Buried Treasure: The Missing Shaw Films, Part 3

Here's a final batch of unreleased Shaw movies that I'd love to see. According to my buddy Glenn, who visited the office of Celestial Pictures yesterday, it's up to IVL, who distributes the Shaw Brothers DVDs in Hong Kong (and around the world for those of us with all-region players), whether the remaining titles will be released. Like I've said before, I'm keeping my fingers crossed but not holding my breath. Now let's take a look at five more missing films:


Double Trouble (1968)
This movie was directed by Sit Kwan, who helmed the delightful Cheng Pei-pei musical Blue Skies (1967), but there's only one reason — and it's a big one — that I want to see this film: my favorite fatty, the irresistible Peng Peng. He gets top billing (after Margaret Hsing-hui) in this comedy about two bumbling fools trying to help a pretty young girl escape an arranged marriage to an old millionaire.


Three Swinging Girls (1968)
Essie Lin Chia (center), Jean Li Chih-an (right), and Irene Chen Yi-ling (left) play the three swinging girls who share an apartment — and more — in this romantic-revenge comedy by veteran director Chun Kim. None of the actresses were big stars, but that makes me all the more curious to see this film. I'm hoping it's one of those overlooked and unexpected gems that I so love.


Dear Murderer (1969)
In a dark twist on his "ladies' man" image, Peter Chen Ho plays a company man bent on moving up the corporate ladder by marrying his boss's daughter (Betty Ting Pei). When he finds out his former sweetheart (Pat Ting Hung), a typist at the firm, is pregnant and demanding that he do the right thing, he knocks her off. But soon after his honeymoon, he becomes haunted by her ghost.


Long Road to Freedom (1970)
A girls-in-prison movie directed by Inoue Umetsugu — need I say more? Essie Lin Chia, who plays the lead, is someone I've always liked whenever I've seen her. According to IMDB, she is of mixed Chinese and Portuguese heritage and was discovered by King Hu. And, are my eyes deceiving me — or does it say in her filmography that she starred with Jim Kelly in Black Samurai (1977)?! Yep, that's Essie in the movie's trailer at the 1:35 mark.


Mini Skirt Gang (1974)
Speaking of 'sploitation, here's one for all you fem doms and male subs. Directed by Lui Kei (who was the screen sweetheart of Cantonese teen idol Connie Chan before he started directing soft-core sex comedies at Shaws) and featuring exploitation queens Birte Tove and Chen Ping, Mini Skirt Gang — much to my surprise — was actually released on DVD last year... in Denmark! Check out the Celestial Pictures logo in the bottom right corner of this DVD cover. Proof positive perhaps that the remaining Shaw films are restored and ready to go for those willing to take a gamble on releasing them.

Treatment for Wolves

Here's another one of those wacky Screenland pictorials (No. 27, December 1961). This time around our favorite fatty Peng Peng gets cured of his lasciviousness by "Doctor" Cheung Ying-choi and Siu Keun, a popular Amoy actress from the 1950s who some 16 months later would become one of the hottest stars on the Mandarin screen. That's right, folks: this young lady is none other than Ms. Ivy Ling Po!

A scan of the original is available here.


Pang Pang, despite his unusual bulk, was as fond of women as he was fond of eating. One day, he went to a friend's house and saw a nurse at the house opposite. He called to her as if he knew her.


The pretty nurse, Siu-kuen, did not know Pang Pang. But he insisted that he knew her. Siu-kuen had to admit it. She even invited Pang Pang into her house. He of course jumped at the offer and went.


Siu-kuen told him that this was the bungalow of her doctor whom she had followed here to take a rest. She said that she would introduce the doctor to him. Pang Pang said that was fine. After a moment, Cheung Ying-choi came out, claiming that he was the doctor.


Pang Pang wanted to get rid of the doctor, so that he could be with Siu-kuen alone. He complained of a stomach ache, and the doctor brought instruments.


It was the biggest hypodermic needle in the world, and also a thermometer which was one foot long, which he forced into Pang Pang's mouth. Pang Pang was quite scared of these huge things, but since the girl was there, he didn't mind much.


After taking his temperature, Cheung said it was necessary for an injection. Pang Pang was taken aback. "But your needle is so big!" he stammered. Cheung Ying-choi smiled, "But so is your own body."


As he said so, he motioned Pang Pang to remove his pants. When his fat buttock was exposed, Cheung held the needle like he was holding a rifle. He aimed carefully and pushed it down into Pang Pang's flesh.


Almost two feet of the needle went in and Pang Pang bellowed like a pig being tortured. "Don't move," Cheung warned seriously. "Otherwise the needle may break and will require an operation to get out."


Pang Pang gritted his teeth and appealed, "Please take it easy." "I have tried my best," Cheung declared. "Now don't move, I'm going to inject the medicine." "How many c.c.?" "It is not how many c.c. It's two pounds!"


After Cheung finished injecting the two pounds of medicine, Pang Pang cried in despair, "I'm going to die!" Cheung took a look and was secretly shocked. For the medicine had made Pang Pang's belly swell real big!


Pang Pang could not move a foot. He held on to his belly and moaned, "I sure am going to die this time!" Cheung called Siu-kuen out and winked at her. "We have succeeded," he told her proudly.


Seeing Pang Pang, Siu-kuen could not help wanting to laugh. She told Cheung, "This is exactly the kind of treatment for wolves!" "He should have had enough this time," Cheung replied.

Patricia Lam Fung: Lost Angel

Lam Yim and Patricia Lam Fung in Women Are Angels

I don't know why I should get so excited about discovering a Lam Fung movie in the pages of Southern Screen that appears to have never been released. It's not as if I can see any of her Shaw Brothers films that did make it to the silver screen. Besides the excitement of discovery and the lure of the unattainable, it must be this great picture of Allyson Chang Yen and Peng Peng that makes me so happy.



As you may know already, I've become a booster for the underused and underappreciated Chang Yen. And the delightful Peng Peng is always welcome in any movie, as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, Woman Are Angels (女人是天神) looks like a fun film. Too bad it was never released — not that it would have made a difference in me ever being able to see it. Here is the original article from the November 1960 issue of Southern Screen.

Party with Peng Peng

I must admit that I really identify with Peng Peng's Pigsy in the Shaw Brothers' Journey to the West films. After watching the supremely silly Land of Many Perfumes (1968), I felt a deep compassion for my Inner Pigsy. In the face of this delightful song by Peng Peng, so uninhibited and unashamed, my male-bashing super-ego immediately dissolved into a giant smile of loving kindness.



As chance would have it, there's an issue of Asia Entertainments currently for sale on eBay that has an article about Peng Peng (and the equally well-endowed Leung Sing Po and Lie En Jia). It says that Peng Peng was also the leader of Shaws' house band. And sure enough, there is a wonderful scene of him playing guitar (and tap dancing!) at a house party in Hong Kong Rhapsody (1968). I wish Shaw's musicals featured more scenes like this and less of the stilted stage and fashion shows that always seem to figure as the grand finale. Keep an eye out for the bright and beaming Allyson Chang Yen (in the green dress), who crashes the party with her friends midway through the clip. Yeah... keep singing and dancing!

Lam Fung versus "Pigsy" Peng Peng

Here's a funny little something from the February 1960 issue of Southern Screen: Patricia Lam Fung taking on Peng Peng, who started working in Shaw Brothers' Cantonese division in 1959 but is most remembered for his role as Pigsy in the series of films based on Journey to the West that the studio made from 1966 to 1968. The two guys who first try to take him down are Lui Kei (on the left) and Ko Leung (on the right). Lui Kei also got his start in Shaws' Cantonese division. By the end of the 60s he would become one of Cantonese cinema's top leading men, most famously with "Movie-Fan Princess" Connie Chan, but in the 70s he was back at Shaw Brothers, in the director's chair this time, making films like Sexy Girls of Denmark (1973) and Mini-Skirt Gang (1974).