An All-Consuming Love
Scr: Fan Yanqiao
Prod Co: Huaxing
Cast: Zhou Xuan, Shu Shi, Huang Wansu, Bai Chen, Liang Fu
1947 | B&W | DCP | Mandarin | Chinese Lyrics | 92min
This film was discovered locally in 1994.
Producer Miu Hong-nee of Kong Chiao Film Co., upon his retirement, wanted to donate a large number of Hong Kong films made from the 1940s to the 1960s. About to leave Hong Kong for emmigration, he was in a hurry to clean out his warehouse. He would sell his collection if it was not accepted by the Archive. With fortuitous timing, the Archive had just been established and was able to find storage space for his generous donation, preventing this important collection of Hong Kong films from being lost. Among them were the nitrate prints of four films the luminous star Zhou Xuan filmed in Hong Kong: An All-Consuming Love (1947), Song of a Songstress (1948), Orioles Banished from the Flowers (1948) and Waste Not Our Youth (1949).
Outbreak of the Civil War saw Shanghainese filmmakers flooding south to Hong Kong. Cinema mogul Jiang Boying established Great China Film Company in 1946, making war-effort films with the people and production modes of Shanghai. A young couple is separated by war. Forbidden love blossoms between the wife and a friend of the husband but ends when the husband returns from the front, minus an arm. ‘Golden Voice' Zhou Xuan's first post-war film in Hong Kong, the film finds her performing seven pop songs, including the perennial hits ‘Ye Shanghai' (literally, Shanghai by Night) and ‘Huayang de Nianhua' (literally, An Era Like Flowers). Director Zhang Shichuan was extradited to Shanghai midway through production, charged for being a quisling, later suffering a heart attack. Son-in-law He Zhaozhang ended up finishing the film.
| Date | Time | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 5/6/2021 (Sat) # | 4:00pm | Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive |
# Post-screening talk with Richie Lam
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