Bride Hunter

Dirs: Hu Siao-fung, Lin Huan (aka Jin Yong)
Scr: Hsu Sing
Prod Co: Great Wall
Cast: Hsia Moon, Feng Lin (aka May Fung Lam), Yu Wanfei, Li Tziang
1961 | Colour | Digital File | Yue Opera | Chinese Subtitles | 106min

A classic Yue opera comedy from Great Wall Movie Enterprises, Hu Siao-fung and Lin Huan (aka Jin Yong), The Bride Hunter features Hsia Moon in her first role as a male character. Zhou Wenbin (Hsia Moon) makes a bet with his good friend Zhu Zhishan (Feng Lin) that he can disguise himself as a woman without being detected. Zhou’s ruse is so successful that he gets abducted by local thug Wang Tianbao (Yu Wan) on the night of the Lantern Festival to become his ‘bride’. To prevent Zhou from escaping, Wang arranges for his sister Xiuying (Li Qiang) to share a room with ‘her’ at night. This move inadvertently unites a couple who have long admired each other, but Zhou’s previous marriage proposal had been rejected by Xiuying’s brother. The lovers turn the situation to their advantage and find their deserved happy ending.

The original opera draws from various classical libretto sources. In 1958, Shanghai’s Hezuo Yue Opera Troupe re-adapted the opera to great popular success in the Mainland, with Bi Chunfang playing Zhou Wenbin and Qi Yaxian as Wang Xiuying. When adapting the work for the big screen, the directors deliberately retained the Yue opera tradition of an all-female cast, and also invited Bi and Qi to perform the singing for the film. The actors spent months training with Yue opera masters to learn the artform’s traditional physical gestures and eye movements. Their hard work clearly paid off, as The Bride Hunter became a critical and commercial hit, prompting Great Wall to produce a series of other Yue opera films.

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