Hong Kong Leftist Noir


As promised, here's a look at a film that actress Shi Hui made for the left-wing Great Wall Motion Picture Company. These images are taken from lobby cards for The Young Heiress (1959).

According to a synopsis from the Hong Kong Film Archive's online catalog, Shi Hui plays the illegitimate daughter of a rich man. Before his death, he acknowledges her as the inheritor of his estate. The rich man's wife, aided by a group of thugs, tries to prevent Shi Hui's character from claiming her inheritance. In the end, she triumphs over the greedy wife and, desiring only the recognition as her father's daughter, donates the money to an orphanage.

The Young Heiress seems fairly typical of the crime films popular in Hong Kong cinema in the late 50s and early 60s. I've never seen the film, but I suspect that there is nothing that would mark the film as leftist beyond a generalized class consciousness. However, it would be interesting to compare it with the crime movies that the apolitical yet right-leaning Shaw Brothers was making at the time.





Here is a flyer for The Young Heiress. Notice how various images from the film stills are creatively used in the design.



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