It So Happens to a Woman

Dir: Li Pingqian
Scr: Chu Hak
Prod Co: Great Wall
Cast: Hung Sin Nui, Ping Fan, Fu Che, Kung Chiu-hsia, Josephine Siao Fong-fong
1955 | B&W | Digital File | Cantonese (Dubbed) | 108min

Working women are common in Hong Kong today but in the 1950s, modern women often found themselves torn between family and career. Hung Sin Nui plays a mother of three who is burning with desires to serve society. Working as a journalist, she stays out for long hours, resulting in negligence of her children and her husband’s suspicions of infidelity. The twist, at once ironic and realistic, is that her unsupportive husband had actually written in his youth a book on gender equality. On the verge of divorce, the couple reconciles after the husband’s mother, sympathetic to the difficulties faced by women, rises to the occasion with timely and prudent advice.

Hung’s character, a woman stuck between cultures of old and new, was tailor-made for the star by screenwriter Chu Hak. Director Li Pingqian portrays her struggles with realist and humanistic touches, extending gentle critiques of social prejudices without fanning the ire of resentment. The film paints an effective picture of modern beings grappling with the demands of changing times, offering an earnest appeal for the need to attain gender equality while maintaining family harmony. The many outdoor scenes not only add to the realism by grounding the story firmly on Hong Kong soil, but also project the expansion of vistas experienced by women who leave the confines of their household to enter society at large.

It So Happens to a Woman is Hung Sin Nui’s only Mandarin film and also her last work before she left Hong Kong for Guangzhou. The original soundtrack is unfortunately lost and the only available print is dubbed in Cantonese, which fortunately contains several Mandarin numbers sung by her, giving us the precious opportunity to savour the Mandarin crooning by this Cantonese opera star.

The contents of the programme do not represent the views of the presenter. The presenter reserves the right to change the programme should unavoidable circumstances make it necessary.