"Dreamboat" for the Young: Cheng Pei-Pei

I'm not certain, but this centerfold from Southern Screen No. 74 (April, 1964) is very likely Cheng Pei-pei's first for the magazine. (She made her cover debut four months later on issue No. 78.) According the accompanying blurb, her first film assignment was Lotus Lamp with Lin Dai, but due to the star's suicide that July, the film wasn't released until the following year.

By that time, Pei-pei had played leading lady in Lovers' Rock (1964) and Song of Orchid Island (1965). Lovers' Rock is an interesting, if not entirely successful, blend of Hong Kong melodrama and Taiwanese "healthy realism", while Song of Orchid Island, in which the Shanghai-born Pei-pei plays a Taiwanese aborigine, is amusingly bizarre proof that Chinese cinema engaged in exotic Othering, just like Hollywood.

But it wasn't until Come Drink with Me (1966) that the mold was cast for the fierce lady-knight persona that defined the remainder of Pei-pei's career at Shaw Brothers.

Without a doubt, Pei-pei played the swordswoman better than any of the other Shaw starlets — and I wouldn't have had it otherwise — but still, it's a shame that she didn't get to show her sweet side more often. She really was quite a dreamboat!

"Dreamboat" for the Young

Ever since she was "discovered" by Director Griffin Yueh last year, the star of this 18-year-old starlet has been rising.

After having completed her training at the Shaw-operated Southern Dramatic Group, Cheng Pei-pei was immediately given a major role by playing opposite four-time Asian Movie Queen Lin Dai in the fairy tale "The Lotus Lamp." This difficult assignment testified Griffin Yueh's confidence in Pei-pei's capabilities and Shaw Studio's determination to cultivate new talents.

As it turned out, Pei-pei in her first movie appearance lived up to the expectations of all concerned so superbly that she was assigned the leading role in Pan Lei-directed "The Lovers' Rock." For location shooting of this magnum opus, Pei-pei and her colleagues spent three months in Taiwan late last year.

During this period, this charming personality developed such a vast following that she eventually became an "idol" sweetheart for the younger generation. Her bright and vivacious features need a little rouge or lipstick only. She resents wearing high heels. She prefers casual wear to form-fitting cheongsam.

Marriage plans? "Not now, thank you," she said. "I still have so much to learn."

Shaw's Bathing Beauties

This picture from the August 1964 issue of The Screen & Stage Pictorial shows seven beauties who were being groomed by Shaw Brothers to become the new generation of starlets that the studio desperately needed at that time. Just one month previously, one of Shaws' greatest assets, box office queen and award-winning actress Lin Dai, killed herself from an overdose of sleeping pills. Her final completed film, The Last Woman of Shang, was released that August. Almost as if waiting in the wings for a chance to take center stage, all seven of these young ladies had bit roles in the film backing up Lin Dai as palace dancers.

Two months later, Cheng Pei Pei got top billing in Lovers' Rock. Three months after that, Li Ching starred alongside Ivy Ling Po in The Mermaid and became known as the "Baby Queen" of Shaw Brothers after receiving the Best Actress Award at the 12th Asian Film Festival for her performance in the film. And in October 1965, Chin Ping helped launch Shaw's "Action Era" with her lead role in The Temple of the Red Lotus. All three actresses became superstars during their tenure at the studio. As for the remaining four, Fang Ying, Angela Yu Chien, Margaret Hsing Hui, and Allyson Chang Yen, they never made it big. It's true, Yu Chien did win Best Supporting Actress Award in 1966 at the 5th Golden Horse Awards for her performance in The Blue and the Black, but after that she got stuck with supporting roles that only capitalized on her sex appeal.