Spring Song

Campus provides the setting for many teen films. More than half a century ago in Hong Kong, high school was the usual backdrop for this genre. But Spring Song by Evan Yang was, in that era, one of the very few Hong Kong films set in the university. Starring Grace Chang from Mambo Girl (1957) and Jeanette Lin Tsui, nicknamed ‘Students’ Sweetheart’, this youthful piece follows two freshman girls’ college lives in Hong Kong. Chang portrays a girl who is good at singing and dancing, and her performances in the film, including an excerpt from a famous Kunqu piece, will surely delight those looking for great entertainment. The other leading role played by Lin excels in all sorts of sports. Scenes of archery, water skiing, motorbike-riding and ball games offer the audience the vitality that characterises teenage girls. The two befriend each other at college orientation, live together in a dormitory, attend parties and do sports hand in hand, and fight with each other for boys. The film reflects the bourgeois lifestyle of immigrants from the Mainland in the 1950s, in a unique way that only Cathay could have delivered.

Courtesy of Cathay-Keris Films Pte Ltd

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