Glorious Musicals

Colourful Youth (Restored Version)

Dir: Yu Ho (aka Chan Wan)
Scr: Ngai Man (join pseudonym of Chan Wan and wife Ngai Siu-chee)
Prod Co: Chi Leun
Cast: Connie Chan Po-chu, Josephine Siao Fong-fong, Nancy Sit Kar-yin, Wong Oi-ming, Woo Fung
1966 | Colour | DCP | Cantonese | Chi & Eng Subtitles | 116min

Beautiful teenagers in gorgeous trendy fashion, bursting in jubilant song-and-dance, frolicking at a swimsuit party and romping around in eye-catching scooters...these were what the youngsters of the 1960s lived for. Colourful Youth begins with the hard-working Nancy (Connie Chan) and her classmates celebrating the preciousness of youth by singing Cherish Your Time Like Gold on stage. But beneath the glittering surface, we find Thomson (Woo Fung) and Helen (Josephine Siao) giving in to indulgence. Their respective younger sisters, Katie (Wong Oi-ming) and Suzie (Nancy Sit), go astray and are manipulated by ill-intentioned people. Cantonese films in the 1960s are seldom without morals. It is not until they are put through setbacks by unsavoury characters and experience the death of someone close to them that they get back on the right path.

Colourful Youth also marks the only time that Chan and Siao, the two most popular sweethearts of the silver screen, have co-starred in a contemporary film, so one can imagine the frenzy it caused. First screened in 1966, it was re-released in both 1967 and 1969, performing exceptionally at the box office each time.

The Archive is grateful to Chi Leun Film Company Ltd. for authorising the print to be shipped to Italy for digital restoration. This current, most complete version is reconstructed based on information our researchers garnered from newspapers and special publications.

Courtesy of Chi Leun Film Company Limited

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