The Longest Night

Dir /Scr: Evan Yang
Prod Co: MP & GI
Co-starring: Takarada Akira, Wang Lai, Wu Jiaxiang, Wang Chen, Wong Shun
1965 Colour / D Beta / Mandarin / 90min

Evan Yang eschewed a gritty, realistic representation of war in favour of revealing humanity in its many guises against the backdrop a small village under the shadow of war. Betty Loh Li played Cui whose husband is missing. Her parents-in-laws, in their emotionally dilapidated state, mistake Tanaka (Takarada Akira) for their son and bring him home. The stranger is in fact a journalist with the Japanese troops who has been injured and stranded in town. Not wanting to crush the elders' hopes, Cui is forced to spend the night with Tanaka. From caution, through sympathy for his plight, to confusing her feelings with yearnings for her missing husband, Betty Loh Ti took the audience through an emotional roller coaster with just the right balance of tension and release. The casting of Takarada Akira, a leading star of Japan's Toho, added a realistic note as well as a spirit of humanistic concern.

Screening courtesy of Cathay Organisation