Missing Shaw Films Found in Creative's ZiiEagle Movie Box

FOUND: Poison Rose with Julie Yeh Feng

Earlier this year I was bemoaning the fact that there were many titles from Celestial Picture's acquisition of the Shaw Brothers film library that still remained unavailable on DVD. Well, imagine my excitement when I discovered today (via the ever reliable Roast Pork Sliced from a Rusty Cleaver) that all 15 of the missing films I had mentioned — and many more — are now available in HD format, preloaded on a digital player.

Singapore multimedia company Creative has released the ZiiEagle Movie Box (天鹰宝盒), which contains a "complete" (I'll explain the quotation marks later) collection of 668 Shaw Brothers films, among which are a good many that never made it to DVD. I haven't yet done a complete count of the previously unreleased titles (although it's definitely not "around 200" as cited in this article). What I can tell you is that there are a good two dozen that I'd love to see, such as Poison Rose (1966), pictured above. Conspicuously absent from the collection, however, is Operation Lipstick (1967) and The Brain-Stealers (1968), two spy thrillers by Inoue Umetsugu starring, respectively, Cheng Pei-pei and Lily Ho. (Is that because there are plans to release those titles on DVD?)

The ZiiEagle is priced at S$1,070 (US$813) but is currently selling on promotion for S$888 (US$675). I'm not going to lie — that's a lot of dough. But considering how much I've spent on Shaw DVDs over the past eight years, I'd exchange in a flash all of my DVDs for this handsome little box. It's a moot point for me, however, since the ZiiEagle cannot be ordered outside of Singapore. Nonetheless, I'm quite excited about the arrival of this product, because it gives me hope that I may yet see these "no longer missing" (in Singapore, at least) Shaw films.

Of course, there still remain the truly missing titles: Shaw's black-and-white films (melodramas and comedies mostly) from the late 50s and early 60s and the entirety of the studio's Cantonese productions. Speaking of which, next month the Hong Kong Film Archive will be hosting a rare screening of Sweet Girl in Terror (1958), starring the "Jewel of Shaw", Patricia Lam Fung. This seminal movie is just one of the many treasures you won't find in the ZiiEagle Movie Box.

Still, if Santa could smuggle a ZiiEagle out of Singapore for me, it would make this Shaw fan *very* happy.

Happy Lunar New Year

Yu So Chow (from Oldflames)


Julie Yeh Feng (from Duriandave)

Best wishes for a happy, healthy,
and prosperous Year of the Tiger!

Scooter Girl Yeh Feng

More scooters! Here's a pinup of Julie Yeh Feng that I found when I was searching for pictures of Mai Ling. It's from International Screen No. 51 (January 1960).

Yeh Feng: Red Hot Mama

In the spirit of the record-breaking heatwave we are experiencing in California right now, here is a pinup of Julie Yeh Feng guaranteed to make your temperature rise. Grrr... I love that swimsuit!

(From the May, 1963 issue of The Screen & Stage Pictorial.)

Yeh Feng: Kim Novak of the East

From International Screen No. 42 (April, 1959)

This post goes out to YTSL, who made a special request for something about the sultry Julie Yeh Feng. Here's an article from International Screen No. 29 (March, 1958), published a few months after Julie's debut in Our Sister Hedy (1957). You can view the original article here.

Yeh Fung, Kim Novak and Bai Kwong

Movie fans in these parts have crowned Yeh Fung, screenland's new siren, who is fast skyrocketing to fame, with the nickname "Kim Novak of the East". This moniker is quite fitting, seeing that both of them are tall, slim, bewitchingly beautiful and have that extra something sometimes known as "innate sex appeal". Besides, both are comparatively new comers. As this appears in print, only one of Yeh Fung's pictures, "My Sister Hedy", has been shown. The other two vehicles of hers, "Air Hostesses" and "The Wayward Husband", have yet to have their premieres. And yet she has already left a deep impression on movie fans.

Others have called Miss Yeh "Bai Kwong the Second" — Miss Bai is, of course, Mandarin movieland's best known "sexy wanton". Yeh Fung possesses Bai Kwong's low and magnetic voice and unique singing style. What's more, both appear lackadaisical but really emit some indescribable flame which well nigh hypnotizes people within their range of fire.

But when one asks Miss Yeh what she thinks of these nicknames, her answer is short, straightforward and to the point: "I am just myself." She is just that kind of girl, entirely without false modesty or pride. She is but natural.

In the near future, movie-goers will see more of her personality as she so ably projects it on the screen. They are going to like it.

You can definitely feel the heat of Yeh Feng's "indescribable flame" in the following clip from Our Sister Hedy. If after watching it, you find yourself tantalized, don't resist — go and order a copy of this truly classic film while you still can. The DVD is out of stock and no longer available at many retailers, but HMV Hong Kong still has copies!