Allyson Chang Yen: Beautiful from Every Angle

I just found this article on Allyson Chang Yen while I was browsing my magazine collection for material on Fanny Fan. It's from the July 1966 issue of Asia Entertainments. Boy, I've sure become smitten with Chang Yen. She's spunky, sexy, and super cute. It's a real shame that she never made it up the ranks of stardom during her career at Shaw Brothers.

There is an old Chinese saying which says "a good dress adds to a person's appearance". But in the case of Chang Yen, it is the opposite: her loveliness makes any dress look better. Chang Yen just seems perfect with any style of dresses, her well proportioned figure and the graceful movements acquired through years of ballet dancing have made this possible. On top of all these, Chang Yen is a very sweet and lovely young girl, so there is little wonder that anything she puts on seems to be perfect.

Patricia Lam Fung: Picture Perfect

As promised in my post on the Special Lam Fung Contest, here is a stunning color portrait, from the May 1959 issue of The Milky Way Pictorial. As always, you can click for a larger version.

Fanny Fan: Who is Fanny?

Who is Fanny? Well, she just so happens to be my secret idol. And I'm slightly miffed that Hong Kong film historian Law Kar left her out of the "Wild, Wicked, and Sexy" chapter of his book Hong Kong Cinema: A Cross-Cultural View. Anyone who is familiar with Fanny's small but unquestionably iconic roles in The Golden Buddha (1966) and Angel with the Iron Fists (1967) has to admit that this is a grievous omission. During the next few weeks I'll be exploring the films and charms of Miss Fanny Fan. To start things off, here is an article from the August, 1959 issue of Southern Screen.

WHO IS FANNY?

The name of Fanny Fan may sound unfamiliar to followers of the Mandarin screen.

If you are tempted to find out, then go and see her latest picture "The Pink Murder". That sexy, vivacious and thoroughly immoral young wife of a rich old man in the picture is her.

One look at her and there is no doubt that she has every thing that made Jayne Mansfield, Anita Ekberg and that well-known Brigitte Bardot a star.

In her latest film Fanny takes the starring role for the first time opposite director-actor Yen Chun. In "The Pink Murder" Fanny shows that she can act too. She is excellent as the greedy young wife who would not hesitate to use her physical charms to seduce men and make them kill for her sake.

From the eBay Archive: Special Lam Fung Contest

Also from the February, 1959 issue of Movie News is this Patricia Lam Fung photo giveaway and special contest. While I can't travel back in time and post the prize -- a large autographed color portrait of Lam Fung -- I will post a comparable treat for all you Lam Fung fans later this week!

Lam Fung, the popular Cantonese star is coming to Singapore on 6th February, travelling on board TJIWANGI. She is going to star in Shaws' "Love on Merdeka Bridge," the first of four films she is scheduled to make in Singapore.

To commemorate this occasion, MOVIE NEWS makes a special CHINESE NEW YEAR OFFER to all Lam Fung fans. One thousand signed photographs of your favourite are available for distribution. To take advantage of this offer fill in the coupon below carefully in block letters and fix a stamp to the value of 10 cents in the space provided. Send the coupon to LAM FUNG PHOTO, MOVIE NEWS, 116 Robinson Road, Singapore-1. Photographs will be sent by post to the thousand applicants whose letters are opened first on 10th February, the day the application list will close.

SPECIAL LAM FUNG CONTEST
Win an enlarged autographed colour portrait of Lam Fung! All you have to do is write a short essay — not more than one hundred words — on "Why I am One of Lam Fung's Fans." Completed essays, with the coupon below attached to the top right hand corner, should reach the MOVIE NEWS offices by 15th February. Address your entry to "Lam Fung Essay," MOVIE NEWS, 116 Robinson Road, Singapore-1. Colour portraits will go to the twenty entrants whose essays are considered best by the judges. Results will be announced in the March issue.

From the eBay Archive: Interview with Patricia Lam Fung

Here is an interview with Patricia Lam Fung from the February, 1959 issue of the Singapore-based Movie News. I nearly went blind trying to transcribe the low-res scan, but I think I did it accurately. There's only one word I couldn't decipher. Anyway, I think the piece nicely illustrates Lam Fung's reputation as the pioneering teen idol of Hong Kong cinema.

LAM FUNG

The lovely young Cantonese star who will soon be in Singapore to make four pictures for Shaws' Studios, talks to Movie News correspondent A. R. Castro.

On an elaborate set at spacious Grandview Studios, tucked away in the teeming Diamond Hill district in Kowloon, Hongkong, and within earshot of the British Colony's busy airport, Shaws were hard at work putting the finishing touches to a gay, joyous movie production. They were a corner away from the lunar New Year and there was much work to be done.

Inside Stage 1A, the setting was a nightclub. The band was giving out a sensuous Latin-American number. On the floor 20 young couples — most of them still in their early teens — were gyrating to the snappy rhythm. They were in jeans and shirts; swirling skirts and blouses. Many of the boys had their hair cropped the duck-tail cut. The girls wore theirs in the fashion of jazzy youth today; bobbed, urchin-cut, pony-tailed. Whereas their attire, loud and fancy, varied, their expressions were the same: alive with jive. Out of the crowd one tiny, little girl stood out and commanded attention.

She was dressed in ballerina tights, all in black. Her face shone with the effervescence of modern youth caught in the rhythm and pace of their generation. And as the camera moved in for a close-up, the director yelled "cut!" — Music and dancers froze at the command.

"Okay, take ten minutes!" the stage manager ordered. And things returned to normal for a while.

The girl in the black tights staggered playfully off-stage and plunked down on a seat besides director Chow Se-look. "Am I tired!" Lam Fung gasped. "And to think we still have eight hours shooting to go...!"

In fact, Lam Fung was looking forward to those eight hours. "Nothing pleases her more than when she is at work," said Director Chow who has been Lam Fung's maestro in the six pictures she has done for Shaws in the three years of her bright, young movie career on the Cantonese screen.

Lam Fung calls Director Chow, "See-Foo", which in Cantonese translation means maestro. And she has a great respect for the Shanghai-born movie director who is one of Shaws' top movie makers.

"We've got to finish before the New Year," the Maestro explained. "Don't remind me of it," she added with mock resignation. And the production unit surrounding Lam Fung laughed heartedly.

Nineteen-year-old Lam Fung is a spritely, young thing with a pretty head properly screwed on. In between movie-making and reading scripts and all the duties with which a top movie star is burdened, she finds time to improve her mind as well as her talent.

Lam Fung takes dancing and singing lessons and does her homework with remarkable industry. Yet she finds time to study Mandarin and English. "One, I'm doing quite well," said Lam Fung in perfect Mandarin. "The other I'm doing not quite so well," she added in halting but otherwise correct English.

Shaws' top-ranking Cantonese movie star was born in Hongkong just about the time the world was going to war. "They blamed my birthday [indecipherable word] for starting it," Lam Fung said with the mischievous humour for which she is beloved. "But actually I'm a quiet girl and love everybody... especially my fans."

Lam Fung is her professional name. "My friends call me Patricia... I like the name although people sometimes call me Pat and make me feel like a boy!"

Patricia went to school at an early age and she was a bright pupil and a favorite with the sisters at Hongkong's Precious Blood Chinese Middle School. It was the influence of school days that has interested Patricia in Christianity. "I want to be a Catholic," she said seriously. And what Patricia aspires to she normally attains.

Take for instance, when she first became interested in a movie career. Alert to the fact that Shaws is always on the hunt for new talent, Pat studied the Chinese films showing and the performers in them. When Shaws three years ago advertised for candidates, Lam Fung sent in her bid. One look at her picture, and assured by her bright and original style in her letter, Shaws summoned Pat for an interview. This led to a screen test, and Patricia Fung, soon to be Lam Fung, was on her way to the stars.

Success has not spoiled Patricia Lam Fung one bit. She remains the unspoiled, gay and friendly girl her friends at school knew her to be. She has continuous proposals. One stood outside her apartment a whole afternoon to await Lam Fung's return from work. Meeting her, he poured forth his love and devotion. But Lam Fung tactfully brought him to his senses. She was much too young, she protested. And besides, she was still too involved in her career.

Unlike many stars of rank, Lam Fung pays special attention to her movie fans. Day after day, they drop in at her apartment, asking for her picture and autograph. "I always have pictures ready and my servants have instruction never to refuse them... I feel that since these people are nice enough to come and pay me such kindly attention, the least I can do is to oblige them...." And the daily mail from her fans requires special post-office delivery; it comes by the loadful.

At 19, Lam Fung is by no means satisfied, despite her extremely successful career so far. "I want to try out in Mandarin movies... and I hope someday to do a film or two for Shaws in this language," Lam Fung said.

It was time to start on the next scene. Director Chow had fixed his lights and his camera. Lam Fung took off her wrap and began to touch up her make-up. "Work again," she said and with a wink she was off.

"Ready... Camera!" Director Chow yelled. The band started up, the dancers on the floor came to life, the camera whirred. And Patricia Lam Fung was back in her world of dreams and story-telling again.

The Pretty Lady Behind the Ugly Face Is...

A big thanks to Dev for identifying the pretty lady behind the ugly face. It turns out that she is none other than Chang Lye Lye, older sister of Landi Chang. The multi-talented Chang sisters hailed from Singapore and came from a showbiz family. Their father was a pioneering circus performer, and their mother was allegedly the first ballerina in China. Leaving war-torn China, the family moved to Singapore in 1941 and joined the Shen Chang Fu Circus. Lye Lye and Landi grew up under the big top and learned singing, dancing, and acrobatics at a young age. They soon became the star performers of the troupe.

In 1954 the sisters traveled with the Shen Chang Fu Circus to Hong Kong. Around this time Chang Lye Lye's career as a singer took off, and she soon started appearing in films singing a song or two and sometimes in a featured role. Her name first shows up in the credits of Selamat Tinggal Kekasihku [Goodbye My Love], a 1955 Malay film made by the Cathay-Keris Company. She broke into Chinese movies shortly thereafter thanks to Lo Wei who asked her to play a role in his film Love River (1957) and who probably also arranged for her to appear with him in Lady Sings the Blues, a Jeanette Lin Tsui vehicle released later that year.


Lo Wei and Chang Lye Lye in Love River (1957)
Photo from The Age of Shanghainese Pops, 1930-1970

In 1959, Chang Lye Lye had a singing cameo playing herself in Miss Songbird, with Julie Yeh Feng taking the title role. Lye Lye finally got a chance to be leading lady when Shaw Brothers invited her to shoot two Amoy-dialect films, Storm in a Teacup and I Love That Young Man. Evidently, she also taught singing classes at the studio. Around or after this time, she decided to produce, direct, and star in her own film, My Love in Malaya. According to an interview she gave the National Archives of Singapore, it won Best Film at the Malay film awards.


Chang Lye Lye (left) and Landi Chang (right) in My Love in Malaya
Click here for the full flyer

I couldn't find much information about what Chang Lye Lye did in the 60s. The online synopsis of her National Archives of Singapore interview says that she became a dance teacher at Shaw Brothers on the recommendation of director Chun Kim (who was married to Jeannette Lin Tsui, whose brother Kenneth Tsang Kong was married to Lye Lye's sister Landi Chang by this time). So it's very possible that she taught Jenny Hu how to shake her thing for her debut in Till the End of Time (1966).

Chang Lye Lye's film career ends on an odd but definitely cool note: she appears in and sings the theme song for Golden Skeleton (1967), a Cantonese "Jane Bond" film starring Josephine Siao. I've got to see that one the next time I visit the Hong Kong Film Archive!

References and Other Links
The Age of Shanghainese Pops, 1930-1970 by Wong Kee Chee
Access to Archives Online Singapore (search for Chang Lye Lye)
Cool photos of Chang Lye Lye

What If... Butterfly Wu...

Here are three intriguing "What If" scenarios that I discovered at NewspaperARCHIVE.com. The first two—not surprisingly—never came to pass, and the last thankfully never happened.

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'Mary Pickford Of China' Will Star In Six Films
by Louella O. Parsons

LOS ANGELES, July 23, 1931.—The Howard Hughes publicity department didn't have to talk long to convince me that Butterfly Wu, scheduled to make six pictures for Caddo, is a real beauty. I saw so many Orientals in Honolulu who would have photographed like Anna May Wong it's surprising we haven't had more Chinese actresses.

This Butterfly Wu is called the Mary Pickford of China and that, my friends, is the compliments of compliments, for Mary is still queen in these foreign countries. Butterfly Wu will be the star in the six pictures to be filmed in Shanghai in multicolor by Mr. Hughes.

While I suppose the appeal of these foreign made films will be greater in the Orient than in America, we shall probably see them for they are to be released for world-wide circulation.

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China's Garbo Is to Play Character in Good Earth
Butterfly Wu Is to Be Brought to Hollywood
Role in M-G-M Production of Buck's Novel
By Jerry Hoffman

LOS ANGELES, June 10, 1934.—Even China has its Garbo. Her name is Butterfly Wu and she is to come here and play the role of "O-lan" in Pearl Bucks' "Good Earth" for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This means all the talk about Helen Hayes and other American actresses is ended. Irving Thalberg has decided upon a daring experiment.

An all-Chinese cast is to play the characters of "Good Earth". Anna May Wong may be the only English speaking actress among them. Another also may be Su-Yong, a Chinese star given a film test in Honolulu by Cecil De Mille and seen by Thalberg this week. The young producer is seriously considering a daring experiment for the first time in any American made movie. Since all the players speak only Chinese, the foreign method of superimposing English titles, taken from dialogue written by Frances Marion, will be used. George Hill will direct.

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Chinese Cinema Queen Reported Hongkong Victim

CHUNGKING, CHINA, Jan. 15, 1942.—Butterfly Wu, movie queen of China, was killed by shrapnel during the siege of Hongkong, press reports said tonight.

Butterfly Wu was a beauty with brains, a romantic figure whose name had been linked with warlords, government officials, rich men, poor men, business men and actors.

When the Japanese took Manchuria in 1931, some persons blamed her, because Manchuria's overlord, the young Marshal Chang Hsueh-Liang, was being seen frequently in her company in Peiping, and wasn't in Mukden when the crisis came.

Butterfly fluttered quickly back into popularity, however, and for years tales of her "new romances" were staples of the sensational press.

In 1935 she made a triumphal tour of Russia at the soviet government's invitation, and went on to visit most of the capitals of Europe.

In 1936 she was married to Eugene Penn, a Chinese agent for a German commercial firm, in the Anglican Church in Shanghai.

She continued with her movie career, and out of her record salary of $300 a month even financed some of her own productions.

From the eBay Archive: Pretty Ugly

I love this picture! Can anyone out there identify this actress? Her extreme "ugly face" reminds me of one that my favorite Hong Kong movie comedienne Sandra Ng might make.

Postscript: Dev has identified this pretty/ugly lady as Chang Lye Lye.

Interview with Bai Guang

Here is an interview with Bai Guang from the October 1950 issue of Movie News. I've also scanned it and made a PDF, which you can download here.

With the hopes of getting an exclusive story for the Movie News, I went on the afternoon of Tuesday 3rd October to see Miss Bai Kwang (where she stays is top secret, so I'm not at liberty to disclose it), without first "warning" her.

My chief reason for not making an appointment is that I wanted to catch her with her "war-paint" off, so that I could see at close quarters what she really looked like—this current rave of the millions of Chinese movie fans.

But it was not to be. I missed her by a few minutes. They told me when I arrived that she had just left. How am I supposed to know that she had an appointment with her dressmaker?!

Not to be cheated out of an interview, I made an appointment this time to meet her at the cocktail lounge of Shaw's Chambers in Robinson Road.

It was the afternoon of the next day that I finally caught up with her and that interview. As it turned out, it was not an exclusive, because the Film Editor of the Singapore Standard, Mr. Oswald Henry, had also arranged to meet her on the same day, at the same time and in the same place.

Same small world!

We had her all to ourselves for a whole hour. The atmosphere was most informal—exactly as she liked it.

"I don't like crowds. I'm supposed to be used to them by now, but somehow I don't," she said with a shrug of her shoulders—as if to say that she herself can't understand why.

She spoke good English with the most intriguing Shanghai accent.

Dressed in a calf-length cheongsam of purple lambskin, a white sharkskin wrap, white shoes (no nylons), her hair upswept and a string of pearls around her neck, she looked different and definitely more attractive than she does on the screen.

Small wonder that her army of fans in Singapore failed to recognize her in her frequent visits to cinemas and around the shops.

"Once... only once, I was nearly recognized," she recalled. "He stopped and stared for a moment, hesitated and walked away mumbling to his friend, 'No, it can't be'."

What struck me most when I met her face to face for the first time was her complete lack of airs and her almost flawless complexion.

She confesses that she:

DOES NOT feel "at home" at socials, and consequently avoid them.

IS SICK and tired of the same old things day in and day out.

HAS NO place in that pretty head of hers for business.

LOST a good amount of money backing a Chinese picture in 1948.

FEELS she is wasting her time and talents by appearing in the same type of roles film after film.

PREFERS TO have a small part in a good movie rather than star in a bad one.

HATES artificiality.

LOVES going to the movies and generally lazing it.

WORKED 309 days under the arc lights last year.

CANNOT SAY which one actress she likes to see most.

WOULD LIKE to travel, learn and see things in order to gain more experience.

HAS NO "crush" on Orson Welles, and explained by saying: "He's the one person in the world I would really like to meet and talk to because he's... what do you call it... a genius. I want to know what he thinks of my ability as an actress and whether there's any worthwhile future in it for me if I were to carry on. Of course I would love to appear in a picture with him—preferably in one on the lines of "Casablanca," "Malaya," "Morocco," or the "The Lady from Shanghai" where I can have a small part in a cafe scene and sing a song or two."

From Singapore she'll be going on a personal appearance tour of the key towns in the Federation.

After that—who knows? Maybe a visit to Siam and then... Hollywood! and the realization of that dream.

Whatever it is, I'm sure my readers will join me in wishing her: "ALL THE BEST FOR ALWAYS!"

What If... Orson Welles and Bai Guang

When I was growing up, Marvel Comics had a series called What If? that proposed alternate reality scenarios such as "What if Invisible Girl of the Fantastic Four married the Sub-Mariner?" and "What if Aunt May had been bitten by the Radioactive Spider?" As a film geek, I often find myself creating "What If?" movie scenarios in my head. My most recent one was inspired by a tantalizing tidbit from a 1950 interview with the legendary Bai Guang in Movie News, an English-language film magazine published in Singapore.

[Bai Guang] confessed that she... HAS NO "crush" on Orson Welles, and explained by saying: "He's the one person in the world I would really like to meet and talk to because he's... what do you call it... a genius. I want to know what he thinks of my ability as an actress and whether there's any worthwhile future in it for me if I were to carry on. Of course I would love to appear in a picture with him—preferably in one on the lines of "Casablanca," "Malaya," "Morocco," or the "The Lady from Shanghai" where I can have a small part in a cafe scene and sing a song or two."

Now that is a film that I'd love to see! The combination of Hollywood "bad boy" Orson Welles and Hong Kong "femme noir" Bai Guang would be as potent as sambal tempoyak, a Sumatran specialty made from fermented durian, coconut milk, dried anchovies, and red hot chili sauce. I'm already drooling just thinking about it!

I'll post the rest of the interview later this week, as well as something interesting I just found out about The Lady from Shanghai.

* Photograph of Orson Welles by Carl Van Vechten from the Van Vechten Collection at the Library of Congress

How Sweet It Is: Lam Fung Eating a Durian

I've been meaning to post this for a while, so when Dev recently asked me if I had any materials related to Patricia Lam Fung's film When Durians Bloom (1959), that was all the encouragement I needed! If you've been following this blog, you know that I'm a big fan of Lam Fung, in spite of having seen only two of her films, and none of her Shaw Brothers films, which are regarded as her best. You might also gather from my nickname and avatar, that I am a lover of the notoriously fragrant "King of Fruits". Well, it goes without saying that my life will be incomplete until I see When Durians Bloom. As far as I know, it is one of only two Chinese films to feature durian in its title. The other is Durian, Durian (2000), a great film by one of my favorite directors, Fruit Chan. Anyway, how can I not like this film?! And more importantly, how can I see it?! Does it still survive?

Here is an article about When Durians Bloom from the August 1959 issue of Southern Screen. It's in Chinese only, but maybe Dev can report back on the highlights...

From the eBay Archive: Young Rock (1959)

Nearly all of the Hong Kong movie memorabilia I've acquired was found on eBay. Every day I check out the new listings of my favorite sellers. As I've said before, it's a virtual archive of valuable historical material. Of course, I can't bid on everything I want, but as a matter of routine, I save the images of items I like or find interesting. I've got a folder of more than 5,000 JPEGs: everything from flyers and magazines to photos and calendars, from the 1920 through the 60s. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to even rename the files, yet alone to organize them. Every now and then, I'll take a random peek or search for something that I once remember seeing, and I'm always surprised by what I find.

This is the first of a hopefully weekly post, where I will be featuring a random treasure from my "eBay Archive". If I have something interesting to say about the item, I will; if not, I'll just identify it (or ask for help if I can't).

OK then... here's a flyer for Young Rock (1959), starring Patricia Lam Fung (love that smile!). As always, you can click on the image for a larger version.





Patrick Lung Kong (seen on the front of the flyer) plays Lam Fung's love interest. He got his start as an actor at Shaw Brothers' Cantonese division but would make his mark as a director of edgy social exposés like Teddy Girls (1969), starring Josephine Siao as a teenage delinquent; the controversial Yesterday Today Tomorrow (1970); and The Story of a Discharged Prisoner (1967), the inspiration for John Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1986).

Finally got into a magazine!

It's OUT!!!!


Ahhhh... this is something I've wanted to do for a long time. When I was invited to write in (Doctor Job's Courses Now Sep 2008 issue, Pg.11), I was ecstatic about it and I had like 1 week to figure out what to write. I spent a few days on it and sent it in. Waited almost 1 and a half months for the article to finally come out! It was worth the wait :)

Click on the pic below to read a bigger version of this pic. I guess the words are too small here :(


A word of thanks to Doctor Job!

P.s. Page 11... how did they know that my favorite number is 11? :P

Roy Chiao: Hong Kong Hunk

Every so often I feel a bit self-conscious for indulging in so much cheesecake on my blog. So in the interest of a more balanced feast for the eyes, here is a nice slice of beefcake: Roy Chiao from the October 1959 issue of The Milky Way Pictorial.