Let's Go Lin Dai!

 Lin Dai and Soo Fung showing off for International Screen (October 1956)

I can't think of a more perfect picture to announce that starting tomorrow my blog buddy Glenn (A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed) and I will be celebrating the films of Hong Kong movie queen Lin Dai.

Glenn will review Beyond the Great Wall (1960/64), Love without End (1961), Madam White Snake (1962), The Love Parade (1963), and The Last Woman of Shang (1964) — all thankfully available on DVD. As for me, I'll be blogging about some of her early films that are either lost or languishing in home video limbo.

To bring you up to speed, check out Glenn's previous Lin Dai reviews: Diau Charn (1958), which garnered Linda her second Best Actress award at the 5th Asian Film Festival; Les Belles (1961), for which she received — not without some controversy — her third Best Actress award; and The Lotus Lamp (1965), posthumously completed with a stand-in and released a year after her suicide.

Whether you adore her or consider her overrated, Lin Dai is unquestionably a great actress and one of the top icons of Chinese cinema.

Dolly Soo Fung: Guns Are for Girls

Here's a pleasant little surprise from Screenland No. 24 (September 1961) featuring MP&GI's resident wallflower, Dolly Soo Fung. She may have been overshadowed by the studio's high-powered stars, but I've always been charmed by her gentle awkwardness and superb smile. A scan of the original article is available here.

Dolly Soo Fung Tries a Gun

The little cousin of Dolly Soo Fung had bought a toy pistol which shot plastic darts. Dolly wanted very much to try a few shots but cousin did not trust her at that. Dolly might ruin his pistol, and besides, Dolly was a girl and guns are not for girls. So Dolly had to try something to convince him.

"You say that guns are not for girls?" She said as she snatched the pistol, "Just let me show you how good I am with it." She snapped a shot and the dart stuck right on the nose of the doll on top of the refrigerator, which made little cousin's jaw drop in sheer admiration.

Her second shot found its mark on another doll.

"Gee, but you got to teach me that!" spluttered little cousin, real excited.

"Sure," Dolly agreed, "provided that you buy me some ice cream." So Dolly had ice cream and the pistol.

When I asked her where did she learn to shoot so good, she confessed, "I never learned. It was just luck."