Lam Fung: Young Rock

 Teddy boy Mak Kay and rich girl Lam Fung in Young Rock (1959)

In my previous post I highlighted teen idols Connie Chan and Josephine Siao and the rise of the youth film during the late 1960s. The spirit of youth, however, had been simmering in Hong Kong cinema since the late 50s. In 1959, during the Chinese New Year holidays, studio rivals Shaw Brothers and MP&GI went head to head at the box office with a pair of films that were targeted squarely at the younger generation. In fact, both movies incorporated in their titles that watchword I mentioned last time: 青春 / qingchun ("youth").

In one corner was MP&GI's Spring Song (青春兒女 / Qingchun ernu), featuring "Mambo Girl" Grace Chang and "Students' Sweetheart" Jeanette Lin Tsui. In the other was Shaw's Young Rock (青春樂 / Qingchun le), starring Patricia Lam Fung, the "Jewel of Shaw". We are fortunate that Spring Song is available on video, but I'm sorry to report that Young Rock is, as far as I can ascertain, a lost film. It's a shame to think it might never be seen again. Synopses of the film suggest that Young Rock wasn't just a carbon copy of Spring Song. It was evidently somewhat edgier fare than MP&GI's lighthearted tale of personal and romantic rivalry. In the February 1959 issue of Southern Screen, Young Rock was introduced as a film about juvenile delinquency:

"What are the problems of the youth of today? What turns them into teddy-boys and teddy-girls? Shaw's latest production 'The Joy of Youth' answers these questions boldly and unreservedly. It gives a frank and penetrating analysis of the problems of the younger generation."

But while Young Rock included triads, dance hostesses, knife fights, and abductions, it also featured singing, dancing, and hula hooping — which were the main attractions. The film's songs are especially noteworthy because they mark the beginnings of Cantopop, which blended the influences of Mandarin shi dai qu, American and British pop, and Cantonese opera and folk songs into an exciting new sound.

Ad for Lam Fung's song albums

Lam Fung's 1957 debut at Shaw Brothers was a Cantonese opera film; her second film was a Republican-era ghost tale based on Pu Songling's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. It wasn't until her third film, A Pretty Girl's Love Affair (1958), that Shaw decided to cast her as a modern-day teen in a bid to copy the success of Grace Chang, whose breakout film Mambo Girl (1957) had been a big moneymaker for rival studio MP&GI. Like Mambo Girl, A Pretty Girl's Love Affair featured catchy songs about dancing the cha cha. The film was a huge hit, and the formula was repeated in Lam Fung's subsequent Shaw films. Her songs proved so popular that LP compilations were released by Ruby Records (寶石). I believe there were a total of five albums, copies of which nowadays fetch a hefty price on the collectors market. The advertisement to your left appeared on the back cover of Southern Screen (January 1961) and gives you a sense of Lam Fung's important place in Hong Kong's music culture at the time. Notice that the other LPs are soundtracks for Shaw's blockbuster huangmei opera films starring movie queen Lin Dai.

Sadly, like her early Shaw films, none of Lam Fung's songs are currently available to the public. Lucky for us then that a dear friend of mine recently gifted me with a homemade recording of her second song album, which includes six songs from Young Rock. In this way we can at least get a taste of what the film was like.

Let me relate a few bits of trivia before you listen to the songs below. The lead singer of the first tune is Mak Kay, who plays Lam Fung's dangerous teddy boy attraction. In case you're wondering, in the opening lines he proclaims, "Ngo hai, ngo hai... ngo hai dongfang gei... shhhh... Maaaau Wong", which translates roughly as "I am, I am.... I am both the East... and the King of Cats". "King of Cats" (Mau Wong / 貓王) is the Chinese nickname for Elvis Presley (derived from his early American nickname "The Hillbilly Cat"). The American influence continues in the next song, "Who Doesn't Love Spring?", an adaptation of Debbie Reynold's 1957 hit "Tammy". And then there's "I Love Singing and Dancing", which takes its cue from Deanna Durbin singing "I Love to Whistle" in Mad about Music (1938). By the way, the scene of Deanna and her classmates cycling through the countryside served as a template for similar scenes in Lam Fung's Sweet Girl in Terror (1958) and Connie Chan's The Sweetest Moment (1967).

Without further ado, let's sing and dance with Lam Fung! As you listen to the songs, take a peek at the tantalizing stills from Young Rock in this souvenir booklet which was sold at theaters showing the film.

青春樂 ("Young Rock") with Mak Kay
(play song)

誰不愛春天 ("Who Doesn't Love Spring?")
(play song)

青春偶像 ("Teen Idol")
(play song)

我愛歌舞 ("I Love Singing and Dancing")
(play song)

大家來跳 Cha Cha Cha ("Let's Dance Cha Cha Cha") with Mak Kay
(play song)

應為人類作先鋒 ("To Be Pioneers for Humanity")
(play song)

* Thanks to Muzikland for the identification of the original American songs. For more information about Lam Fung and the birth of Cantopop, see Yung Sai-shing's "The Joy of Youth, Made in Hong Kong: Patricia Lam Fung and Shaws' Cantonese Films" in The Shaw Screen: A Preliminary Study (Hong Kong Film Archive, 2003).


 Lam Fung demonstrates the "young rock"