Discovering New Stars

Remote Love (2K Digital Version)

Dir/Scr: Tang Shaohua
Prod: Wong Cheuk-hon
Prod Co: Liberty
Cast: Jeanette Lin Tsui, Ting Ying, Wang Chen, Ku Kwan, Wei Ping’ao, Li Hsing
1956 | B&W | DCP | Mandarin | Chinese Subtitles | 80min

When Wong was running Liberty Film Company, he often went to Taiwan to produce films. This is one of the results. Young Xinjiang man Yimin (Wang Chen) and Malihan (Jeanette Lin Tsui) were in love. But Malihan’s father (Li Hsing) despised Yimin for his poverty, forcibly separated them and forced Malihan to marry Bulate (Wei Ping'ao). Yimin leaves the community and later returns as a military officer. He defeats Bulate in a duel and wins the marriage contract with Malihan. But war breaks out, and Yimin has no choice but to go to the frontlines… In the film, Jeanette Lin Tsui and Wang Chen sing and dance to more than a dozen songs, all composed and arranged by folk song maestro Zhou Lanping, while most of the lyrics were written by the film’s scriptwriter Tang Shaohua. The very folk-sounding songs like ‘The Carriage Driver’s Song’, ‘Remote Love’ and ‘Fair Malihan’ are very popular, sung even today. The Xinjiang dances are also very rich in folk flavour. It is worth noting that the film’s actors Li Hsing and Li Su as well as on-set coordinator Chang Tseng-tse all went on to become outstanding Taiwanese film directors.

Please note the quality of some segments of this film is poor.

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