An Amorous Woman of Tang Dynasty

A mildly intriguing Cat. III feature from 1984, An Amorous Woman of Tang Dynasty is an interesting, well-shot failure -- in its 97-minute version, at least.

From reading YTSL's review here, it seems as if the film has been severely edited and, as the Shaw Brothers reissue version is even shorter than the version YTSL watched and reviewed, I think it's safe to say that the film has been cut dramatically.

So, from what I can gather from the edited film that remains, Patricia Ha Man Jik's Yu Yuan-Gi has left a Taoist monastery to become a courtesan.

In a nice, almost wordless sequence, she dives into the water in her satin gown, and rises to be greeted by the sword point of Alex Man's Tsui Pok-Hau's blade. Alex was quite effective in Hong Kong Hong Kong and his good looks help in his role here.

There's a pretty steamy scene on Tsui Pok-Hau's boat but it's strangely unerotic. Well-shot and carefully framed, the scene felt a bit clinical to me.

Then, following some battle scenes with the rogue swordsman, Yu Yuan-Gi returns to the Taoist monastery.



I will admit that it was quite hard to get a grip on the plot as I watched the 97-minute version of the film.

It's an episodic take on the woman's life both inside and outside the brothel but we never get a sense of the character -- what she was prior to the alternation of the Taoist life and the courtesan's role.

Still, the visuals -- erotic or otherwise -- are beautiful at times and the DVD picture was anamorphic widescreen which was a nice touch.

Pat Ha was so good in My Name Ain't Suzie -- a film that transcended its erotic Cat. III origins -- as well as in a small role in The Flying Mr. B, and there are moments when she conveys some emotion here. But, largely due to the editing or direction of the film, it's apparent that she either was in the film because she was a young actress who had to do a Cat. III film to get her career started, or she was in the film and it was a real dramatic feature that was severely butchered into a much shorter, erotic psuedo-exploitation picture.

The direction by Eddie Fong is assured and seems reminiscent of a Yonfan film for some reason. Fong wrote the script for A Fishy Story, an altogether different kind of Hong Kong cinema classic.

Unfortunately, An Amorous Woman of Tang Dynasty is listed as out-of-print on both DVD and VCD.

[Photos: YesAsia/Celestial Pictures]

The Black Falcon with Jenny Hu

With bongos playing on the soundtrack, and a girl in a negligee fleeing down a dark street in a pre-credits sequence, 1967's The Black Falcon opens with a bang -- literally, as Tien Feng shows up, shoots the girl in the belly, and steals a reel of film from her.

As Brian noted in his review, the film is a clear James Bond pastiche but that's not to say that it's not fun on its own as well.

Turns out that the murdered girl was carrying film that implicated the shadowy Black Falcon gang in a series of crimes and the heads of a insurance union call in a detective (Paul Chang Chung) to crack the case -- his superior leading him to Jenny Hu's character with an instruction to "date her" or "marry her" -- whatever it takes to find our whatever it is she knows about her missing father, a man who may be the head of the shadowy Black Falcon group.

A Black Falcon head henchmen (played by Wong Hap) dispatches his three best assassins from his secret lair, the assassins being played by Ku Feng, Tien Feng, and another older actor I didn't recognize under the makeup.



With peppy music on the soundtrack, the impossibly cute Julie Tan (Jenny Hu) sets out in her red sportscar, little knowing her life is in peril. She meets Detective Zhang in a hip nightclub where the rest of the kids are dancing to a manic instrumental cover of The Coasters' Yakety Yak.

Ku Feng's killer runs Zhang off the road but the idiot "bad guys" don't check to see if the hero is really dead. Surviving an impossible crash, Zhang -- like James Bond -- never dies, it seems.

Soon, the old bespectacled assassin sets up a meeting with Julie Tan and informs her that Zhang is really out to get her father.



With a surprising bare breasted model posing in this scene, Jenny Hu is approached at her art studio by two of the killers in advance of Zhang's arrival.

Zhang figures out the plot, shows up, and in a so-misogynistic 1960s touch, karate-chops Julie Tan in the neck in order to knock her out and take her out of harm's way.

The old assassin -- who looks quite a bit like a character from the TV cartoon series, The Venture Brothers -- is drugged by a woman at a strip-club-kind-of-club and Zhang shows up only to be met by the very same woman who drugged the killer.

At the 41-minute mark, Margaret Tu Chuan makes her first appearance as the assumed head of the Black Falcon organization. Sitting in a mod set, in front of a black falcon emblazoned on the wall, and with her lackeys entering to deliver news of Zhang's escape, she oozes venom and allure -- the Dragon Lady stereotype come to life in glorious and garish fashion.

duriandave at Soft Film: Vintage Chinese Cinema has done an exemplary job of educating me about Margaret Tu Chuan. Check out this wonderful post and look up his others on the stunning actress.

As Julie Tan and Zhang make their escape to a lush hotel (!) in Macau, there follows an amazing scene for Jenny Hu fans.

Now, having seen the actress in Till The End Of Time, as well as in River of Tears and Guess Who Killed My Twelve Lovers, I guess I was not expecting the actress to be so incredibly sexy in an early role like this; it's just such a moment of obvious 1960s cheesecake, that I was very surprised.

(Though that still is from an earlier scene of the actress changing outfits in her studio.)

The couple has separate rooms and we see in the dim light Jenny Hu in a dangerously revealing kind of teddy-style nightie-and-panties set twist-and-turn restlessly in her bed. She gets up to join Zhang in his room in a languid stroll across the camera that must have made 1967 stagehands sweat profusely; she is simply physically amazing!

Wu Ma shows up as another killer who rounds up a series of his henchmen to pursue Zhang in Macau.

Zhang has been hiding in the bathtube of a voluptuous woman in a bathrobe and, before stealing her absent husband's boat to make an escape, we see the towel drop and Zhang move in like a lustful James Bond. "Hey," I wanted to scream at the screen, "What about Jenny Hu?"

There's a great fistfight in front of the ruins of St. Paul's in Macau.

Check out this pic from my trip there last August.


This is right in front of the ruins facing the opposite direction. The fight scene would have been filmed right about here.


Soon, Margaret Tu Chuan's Miss Hu is being appointed official head of the Black Falcon gang. In what looks like a debutante ball gown, she looks down on her minions from her throne -- I half-expected her to let out a Dragon Lady-like cackle.

There's more action and when next we see Margaret Tu Chuan she's in a bubble bath -- relaxing after taking charge of her villainous minions? -- wearing the same high hairdo. She reaches out of the bubbles to answer her phone to hear news of Julie Tan's capture and then she next tries to seduce Wong Hap's character. Such a Swingin' Sixties scene!

The ending felt hurried to me for some reason but the whole film moves along at such a quick clip that it's hard to fault the film for anything.

Not as much of a retro blast as Angel With Iron Fists, but still a gas.

You can order The Black Falcon on DVD here.

[Photos: YesAsia/Celestial Pictures]

The Price of Love with Chin Ping

Teddy Robin, perhaps best known to me as the director of Shanghai Shanghai, turns in a starring role in The Price of Love from the Shaw Brothers studios.

The film opens with poor girl Fang Fang (Chin Ping) being led to the beach by a neighbor boy. Seems the girl is not only poor but blind. The melodrama begins!

As she enjoys the sound of the waves at the beach, the camera travels up the hillside to the spacious home of Lin Wu-Sheng (Teddy Robin) who is singing a song on guitar as his cousin and friends arrive for the afternoon. Teddy Robin's unique physical attributes are worked into the plot and his portrayal of Wu-sheng.

Wu-sheng is the son of a rich tycoon and he's dropped out of college and so spends his days alone in his seaside mansion listening to music. He meets Chin Ping's blind Fang Fang on the beach and begins a friendship.

Fang gets beaten by her mother at home. And her grandfather (Sam Liu) is kind but he's an alcoholic.

So can a blind girl overlook a rich, lonely boy's physical imperfections? Can Teddy Robin sing another song?


After wandering into traffic -- no kidding -- and causing a multi-car pile-up in an attempt to meet Wu-sheng at the beach, Fang is sold to a creepy old guy by her mother. The new "family" sit around playing cards and gambling as Fang's new "granny" locks her in a room.

With the help of a neighbor boy, she escapes and shows up at the mansion of Wu-sheng in the rain.



Wu-sheng decides to help Fang get an operation to restore her sight and she essentially moves into his mansion.

As Chin Ping's Fang dreams of having her sight in a rose-filled garish dream/song sequence, Wu-sheng worries about what will happen when she regains her sight and sees that he is a short man with a bit of a hunchback.

Despite the setup, and the fact that the material is already sappy, I wasn't too moved. It's not that I'm a big cynic -- I am but I love sappy movies sometimes -- but rather that the film feels flat. Teddy Robin plays his part completely understated and almost emotionless and Chin Ping, while a convincing blind girl, is a bit too perky.

The Price of Love is not a horrible film and it's interesting as a snapshot of the era in which it was made. I just didn't like it as much as I thought I would.

Director Wu Chia Hsiang started off as an actor -- he appeared in Mambo Girl (1957), a film on my to-be-watched very short list -- and then turned his hand to directing, helming such recent faves of mine like Sweet and Wild (1966), A Place To Call Home (1969), and Guess Who Killed My Twelve Lovers (1969).

You can order The Price of Love on DVD here.

Li Ching in Ambush

A decent mix of wuxia and Western elements, 1973's Ambush is a solid action pic from director Ho Meng Hua.

After a pre-credits scene of a caravan being dispatched from a kingdom with escort by Wai Yuen Security forces, we are then treated to an exciting battle -- complete with limbs being severed! -- as the villains played by Yeung Chi Hing and Wong Hap attack the caravan in an attempt to steal the cargo: a crate of jewels.

Constable Wan (Chao Hsuing) enters the scene -- with a surprise appearance by Pigsy himself, Paang Paang, as his sidekick -- and is quickly framed for the caravan robbery.

After fleeing for his life after fighting with his own former compatriots, Constable Wan takes refuge in an inn where he is nearly poisoned. He confronts Han Chung (Chan Shen) for details.

Seems Fan Zhi Long (Yeung Chi Hing) of Zhen Bei Security Bureau is spreading the news that Constable Wan robbed the caravan.

Constable Wan confronts Chief Fan where he also runs into old flame Chian Niang (Liang Ching), now the wife of Chief Fan! She attempts to seduce the visiting Constable Wan -- there are nude scenes with what is clearly a body double -- but he rebuffs her advances.

And did I mention that the constable's cousin (Li Ching) overhears some of this as well? Turns out she's not only the cousin to Constable Wan, she's also the daughter of Chief Fan.

In the course of the evening, Chief Fan is murdered and -- surprise, surprise -- Constable Wan is framed for that too!

There's a nice little battle scene in the night -- Chao Hsuing leaping over opponents using the lily pads in the pool, kicking roof tiles into the faces of his grounded foes -- and a bit of backwards film run forward to suggest his leaps into the air and preparations for escape -- very 1970s but still fun.

Wan is arrested after a day-for-night-shot battle scene by his former colleagues and hogtied and then put on the rack only to be rescued by a mysterious hooded warrior.

The warrior turns out to be "the cold-faced swordsman" Hong Lieh (Dean Shek).

Shortly thereafter, Li Ching overhears the real thieves and meets up again with Constable Wan. There's more fighting and eventually Li Ching is locked in the mausoleum of Chief Fan with his corpse. She is menaced by what appears to be his ghost -- or is he a zombie?

As forces on both sides regroup, it appears that it's really Constable Wan's father who is being framed for that robbery.

And, by my estimation, the film's action -- at least in the first hour or so -- has all taken place in one 24-hour period.

In an exciting, blue-skied morning sequence, Constable Wan and an unhooded Hong Lieh attack the Three Tigers fortress, crossing a long bridge to reach the enclave which sits over the water in a harbour.

You know, this is exactly why I love the Shaw films! I'm not saying that Ambush is a masterpiece but it moves fast and it delivers. Sure, the fighting scenes are formulaic -- I've seen these swordfighting moves a hundred times by now! -- but it's still fun and it's still more interesting to me than most of the heroic bloodshed Chang Cheh would earn fanboy fame for.

The Three Tigers don't appear to be the culprits and so the two heroes set out on their way only to be menaced by a new hooded warrior.



Without giving away the plot, let's just say that the action gives way to a bit of a mystery with Li Ching being menaced by a ghost (?) and then an exciting conclusion as Chao Hsuing fights the villain on a windmill -- hanging on the blades of the windmill as it carries him upside down to fight his opponent!

I was pleasantly surprised by Ambush. And while I'm disappointed that it's yet another Li Ching film where she is underused -- it is a 1970s film after all and she was doomed to looking scared and fleeing in her 1970s flicks for a spell -- I did enjoy the film thoroughly. Chao Hsuing is not an obvious leading man but he has some gravitas to his screen persona due to his age.

Director Ho Meng Hua also directed the "Journey to the West" series for the Shaw studios, as well as loads of other interesting titles.

You can order Ambush on DVD here.

Emma Pollock: Review of the New Album and Free MP3

During the 1980s, music journalism started to get infected with laziness and I blame Spin magazine. Reviews of new bands and new albums seemed to be awash in phrases comparable to: "It's like King Crimson-meets-Chic" -- the more outlandish the pairing, the better.

It was an easy device for journalists to use to describe bands breaking new ground and bands using styles of the past in the creation of new music.

And the great thing about Scotland's The Delgados was that none of those "[this]-meets-[that]" devices would work with the band.

When I first heard "Pull The Wires From The Wall" on John Peel's radio show via the BBC's Internet stream, sitting in my cubicle in Northern Virginia sometime in late 1998, I was transfixed. I had knowledge of Chemikal Underground records due to being a fan of Mogwai and Arab Strap, but The Delgados, especially the voice of Emma Pollock, hit a nerve -- like a dark Go-Betweens (to ape that lazy Spin-style!) with those Amanda Brown backing vocals now brought to the foreground on select tracks.

Over the course of magnificent albums like The Great Eastern and Hate, the band marked territory at once highbrow and totally unaffected; the music was direct, the lyrics unpretentious, but the entire package was presented with a seriousness that I appreciated -- a rough comparison is New Order, not for a similar sound, but more for the ability to take very simple elements and combine them in a powerful manner to create something with an element of the timeless.

Like Pavement, I could probably guess some of the titles in The Delgados members' record cabinets, but, also like Pavement, the combination of influences was so absolute that I was listening to something "new" finally and not just another C-86 rehash, or another shoegazer-wannabe band from either side of the Atlantic.

So when the band fell apart -- I never even read the whole story -- fans like me waited for the solo releases to trickle out.

And when I heard the news that Emma had signed with 4AD, I kind of dreaded the result, fearful that the subsequent album would be like a weak Heidi Berry record.

Luckily, 4AD didn't ruin that marvelous voice.

Not only that, but it goes without saying that the reaction of most Delgados fans to the first solo album from Emma Pollock was probably a similarly voiced: "Wow, this is pretty upbeat!" For those of us hoping for a full album's worth of "Favours", the downright jaunty mood of songs like "Adrenaline" was a shock.

However, that surprise revealed that Emma Pollack is a vocalist capable of a wider range of moods than most people expected.

New album, The Law of Large Numbers, out on March 2, 2010 in the US and March 1, 2010 in the UK, should please both old Delgados fans as well as fans of Emma's first album, Watch The Fireworks.

It's worth noting that Emma Pollock is now back on the label she helped form -- Chemikal Underground -- the album feels like The Delgados without sounding exactly like them. That's a good thing.

And while there are moments on The Law of Large Numbers that echo Watch the Fireworks, the tone seems more varied, as if Emma is now not afraid to sound a bit like her old band on one song, and then sound totally different on another -- dig those electronic drums on "Confessions"!

As Emma related in the press release for this album:

"It's most certainly not a cold record, it might contain some contradictions but most of the records I like do. I don't want things to sound too 'easy' and prefer to make something more oblique and hopefully more interesting, not too saccharine or sweet."

I was going to do a track-by-track breakdown of the record but, instead, I'll just highlight a few key ones and leave the rest to be discovered.

"Hug The Piano (And)"/"Hug The Harbour"
Clearly a single! "My trust lies in your precision" Emma seems to almost shout as the song begins its insistent rhythm. The song is the flip of the first album's "Adrenaline", vaguely menacing where the earlier track was optimistic.

"My trust lies in your precision!" a mantra repeated.

"Nine Lives"
The languid mood of Aimee Mann with an eagerness in Emma's voice that Ms. Mann would never be quite capable of. "I'm just waiting for waves from the window" Emma intones over the jazzy, shuffling last minute-or-so of the track.

"Letters To Strangers"
Stunning, spooky song this. Quite simply, the song sounds a bit like one of The Delgados songs that Alun Woodward sang lead on only with Emma singing -- there's a hint of the familiar here but that quickly morphs into something vaguely sinister. "Who do you want to be today?" is the haunting refrain. A distant cousin of The Delgados' "Accused of Stealing" with the same, almost-hesitant-but-still-insistent forward momentum.

"Confessions"
I hope this is a single; the song is catchy in the fragmented, wonderful way a Pavement single is catchy (I've got Pavement on the brain today!)

"The Child In Me"
A fantastic, largely acoustic guitar-led track, this is a new presentation of Emma for those of us who wondered what she would sound like without the always-impeccable production that has marked her career. It's an echo of "Thirteen Guiding Principles", for those of you looking for a link with past Delgados glory; the rising, hopeful cousin to "Pull The Wires From The Wall" -- a guitar line that makes me think of Bernard Butler for some reason -- just an amazing track that I've played about 10 times already today.

Proof that all the things I loved about The Delgados are there, with just Emma Pollock's voice, some guitar chords, and a few subtle shifts in tone over the course of 3-minutes.

"They will surely see the child in me" sung with a sense of dread and insecurity, but Emma's voice rises -- it's still a hopeful sound -- that bridge just knocked me on my ass! No sweeping strings, just a voice and a hint of a shift in tone -- wonderful!

The final few seconds and Emma's back to singing "They will surely see the child in me" only this time with a bit of confidence.

"Chemistry Will Find Me"
(Great title!) The song that pretty much closes the album, Chemistry Will Find Me" opens with a jazzy feel until slashing/crashing chords enter and the song seems to speed up as Emma rattles off a list of items, memories, and accusations until the bridge opens up the song. Distant voices echo and then the song finds the jagged edges of a Sonic Youth piece until the final seconds and we fade out on xylophone notes.

"Hug The Piano (OR)"
The piano coda, the reprise of the album's opening, a bookend to bring us full circle.

To quote Emma from the press release again:
"I feel like I'm beginning to understand the difference between being a solo artist and being in a band, making music for my own gratification first and foremost."

To state the obvious: as long as Emma Pollock continues to do that, her fans will remain gratified as well.

Free MP3 of "Hug The Harbour"
You can download "Hug The Harbour" via Chemikal Underground records at the bottom of this page.

Check out Emma Pollock's page at Chemikal Underground here.

Emma Pollock's official website is here.

MySpace: MySpace.com/emmapollock.

In the US, you can buy The Law of Large Numbers on March 2 via Amazon.com here.

Amazon will also have the album for purchase via download on March 2 here.

As of now, there is no link for the album on US iTunes but check back later, closer to March 2.

Twins Reunite for April Concert! *UPDATED*

As dleedlee already posted in his news for today, Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung are apparently reuniting for an April concert.

And, if this photo I stole from a Twins Facebook fan group is to be believed, there will be 2 concerts on 16 and 17 April 2010 at the Hong Kong Coliseum.

And, guess what? I'm going to be in Hong Kong from 17 April until 3 May so I think I'll try to get tickets for the Saturday show!

As I accomplished a lot of my informal goals for my 2nd Hong Kong visit from mid-December 2009 until early-January 2010 -- including meeting a Hong Kong film star! -- the one big thing undone for this Hong Kong fan is attending a Hong Kong Cantopop music concert!

UPDATE: I am still trying to find the concert listed online -- as of 02/03/2010, it's not listed on Hong Kong Coliseum website.

However, the official EEG Music site has updated with news of the concert and a ticket line.

The ticket line they have listed is 2180 8026. No website as of now.

You can do like I did and use Google's translation function to get a rough English version of the page!

Li Ching in The King With My Face

Li Ching stars in 1967's The King With My Face, a film designed to tap into the Korean market, according to the DVD's background information.

Shin Yeong Gyun, from The Goddess of Mercy, stars as the emperor who spends his days watching dancing girls in the court and romancing Gi Chin (Shen Yi from Swordswomen Three).

However, the emperor is betrothed to the Princess Kue Gi (Li Ching) -- a woman he's never seen -- from the neighboring Cai kingdom.

The Emperor wants to appease Gi Chin and so sets out to build the pleasure palace she has always wanted. The peasants are rounded up to work as slave labor for the thing and this is where noble commoner Shing An (also played by Shin Yeong Gyun) enters the picture. As he attempts to free a girl from the clutches of the Emperor's troops, look for a thin-looking Fan Mei Sheng, the Battle-Axe from The Shaw Brothers classic, The Water Margin.

So after some rote battle scenes -- the result of General Shing -- Shing An's father -- defying the Emperor's pleasure palace plans -- General Wan (Wong Chung Shun) orders General Shing (Cheng Miu) and his lookalike-to-the-Emperor-son arrested.


The lookalike is brought before the Emperor where he reveals that he was adopted by General Shing 20 years earlier.

Meanwhile, the princess (Li Ching) is about to show up at the palace. The Emperor reconsiders killing the Shing father and son and, instead, dresses Shing An in royal garb and sends him to meet the princess in his place.

In a scene so wildly improbably it distracted me the rest of the film, Shing An-posing-as-the-Emperor is beset by rebels. He immediately spares their lives for attacking his caravan and goes one step further to say that he will now listen to the people and change his agenda accordingly.

If that's not enough to strain belief, the people -- rebels and commoners -- spontaneously let out a cheer of "Long live the king!"

Enter Li Ching as the Cai kingdom's princess.

After being charmed by the Emperor Shing An, the princess and her handmaiden (Lily Li) dress as commoners and survey the kingdom and discover the pleasure palace being built with slave labor.

So there's the usual court intrigue as Shing An falls in love with the princess, and the real Emperor ordering the death of the Shing family and so on -- all pretty forgettable.

There is one scene where the score sounds almost exactly like Akira Ifukube's Godzilla theme and that kept me awake for a few more moments.

Then Shing An gets put in an iron mask, there's a fight, and more sneaking around by Li Ching's princess as she is now in love with the imprisoned Shing An and aware of the twins situation.

In an attempt to sneak into the palace and save Shing An, Li Ching's princess gets to perform a song for the real Emperor who attacks her. His concubine is killed and so on.

The King With My Face is a plot-heavy 95-minute adventure which offers an uninteresting leading man -- good thing he's playing two parts then! -- and an underused Li Ching in a part that any Shaw starlet could have played.

The production values are high so everything looks decent, including the separation of the twins shown in a flashback.

Not really essential viewing, except for the other Li Ching diehard fans out there.

You can order The King With My Face on DVD here.

Jenny Hu in Till The End of Time

Even though Brian provided an excellent review of this film already, I'm adding my two cents since I reviewed some other Jenny Hu films last summer.

Till The End of Time opens, significantly enough, with a fairly modern feel; As we see Peter Chen play Chopin on a piano, the credits roll simply over his image and the camera pulls back to show that he is playing for a family in a modern household. No garish titles and blaring music to start the film but a naturalistic reveal instead.

An almost impossibly young-looking Lily Ho is in this scene as the fiance, I-Hua, of Chen's character. As Brian noted, she's pouty and what a pout it is! If the year of release for Till The End of Time was 1966, one can figure that they were filming this in 1965 and while the Shaw DVDs sometimes list Lily Ho's year of birth as 1953, most other sources say 1948 -- Paul Fonoroff in the interview on this disc says 1946 -- so the actress is 18 at most. Chen is 36 but he looks older so she is an odd, but voluptuous, choice for the part.

I won't belabor too much of the plot but the thing I do want to mention is the feel of the film.

By that I mean that I've seen a lot of musicals, including most of the major Shaw ones, and the film just feels different. I think it's a sense of things not being rushed. There is no manic vibe to the nightclub scenes with Jenny Hu's Hsueh Ling singing, and there's not a sense of any kind of antics with the supporting characters.

The amusement park scene unfolds with a minimum of melodrama and the transitions between moments feel very modern despite the very 1960s mix of real location-and-backlot with contract stars in the the center of every shot.

The third (?) song in the film opens as a Jenny Hu nightclub performance but then the montage becomes a scene of Jenny Hu and Peter Chen dancing in the same nightclub -- is this what the lovers are imagining? -- and then, amid scenes of starry nighttime skies and water rushing over rocks, the scene switches to an impossibly beautiful Jenny Hu in modern, simple garb reclining on the hood of a car and still singing -- is this an elaborate nightclub production? And then Peter Chen enters and talks to her as the song ends and we see that this is simply another scene of their courtship.

In one sequence, we are transported from reality -- at least the real world in the context of this film -- into imagination and then into reality again.

Without the sort of forced euphoria a lot of non-musical fans associate with film musicals, the film effortlessly integrates the music with the action; that transition is as much the story of the film as the courtship of the two characters.

The closest parallel is the feeling I got when I watched Li Ching in Susanna where the very unreality of the presentation, combined with an almost languid pace at times, made me feel more moved by the film than a simple, MGM-style musical from the 1950s.



Now, that's not to say that the film isn't terribly melodramatic in stretches; of course it is. But, rather, the way that Peter Chen is playing his part has none of his near-mugging you see in something like Guess Whose Baby is in The Classroom?.

And Jenny Hu is quite naturalistic. She's not at all like Li Ching in the melodramatic scenes and she remains almost stoic but still a warm screen presence; it's not a stretch to compare her to Grace Kelly in something like Rear Window: angelic beauty but a real down-to-earth quality shining through. Brian, I think, also compared her to Audrey Hepburn and that is there too.

If only I had watched Till The End of Time before I watched Guess Who Killed My Twelve Lovers and I might have responded differently to Jenny Hu in that film.

Later in the film, as the melodrama gathers steam, Hsueh-ling performs a song for a radio broadcast. The montage shifts from the recording studio to Peter Chen's Cho-ming listening at home and then back to Hsueh-ling, this time on a beautiful television set.

There's a strange tracking shot overhead as Hsueh-ling walks down the fake lawn past the flowers and then the camera pulls out wide to reveal the edges of the set with Jenny Hu in the center of it.

It's a marvelous image as we are seeing the fakery of the television show Hsueh-ling is the star of, while watching a very unreal 1960s musical shot on similar sets.

The viewer is just reminded that the presentation is unreal for a short second but the unreality adds meaning to the imagery in a way that a non-musical shot on a real location would not have.


The film, to me at least, is one of the masterpieces of the Shaws in the 1960s. I have now become a fan of Jenny Hu and am looking at the work of Peter Chen in a new way. There's real chemistry between the couple on screen and, if one is not distracted by the moments of high melodrama; the ending for example -- one can see a weird-but-pleasant mix of artifice and realism at work here.

I think one of the things that makes this film work -- and this is ironic given that it's a musical -- is the lack of music in key scenes. Without the typical kind of syrupy strings one associates with a Technicolor melodrama, the scenes have a natural rhythm; it's a weird mix of artificiality (sets, colors, clothes) and normality.

It comes down to this: if you removed the music, and the melodrama, the film would still be a resounding success as just the story of the courtship between Peter Chen's Cho-ming and Jenny Hu's Hsueh-ling.

That's pretty high praise coming from me; what Hollywood musical could I say that about? Sure, Singin' in the Rain might work as a minor comedy without all the musical numbers. And some of the better Deanna Durbin films would work without any of the musical trappings.

But it's a short list of musicals that work on other levels beyond the music.

Add Till The End of Time to that list simply for the performances of two of the most important Shaw stars of the 1960s.



Look for Lee Kwan as Cho-ming's newspaper reporter pal. Cheng Miu is in this as Peter Chen's father. And Ouyang Sha-Fei shows up in makeup as Hsueh-ling's beloved grandmother.

The DVD has an 21-minute interview with actress Celia Sie, and a 16-minute interview with Paul Fonoroff, as well as a 15-minute interview with film critic Po Fung.

You can order Till The End of Time on DVD here.

[Photos: YesAsia/Celestial Pictures]

New Charlene Choi Trailer - Beauty on Duty

There's a trailer for the new Charlene Choi film, Beauty on Duty and it's located below. The film looks silly and Ah Sa looks adorable -- my standards for HK cinema are that low!

The film looks like Miss Congeniality, actually.

But the presence of Hui Siu-Hung and Sandra Ng makes me hopeful that this film will be the kind of throwback to the early 1990s-silliness that HK cinema needs at the moment.

Well, I need it as a fan at least.

Sandra seems to be having fun and that's usually a good sign!

TVB News World has details on the film.

Many thanks to the person who posted this on YouTube!

Beauty on Duty trailer 2010

Thoughts on Pavement's Best

The idea of Pavement releasing a "Best Of" compilation is still the sort of thing that makes me feel ancient.

When I finally heard "Slanted and Enchanted" in late 1993, I momentarily had second thoughts about ignoring so much great American music while I was chasing after rare tracks from The Auteurs and Suede in that era.

And one of the great regrets of my rock fandom is not ever having seen Pavement live.

(Hey, given the bands I did see and meet, I'd say I shouldn't have any regrets; I'm sure there are people that would trade seeing Pavement at their prime with me seeing The Pixies in a smallish club in 1989, right?)

So the NME unleashed the track listing for this "Best Of" and its surprisingly decent. Hell, the fact that two (!) tracks from the Watery, Domestic E.P. made it onto the "Best Of" is astounding to me! "Shoot the Singer (1 Sick Verse)" is clearly in my top 10 Pavement tunes.

The biggest omission is, clearly, "Carrot Rope". And where is "Rattled by the Rush" or any of the sublime mellow jams from 1995 parent album Wowee Zowee?

Well, to remind me of what I missed live, here is a clip of the band rocking one of their "best"!

Pavement "Trigger Cut" live, 1994