The Greatest Civil War on Earth
Scr/Prod: Stephen Soong (aka Lin Yiliang)
Prod Co: MP & GI
Cast: Leung Sing-por, Liu Enjia, Cheung Ching, Kitty Ting Hao, Christine Pai Lu-ming
1961 | B&W | D Beta | Mandarin & Cantonese | 113min
Courtesy of Cathay Organisation Holdings Ltd
This film was acquired overseas in 2004.
In its planning stage, the Archive was not well-known among the film industry, and often had to visit film companies and made every effort to persuade them for material donations. The Cathay Organisation in Singapore was one of the highlights of this treasure hunt. Cathay moved its corporate offices from Hong Kong to Singapore in the 1970s. The geographical distance made acquisitions much more difficult. This cross-century persuasion process finally concluded with a 2004 trip to Singapore. On this hunt, the Archive successfully acquired over ten thousand films and related collections.
Hong Kong is not only a meeting point between east and west, but also between north and south. With Cantonese (southern) people and those from other provinces (northern) all crowded into this tiny city, arguments are bound to happen. Leung Sing-por and Liu Enjia play nemeses. They argue about everything from their tailor businesses to daily life habits. The younger generation have to come up with a plan for their fathers to overcome their biases. In the end, the families become one. Stephen Soong, a filmmaker who came from the north, wrote this comedy about the conflicting cultures between Northern and Southern China, while the multi-talented director Wong Tin-lam added Cantonese elements. The tidy structure of the couples comedy reflects the seeming differences but actual similarities between the northern and southern cultures, expressing the ideal of harmony among Chinese from everywhere. Leung and Liu are each successful in their individual realms, but had never worked together until MP & GI created this opportunity. Their first collaborative effort was so successful that it sparked the trend of Cantonese-Mandarin bilingual films.
| Date | Time | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 21/8/2021 (Sat) # | 12:00pm | Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive |
# Post-screening talk with Joyce Yang
The contents of the programme do not represent the views of the presenter. The presenter reserves the right to change the programme should unavoidable circumstances make it necessary.