More Treasures from the People's Repubic of YouTube

Here's a rare find: Xiao Juan (before she became famous at Shaw Brothers under the name Ivy Ling Po) singing a cover of Patti Page's "Changing Partners" in the Amoy-dialect Shrews from Afar (1958), directed by Wong Tin-lam.

The next two clips are courtesy of Dev Yang, who has recently launched a YouTube channel to accompany his blog The Golden Age of Chinese Cinema. I'm very eager to see what other rarities he can pull out of his sleeve!


The one and only Bai Guang in Blood Stained Begonia (1949). It's an absolute shame that none of her films are available on DVD.


I never thought I'd see this: the opening scene of Calendar Girl (1959), featuring the enviable Peter Chen Ho sandwiched between the fetching Helen Li Mei and Diana Chang Chung-wen. Calendar Girl has long been a "holy grail" film of mine. It's the movie that set the mold for the Eastmancolor Mandarin musicals of the 60s, from director Tao Qin's own subsequent efforts — like Les Belles (1961), Love Parade (1963), and The Dancing Millionairess (1964) — all the way to Inoue Umetsugu's Hong Kong Nocturne (1967) and Hong Kong Rhapsody (1968).

Crime-Fighting Ku Mei and Her Spicy Thai Kiss

Here's an intriguing piece that I found in The Happiness Movieland No. 19 (May, 1959):

Ku Mei in Thailand

Ku Mei, the little "Skylark", becomes very popular in Thailand as she leads the cast of the Siamese picture "The Steel-Arm Girl Knight-Errant". She speaks now fluent Siamese and has adapted herself to the customs of the land. Her kiss scene in the picture boasts to be the longest, the hottest, the wildest and the most tempting kiss in the history of Siamese movies.

I never expected to see Carrie Ku Mei — best remembered for providing Lin Dai's singing voice in Love Without End (1961) — show up in a 1950s Thai film as a pistol-packing masked crusader. Even more surprising was her kissing scene ("the longest, hottest, wildest and most tempting in the history of Siamese movies"!) with who appears to be Thai movie legend Mitr Chaibancha.


Mitr Chaibancha (?) and Ku Mei making Thai movie history.

How did Ku Mei end up making movies in Thailand? Well, she visited the country in 1956 during a promotional tour for her film A Thousand Flowers Bloom and was invited to stay and star in Thai movies. The Steel-Arm Girl Knight-Errant is evidently one of the films she made. That's about all I can tell you. Unfortunately, I can't find any more information about this or any other Thai films she might have made.

But there is a tantalizing reference to Ku Mei's Thai sojourn in the 1965 Shaw Brothers film The Lark, which is loosely based on her life. Peter Chen Ho plays a reporter who poses as a wealthy music promoter in order to get closer to Ku Mei and scoop the juicy details of the scandal that has prompted her return to Hong Kong. As Ku Mei starts falling for Chen Ho, she opens up about her life and shows him her photo album, which includes pictures from her tour in Thailand. Peter asks about a man in one of the photos. Ku Mei hesitantly replies, "He's the man in the so-called 'scandal', which everyone referred to.... It wasn't as complicated as everyone thought. Two men vying for my affection which resulted in murder". Hmmm... I guess that is pretty straight forward... however I'd love to know if it's true and, if so, who exactly were the two men?!

Party with Peng Peng

I must admit that I really identify with Peng Peng's Pigsy in the Shaw Brothers' Journey to the West films. After watching the supremely silly Land of Many Perfumes (1968), I felt a deep compassion for my Inner Pigsy. In the face of this delightful song by Peng Peng, so uninhibited and unashamed, my male-bashing super-ego immediately dissolved into a giant smile of loving kindness.



As chance would have it, there's an issue of Asia Entertainments currently for sale on eBay that has an article about Peng Peng (and the equally well-endowed Leung Sing Po and Lie En Jia). It says that Peng Peng was also the leader of Shaws' house band. And sure enough, there is a wonderful scene of him playing guitar (and tap dancing!) at a house party in Hong Kong Rhapsody (1968). I wish Shaw's musicals featured more scenes like this and less of the stilted stage and fashion shows that always seem to figure as the grand finale. Keep an eye out for the bright and beaming Allyson Chang Yen (in the green dress), who crashes the party with her friends midway through the clip. Yeah... keep singing and dancing!

Lam Fung versus "Pigsy" Peng Peng

Here's a funny little something from the February 1960 issue of Southern Screen: Patricia Lam Fung taking on Peng Peng, who started working in Shaw Brothers' Cantonese division in 1959 but is most remembered for his role as Pigsy in the series of films based on Journey to the West that the studio made from 1966 to 1968. The two guys who first try to take him down are Lui Kei (on the left) and Ko Leung (on the right). Lui Kei also got his start in Shaws' Cantonese division. By the end of the 60s he would become one of Cantonese cinema's top leading men, most famously with "Movie-Fan Princess" Connie Chan, but in the 70s he was back at Shaw Brothers, in the director's chair this time, making films like Sexy Girls of Denmark (1973) and Mini-Skirt Gang (1974).

Its time to hear our side of the story...

I came across this forwarded message and I felt that I could really relate to it. It speaks the truth about what a guy goes through when he's in love. Kudos to the dude that wrote this! :-)

1) Guys may be flirting around all day, but before they go to sleep, they always think about the girl they truly care about....

2) Guys are more emotional then you think, if they loved you at one point, it'll take them a lot longer then you think to let you go, and it hurts every second that they try.

3) Guys go crazy over a girl's smile(:

4) A guy who likes you wants to be the only guy you talk to.

5) Giving a guy a hanging message like "You know what?..uh...nevermind.." would make him jump to a conclusion that is far from what you are thinking. And he'll assume he did something wrong and he'll obsess about it trying to figure it out.

6) If a guy tells you about his problems, he just needs someone to listen to him. You don't need to give advice.

7) A usual act that proves that the guy likes you is when he teases you.

8) GUYS LOVE YOU MORE THEN YOU LOVE THEM!!!

9) Guys use words like hot or cute to describe girls. They rarely use beautiful or gorgeous. If a guy uses that, he loves you or likes you a whole heck of a lot.

10)If the guy does something stupid in front of the girl, he will think about it for the next couple days or until the next time he spends time with the girl.

11)If a guy looks unusually calm and laid back, he's probably faking it and he is really thinking about something

12) When a guy says he is going crazy about the girl, he really is

Guys rarely say that

13)When a guy asks you to leave him alone, he's just actually saying, "Please come and listen to me

14)If a guy starts to talk seriously, listen to him. It doesn't happen that often, so when it does, you know something's up.

15) When a guy looks at you for longer than a second, he's definitely thinking

something.

16) Guys really think that girls are strange and have unpredictable decisions and are MAD confusing but somehow are drawn even more to them

17)A guy would give the world to be able to read a girl's mind for a day.

18)No guy can handle all his problems on his own. He's just too stubborn to admit it.

19)NOT ALL GUYS ARE RUDE!!! Just because ONE is RUDE doesnt mean he represents ALL of them.

20)WHEN A GUY SACRIFICES HIS SLEEP AND HEALTH JUST TO TALK TO YOU, HE REALLY LIKES YOU AND WANTS TO BE WITH YOU AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

21)Even if you dump a guy months ago and he loved you he probably still does and if he had one wish it would be you to come back into his life

Little Sister Cheung Yin

I just found this pinup of Cheung Yin (aka Allyson Chang Yen) in the December 1961 issue of Southern Screen. This was when she joined Shaws Cantonese division, before her film career reached a dead-end in the Mandarin division as supporting actress for "prettier" stars like Li Ching (in Susanna and Hong Kong Rhapsody), Chin Ping (in The Joy of Spring and Swan Song), and Fang Yin (in The Mirror and the Lichee and That Man in Chang-An). For some reason, I've taken an interest in Cheung Yin. Maybe it's just sympathy for the underdog, but I can't help feeling that her spunky charm was wasted at Shaw Brothers. Anyway, here is the accompanying article about "Little Sister" Cheung Yin [click on the image for a larger version]...

My first car

After 3 months of being too lazy to take some pics of my new car, I finally did it. I was at a friend's place and he wanted me to take some shots of him and his office, when I was free I took pics of my car at the same time. It isn't much but I'm proud that I bought my own car. Anyway, here they are:

Loh Tih and Her Yo-Yo

The hula-hoop craze was short-lived in Hongkong, and a new fad has stepped in.

The newcomer is the yo-yo. For those more advanced in years the yo-yo is not something new, but some twenty years ago, they had played with it.

Everywhere you walk on the streets in Hongkong, or visit a friend's house, you'll find someone with a yo-yo.

Betty Loh Tih, that pretty young star of Shaw Studio, is one who keeps up with the times. No sooner had the yo-yo arrived, when she bought one too.

Now she is quite an expert at it. If you want to see her playing with one, just see the Shaw film "When the Peach Blossoms Bloom".

Here's the full article from the August 1960 issue of Southern Screen.

Dev Yang's New Chinese Movie Blog

I'm happy to announce that Dev Yang, regular commentator on my blog and author of the blog Hsia Moon - Glamour, Elegance, Idealism, has just launched a new blog a few days ago and is already off and running with entries about legendary silent film star Ruan Lingyu; Amoy star Ding Lan; Chen Sze Sze, the "Little Princess" of the left-wing Great Wall Studio; the history of Chinese opera films; and having tea with Bobo Fung. Check it out!

The Golden Age of Chinese Language Cinema 1910-1970