers and Cathay/MP&GI and, judging from his output, many other studios as well. But it's clear from his work that he was an important contributor to Hong Kong movie culture. Besides helping to create the publicity that fueled the fantasies of the silver screen, he also trained his camera on the regular folks who lived and worked in Hong Kong. Yau Leung's photographs of everyday life are just as beautiful as his glamor shots, and placed side by side, both aspects of his work create a unique historical record of the city and its dreams.

Here's a recent article from Time magazine bemoaning the lack of greater recognition for Yau Leung's work.

There are two volumes featuring his movie star portraits, which I highly recommend, but unfortunately they can be quite difficult to track down. Two of his other books can be ordered from YesAsia (although you might want to shop around for a better deal).

But you don't need to spend a dime to see the wonderful selection of Yau Leung's photographs at the Yesterday Hong Kong website.

The Art of Tung Pui-Sun


Tung Pui-Sun, the gentleman who made the movie ad for Midnight Were-Wolf (1963) pictured above, was the art director at Sin-Hok Kong-Luen, the film company responsible for revolutionizing Hong Kong cinema in the early to mid-60s with their big-budget adaptations of Jin Yong's "New School" martial-arts fiction. The company successfully created a instantly recognizable brand, and Tung Pui-Sun was instrumental in crafting the look that signified Sin-Hok Kong-Luen. In addition to his work on the films, his art also appeared on the marketing materials and ancillary products: posters, advertisements, booklets, and soundtrack EPs. Here are some more examples of Tung's evocative style:

The Golden Hairpin (1963)

One Queen and Three Kings (1963)

The Snowflake Sword (1964)

The Six-Fingered Lord of the Lute (1965)

The Dark Heroine Muk Lan-Fa (1966)

I'm happy to report that Tung is still active today and has recently created an astounding collection of paintings based on the novels of Jin Yong. Evidently, a book has just been published to commemorate the collection, and I'm now desperate to track it down! To see what I'm so excited about, check out Tung Pui-Sun's website: www.puisuntung.com

Bat Girl: Hong Kong-style Part 2


If you were wondering why Josephine Siao's The Lady Killer was also known as Bat Girl, just check out her crime-fighting outfit in this detail from the movie flyer. Here are the entire front and back of the flyer. BTW, the film's director was Wong Fung, who was screenwriter for the prolific 1950s Wong Fei Hung film series. Besides Bat Girl and the previously mentioned Blue Falcon, he made one other "Jane Bond" film with Josephine, called Golden Skeleton (1967), which I'm happy to report has survived and is viewable at the Hong Kong Film Archive. But if you're not planning on going to Hong Kong any time soon, then do yourself a favor and watch a fun film he made in 1962 with a young Connie Chan, called The Blonde Hair Monster.

Bat Girl: Hong Kong-style Part 1


For my inaugural post, I thought I'd do a tie-in with Todd Stadtman's latest posting of some of my Blue Falcon lobby cards. Here is the EP cover for another one of Josephine Siao's "Jane Bond" films: The Lady Killer (1967), also known as Bat Girl. I love Josephine's flamenco six-shooter look and the blood squib graphic! Sadly, this film, like Blue Falcon, is missing in action.
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