Dir: Chor Yuen
Prod Co: Vast Art
Cast: Hung Sin Nui, Law Ka-bo, Yuen Siu-fai, Wan Fei-yin
1990 coulor 35mm Cantonese Chinese Lyrics 98 min

 

John Woo's personal style was strong and palpable when he made  Princess Chang Ping  at 30. Chor Yuen, who also seldom set his foot in Cantonese opera films, made this film when he was almost 60 with his adept but relatively introverted directorial artistry. His use of different types of shot and camera movement perfectly matched with the rhythm of music. Seamless editing helped to maintain the coherence of music as well as performers' movement and posture, Chor even used lighting to mimic a stage ‘curtain down' effect. Hung Sin Nui and Law Ka-bo still performed with sonorous voices even though they were already over 60 years old, their duet scene near the end of the film is a precious legacy of ‘Nui style' and ‘Shrimp style' vocal performance.