The Blood - Stained Peach Blossom Fan

According to Kong Shangren's classical opera Peach Blossom Fan (1699), Li Xiangjun (1624-1653) was 16 when she received the fan as an emblem of love from Hou Fangyu (1618-1655). The year was 1640, exactly three hundred years before the screening of Mak Siu-ha's film in 1940. Ignoring China's imminent subjugation by Japan, four wooers in Hong Kong deploy all kinds of tricks in courting Miss Perfume (Cheang Mang-ha). Among them, Charlie (Cheng Sang), a military aviation graduate, also explores excuses to avoid joining the Chinese air force; his father (Lam Kwun-shan), the owner of a hotel, refuses to contribute to the war fund; the stammering playwright (Chu Po-chuen) makes use of the adaptation of Peach Blossom Fan to curry favour with Perfume; and the sycophantic hotel manager (Chow Chi-sing) bullies the poor and shoeshines his boss. Who knowing that Perfume is about to premiere the opera, the hotel boss promises to present to her his family treasure – that genuine fan, a gift from a Qing emperor which bears Hou's poem and Xiangjun's blood that stained the fan. As Perfume is about to decide whom she should marry, the boss' young son delivers to them a piece of grim news: the Japanese have brought atrocities to his village in China, and the peach blossom fan has been drenched and ruined by blood. The furious Perfume and her agitated guests vow to sacrifice themselves for the salvation of their nation.

Date	Time	Venue
18/2/2017 (Sat)#	2:00pm	Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive
26/2/2017 (Sun)	7:30pm	Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

# To follow with seminar

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.