Bus Money Wiped out the Evils

In the 1960s, when the Hong Kong-style "Jane Bond" films became popular, Flying Dragon Pictures Corporation, a company with leftist background, followed this trendy cycle by creating a resourceful female ‘Robin Hood' – Bus Money (played by Pak Yan). Based on a comic serial published on a daily newspaper, the depiction of this grassroots heroine also gives rise to Pak's multi-faceted persona as Bus Money herself actually excels in role-playing. Prior to this film, Mok had directed The Girl in the Bus (1965) from the same serial and it was a massive hit. This time around, Bus Money's villainous rival is a hideous industrial tycoon, Tam Kar-cheung (Lo Duen), who knowingly puts the lives of his workers at risk so as to line his pocket with insurance payments. The chivalrous Money gets into fisticuffs with Tam's chauffeur, Biu (Jiang Han), who bears a grudge against the assailant. When Money catches wind of Kar-cheung's vicious plot to set fire to a squatter area to clear the path for a property development project, she moves in and watches vigilantly for signs of arson. After Money saves his girlfriend, Biu eventually recognises Kar-Cheung's sinister and lethal plan and decides to join hands with Money to rebel against this patriarchal figure. As a sequel, Bus Money Wiped out the Evils exceeds Part 1 in many respects. Even more interestingly, it can be said to be an exemplary case of a hybrid-genre film in the Cantonese cinema – the generic elements of mystery, thriller, comedy, action and musical all flow in one single complex. Not only is it highly entertaining, but it also serves as a social critique, deeply engaging with the harsh reality of Hong Kong at that time. In this sense, the film unfailingly resonates many social upheavals of today's Hong Kong.

Date	Time	Venue
12/6/2016 (Sun) #	7:30pm	Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

# Post-screening talk with Eric Tsang and William Yuen

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