A handful of major directors of the Union Film Studio, including Lee Sun-fung, Lee Tit, Ng Wui, Chu Kea, and Wong Hang, served as actors, plus Chun Kim as narrator, in Sworn Sisters, rendering it a particularly original film which shows how the leftist intellectuals of 1950s Hong Kong cared for, projected onto and identified with grassroots working women of the times. While The Light of Women ends with the protagonists departing for a better yet unknown future, Sworn Sisters depicts the here and now of these "not-to-be-married" self-combed women making their own living as domestic helpers almost two decades later. How are gender and class identities of working women in South China (re)negotiated amidst political instability, diasporic and colonised urbanisation throughout these times? This precious opportunity of looking at these two films back to back might give us some clues.

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.