Rivals in Love

After her sailor fiancé (Guo Jia) has gone missing for five years, young May May (Diana Chang Chung-wen) falls in love with her saviour Man Chat-ban (Chao Lei). However, when her fiancé returns, a fierce triangular battle of wits and brawn breaks out. Advocating women’s rights, the film concludes on the lesson that marriage should be decided by free will. 

When Tao Yuen diversified its productions, it produced two Mandarin-language films in 1959 (the other being The Girl With a Thousand Faces (1959)). The company had been in discussions with Linda Lin Dai, but it ended up producing films for Diana Chang Chung-wen and Grace Chang, respectively, instead. As the title says, the film is about two male rivals competing for one woman, so the film requires a true beauty to be worthy of the rivals’ competition. The film is a total showcase of Chang’s beauty, showing her in swimwear, cheongsam, horse-riding outfit, low-cut dress, backless evening dress and puffy dress. The exquisite tailoring truly makes Chang glow on screen, letting her live up to her character’s name May May, which means ‘beauty’ in Chinese. The entertaining romance also serves as a traveller’s guide to Hong Kong, showing Silverstrand Beach and the Equestrian Club in Shatin. As a treat for car fans, Chang even drives the most unusual egg-shaped bubble car in history.

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