Old Memories of Canton (aka Step-mother)
Dir: Lo Duen
Scr: Wong Kuk-lau
Prod Co: Nanguo
Cast: Lai Cheuk-cheuk, Cheung Ying, Yung Siu-yi, Lee Siu-hung, Tsui Yim
1951 | B&W | D Beta | Cantonese | 87min
Following the success of Dawn Must Come, Nanguo recruited director Lo Duen for another Guangzhou-set melodrama. Written by Wong Kuk-lau, another famous novelist in Hong Kong, the film takes aim directly at the heart of the old ruling-class by chronicling the corruption within a government official's family. While the children dedicate themselves to the war effort, the family patriarch keeps being a hedonist, sends his left-leaning son to jail and even rapes his adopted daughter. When the war ends, the children decide to revolt against their father for the sake of the future. Already an experienced left-wing director at the time, Lo gave voice to the angry indictment against the corrupted elites and highlighted that consanguinity had no place between the war of oppression and revolution.