Tales of the City

Dir: Li Pingqian
Scr: Chu Hak
Prod Co: Great Wall
Cast: Fu Che, Betty Loh Ti, Hsia Moon, Kung Chiu-hsia, Hu Siao-fung
1954 | B&W | D Beta | Mandarin | 92min

Yu is unemployed and about to be evicted; no one would help him except the landlord's adopted daughter and a poor student. But when he wins the lottery, everyone rushes to curry favour with him, exposing the ugliness of human nature. This film is a social farce, a staple of Great Wall productions; however, Li steers the plot away from triteness with a nonlinear narrative structure and a deft touch. Yu's confronting his past enemies at his dinner party is hilarious; the ending of the lost and then found and then lost again lottery ticket is a brilliant reminder that fortune is as fleeting as life itself.