Dir/Scr: Chiang Wai-kwong
Orig Story/Librettist: Tong Tik-sang
Prod Co: Tao Yuen
Cast: Yam Kim-fai, Pak Suet-sin, Poon Yat On, Lam Kar-sing, Yam Bing-yee
1959 / B&W / D Beta / Cantonese / 105min

 

For love, how far would Tong's heroine go? Yeuk-mui (Pak Suet-sin), the prime minister's daughter, becomes enamoured of the stately scholar Yuk-pui (Yam Kim-fai) at their first encounter. Without seeking her parents' approval, she vows to marry him. When beaten by her furious father, the bold woman cuts ties with family, living an impoverished but contented subsistence waiting for her husband's return from the imperial exam. Back in the day, Tong and Pak made it their calling to create plays with a poetic flair to raise the relatively populist Cantonese opera to a higher plane. It would easily take Tong more than a day to simply translate one line from the classical dramas for his libretto. At first, such finely-polished Sin Fung Ming plays didn't strike a responsive chord with the audience. But Pak soldiered on and eventually lifted the regional opera to new heights. For art, artists can go unfathomably far.