Princess Chang Ping

Dir: John Woo
Orig Story: Tong Tik-sang
Prod Co: Golden Phonenis
Cast: Lung Kim Sung, Mui Suet-si, Leung Sing-por, Lan Chi Pak
1976  Colour  DCP  Cantonese  Chi & Eng subtitles  103 min

@2010 Fortune Star Media Limited All Right Reserved

John Woo was invited by Golden Harvest to make another film version of classic Princess Chang Ping starring famed actress Lung Kim Sung and Mui Shet-si. To fulfil audience's high expectation of the masterpiece, Woo incorporated the act ‘Negotiating with the Qing Emperor' into the film and made it even closer to the original play than the preceding film adaptation of Yam Kim-fai and Pak Suet-sin, and retained a lot of singing passages by his lens. To express his directorial style, Woo used close-up shot to capture actors' facial expressions, and inserted action film elements in the ‘Princess' Sufferings' act, he transformed description in the script into an epic cinematic sequence where fire sparks around the imperial palace as the invaders capture the city.