Love in the Red Chamber

Dir: Wong Hok-sing
Orig Story/Scr/Librettist: Tong Tik-sang
Prod Co: Kam Kwok
Cast: Connie Chan Po-chu, Nam Hung, Leung Sing-po, So Siu-tong, Mui Kwai Nui
1968 / Colour / D Beta / Cantonese / 120min

Tong brought classic finesse and elegance to the lyrics and spoken lines of his posthumous opera for the Sin Fung Ming Opera Troupe. His rendition of the Ming drama, The Story of Red Plum Blossom, is enlivened with playful, comic undertones. The core of the story is a tragic ghostly romance of feudal times between a madly lovesick but ultimately timid scholar (Connie Chan Po-chu), Wai-neung the ill-fated concubine of a murderously jealous prime mister (Leung Sing-po) and her lookalike reincarnation, Chiu-yung (Nam Hung in dual roles). Wong Hok-sing's rendition fuses the theatrics of Cantonese opera with modern lighting, set design and mise-en-scène of filmmaking. His direction is complemented by Chan's nuanced delivery against Nam, who is by turns dignified, modest and alluring. Leung's perfect comic timing as a villain adds a dose of ambiguity and uncertain morals to an otherwise clear good/evil divide.