Three Females

Ting Ying's Cantonese cinema debut, Three Females marks the beginning of her collaboration with Mok Hong-si in the 1960s. Evident in its title, this modern comedy is concerned with three women's (Law Yim-hing, Ting Ying, Carrie Ku Mei) gender roles and marriage situations. The protagonist Kit-fong (Ting Ying) has two female models for emulation: one is her elder sister Kit-yu (Law Yim-hing), who is quietly submissive to her husband's womanising; the other is her cousin-in-law Lai-ling (Carrie Ku), who is a feminist presiding over the Women's Club while ignoring domestic duties. Lai-ling only cares about playing mahjong and thus pays no attention to her children's education. Fired by her sister's womanizing husband because of her participation in the Women's Club, Kit-fong decides to live away from them. As a single woman, she cannot rent an apartment on her own. She has no choice but to play a married couple with her fiancé Chi-hung (Lam Kar-sing), sleeping separately in the same room. Their neighbour next door turns out to be her brother-in-law's secret lover…The film's comedic plot encourages us to reflect on the limited choices available to single or married women in the 1960s, demonstrating progressive thought rare in the Cantonese cinema.

# Post-screening talk with Chen Chih-ting

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