Here's a cute piece from Screenland No. 26 (November 1961) showing Margaret Tu Chuan, from Shaw Brothers' Mandarin division, and Cheung Ying-choi, from its Cantonese division, going toe to toe. Both starred together that year in When the Poles Meet, the studio's attempt to cash in on the success of rival MP&GI's cross-cultural comedy The Greatest Civil War on Earth (1961). BTW, the romantic leads of the Shaw entry were none other than Patricia Lam Fung and Peter Chen Ho — both quite good dancers whom I'd also love to see go toe to toe.
A DANCING COMPETITION
Margaret Tu Chuan and Cheung Ying-choi are good friends but just friends and nothing more. They are good friends because they are both naive and childlike.
But this particular day they do not get along so well when they start to argue about dancing, both claiming to be the best. Finally, Cheung suggests hotly, "How about a dancing competition between you and me? The first one to stop dancing will be the loser." And he nominates me to be their referee.
"But that doesn't seem fair to me," I provoke, "you being a man and little Margaret..."
The 'little' bit does it. For Margaret promptly puts in, "Oh, don't you worry about me. We are starting right now!"
So they begin to busy themselves with their rocks and sways while I happily busy myself with my camera. They keep at it for one and a half hours without a stop, and do you know how many shots I took.... Oh, I think you are more interested in the other outcome, so I better tell you right away: Cheung stopped first and lost!
* The original article is available here.
0 comments:
Post a Comment