Flame in Ashes (aka Underground Sparks)

During the 1950s when the Hong Kong film industry was flourishing, Hong Kong filmmakers, who kept their fingers on the pulse, started to venture out and collaborate with film companies in Thailand to make movies exploring a wider range of topics. China United Film Company, being the most venturesome, produced three films with its Thai co-partners just between the years of 1957 and 1962. Shot entirely in Thailand with the support of the Royal Thai Police, the action-packed and suspense-filled Flame in Ashes delves deeply into the far-reaching trauma of war. Set against the backdrop of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the story opens with the mysterious murder of a Thai Chinese banker. But surprisingly, when the killer turns up dead, the situation appears to spiral out of control. A chain of perplexing events quickly unfolds and the police begin to turn their focus to a secret society masquerading as a patriotic organisation. Dubbed ‘The Most Beautiful Creature’, the lead actress Diana Chang Chung-wen dressed in form-fitting qipaos plays a femme fatale who treads the fine line between good and evil. Unveiling the exotic cityscape of Bangkok in Eastmancolor, Flame in Ashes drew thousands of audiences to the theatres and broke the highest box office record of Mandarin films after having been shown in Hong Kong for three weeks in a row. The film even took home the Best Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Set Design awards at the Thai Film Festival.

# Pre-screening talk with Sam Ho and Joyce Yang

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